GARY GYGAX Q&A PART VIII

Robilar's name derives from "The Gnome Cache" by EGG; but his identity
has become associated forever after that with Greyhawk, which is not part of the OGL.
Not my PC any longer, nor do I recognize him as the travesty he has become under various interpretations.
[RJK] http://piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/2017

[When the Greyhawk Dungeons were first entered, how was the first level organized? Was there a main
monster, or type of monster present? I've heard much about some of the deeper levels, but not much on the
first. I heard the first monsters ever encountered in the dungeons were giant centipedes.]

Yep. Giant centipedes in a pile of rubbish.

There were the usual bad things hanging around. Goblins, skeletons, a pond with never ending snakes on
the second level, wights in a dungeon cell area, the usual.

Robilar stayed in the dungeon, btw, on the first adventure. I informed EGG that I was gonna hang out in an
empty room. He looked at me in a strange, indecipherable way --hey, this was my _first adventure_, ok?
After a time, some giant lizards came loping in, so I beat it out of the dungeon too rejoin the rest of the
crew. It was real scary, just the same, considering it was only a "game." That's what I miss about the game
the most. The newness and strangeness, which we had barrels full of at the beginning. It really takes a
_great DM_ to keep my interest these days. Jaded, jaded. [RJK]
http://piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/2018

[What level was Robilar when he, Terric, and Tenser took over the first level of the dungeons?]

9th-11th.

[Did Gary create encounters with NPC adventurers seeking ingress to the dungeons and with creepy
crawlers that wandered up from lower levels?]

Tenser blockaded different apertures with spells and we set up a small portcullis/gate to allow
ingress/egress. Most of the traffic were other PCs, which we taxed for 10%. They hated us.

[I heard they recruited orcs by posting notes in the dungeon, in orcish, offering employment.]

True! We also (for fun) yelled, "Here orky, orky orky!"

[Was there a certain level of the dungeon that housed a large orc tribe that they recruited from? I knew of
the orc/troll level, but I thought that was part of the redone version of the dungeon.]

The orcs were mainly from level Sub 5 or 6? The Orc/Troll level where I acquired Quij at. This was part of
the original (first) dungeon. [RJK] http://piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/2018

The "Idea" of taking over El Raja Key is

a theme which is worked intricately into that
monument’s history, and is not at all far-fetched. [RJK] http://piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/2018?
page=2

[So is ERK a sort of node/ley line confluence point/nexus? Is there something inherently special about the
site in addition to the keep itself?]

Yes there is, Grodog. Something very inherently special

and ill-understood. [RJK] http://piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/2018?page=2
[What dimensions did typical levels in Castle Greyhawk have?]

We used all sizes of graph paper (4, 6, 8, and even 10 squares to the inch); EGG and I also liked to use
several methods, such as transporters and long, slowly descending down-slants, both of which caused
players to map parts of two levels as one.

Robilar rarely mapped; he instead relied his memory and landmarks to find his way in and out of the castle
dungeons, which, btw, confounded a lot of EGG's pre-made mapping traps.

Also note Allan Grohe's site www.rpg.net/ehp/imrryr

In his Greyhawk section he has some notes on mapping in Greyhawk, especially
about side by side dungeon maps (which I invented to confuse EGG in my castle
dungeon, El Raja Key) [RJK] http://piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/2019

Tom Champeny's PC, an 8th level cleric, who was originally neutral, turned evil
by slaying Ernie Gygax's secondary NPC (a hireling of Tenser's),
Serten the cleric.

James Goodfellow always played an evil mage, with his

best known PC, "Ezekiel the Necromancer" having the longest run
of them all. He backstabbed Bob Burman's PC after they together
killed off an outdoor (cavern) encounter.

Burman's last words petitioned Odin (of all patrons)

and I proceeded to roll like 3 100's in a row to verify and
analyze the extent to which Odin might react. This was
followed by several high 90's rolls.

James knew something was up when I rolled the first 100 in front of them both, but then I
took Bob to a secluded spot (out of sight, but not hearing range of James) where I continued
rolling the great rolls, which sent Burman into spasms, while laughing and pounding his head
against the wall (I kid you not!) while James reacted to Burman (he called it "Burmania")
by screaming from the kitchen as I witnessed the head-banging: "Fudge! Fudgin' Judgin'!!

That's the strangest PC killing PC event I've witnessed, and let me tell you, it was enough! [RJK]
http://piedpiperpublishing.yuku.com/topic/2020