EC Comics says Gygax; Crypt of Horror and Weird Science

 Via

https://1eonline.info/1mm/gelatinouscube.htm

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weird_Science_(comics)

Quote:
Originally Posted by taliesin15
Mr. Gygax:
Any thoughts on where Oozes come from? Especially Grey Ooze and Gelatinous Cubes--are these supposed to originate from the experiments of crazy evil wizards, or from Demons/Devils?

Heh...

As the chap that made up both of them, I had better have an idea as to where they came from 

My concept wasthat both were accidental creations of careless wizard alchemists that dumped various failed magical and alchemical experiments down the drain or into some cess pit. These admixtures affected single-celled life forms, thus eventually engendering the various jellies (and a gelatinous cube is one of those), oozes, puddings. The slimes were generated in similar fashion, the waste affecting normal slime.

Cheers,
Gary
 
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mycanid
Ya know Gary ... I have been wondering about something on and off for some time now.

Who thought up the idea of the gelatinous cube? And was there a piece of fiction that sparked it? Or was it just ... jello? :\

The 'Cube was my cration. It was inspired by the amoeba and gelatin. Perhaps I also had in the back of my mind the old EC Comisc SF story about Mars being covered in dormand gookum, that stuff having devoured all other life forms on the planet. When the crew returns to earth they are feted at a banquet, with a dessert course of strawberry Jello. "Good Grief! It;s dormant gookum!!!"

How I loved those Weird Science, Crypt of Horror, and all the rest of the EC Comics line

Gary

Comments
thank you Gary.
We made a living jello G-cube joke on monday. Who knew we were so close to the truth?
For Gary
 
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mycanid
Care to share the story of the first time in the game you sprung it on the players? 

there was a group going through the 2nd level, and the fighter scouting ahead walked right into the Gelatinous Cube thinking some spell or gas was makinghis vision blurry. Only after that PC being nearly killed did the others note the "floating" coins and such.

That's about the best I can do recalling the incident after 35 years

Cheerio,
Gary

Comments
For the game
Wish I could have been one of your players. Thanks for everything.
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gentlegamer
Gary Gygax loves Gelatinous Cubes. Especially with Cool Whip.

Actually I prefer real whipped cream!

Cheers,
Gary

Comments
 

Name Drizzt related to Draz’zt the demon prince of ad&d 1e?

 Is it related?

https://1eonline.info/6mm2/grazzt.htm

I mean he is an ebon skinned super demon fighter dude with the ability to fight with two weapoms… a sword and a pilearm. Maybe he was the inspiration. 

Cthulhu art

 Btw this cthulhu art is still the best  https://1eonline.info/4ddg/cthulhu.htm

Notice not one but three humans hidden in there

  

Catoblepas the funky monster from way back before DnD

 Read the 1e site… note the Gary Gygax quotes about it being not made up and from old medieval bestiaries https://1eonline.info/1mm/catoblepas.htm

Read and see all the extra books to chexk out around Imaginary Beasts and such from wikip about Catoblepas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catoblepas

Like -

- The Catoblepas was listed in the Book of Imaginary Beings (1957) by Jorge Luis Borges. It is described as a black buffalo with a hog's head that is always looking down.

-The catoblepas is mentioned in The Shattered World (1984) by Michael Reaves:

Troas cleared his throat impatiently and Beorn looked at him. On his robe was a stylized design of a catoblepas, stitched in silver thread in a rampant pose. Beorn thought it looked faintly ridiculous.

YES THAT SHATTERED WORLD that I read in probably nonth grade in the library. 

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1844103.The_Shattered_World

-

Rly good dinos, pbs, 1988 animated and real life. Phil Tippet’s

Part 1 has lots of English dudes so far- 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDUW6HGQCpg

• Time 22:49 has that cool old painting… a bunch of tall skinny upright dinos, and one pinkish lizard-like meat-eater attacking one.  

Part 2 MIGHT be the BEST… HAS ANIMATIONS AND FAMOUS DUDES - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDUW6HGQCpg

3 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UDeojaTr9g&t=17s

4 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgxB6BNRbQA&t=28s

And here is one copy of Tippet’s stop motion movie on dinos -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq7Lv3zrUak&t=98s

Full super cut of Phil Tippet’s Prehistoric Beast AND Dinosaur! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIY4H7cXztg

Pathfinder was fun

 Finally had some big battles. Was fun stomping some orcs. 

Burning Hands with the dmgnbuikd is awesome at this level 3 and it does 5d4+10, kinda insane. 

Memorized 3 times (sorc) and have spell focus object to cast again. And got pearl of power to cast again. 

Was nuking orcs like crazy. Tower at end had 4 orcs lined up to be hit by cone. Bam. 

Top of tower had orc boss. I cast Ghost Sound to make him think half a dozen human enemies were climbing up to get him. Made him waste a spell or two. 

At too, they cracked thru trap door made boss fall. I was still dwn there w fighter. We nuked it… and summoned dragon(ish) thing jumped on top of it too. 

Magic - thoughts from old school Tenkar comments

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UvMb_J8KS1c&t=200s&ra=m

A lot of interesting thoughts. Might not agree but definitely interesting. 

Ideas dnd weapons and staff

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tHCLuzEomrU&t=822s

Time 13:42 on AzMounatineer’s okd school rules

 -

Blood drinker sword. Has to hit enemy or it attacks friends.  

Render - a +2 to hit and +5 dmg, but curse makes it always miss first attack on a new enemy. 

The asinging sword - really sings when not in scabbard means first round wasted to draw sword. Or no chance surprise. 

