30 June 2009
Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
ROGUE FEED
Interview: Skip Williams
JUN 30, 2009 12:01A.M.
Anyone who reads this blog knows that I’m keenly interested in living
connections between the early days of the hobby — and the fan cultures
out of which it grew — and the present day. Sadly, those connections are
becoming fewer and fewer as the years take their toll, which is why it’s
always a pleasure to speak with someone who was a young person in
those days. Skip Williams was still in school when D&D was released in
1974 and thereafter found himself playing in the legendary Greyhawk
campaign, the second RPG campaign in history. He subsequently worked
at TSR in a variety of capacities before moving on to Wizards of the
Coast, where he was involved in the design of the third edition of
Dungeons & Dungeons. Together these experiences give him a unique
perspective on the history of the hobby and its most famous game.
Mr Williams agreed to answer a few questions I put to him and his
answers are presented below:
1. I usually begin by asking my interviewee how they entered
the hobby of roleplaying. In your case, I suspect you became
involved in the hobby because you went to school Gary Gygax’s
son, Ernie. Is that correct?
Mostly correct. I’ve told this story before, so I’ll keep it short.
I first became aware of gaming one summer when I saw a picture of of
some people playing a game with tanks. It turned out it was an article
about Gen Con, which was held in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, my home
town at the time. I soon discovered that several of my school classmates
were playing various wargames (D&D had not been invented yet). When
D&D hit the shelves, I was soon involved in a couple of campaigns, and
my classmate, Ernie Gygax approached me about getting involved in an
even newer game, Warriors of Mars. That, in turn, got me introduced to
the Gygax household and to the fledgling TSR.
2. Were you a participant in the original Greyhawk campaign
refereed by Gary and Rob Kuntz and, if so, which characters
did you play?
Ah, you’re giving me a chance to split hairs here.
Gary ran the very first Greyhawk campaign using the map from the
Outdoor Survival game and his notes for the future D&D Game (the very
first D&D suggests getting Outdoor Survival and using it for your
campaign map). After TSR published D&D, Gary drew a campaign map
1
of his own and that became the Greyhawk setting everyone knows. I was
involved in that campaign pretty much from the start, having seen the
map laid out on Gary’s dining room table.
In “New Greyhawk,” I had several characters. The most famous of these
was Rufus of Hommlet (or Rufus of Skipperton as Gary named him in
one of his novels). Rufus explored the Temple of Elemental Evil and
eventually became a bigwig in Hommlet. He’s mentioned in the modules
Gary wrote about the Temple of Elemental Evil campaign.
I also had a halfling thief (these days D&D players would call him a
rogue) called Phalangas, or “Fingers,” who ran around the City of
Greyhawk causing as much trouble as he could, and picking pockets on
the way. I only ever played Phalangas when Rob Kuntz, Gary’s co-DM
decided to run a pickup game, so no one has heard of him until now.
My longest-running character in the Greyhawk campaign was a human
fighter named Boaric. Boaric was no great shakes, but he rubbed elbows
with the big boys in the campaign (Tenser, Erac’s Cousin, and Robilar to
name a few) and was involved on some famous adventures. He was
involved in an aborted expedition into the Tomb of Horrors. His biggest
accomplishment there was dragging various bits and pieces of his former
comrades back out. He also hacked and slashed his way through Against
the Giants until coming toe to toe with Snurre Ironbelly. That episode
ended badly for all, and it took a wish to get us back on our feet. Boaric
also made a few trips to The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, and briefly
owned the Invulnerable Coat of Arnd.
Boaric was the only character I played under both Greyhawk DMs. Gary
and Rob Kuntz.
3. You’re thanked by name in both the AD&D Players
Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide. Were there any
specific contributions you made to the writing or development
of either?
In the early days of D&D, everybody did things his own way. I was
involved in several campaigns in my high school days and I essentially
found a different version of the game in each. I used to have talks with
Gary about how the game ought to work (often during commercial
breaks for televised football games). We talked about everything from
how spells are cast and aimed to how much a DM ought to manipulate
events in a campaign. It was those talks, I’m sure, that Gary was thinking
of when he named me a contributor.
4. One of the many “lost” D&D supplements about which
gamers still talk is Shadowland, a product that would have
detailed the Plane of Shadow. According to Gary, this was to
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 30 June 2009

