Terry Pratchett and D&D

[jere7my tho?rpe]

So I just came from a Terry Pratchett (of _Discworld_ fame) signing
in Ann Arbor. Funny fellow, very John Cleese-ish. Dunno if this is
widely known: he said that the Luggage came from a D&D scenario he once
designed for the local kids in his hometown. They were all very snotty
about their +10 swords and so on, he said, so he gave them a convenient
carrier for all their treasure -- which had a tendency to wander off on
its own, or fail to stop at the edge of a wide chasm unless expressly
told to do so.

He also mentioned gelatinous cubes of his own accord, which earned
him points in my book.

----j7y

[Keith Davies]

Post by jere7my tho?rpe
So I just came from a Terry Pratchett (of _Discworld_ fame) signing
in Ann Arbor. Funny fellow, very John Cleese-ish. Dunno if this is
widely known: he said that the Luggage came from a D&D scenario he once
designed for the local kids in his hometown. They were all very snotty
about their +10 swords and so on, he said, so he gave them a convenient
carrier for all their treasure -- which had a tendency to wander off on
its own, or fail to stop at the edge of a wide chasm unless expressly told
to do so.

I've seen him before too. It's worth the time. When he was here last he
did about an hour and a half monologue, over an hour of Q&A ("Ask any
question you want, and I will answer. Not necessarily the question to
ask, but I'll answer"), then hung around for several hours signing books.

Despite being horribly tired; he looked a wreck by the time it was over.


Keith

[Geoffrey Brent]

Post by jere7my tho?rpe
So I just came from a Terry Pratchett (of _Discworld_ fame) signing
in Ann Arbor. Funny fellow, very John Cleese-ish. Dunno if this is
widely known: he said that the Luggage came from a D&D scenario he once
designed for the local kids in his hometown. They were all very snotty
about their +10 swords and so on, he said, so he gave them a convenient
carrier for all their treasure -- which had a tendency to wander off on
its own, or fail to stop at the edge of a wide chasm unless expressly
told to do so.

I heard this story a while back (TP seemed to like ANU, where I did my
BSc, and he'd visit there every year or two). The version I heard then
was that the Luggage would obey their commands... nine times out of ten.
Every tenth command, it would ignore them or do something highly
undesirable. Because it only happened occasionally, they didn't keep
close enough track of its behaviour to figure out the pattern...

[a***@dragontree.com]

On Thu, 02 Oct 2003 12:03:24 +1000, Geoffrey Brent

Post by Geoffrey Brent

Post by jere7my tho?rpe
So I just came from a Terry Pratchett (of _Discworld_ fame) signing
in Ann Arbor. Funny fellow, very John Cleese-ish. Dunno if this is
widely known: he said that the Luggage came from a D&D scenario he once
designed for the local kids in his hometown. They were all very snotty
about their +10 swords and so on, he said, so he gave them a convenient
carrier for all their treasure -- which had a tendency to wander off on
its own, or fail to stop at the edge of a wide chasm unless expressly
told to do so.

I heard this story a while back (TP seemed to like ANU, where I did my
BSc, and he'd visit there every year or two). The version I heard then
was that the Luggage would obey their commands... nine times out of ten.
Every tenth command, it would ignore them or do something highly
undesirable. Because it only happened occasionally, they didn't keep
close enough track of its behaviour to figure out the pattern...

My thief once commissioned some Bags of Holding like that. When a bag
got 12 magic items in it, it would teleport a random item to her lair.
Took a long time for anyone to figure it out.


Graf

[Fitz]

Post by jere7my tho?rpe
So I just came from a Terry Pratchett (of _Discworld_ fame) signing
in Ann Arbor. Funny fellow, very John Cleese-ish. Dunno if this is
widely known: he said that the Luggage came from a D&D scenario he once
designed for the local kids in his hometown. They were all very snotty
about their +10 swords and so on, he said, so he gave them a convenient
carrier for all their treasure -- which had a tendency to wander off on
its own, or fail to stop at the edge of a wide chasm unless expressly
told to do so.
He also mentioned gelatinous cubes of his own accord, which earned
him points in my book.

