There's been a big outpouring of thoughts and sadness over the passing of D&D creator Gary Gygax. The words put down by other writers are far better than I can summon, so I'll add a very short note:

As the RPG world moved beyond the foundations Gary built, it's been all too easy to cast stones at the "clunky" rules and strictures of his original creations and their direct descendants. "THAC0? Alignments? Classes? Ha, that stuff's crazy..."

I, too, like today's more modern, streamlined games. But I've always kept respect for the D&D world, whether I play the game any more or not. Like so many, many others, I point to D&D as my start as a gamer. And throughout any temptation to poke fun at the game's outdated points, I've always returned to one key thought:

Question: Did we have fun with the game?

Answer: Hell, yeah, we did.

That single truth trumps any and all dismissal of the game, and is the highest form of thanks that a game's players can return to its maker.

To have turned a clever idea into a whole new genre of gaming – wow, few of us messing with game-related design or writing will ever make a smidgen of that impact.

I never met Gary, despite a couple visits to GenCon and even a trip to the original TSR store in Wisconsin. I wish I had. He did great things.

Ben Finney (author of GURPS Metric) has a great pair of posts at Treasure Tables on his successful session with some GURPS newbies. Check it out for a detailed look at the special prep he made to accommodate the new players (including a nifty "here's all the rules you need" intro to GURPS), and a thorough review of what worked. Plenty of good ideas for an experienced group, too. http://www.treasuretables.org/2007/05/introducing-rpgs-to-new-players-part-1 -end-

Real Ninjutsu in GURPS...

I won't be able to post things next week, so here's some recycled material for approaching visitors. While searching through old email, I found the following post I'd made to the Gurpsnet mailing list. The response below to an inquiry may be of interest to fans of COSH, a fun tool for modifying and creating combat skills.

I won't be able to post things next week, so here's some recycled material for approaching visitors. While searching through old email, I found the following post I'd made to the Gurpsnet mailing list. In a thread on how to deal with Giant foes in combat, I commented on a GM's concern about overwhelming the PCs. The discussion is for 3e GURPS; as 4e has pretty much solved 3e's problem with what ST to give a Giant, it's not too interesting a discussion any more. Still, there may be some fodder there for Giantslayer PCs or their evil GMs.

I won't be able to post things next week, so here's some recycled material for approaching visitors. While searching through old email, I found the following post I'd made to the Gurpsnet mailing list. In a thread on armored GURPS 3e fighters having much-too-high defenses, I respond to one poster below. 4e greatly alleviates the problem by eliminating PD, but it may still be an issue for some players. It does summarize what is to me an important point: the game should accommodate "too high" defenses when those are warranted!