have been a collaboration between himself and you. Do you
remember anything about this project or why it never came to
pass?
I remember quite a bit abut the project, and I came very close to getting
it rolling again a few years ago. It involved an expedition to the Plane of
Shadow where the party would discover, shades, shadow dragons, and
several of those enigmatic quasi-deities Gary was always pulling out of
his hat. My notes on the plane eventually were co-opted for the
Planescape setting.
What killed the project, mostly, was lack of time. Gary became interested
in getting a D&D Movie off the ground, and I was interested in my
college homework and eventually in running the Gen Con Game Fair.
Somehow, the two of us never got back together to finish the thing.
argue that having official answers can have the opposite
problem of reducing the referee to being a less active
participant in the adjudication of the rules than he might have
been in the early days of the game. Given that, what do you see
is the proper role for the referee as it relates to the
adjudication of rules?
The referee is there to keep the game moving. As Patton once said, a
good answer today is better than a perfect answer next week.
A well-written rules set is the best friend a DM can have. It helps manage
the player’s expectations and gives the DM a leg to stand on when things
don’t go the players’ way.
8. What RPGs do you currently play?

5. Of the principal designers of Third Edition, you’re the only D&D 3.5 and 4.0
one who had a direct connection to the earliest days of the Big Eyes, Small Mouth
hobby. Do you feel your longstanding, personal connection to High Adventure Role Playing
those days informed your work on 3e and, if so, how?

Mostly what I brought to the design effort from those days was a sharp
sense of how things can go wrong. Whenever we came to a place in the
rules where I knew DMs and players were going to clash, I’d tell a
“campaign from hell” story, in which a character (mine or someone ROGUE FEED
else’s) was in peril and the DM made the most illogical and completely
off the wall ruling you could imagine. I tied to be very careful that all the Pulp Fantasy Library: The Well
loose boards in the system were well nailed down. Of course, people still
found ways to pry them loose again. of the Unicorn
JUN 29, 2009 04:08P.M.
6. For many years, you acted as “the Sage,” providing official
answers to questions about the rules of D&D in the pages of
Dragon, a role you continue to assume for Kobold Quarterly. I
remember Gary once complaining that, in the early days, fans
of D&D would call him at his home to ask him rules questions
and he was baffled as to why anyone needed him to come up
with answers, a feeling many early TSR staffers apparently
shared. Do you see any contradiction between the desire of
many fans for official answers to their questions and the belief
of many early designers that players should come up with
their own answers?

It’s a huge contradiction. The early designers were wrong. It comes down
to this: If you want to be in control of your character who have to have
some idea how anything you might try is going to come out. and you
can’t know that unless you have some idea of how the rules are going to
handle the situation. If the GM is making capricious decisions about
what happens in the game, you’re always shooting in the dark and you
have no real control over your character at all. Thick of hard how hard it
would be to, say, learn to ride a bicycle if the laws of physics were
constantly in flux. The game just works better if the DM and players have
similar expectations about how the rules handle things.

Fletcher Pratt, the only author named twice in Appendix N of the AD&D
7. I think most gamers are sympathetic to the concern about
Dungeon Masters Guide, was also a military historian and a wargamer,
capriciousness by the referee, but some would nevertheless

