GARY GYGAX Q&A PART XXXV

In another thread someone was wondering how 1st level PCs in the original game survived.
Some responses mentioned the "run away" tactic--the one we commonly used. None I read,
though, considered the hiring of mercenaries to assist in the encounters. All the early play
groups I knew of, those in 1972 and on through 1974 surely did that so as to give their low-
level PCs a better survival chance. It worked very well. Yrag and Mordenkainen both began as
1st level, and Rob Kuntz, the main DM for their adventures, was not prone to cutting slack for
anyone. [EGG] http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=38912&page=10&pp=30

About half of the players had demi-human PCs, and that's when I saw the need to allow
multi-classing more broadly, and not limit the thief level. Also some of the sub-types were
created and the level limits bumped up to accommodate those who insisted on playing non-
human races in a human-dominated game and world setting. Actually, I always allowed a
Wish spell to bump up a level too...

It is worth noting, that most players never got PCs above around 12th level, so even an elf
fighter/m-u of 5/8 was a viable member of a typical party. [EGG]
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=38912&page=12&pp=30

Actually, most players sort of retired their PCs at around 12th level, preferring to start new
ones. By dint of demand Rob, with Robilar and Otto, and Ernie, with Tenser and Erac's
Cousin, got above 13th. there were also a handful of others just around 12th and 13th level, but
I don't recall who played which PC in that regard.

Mordenkainen and Bigby, mainly by demand, played in so many different campaigns that they
kept climbing. Most of my other PCs that did likewise, but were mainly active in Greyhawk
with Rob as DM, are in the range of 16th level (Yrag) on down. [EGG]
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=38912&page=12&pp=30

We had a fair number of Evil PCs in my original campaign. Mostly the experience gained from
such play convinced the players the futility of having such unheroic characters. For example,
in 1974 I created a half-orc cleric-assassin for a member of an Evil adventuring party. He was
soon killed, and of course none of the others in the group cared to do more than loot his body
[EGG] http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=38912&page=12&pp=30

[I was wondering what were the original destinations the mysterious metal triangles in
Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure were meant to lead to. I'm using these to send my PCs to
a number of different campaign settings I've bought over the years and never used.]

Fact is I never got to try any of those gates. Rob alone knows where those sent the PC
activating them. All Mordie & Company found was a portal to a world where everything was
super-sized--recall the huge ivory pillars that he and Bigby sought refuge atop when the iron
golem attacked. Not wanting to meet creatures armed with tusks as large as towers, we
scooted away. the plan was to return another day, but fate intervened to disallow that--I was
moved out to the West Coast. [EGG] http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?
t=38912&page=12&pp=30
Let me go back a bit to the approach of original D&D players. Most suce initial players
came from military miniatures gaming where commanding a force of warriors was the
norm. It was a natural thing for a PC group to hire men-at-arms, form a mercenary
company and adventure thus. As the background experience of the players became
less wargame oriented, the focus of play shifter from the company to the core party of
PCs. this was in a sense an evolution, the realization of the uniqueness of the RPG
form apart from the military miniatures one. Designing adventure material for a party
of PC is certainly easier than doing the same for a party plus mercenary forces. Thus
modules assumed the former, and the concept of the adventuring company was
further removed from the game. [EGG] http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?
t=38912&page=12&pp=30