Torturer - can never land killing blow, reduces dmg or no dmg. 

Nicker - a +3 sword. Always hits but only 3 smg, no bonuses apply. 

B/X style sequence of a dungeon turn

 Time 21:45 has great chart… OSE chart. Very nice. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rVOQxHX3qA&list=LL&index=1&pp=iAQBsAgC

Gloomraider - I got more of the PDFs

 https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/513378/gloomraider-osr-rpg-quick-start-basic-rules

Gloomraider - this indie game by  Daedalus Game Foundry, what looks like a one man army, that is based sort of on Shadowdark but also focuses on AD&D/D&D from the1970s and 1980s, but with modern (easier) mechanics like ascending AC, called DS. See below .

I even paid money for some PDFs... I think the designer and the artist deserve a couple of bucks for sure. I need to leave a review before too long on drivethrurpg. I'll put one here for now, which might be just random points:

• The vibe is very OSR. It's about dungeoncrawls and dangerous monsters and cool art. 
• Read his reply from drivethru, tells a lot of how it is made, red is my emphasis:
• "Thanks! In short I'd say GloomRaider is like Shadowdark for AD&D instead of 5e. The primary difference is the way various mechanics are handled. I go more with old school D&D mechanics as opposed to 5e mechanics. If you are familiar with all the editions of D&D, you'll see bits and pieces of many of them in GloomRaider, like: - Ability score modifiers are the traditional bell curve -3/+3 (Basic D&D editions) - Modifier improvements are more tied to leveling than increasing ability scores (Pre-WotC D&D) - Racial ability score adjustments (AD&D) - Racial traits (AD&D) - Spells (AD&D & Basic D&D) - Casting spells includes "Vancian" style - Monsters (AD&D) - Class traits more in-line with AD&D Things from Shadowdark that I handle differently: - Advantage/Disadvantage is adding or subtracting 1d4 - Class traits are a bit different, but generated similarly to Shadowdark - Incorporates "roll-to-cast" spells differently - Gear slots is very similar but has slight differences The one-hour real time light is unchanged from Shadowdark. In general GloomRaider is more like AD&D and Basic D&D than 5e and Shadowdark, but is easily adapted into Shadowdark as houserules."
• 
  
• Page 8 of the basic rules lets you know all the abbreviations and anything non-standard from old D&D
• AC = DS (defense score). Pretty smart to call it something other than AC to signify ascending AC. Most new game designers would be tempted to just go with what the public would know... so once again I get the impression that the designer is about quality over mass appeal. Good. 
• Orcs in this game are called Orocs. 
• This is to distinguish them as the pig faced monsters of 1e and maybe 2e AD&D. He mentions that he did this to help out modern players or folks who just know 10 versions of orcs. I 100% like the monstrous version before they turned into whatever later. 
• Boarocs. Harder orcs are called Boarocs, Think wild boar. Way more hair, almost like a werewolf. 
• Templars = paladins basically. 
• Sorcerers = old school Magic-Users, but more flexible casting. Reading straight under that section of the basic rules, you start with 3 spells in your spellbook (but you get stuff like detect magic, read magic, and sort of identify item for free at will casts). You only can cast 1 spell at level 1 via the memorization/Vancian style... but then you can Wildcast. OK here it is, Wildcasting is roll to cast. 
• So yeah, way more fun than a 1980 Magic-User at level 1 who couldn't do much. 
• Magic - I need to reread, but I think there are options for Shadowdark/DCC roll to cast. And definitely Vancian options. 

Example of Sorcerer level up coolness options (feels like Shadowdark):

I'm going to paste in the languages, because this shows what sorts of monsters are around:

COMMON LANGUAGES

Language Who Speaks It Alphabet

Aquan Mermaids, sahuagin, sirens Elven

Common Humans, halflings Common

Dwarvish Dwarves, gnomes, kobolds Dwarven

Elvish Elves Elven

Giant Giants, ogres, trolls Dwarven

Gnoll Gnolls None

Goblin Bugbears, goblins, hobgoblins Elven

Reptilian Lizardmen, troglodytes None

Sylvan Centaurs, dryads, faeries Elven

RARE LANGUAGES

Language Who Speaks It Alphabet

Abyssal Demons, orocs Infernal

Celestial Angels Celestial

Draconic Dragons Draconic

Druidic Druids Druidic

Infernal Devils Infernal

Primordial Elementals Draconic

Half orcs explained

 Gloomraider guy https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_-gq4Ov3M&t=316s&pp=2AG8ApACAdIHCQk-CwGHKiGM7w%3D%3D&ra=m

Orcs and halforcs explained. 

Orcs 1e adnd says - brown or brownish-green with a bluish sheen… highlights their  Pinkish noses and ears. (We see the pink nose in the dnd cartoon, though they are super green there).  Bristly hair is dark brown or black sometimes with tan patches  

Orc-goblins, orc-hobgoblins, etc. 

Only 10% of halforcs favor the human side much  

The hakf human halforcs that r player characters are presumed to be the “superior 10%” type. 

Art - arty redesign of a Manticore is good

 Freaky Manticore yt guy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7Gcg1Lnu8s&t=196s

OSE night

 Made it through first big adv.  Secomd run of second adv. 

Magic lady, little ole lady, was a doppelganger.  Other fighter who never melees was near her and went to zero. Doppel stunned by true npc ole lady mage.  Eveybody tried stabilizing fighter2, bad rolls, so near dead.  Finally last npc saved him.  We killed freely doppel.  

Dragon (not dragon) near pool. Dangerous stuff. 

Felt more fun than this description sounds.