2
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
writing a set of naval miniatures rules in 1943. His 1948 novel, The Well
of the Unicorn, clearly shows his love of both history and military
matters. Its setting is reminiscent of the early Middle Ages, with the
action taking place in an analog of northern Europe, where raiders
known as “Vulkings” have invaded the kingdom of Dalarna and imposed
taxes so oppressive that many people, including the novel’s protagonist,
Airar Alvarson, find themselves reduced to serfdom. Of course, Airar
isn’t content to remain a mere peasant under the rule of foreign invaders
and so he sets off to find some means to overcome them and restore his
land to its former state.
If all this sounds uninspired and hackneyed, that’s because it is. Now. In
1948, though, fantasies of this sort weren’t an industry. Remember that
The Lord of the Rings was still six years in the future, never mind its
legions of imitators. And while The Well of the Unicorn is neither as
well-written nor as timeless as Tolkien’s novel, it’s still a cut above most
of its contemporaries. The titular well is a magical spring possessing
magical properties, chiefly its ability to bring peace to opponents who
agree to drink of its waters. Unsurprisingly, Airar seeks out this well, in
the process grappling with the question of free will and human action
and the conflict between freedom and societal stability.
The Well of the Unicorn is an enjoyable novel, far more serious than one
might expect if all one had read were Pratt’s collaborations with L.
Sprague De Camp. It’s clear that De Camp was the wit and Pratt the
philosophical one. There’s certainly an earnestness to this book that
might not appeal to everyone, but, as I said, when one compares it to the
vapidity of a lot of the fantasies produced at the time, it’s a welcome
diversion and one worth reading if one has the opportunity to do so.
ROGUE FEED
A Good Post
JUN 29, 2009 10:28A.M.
I’m not usually one to point out good posts on other blogs, since we all
pretty much read the same ones anyway, but I’m going to make an
exception in the case of Delta’s latest entry on “games within games,”
because he articulates very well some thoughts I’ve been having lately.
It’s well worth your time to check it out.
3
30 June 2009
ROGUE FEED
Blackmoor Memories
JUN 29, 2009 08:48A.M.
Here’s a link to a nice article about Dave Arneson and the Blackmoor
campaign from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. What’s particularly
interesting about the article is that it includes information I’d never
heard before, such as the fact that Dave Wesley of Braunstein fame
played a time-and-space-lost version of himself as his first character in
the campaign. It’s well worth a read.
ROGUE FEED
Great weekend
JUN 29, 2009 08:03A.M.
Went to game 3 of the Sox/Cubs yesterday and as always had a great
time. I was playing with the built in video camera on the new iPhone.
Here is a small video I shot: click here.
I am going to have to do a little more work on getting the camera steady,
but this is really cool.
Posted in Life Tagged: mobile
ROGUE FEED
[Lost Works] Star Wars: BESM
— Part 1
JUN 28, 2009 09:09A.M.
There are not many changes you need to make to BESM if you want to
use it with Star Wars. The rules stress a more cinematic approach to
gaming and they are flexible enough so they can be used with all genres.
The rules can easily capture the various races and technologies that
populate the Star Wars Universe.
Star Wars is about larger then life action that set against larger then life
backgrounds. It is a universe that has planets covered by forests, and
giant space slugs living deep within asteroids. It is a universe that has
seen one government representing all races, replaced with a government
headed by the Emperor who is a master of the Dark Side. Palpatine has
built a well-equipped and trained military machine. It is a government
that has built a space station the size of a small moon; that packs enough
firepower to destroy a planet. The military is supported by Star
Destroyers equipped with waves of TIE Fighters, and legions of storm
troopers.
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
Like any oppressive government, the Empire is faced with a group of
people who are dedicated to overthrowing it. The Rebel Alliance is a
collection of individuals who are opposed to the Emperor’s plans, and
want nothing more than to end the tyranny. It is a group who wants to
protect the rights of all races, and restore the laws that the Emperor
abolished. Though the Rebel Alliance is not as well equipped as the
Empire, they will never give their fight for justice.
Lurking in the background of this is the underworld criminal elements
such as the Huts. These groups see profit in the conflict and play both
ends against the middle. They are loyal to only one thing, money. It does
not matter to them who wins in this conflict, the smugglers and the
mobsters will still make a profit off the winners and losers.
Though the Jedi Knights were destroyed by one of their own, but there
are still those who follow the teachings of the Jedi and use the Force to
fight against the evil that has gripped the galaxy. They may not refer to
themselves as Jedi’s but they will soon be seen as New Hope to restore
the Jedi order to greatness.
