Lo! The Old School Magic of the Judges Guild!
In Which I Go Forth to War and Begin a Judges Guild Buying Campaign!
1. The Follies of Youth
Way, way back in the day, a couple of years before dedicated gaming stores first appeared in the area where I lived, a local hobby shop, one mostly dealing in model trains and the like, also carried a few rpg items.
As far as I know, they were, at the time, the only store in the area that stocked Chaosium products, as well as items from another famous publisher, from the early days of RPG's.
Judges Guild.
The Chaosium stuff looked cool, but at the time, I was ignorant and careless enough to dismiss the JG offerings as:
"...cheap-looking, imitation D&D knock-off stuff."
(Cue Imaginary sounds of Booing, Hissing and exclamations of "Fie!", from the audience.)
Now, hold on! Wait just a Minute!
It really wasn't my fault! Seriously! I never had a chance to read any Judges Guild books! No one I knew at the time, was into JG.
Nobody told me!
No one at all, to properly guide me through the world of RPG supplements! And oh, how I have paid for my youthful ignorance and arrogance!
Literally!
I was left on the Outside of the Hallowed Halls of the Judges Guild! And wasn't even aware of what I was missing out on!
Relegated to being a DM, like so many others. Instead of a
Judge, wearing cool robes and a stylin' powdered wig. Silencing Rules-lawyers, with an authoritative swing of my gavel!
Many years later, I had the opportunity to cursorily examine a few JG modules and was pleased to discover how cool they were! A few years after that, I dived into the OSR blogosphere and was exposed to a lot of discussion about and praise for Judges Guild in general. In particular, the widely celebrated City State of the Invincible Overlord and Wilderlands of High Fantasy.
"Well, damn!"
2. I Blame Dave Arneson! And All of You Guys!
So, a little over three months ago, I blogged about finding one of my Grails. The First Fantasy Campaign! $29 for an excellent, beautiful copy!
Groovy as Groovy could be!
It was Awesomely Awesome, Awesomeness!
It was then, the one and only Judges Guild product in my gaming library. I continued running across blog posts, where you guys mentioned and praised the Wilderlands, City State, Caverns of Thracia, etc.
I wanted to join in on the discussions. Share in the ideas all of you were exploring. Own some more cool gaming stuff!
When it came to JG, I was left out of the loop.
I was loopless!
And not having those classics in my gaming library, was a serious blow to my Old School cred!
It was bad enough, that I didn't have an original copy of the LBB's! Or, that my Greyhawk was the 1983 Box Set and not the 1980 Folio. Or, that I had a copy of the Epic Level Handbook sitting on my shelf (which I recently sold on ebay, because, seriously, what a piece of shit!)
Was the fact that I began DMing AD&D in 1982, enough to make up for such ignominies? Did my recent acquisition of The FFC, in any way ameliorate my library's deficiencies?
Could I possibly be thrown out of the OSR, for not being a Member of The Judges Guild?!?!
I kept my mouth shut and said nothing!
"Damn! Why didn't I buy this stuff, way back when? I missed out! Big Time!"
3. This is Going to be Expensive!
So, with the FFC sitting upon my shelf, I knew what I had to do! I began a campaign to acquire a hoard of Judges Guild Goodness! Once completed, my status as a legitimate Grognard would be secured!
Or, at the very least, I would have something cool to read in the loo!
And be in the loop.
"Loopty-loo!"
As it turns out, building a JG collection isn't cheap!
4. Behold! City and Wilderness!
So, first I got myself a very decent copy of the 7th Printing of The Revised City State of the Invincible Overlord!
A virtually pristine, 1st printing of The City State of the Invincible Overlord, recently went for about $150 on ebay!
"Fuck!"
Granted, the seller was offering a ton of high quality, rare stuff that day, so there was plenty of blood in the water, which probably drove the prices up a little. But, not by much.
No problem! I'll just have to make due with my 7th printing.
My Wilderlands of High Fantasy is also a later printing. A 4th. I'm cool with that, as well. I'm primarily buying all of this to actually use, so collector considerations are secondary.
