Saturday, February 19, 2022

Here We Go Again

Issue #39 of Dragon (July 1980) featured an article on critical hits entitled "Good Hits and Bad Misses" by Carl Parlagreco. I've mentioned before that this article had a huge effect on me in the early days of my gaming; I carried around a photocopy of its tables in my DM binder for years. Apparently, Gary Gygax didn't think as well of it as I. He wrote a letter Dragon on the matter, which appeared in issue #41 (September 1980), in which he not only mocks the idea of critical hits and misses but also offers up his own ideas on (tongue-in-cheek?) ideas on the subject:

15 comments:

  1. Gygax was such an ass sometimes. The more I'm reminded of his pettiness that more I remember why I used to generally skip reading anything he contributed to Dragon.

    My opinion of him hasn't gotten any better as revelations about the work environment at TSR in his day have come out over the years, either.

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  2. Let me point out that Gygax is directly and personally responsible for the widespread use of save-or-die poisons on monsters, which are just a different flavor of instant death with a much higher chance of landing a one-shot kill. Pretty ballsy to pretend that a crit poison effect could somehow be worse than what he actually wrote into the game to its lasting detriment.

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    1. And traps! Not to mention sword of sharpness, vorpal sword, trolls and other creatures rending or otherwise getting bonus damage on two successful hits. Very weird how he's so against critical hits when there's not just one, but many examples of instant death, extra damage effects...

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    2. So, possible instant death from some things = bad, but possible instant death from everything = good? Because if crits are instant death, and everything can crit...

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    3. @Corathon That's exactly the opposite of what Gygax is arguing. I'd contend all "die in one roll" effects are terrible for D&D or anything based on it, but Gygax? He just hates the ones that he (or possibly Arneson) didn't write.

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  3. I'm not a fan of criticals and fumbles either. What seem to be being described is how it's been in the 5e games I've played and I just don't care for it. When I DM OSR and AD&D I do allow however natural 20's to do full damage provided you didn't basically require one to hit, but that's more due to modern expectations than anything.

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  4. The Arduin crits are better; at least you have a chance of surviving them. :-)

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  5. I love that article, and have on my desk gaming to this day.

    Also, Mr. McGee's comments are spot on. Sometimes your heroes turn out to be toxic nincompoops, no matter how brilliant.

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  6. At least he kept his sense of humor... barely.

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  7. Corporate Gygax is a known ass. Not sure why we're tearing into Gygax so hard though, he was generally friendly at cons and online. You know, actual meaningful personal interaction.

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    1. I tear into Gary because he came into the APA space with vitreol. Maybe that was business Gary.

      But I ALSO read a letter from him about tearing up a player's character sheet at a convention. The wording he used and the glee he expressed at putting this poor player in his place doesn't sound like "nice Gary" at a convention. I never interacted with him online, and I didn't end up running into him at either of the two GenCons I attended.

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    2. "...Gygax is a known ass. Not sure why we're tearing into Gygax so hard"

      The answer is right there in your question. :)

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    3. Gygax shutting down Imagine because they wouldn't rip off readers by hyping poor quality products had way more direct effect on me as a teenage gamer than him being nice to fans at conventions.

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  8. I remember that, and other rants by Gygax that affected my opinion of him to this day. "Thanks for the game, now piss off!"

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  9. I well remember seeing this at the time it came out, and had the same reaction. It was the beginning of the end of my respect for Gygax. I had also had my first taste of Runequest at the time, and I knew quite well that critical hits did not have to be so absurd.

    I will say in the EGG-head's favor on this one - a lot of stupid rules revisions got published in The Dragon that were not much better than this, and would have made an already-clunky rules set even clunkier.

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