tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200331298119251012.post1194762239891342605..comments2023-08-22T00:42:27.199-07:00Comments on Hall of the Mountain King: Gygax's letter from AlarumsandExcursions #2Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200331298119251012.post-5407065565117843232012-05-15T11:06:02.330-07:002012-05-15T11:06:02.330-07:00The Intelligence 19+ Mensa argument is hilarious. ...The Intelligence 19+ Mensa argument is hilarious. It ignores so many things! The least of which is that the differences among people who are above the 98th percentile can be summed up in the differences between people of 16 to 18 INT and there's no reason to continue the curve on dice. Or that it's a game and not reality. Show me a MENSA member who can cast 9th level spells and I'll slap an 18 INT on her permanent file.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200331298119251012.post-90453100561486007292012-04-26T13:59:26.973-07:002012-04-26T13:59:26.973-07:00The letter he wrote to Alarums&Excursions #15 ...The letter he wrote to Alarums&Excursions #15 is also filled with gold, but the one to A&E#8 is all business.Jason Zavodahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13109502376214104276noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200331298119251012.post-82949260860547957042012-04-26T12:18:58.240-07:002012-04-26T12:18:58.240-07:00Just found this Jason. So much gold in there I do...Just found this Jason. So much gold in there I don't know where to start. Thanks!DHBoggshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02170439175265397893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200331298119251012.post-9168839307252351092012-04-14T12:22:12.221-07:002012-04-14T12:22:12.221-07:00Great read! Thanks for sharing it!Great read! Thanks for sharing it!Jeremy Deramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13166744272459044563noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200331298119251012.post-78796736532141908792012-04-14T09:04:02.275-07:002012-04-14T09:04:02.275-07:00Time passes so quickly in retrospect. This letter ...Time passes so quickly in retrospect. This letter was from 37 years ago and was just a little bit before my own introduction to D&D. By the time I started playing there had been, as I remember it, a radical shift in Gygax's expressed opinions. I plan on tracking down the relevant comments from Dragon magazine and adding them.<br /><br />Alarums & Excursions is one of the better known zines having been mentioned in The Strategic Review and in Dragon magazine on more than one occassion, but the print run on these issues was something like 100 copies. There were reprints (and the issue I'm using is a reprint) but still they are as rate as Hen's teeth. <br /><br />Recently some bloggers were collecting Gygax's more obscure articles and letters from fanzines and early, rare gaming magazines, but those blogs seem to have disappeared. While I can understand the desire of collectors, having a streak of that Dragonish impulse myself, I too find it a sad and terrible thing that text and artwork is caged and locked away.<br /><br />I've always felt that TSR was too successful too quickly. That it was a great loss to have Gygax move from his work at creating material to managing a company. If they had just been successful enough so that he and his old guard could have had the freedom to create and enjoy the game but not enough to become so distracted by the business itself that the creativity was put on a back burner. The attitude expressed in this letter is from someone who sees and enjoys the endless possiblities of what they are creating and sadly as time passes I think we can see in the comments later expressed in Dragon magazine and in other sources that enjoyment and vision slowly go out. I remember the absolute shock in reading Gygax's last column in Dragon magazine explaining that he was no longer part of TSR or involved with AD&D. At the time didn't realize what an end of an era it was or what sad things would happen to a game that so greatly inspired my imagination.Jason Zavodahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13109502376214104276noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200331298119251012.post-58993325223655883812012-04-14T07:53:15.243-07:002012-04-14T07:53:15.243-07:00That is quite illuminating. Compare the above sta...That is quite illuminating. Compare the above statements to the sort of one-true-wayism that spews from the 4E adherants.Aaron E. Steelehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07789462075611254929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200331298119251012.post-8506397679209744262012-04-14T04:37:57.878-07:002012-04-14T04:37:57.878-07:00Jason, it wasn't only the reversal of attitude...Jason, it wasn't only the reversal of attitude toward the game, but also in the credit he gave Arneson. One thing I've learned from all I've read is that it pays to take what the old guys say with a grain of salt, as memories grow dim and events are rewritten or misremembered as the decades pass. It's one of the reasons I think it's a real shame that so much of the evidence of the early history of our hobby is locked up and jealously guarded in private collections.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200331298119251012.post-26986510940309413822012-04-14T02:02:50.316-07:002012-04-14T02:02:50.316-07:00Wow, that was rare and new in an old fashioned way...Wow, that was rare and new in an old fashioned way. Thanks!Mike Bridgeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17741591268012556455noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200331298119251012.post-75152133474837154222012-04-14T01:41:02.160-07:002012-04-14T01:41:02.160-07:00I need to track down some of Gygax's comments ...I need to track down some of Gygax's comments in Dragon magazine to compare the changing attitudes about the game and to see how long it took for what seems to me a complete reversel in the philosophy behind the game to occur.Jason Zavodahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13109502376214104276noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3200331298119251012.post-61792799940121610592012-04-14T01:17:39.807-07:002012-04-14T01:17:39.807-07:00Thanks for posting this Jason. An excellent insigh...Thanks for posting this Jason. An excellent insight into the early years of the hobby and interesting to see how "official" attitudes changed over the years that followed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com