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FROM THE SORCERER'S SCROLL

 

D&D relationships: A whole and its parts	Ground and spell area scales	Realism vs. game logic	What the game is; where it's going	Much about melee
Character social class	Looking back, and to the future	Evil: Law vs. Chaos	Humans and hybrids	Books are books, games are games
Make-believe magic	Good isn't stupid:  Paladins and rangers	-	-	-

 
 

'Abandonment of D&D'
Dear Sirs,
With this letter I would like to cover several
items. To start with, I have a question concerning
the article entitled: Deck of Fate. I have sought a <link>
deck of the Tarot for several years now, almost a
decade, and as of yet I have not found a deck which
appeals visually. Did Grey Newberry use an already
existant Tarot deck for the artwork included? If this
is so, would it be possible for me to contact Mr.
Newberry in order to find out the name of the deck
and where one may purchase same? If however,
the illustrations are of Mr. Newberry’s creation, I
suggest that he continue his efforts and complete
the deck. The three cards shown are without a
doubt the best examples I have ever seen!

[...]

While reading Mr. Gygax’s column, I was taken
aback by his views on AD&D and D&D. For a
person who created D&D, and now AD&D, and
became known in the gaming world for his work on
D&D, it seems that he is bent upon the total abandonment
of D&D. When one says things like:
“While D&D campaigns can be those which feature
comic book spells, 43rd level balrogs as player
characters, and include a plethora of trash from
various and sundry sources, AD&D cannot be so
composed,” which implies that those who still
mediate and/or play D&D are either lack-witted
fools or otherwise, so it seems that said person has
quite an active dislike for the game. For the majority
of the article, Mr. Gygax proclaims the vast advantages
of AD&D, how it will not be altered by the
DM, shall suffer no abuses, and so on. It appears
Mr. Gygax assumes that all one has to do is purchase
the three books at $10 each, and shall immediately
become a faultless DM. Well, to this date
I have yet to find a perfect Judge, either in D&D or
AD&D!

But all is not lost, Mr. Gygax throws a bone to
the players of D&D, yet, in praise (?) of D&D. That
bone seems to be little more than a repetition of what
he has said previous, but this time it is slightly
altered to make it sound ‘nice’. I say Thank You to
Mr. Gygax for that ‘bone’, for at least the Judges of
D&D will not be starved by his left hand, while he
uses his right hand to tell the gaming world that
D&D is obsolete.

Clayton J. Miner—NY
(The Dragon #30)
[edit]
 

[...]

I think you missed the point that Gay Gygax
was making. I don’t feel that he was denigrating
anyone who plays D&D; rather, he was disparaging
the inequities of the system that allowed such ludicrous
things to happen. No one here at TSR Periodicals,
nor at the parent company (TSR Hobbies,
Inc.) has any desire to ridicule or make fun of any of
our customers. That would be the height of stupidity,
and repudiate the old saw about ‘. . . biting
the hand that feeds you . . .’

I was surprised myself when I saw the DMG.
Like others who have read his columns, I was expecting
a fairly immutable game system. We were
all wrong in anticipating such a thing. Believe me,
or anyone else that has read the DMG, when I tell
you that there is still plenty for the DM to do in
making it his unique campaign. Certain facets of
game design and structure are supposed to be
inviolate, as the tampering with certain aspects
threatens the integrity of the design balance.

Face it, D&D was our maiden voyage in FRP
games, as it was the hobby’s. There were many
flaws that could not have been foreseen, because
the designers, Gygax and Arneson, could not possibly
predict how everyone would interpret any
given fundamental of design. Abuses to the INTENT
of the game are rampant. I’m not disputing fun, or
the right to creativity, or anything like that. For
those FRP buffs who favor the wide open, heavily
personalized type game, D&D is just the ticket.
Some games, or campaigns, require an extensive
briefing on where they deviate from the rules books
before a newcomer can sit down and be competitive.
Some campaigns are so far removed from
the framework provided by the rules as to be
almost unrecognizable as D&D. No harm in that,
because AD&D will NOT be so wildly variable from
campaign to campaign, and the pre-game briefings
will be no longer necessary. Any indoctrination is
best accomplished by having the veteran players
brief the newcomer anyway. Strict adherence to the
fundamental precepts of AD&D (and that leaves
PLENTY to be extrapolated and created, as well as
interpreted) will allow players from any group to sit
down with any other group and be competitive
almost from the start, because they have a good
idea of what to expect, at least in regard to physical
and metaphysical laws and precepts. This, I feel, is
highly desirable.

—ED.
(Tim Kask)
(The Dragon #30)

MONSTERS && MISCELLANY

The Theory & Use of Gates	Inns && taverns	Vampires	Varieties of Vampires	A look at lycanthropy **
Blueprint for a Lich	Tesseracts	Which way is up?	The Politics of Hell	Poisons from AA to XX
The nomenclature of pole arms	-	-	-	Dragon

* This is a later version, not the one that appears in Best of Dragon, Vol. II
** OD&D article, henceforth excluded.