Blatant name-dropping and reflected-glory-seeking follows:

I've played in a scenario written and run by Terry Pratchett. It was
hoot :) It was just before he published "Interesting Times", and when
I read the book I kept having strong episodes of deja vu.

[Brandon Cope]

Post by jere7my tho?rpe
So I just came from a Terry Pratchett (of _Discworld_ fame) signing
in Ann Arbor. Funny fellow, very John Cleese-ish. Dunno if this is
widely known: he said that the Luggage came from a D&D scenario he once
designed for the local kids in his hometown. They were all very snotty
about their +10 swords and so on, he said, so he gave them a convenient
carrier for all their treasure -- which had a tendency to wander off on
its own, or fail to stop at the edge of a wide chasm unless expressly
told to do so.
He also mentioned gelatinous cubes of his own accord, which earned
him points in my book.

The (early) Rincewind stories weren't just satires of the sword and
sorcery genre but of sword and sorcery RPGs as well.

Brandon

[Jürgen Hubert]

Post by jere7my tho?rpe
So I just came from a Terry Pratchett (of _Discworld_ fame) signing
in Ann Arbor. Funny fellow, very John Cleese-ish. Dunno if this is
widely known: he said that the Luggage came from a D&D scenario he once
designed for the local kids in his hometown. They were all very snotty
about their +10 swords and so on, he said, so he gave them a convenient
carrier for all their treasure -- which had a tendency to wander off on
its own, or fail to stop at the edge of a wide chasm unless expressly
told to do so.

Too bad they didn't give the Luggage any game stats in the Discworld RPG.

But then again, it probably doesn't need them... ;-)


--
- Jürgen Hubert

Urbis - A World of Cities
http://juergen.the-huberts.net/dnd/urbis/index.html

[Sir Bob]

Post by Jürgen Hubert

Post by jere7my tho?rpe
So I just came from a Terry Pratchett (of _Discworld_ fame) signing
in Ann Arbor. Funny fellow, very John Cleese-ish. Dunno if this is
widely known: he said that the Luggage came from a D&D scenario he once
designed for the local kids in his hometown. They were all very snotty
about their +10 swords and so on, he said, so he gave them a convenient
carrier for all their treasure -- which had a tendency to wander off on
its own, or fail to stop at the edge of a wide chasm unless expressly
told to do so.

Too bad they didn't give the Luggage any game stats in the Discworld RPG.
But then again, it probably doesn't need them... ;-)

Actually, I think it *is* statted up as an example in GURPS Discworld.

- Sir Bob.

[Jürgen Hubert]

Post by Sir Bob

Post by Jürgen Hubert

Post by jere7my tho?rpe
So I just came from a Terry Pratchett (of _Discworld_ fame) signing
in Ann Arbor. Funny fellow, very John Cleese-ish. Dunno if this is
widely known: he said that the Luggage came from a D&D scenario he once
designed for the local kids in his hometown. They were all very snotty
about their +10 swords and so on, he said, so he gave them a convenient
carrier for all their treasure -- which had a tendency to wander off on
its own, or fail to stop at the edge of a wide chasm unless expressly
told to do so.

Too bad they didn't give the Luggage any game stats in the Discworld RPG.
But then again, it probably doesn't need them... ;-)

Actually, I think it *is* statted up as an example in GURPS Discworld.

If there is, I can't find it...


--
- Jürgen Hubert

Urbis - A World of Cities
http://juergen.the-huberts.net/dnd/urbis/index.html

[Lizard]

Post by jere7my tho?rpe
So I just came from a Terry Pratchett (of _Discworld_ fame) signing
in Ann Arbor. Funny fellow, very John Cleese-ish. Dunno if this is
widely known: he said that the Luggage came from a D&D scenario he once
designed for the local kids in his hometown. They were all very snotty
about their +10 swords and so on, he said, so he gave them a convenient
carrier for all their treasure -- which had a tendency to wander off on
its own, or fail to stop at the edge of a wide chasm unless expressly
told to do so.
He also mentioned gelatinous cubes of his own accord, which earned
him points in my book.

I dimly recall him once telling a story about his attempt to convince
two sweet little old ladies that D&D wasn't at all evil and satanic by
running them through a standard scenario, and the two then promptly went
off on an NPC slaughtering spree that would have given the Knights of
the Dinner Table pause...