It is a letter from Gygax to Gold regarding A&E. The letter originally appeared in A&E Issue 15 featuring comments regarding A&E Issue 14.
In the first paragraph he states TSR "do not particularly happy to see some rehash of our copyrighted material" and that "TSR is absolutely opposed to the practice in those cases where there is infringement upon our copyright".
In the second paragraph he notes Rich Schwall "played in 'Greyhawk Castle' once or twice" but says his previous summary of the dungeon is not very accurate. Gygax states "Rob and I do not bother to place adventurers on any sort of graph if the group is three or less...more than three persons are in a party, we always require that they align themselves in a march order, the leader be in the front rank...when combat takes place we sometimes use miniatures...my favorite grid for character positions in combat is a large sheet of staggered squares covered with acetate."
In the third paragraph he says "...and I am not thereby claiming D&D was written with a view towards deletion of ambiguities" but challenges the idea (previously put forward by Glenn Blacow) that much of the rules were unintelligible, offering a few rule changes - magic users could use staves, multi-classed characters "do not fall under the injunction against armor and weapons", thieves are limited to leather with no shield and can use only daggers or swords (though he would allow them the use of "a fine chainmail shirt of magical nature".
Thus page 1.
In the fourth paragraph he briefly addresses some of Blacow's house rules and notes "The largest party we ever took into 'Greyhawk Castle' was 16 - and four actually survived to tell of it. And that without 75% occupancy and no more than a half-dozen traps on a typical level".
In paragraph five he comments that in his home campaign it is not rare for different "factions" (of player characters - e.g., character parties) to attack each other and fight it out - "As a
DM I find this quite suitable".
In paragraph six he comments (briefly) on "Greyhawk" vs "Blackmoor", noting that characters are allowed to move back and forth. Paragraph seven says Greyhawk is something like a parallel earth.
The remainder of the page two consists of brief comments on specific comments appearing in A&E.
Thus page 2.
The first big paragraph on page 3 starts "It seems that Dungeons & Beavers players are getting paranoid" and he also states "Yes, fellows, I find 20th level to be absolutely incredible, for you won't get it in the games hereabout". The next paragraph has a comment on the "Origins I dungeon" which is "drawn from a similar tomb designed by Alac Luclan". It was tested by Rob Kuntz' 13th level (evil) lord "He took 14 orcs and a couple of low-level flunkies with him". Only Kuntz' character survived. Then he concludes with some well wishes.
Thus page 3.
If you want more deets, you can buy a copy of the issue from Lee for a couple bucks.
