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| | EXPERIENCE POINTS |
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No one will argue that D&D fires the imagination, and no less for me, who would become a professional artist. Most of my drawings from the time that I discovered D&D (about '78 or '79) look like the one to the left, which also shows inspiration from foam-rubber Godzilla movies, H.R. Puffinstuff and Clash of the Titans. |
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As Gary himself stated in the back of one of his tomes, the playing of D&D inspired the reading of quality literature, and yes, that occassionally includes fantasy, which for me and my cohorts, included Tolkien, Lewis and Moorcock, and later William Morris, Milton, Dante and other classics -- and of course Shakespeare. Here's a sketch I did of Elric, Michael Moorcock's loved and frightening protagonist, all those years ago, doubtless copied from a book cover. |
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A more recent Elric piece from my portfolio. |
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Like I've said elsewhere, unlike many culturally acceptable hobbies, the playing of D&D leads to the reading of books, which leads to education, if you're not careful. Here you'll find a piece of the very humble beginnings of my writing career: this is my first or second poem ever, which I present to you in all its forced rhyme and horrific meter, in all its typo-ed, typewritten glory. Once again, the content comes from the Elric saga, no doubt, while the inspiration to first dabble into poetry can only have come from Tolkien. As grown ups, we're taught that what Tolkien wrote was not poetry, but rather heroic verse. But I say, don't knock it, Professor Tweed, because without Tolkien, there would have been no men in your poetry appreciation class. |
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| PERSONAL MISCELLANY |
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An early drawing of my first character, Comodor. The name appealed to me, I think, because it sounded like condor, the most popular endangered species at the time; but I think I first saw the word on an album cover in Doc's dad's vinyl collection. The spelling, though, was consciously given a more Anglo-Saxon spelling. I suspect that Comodor wore the helm either because I could not decide what he looked like, or else because I knew exactly what he looked like, but didn't feel I could draw his face. |
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Another early drawing: Corontole was not Doc's first character [I believe that honor goes to a Mr. Torak], but it was the character he played with the Brothers Swanson. Corontole's lost eyes were replaced with magic diamonds that restored his sight, and like so many magic users nowadays, Corontole was very enimatic because he never removed his hood -- quite possibly for the same reason that Comodor wore his helm always and everywhere: artistic limitations. |
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I'm sure we weren't the first people to name a character Gygax, drawing our inspiration, of course, from the covers of our rulesbooks. A fitting honor; and at the time, when we drew inspiration from everywhere, Gygax sure beat many other invented names that to our minds sounded archaic: Valor (pronounced val-OR), Serum, Thygard (inspired by my football gear), Shalack, Arsis (like, as in Buttocks Man?), Flosh, Cortex, Melody, Torchist (the flaming sword), Krush (who had magically enhanced strength), Dragon Boy, the redundantly named Keleron (Celadon?) the Green, and my all time favorite, Cloroxian. The list goes ever on. |
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To left is a letter that we drafted thanking TSR for the game that had saved our sanities. For a good laugh, here's a transcription of our thoughts for the wizards at TSR:
Dear Sirs,
I have wanted to write to you since I started playing your games. TSR has done a terrific job of creating rules for them. I'm sure it must have taken a long time to put it all together. I play D&D mainly with my cousin Danny Holiday and my brother Mark Swanson.
We are very enthused about this D&D game and played it since we were about 8 or 9 years old. My brother, cousin and I have all made new monsters and each of us has DMed many times. Our first characters are still alive, mainly because we are too attached to them to get rid of them. But our newer characters aren't that way anymore.
We all have things we've wanted to say to you. I thank you for creating D&D. It's the one thing I can always escape to when everything's going sour for me.
You said in the MM I [editor's note: that's Monster Manual, vol. 1 to you normies] and MM II that you were going to create more MMs. Well, my co-players and I have decided that another edition of the Deities & Demigods would be a good idea also. Either more focus for the gods or more gods, heros and again, foes. Right now our favorite book is the Deities & Demigods.
For one, I think giants are too weak. I read stories of the Norwegian giants. In them, giants are much more powerful than you at TSR make them. They should be much taller and more powerful. I have recently created, for my campaigns, another formof giants, much taller and with more hit points.
I also think gods are too weak. So I play them to their maximum ability. I realize, however, that if Thor had 600 h.p., a character could think he could have 500. And if Thor's hammer did 20-200 points of damage, a character would assume it is alright for him to have a sword that does 10-100. So, I do understand why you do not make them stronger.
Keep up the good work. |
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There we are, about seven years after we first picked up a polydodecahedron. Top Row: Mark, Doc and Todd. Bottom row: Bethany and Jeremy. Those top three boys did well for themselves, but the little ones put us to shame -- yet we like to think we had something to do with how they turned out: Wee Princess Bethany is now an effervescent and erudite teacher of English, who teaches advanced courses in (get this) adventure and fantasy literature, and who specializes in the works of Edgar Allen Poe. And that naked impish urchin beside her, Jeremy, is completing an advanced degree in Asian Philosophies, after recently spending a year in Nepal. |
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Ah, yes, once again in the basement, slaying hordes of orcs, no doubt. As close as I can guess, here we are during Christmas of '89. Top: Doc and, in a rare guest appearance, our buddy Mikey. Bottom: Doc and musclebound Mark. Notice on the wall, an artsy illustration of Egil, who guards the roots of Yggdrasil from Nighog. |
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Our father, left, and doc's father, center. As children, you never really give your parents enough credit. Now that I'm a dad, I wonder at the forces that prevented my father from burning our D&D books on his leaf piles. Only now do I understand that as children, they too dreamed of epic heroism. And though they dreamt more of Old West and less of medieval times, they had even more love for the Space Age than we Star Wars babies did. So maybe it's not such a wonder, after all, that they sat for hours chatting on porches and dining room tables, waiting for our daily adventures to come to a close. |
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But the real inspiration for our embracing fantasy is our mother, who grew up watching Sci Fi Theater and Twilight Zone with her father, and who taught us to dream, and who had in her youth been a tom-boy and ruffian hero in her own right. My mother read the D&D Basic Set rulebook, rolled up a character and let me DM for the first time. Now I know it was so that she could be sure, and ensure our father, that D&D wasn't going to make us psychotic.
That first game I ran, incidentally, consisted mostly of "and then you go down the road some more, and you see a troll -- roll initiative." She convinced me that there was more to it than that, and sent me to my room to re-read the DM section. This would be my first lesson on the importance of storytelling and set me on a path that I've followed (whether gaming, writing or talking to strangers) to this very day. |
