The Culture: Macris Talks With Jeff Talanian On Gygax & More

Last night Macris had on Jeffrey Talanian, head of North Wind Adventures, designer of HYPERBOREA, and writing partner of Gary Gygax for 3 years.

Big Takeaways:

• Gygax had to be bullied into putting stuff into Castle Xagyg.
• The AD&D Hit Dice for Monsters rule was meant to be varied like for Classes, but by Size instead of Class.
• Hyberborea is still in development, with supplementary products.

Macris observed that big Conventional Play IPs other than D&D tightly integrate rules and setting, but every D&D edition is as tightly integrated as a whore with her wardrobe (despite appearances to the contrary) and outperforms all of them combined.

(Note: Yes, those D&D editions do imply a setting by their rules, and it is in overlooking that where people go astray. The Clubhouse has an article about this.)

This works for commercial sales to a point, but overdo it and you start arguing for Vidya over Tabletop because Vidya can always beat Tabletop for rules-setting integration and it has superior appeal for most people who would be prospective players at all. Why Schedule Your Fun and all that, often at considerable expense, when you can just wait for a Steam or GOG sale and get that same itch scratched in the comfort of your home?

More and more are seeing that this is where the answer to the collapse is for Conventional Play. This will be brick-to-face apparent later this week.