The Dark Side has its master in the form of the Emperor, but it has its
champion in the form of Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith. Like those who
came before him, Vader has devoted his life to the ways of the Sith and
uses the Force as a weapon. It was by his hand that the Jedi Knights were
destroyed. Vader now leads the armies of the Emperor, and in the
Emperor’s name Vader protects the interests of the Empire. There are
other students of the Dark Side, and though they may not be as powerful
as Vader, they are still a threat.
Posted in Games, thoughts Tagged: BESM, Fourth Millennium, Games,
Lost Works, star wars, thoughts
ROGUE FEED
[Lost Works] Star Wars: BESM
— Introduction
JUN 28, 2009 09:04A.M.
Ok. I was not going to do this, but what the hell. For the next few weeks
— not every day — I am going to do a large Lost Works series. Star
Wars: BESM.
The history behind this work is simple. One of my favorite rule sets of all
time is the long out of print Big Eyes, Small Mouth 2E put out by the
now gone Guardians of Order.
I have always liked Star Wars (the Holy Trilogy of the original three I
refuse to acknowledge the new movies or the tweaked versions of the
original one). When I saw the movie for the first time in 1979
I was in third grade. Star Wars is one of the major influences that got
me into writing. I remember sitting in the theater in Alexandria, Virginia
4
30 June 2009
with my mother and father. I remember being blown away when Leia’s
ship flew across the screen. I sat mesmerized in a new world and I did
not want to leave. When the movie was over I remember asking my
father who made the movie. He told me a writer wrote the story and that
if it was not for him there would have been no Star Wars. It was then
that I knew I wanted to tell stories.
Like most kids my age I caught the Star Wars bug. I would spend hours
playing with my action figures, reading the Star Wars comic books,
along with anything else I could find. As I grew older the toys have been
put away, but my love for the three movies, or as Kevin Smith refers to
them in his movie Chasing Amy “The Holy Trilogy,” is still strong with
me.
When West End Games released the Star Wars RPG I bought it in
hopes of finally being able to play in the world I loved. My previous
attempts at playing Star Wars inspired games had been failures. I tried
using Star Frontiers and even Dungeons & Dragons to duplicate
Lucas’ vision. It was my hope that each of these attempts rules would
capture what I wanted to play and run. Sadly it didn’t.
D6 did not capture the cinematic scope and feel of the three movies. I
found the rules too detailed and lacking that “wow” feel that the movies
had. Combat was not quick, and for me the scale and scope of the game
did not jive. Then I had a brainstorm, what if I used the rules of
Advanced Marvel Superheroes? This was a success, and soon I was
kit bashing my own Star Wars game using AMSH and WEG’s
sourcebooks. However, in the end, this did not satisfy me, since I still
failed to capture the feeling of the movies. So after two years of play, I
shelved the campaign.
I remained a fan of Star Wars, but I grew tired of the endless novels
and comic books that were being churned out in the 90’s. The stories all
seemed the same, and I could never enjoy them. For me Star Wars is
more interesting when the Rebels are fighting to overthrow the Empire.
Book after book, comic after comic, the world seemed more bloated and
soon I ignored it. I had the three movies and that was all I needed.
When Phantom Menace was released, I remember the excitement I
had waiting to see it. I had that nervous energy that I did when I was
younger, and all I could think about was how I was going to be blown
away by the new movie. I was blown away, blown away with how bad it
was. Wooden characters, the annoying Jar Jar, and kick ass CGI were
used to distract you from a badly written script.
All of this leads me to a conversation I had with my good friend Anthony
Ragan back in early 2001. As we usually do when we do not feel like
working, we chat nonstop on e-mail. One of our discussions dealt with
what game system is the best universal one. As always, Anthony was
talking about how Basic Role-Playing is the best system and that every
game should be based on it. It was then that my cinematic gaming came
out, and I stated that for me Big Eyes Small Mouth is the perfect
game and can be used for any setting. Then in an offhand comment,
Anthony stated that BESM would be perfect for Star Wars.
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 30 June 2009

BAM! I was hit with inspiration.

BESM was perfect for Star Wars because the rules clearly capture the
cinematic approach that I like. The mechanics are simple, and they do
not clutter up the story. In addition BESM is very adaptable and open so
that you can add to it what you want. Star Wars is pure action, and the
problem with WEG’s D6 system was that the rules got in the way of this
action.

Finally with Star Wars I had a rule system that can do what I wanted
for Star Wars.

The following posts appeared first in A&E, were later reedited and then
posted on a long gone personal website. Here they are again. Enjoy.

Posted in Games, Technology Tagged: BESM, Games, Gaming, Lost

Works, star wars, thoughts