Stirge Controversy Redux....Infinitely

[geneweigel]

I found that big ass stirge image while browsing through some Castle Greyhawk related shit:



I think I might have deleted the thread on the Yuku Pied Piper board because I was steaming mad at Rob at that time. Hey, who hasn't? That sucks. I recall Gary's reply was a shutdown to the idea that it was a plastic toy which is understandable but he didn't address the evidence of it being conceived as walking tall for SUPPLEMENT ONE GREYHAWK 1976 then forgotten.

Here is the GREYHAWK description:

Large, bird-like monsters with long, dangling proboscuses, the Stirges
might call to mind evil-looking, feathered ant eaters. Stirges are attracted to warmblooded
creatures, and when a hit is scored by one it indicates it has attached itself to its
prey in order to suck its blood. Thereafter it will drain the blood at the rate of 1-4
points/melee round until the prey is a bloodless corpse, the Stirge growing bloated in the
process and moving out of the area to digest its repast. Note: Stirges are considered as
attackings as 4th level fighters for purposes of determination of attachment although
they have but 1 hit die.

[Scott]

The MM gave them that bat/bug look. A evil feathered anteater would freak me out.

[geneweigel]

There is a Sutherland pic that predates MM but I forgot where it is. It resembles the image of the man dying

[geneweigel]

Here is the original Sutherland from STRATEGIC REVIEW #5 DEC 1975:



It looks like a bigger version of the 1977 Monster Manual pic:



Greyhawk supplement came out March 1975 (the copy that I have says "1976" thats why I wrote that date in the above post). So the end of the year DCS III image must have changed the direction.

[Scott]

Nostalgic art, there.
Stirges can be tough. They're one of my favorite monsters to use.

[geneweigel]

Pouring through all those threads looking for the stirge conversation was headache inducing. The regular talkers with no input are a killer. And that ironic bastich Rob was calling me "Lord Glib"!

[geneweigel]

We should have the original Pied Piper reunion. Who would be on the list? Eric Shook. I don't know about Gronan because he never seemed to be involved. GT. Grodog. Then you (Scott) and me. Is that it? There was some guy named "Jim" who e-mailed me a couple of times but I don't know if I would count him.

[geneweigel]

Oops I forgot Rob. DUH!

[grodog]

I grabbed an export of the entire PPP board contents that may make searching through the files a bit easier sometime, if you're doing this kind of research in the future, Gene.

We lot a LOT of data in the board crash c. 2003-6 (I don't remember the year well, offhand), so there's no guarantee that the stirge thread you're thinking of survived the crash, unfortunately. That said, the archive should have all of the existing posts otherwise.

edit: IIRC there's another stirge illo in Holmes Basic and in the M&T assortments, perhaps??

[geneweigel]

Okay, sounds good. I can't think of anything offhand right now but its good to know if something comes up...

JEPTON!!!



I checked the Holmes Basic and the M&TA originals and combined. Although are there variants? I know that DUNGEON MASTERS LOG had variants.

[GRWelsh]

What is mostly annoying at the old PPP boards are the number of posts that have now been replaced with: (This post is missing and can not be restored)

I'm glad to hear Allan saved what could be saved.

I was browsing through the old "Colonel's Corner" thread, and it was odd how some threads didn't even have EGG's participation... Other threads that EGG did show up in were mainly about promoting Lejendary Adventure. It made me sad to revisit that time period (late 2002-early 2004) because it was the time when EGG and Rob still had a lot of mutual goodwill with the best intentions of completing Castle Zagyg together... And, it was right before EGG's stroke and serious health issues. After that, everything changed...

[geneweigel]

That was one of the big things on forums was getting him to talk about things people long awaited to know. Gary may not have thought it was important to know what the story was behind each game facet but it probably was the most important thing about his entire career. Continuance after so many years of people walking in his shoes badly is what everybody wanted.

I think his biggest problem was the threat of another suit.

[geneweigel]

One of the regulars from PPP forum is a registered sex offender. I was wondering whatever happened to some of the people and got that information.

[geneweigel]

Starts with a "b"

[Scott]

Hey now. This isn't 4chan.

[GRWelsh]

I had no problem with EGG promoting Lejendary Adventure. It made perfect sense that someone would want to promote the current project that they can make money on, over an old venture that they no longer own. But middle aged gamers (like us) were constantly wanting to connect with EGG and thank him for D&D and ask him about old trivia. So it set up this never ending, awkward crosswind of interests:

OLD GAMERS: "Gary, we have D&D questions about 1972-1985."
EGG: "Enough of that already, let's talk about the present!"

[geneweigel]

Mar 11, 2016 14:53:26 GMT -5 Scott said:

Hey now. This isn't 4chan.

Sorry. The associated mugshots kind of freaked me out.

[foster1941]

I was late to that whole party - showed up IIRC around the middle of 2003, by which point things were seemingly already starting to deteriorate. On the one hand it would've been nice to have been more a part of the inner circle and have had more of the sort of direct, personal communication with Gary, Rob, etc. that you guys did, but on the other hand I think being a bit separated from it saved me some disappointment and heartache down the line (as disappointing as it was to watch cool-seeming ideas fail to materialize from the sidelines, I can only imagine how much more disappointing it would have been had I been working on them...).