RPG Founding Father Quotes (E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, & M. A. R. Barker)

[@jeep2k]

I used to have a DM that took a set of Boggle dice (dice with letters instead of numbers) and called them "The Mythical Save Your Ass Dice." If your character died you would be allowed to roll the dice. You were then given three minutes (an egg timer from the same Boggle game was used) to spell out something that may be able to save your sorry self. The results were not always pleasant. I remember a player spelling out "live forever" and he was transformed into a vampire.

[@vagabondninja6410]

This is brilliant. What a great DM rule.

[@SeaJay_Oceans]

Well, technically that's being Undead Forever... The player should have called out the DM on that ''Live Forever'' wish, and the DM could make Him live 'Forever' but at the same time, continue to age him, with related degeneration of old age diseases, 100, 500, 1,000 years old and can't eat, move, see, hear, or do anything... not even die. A Life Curse. 😞

[@jarkoer]

All very true, especially the first one. When I joined the military I DM'd all the sessions at my school barracks. I didn't have any of my books with me. Just some dice. So I had to wing it. People want a fantasy image of themselves, and they want problems to solve and a story to live through. Rules? Who cares! Make them up as you go along. The worst thing you can do is kill the momentum of the moment by looking up some obscure table at the back of a book. Throw some dice along the way for that element of chance. When I started hearing about 3rd, 4th and 5th edition rules... I was like WTF. The important thing is that your guys have fun, and you know you've done your job as a DM when they feel like they've really accomplished something at the end of the night... and then they look forward to coming back tomorrow. The story and the interaction between DM and PC and NPC is more important than combat mechanics.

[@Samwise7RPG]

jarkoer I tend to like rules-lite and OSR retro-clones because they are easier to run. That being said, with a few house rules to simplify things I could see myself running 5th edition. I have heard that M. A. R. Barker ran this Thursday Night Group really just with a D100 roll and the rest they made up on the fly. I think that would be a lot of fun to try out some day. Thanks for the comment. Have a good one. Also, thanks for serving your country.

[@13thBear]

What I think are the most important of all these quotes are the first two. To paraphrase- a good gm doesn't need any rules and what works, works. What doesn't work you get rid of it. For myself, I say playing "make believe" everybody always wins!

[@Samwise7RPG]

13thBear :D. I've run several completely freeform games now, several "D100 Only" sessions, and lots of "rules-lite" games now. Some of those are up on my channel. They all were great experiences and taught me a lot.

[@BigBadassR]

I would love to read some quotes these guys had to say about life outside the gaming world. Even small things, such as EGG saying something to the extent of "I have the intelligence to know smoking is bad for me but lack the wisdom to stop".

[@Samwise7RPG]

Those would be great to read, I agree.

[@MemphiStig]

Brilliant men, words to live by.

[@sr2joker]

That M. A. R. Barker quote about simplicity of mechanics nails it. Lots to ponder in these quotes.

[@Samwise7RPG]

I made sure to put M. A. R. Barker in there, as many role-players don't know anything about him.

[@MarkSiefert]

Barker is the unsung hero of role-playing. Original D&D, with its generic European fantasy setting, can be rather bland. "Empire of the Petal Throne" , which introduced us to his world of Tekumel, was the first gaming product that really showed us just what we could do with these games. It's a crying shame he's not as well remembered as Gygax and Arneson.

[@Samwise7RPG]

It is a crying shame that more people don't know about Phil aka M. A. R. Barker. It is sad that many people don't know about the first published RPG setting...

[@Samwise7RPG]

I see what you mean about death alternatives now. Those sound like some fun times.

[@Samwise7RPG]

Without them getting together and making this type of game, I would have been bored a lot more of the time. :)

[@turrauko48]

Beautiful.

[@jeep2k]

Wow...that was 25 - 30 years ago. Seems to me it was around 12 - 15.

[@Samwise7RPG]

They are beautiful.

[@Samwise7RPG]

I thought they were all inspiring quotes that I could share with others. :)

[@Samwise7RPG]

I thought it would be nice to find some quotes from 3 of our founding fathers that have passed on.

[@BrunosGeekReviews]

Very nice compilation. :)

[@Samwise7RPG]

Masters indeed.

[@TheSwamper]

Wise words from master GMs.

[@bluespruce786]

Those are awesome 👍

[@Samwise7RPG]

Digging through my archives I see. :D

[@Hon_cb1kr]

Legends

[@Samwise7RPG]

They really were.

[@Samwise7RPG]

That is a good question. It makes you wonder if our hobby would have even existed. Maybe it would have taken a couple of hundred years for others to make them. Who knows? :) Death alternatives off the top of my head, disfigurements and missing limbs. :) I liked the quotes a lot.

[@Greyhawk4x4]

Great video!

[@Samwise7RPG]

Just a few inspirational quotes that I found from some remarkable people.

[@malink1979]

Great video. Words of resonance that are applicable to any and all games systems.

[@Samwise7RPG]

Boggle Dice is a really wild concept. How many dice did he let you roll? I'm guessing the more you roll the better chance you have of spelling something.

[@markweisgurt395]

The whole set. I don't remember the exact number.

[@chriss1548]

Hey Sam, Thanks.

[@chriss1548]

Hobbits rule.

[@Samwise7RPG]

Hehe, thanks. I love these quotes.

[@Samwise7RPG]

That is a good many dice. I bet my wife would be good at that particular house rule. :) She is a whiz with words.

[@alexbluebelt2]

Great video. Rip some great people

[@Samwise7RPG]

Thanks. I like to read these quotes now and then. They inspire me.

[@greeneking77]

Why can't I find any video footage of Gary Gygax anywhere????

[@Samwise7RPG]

Hmm. I can't seem to recall ever seeing him in a video either.

[@johntunney1864]

Go to the special features of dnd wrath of the dragon god. Theres a little of him speaking there.

[@randalglyph4967]

Here are two Gygax short videos. Gygax DMing (about 30 seconds long) kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4uYhKJ4f514jbs Gygax on 60 Minutes Interview for Teen Suicides caused by D&D and Satanic Panic (about 18 minutes long) kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4TLonlnjriZetU I've seen three very short videos of Gygax on KZbin. The first one is at a convention where he tells someone they need to make a save vs poison roll. The second video is a 60 Minutes TV interview with Gygax about how D&D is linked to teenage suicides and Satanism. The third short video (which I can't find on youtube) is Gygax telling a group of his fellow Christians some time after he was no longer associated with TSR, that during the Satanic Panic the reason he never owned up to actually being a Christian (he was first a fundamentalist: Jehovah's Witness. Until he and his wife were politely excommunicated for his religious sins of having affairs with other women and drinking and smoking - after that he converted his family & Rob Kuntz to being Roman Catholics)... His claimed reason in effect, was that he didn't want to bring the taint of D&D onto Christianity. Yeah. Not that he and everyone else says that the Satanic Panic brought huge notoriety and millions of dollars to D&D every year. So keeping the fear alive made him rich. Nope, Somehow Tolkien can write about satanic Sauron and be an open Catholic, but Gygax can't contaminate his religion by association. Sounds honest to me.

[@Samwise7RPG]

Thanks for that Randal Glyph. It was short but sweet.

[@dfernand101]

The old masters ... RIP. I do wonder what they would make of Warhamer Age of Sigmar !!!! Kings of War, Infinity, Hordes/War Machine, Descent (maybe they got to see 1st edition) and X-Wing, Zombicide

[@Samwise7RPG]

+David Boris Fernandez Good question. I bet they would dig some of those games. Have a good one. :)

[@Samwise7RPG]

I thought they were great quotes.

[@woodwwad]

hu

[@Samwise7RPG]

mu