Which isn't going to stop me from dropping a bloody fortune on archival quality protective sleeves.
I also ordered an extra DM's Campaign Map 1, a DM's map of Thunderhold/Sunstone caverns and Two extra copies of the Player's copy of Campaign Map 1. That way, when I run it, I can give the players a copy of the map, a pencil and tell them to go at it!
"Just Like God and Bob intended!"
So, that took care of my basic Wilderlands/CSIO campaign set. And with the extra maps figured in, the above cost me about $110!
"Fuck!"
It would have been a lot cheaper, back in the day! But, I now had what were arguably, the two most important Judges Guild publications! Surely, upon my death, I would now be deemed worthy of the Judges equivalent of the Halls of Valhalla! And get to wear a cool, powdered wig!
5. My Favorite Type of Module - The Mini-Setting! Times Five!
The five books of the Wilderness series! The Mines of Custalcon, Spies of Lightelf, Shield Maidens of Sea Rune, Pirates of Hagrost and Witch's Court Marshes. Hey! A completed mini-collection!
They take an area of Campaign Map 1, expound upon it, providing maps of the individual hexes, villages, in the area, NPC's, adventures and adventure hooks, etc. They're not small, either. Three of them run to 48 pages, the other two run to 80 pages! Let's have a blurb. Here's one from Shield Maidens of Sea Rune:
The third book in the "Wilderness Series" with 22 wilderness hexes for Campaign Map 1 are detailed in this book along with description and maps of the major points of interest. Warrior Women plot to regain their home lost to the barbarous Skandiks, fearsome sea reavers all. Torn between their Gods of the North and the Druidic worship of nature, the Skandiks grow weak. Beware the cruel and evil Anti-Paladin who stalks this area looking for blood; he may be the death of you yet! Can you thread the perilous path to fame and riches in this saga of unforgettable Adventure?
Shipping and all, I spent around $40 total collecting this series.
You could take any one of these books and build a campaign, therefrom. I've only just started reading these, but so far my favorite is Mines of Custalcon!
6. More for the Wilderlands Campaign!
Wraith Overlord: Terror Beneath The City State is cool! And gets really good reviews, around the net. 112 pages and a huge double-sided map, detailing sewers, factions, temples, jails, mini-dungeons, etc., beneath the City State of the Invincible Overlord.
Modron is an early JG item, expounding upon another area of Camp. Map 1.
And, another $30 or so, was spent in acquiring these two. Currently, Noble Knight has reasonable prices on copies of Wraith Overlord. Ignore the more excitable ebay sellers, who are way too quick to try and make it into a rarity. It's not
that hard to find, yet.
By the way, if you're one of those ebay sellers, who will regularly list things like an 8th printing AD&D Player's Handbook, declare it to be RARE and ask $50 bucks for it, please be aware that there are threads at the Acaeum, where collectors make fun of you.
7. So Nice, I Bought It Twice!
The Ready Ref Sheets are so damn awesome that after receiving my first copy, while making a second order from
Different Worlds Publications I decided that for such a low price, I should go ahead and get another one. They still have new copies for $2.99! So, with shipping I paid about $11 for the two.
There is no superlative, superior enough to describe just how super the Ready Ref Sheets are! I used to think Maps were gamer porn. Nope.
"Random Tables are gamer porn!"
8. The Epic Quest for Verbosh!
Restormel and Verbosh are both mini-setting/adventure supplements, though not officially part of the Wilderlands/City State campaign. The price on Verbosh has been steadily going up on ebay, as copies suddenly became scarce, several months ago. It just about completely stopped showing up on ebay! Which, of course, has lead to speculation, people scrambling to get a copy, etc.
Which reminds me, the Acaeum prices are a bit out of date on JG items, so collector's might want to keep that in mind, when researching, at least until the Acaeum updates.
Expect to pay $15-$25 for a decent copy of Verbosh, if you're looking for one. Restormel is still fairly cheap and you should be able to get away with spending less than $12 for a shrinkwrapped copy.
I got my Verbosh from the guy I mentioned earlier, who put a whole bunch of primo JG stuff up for auction at once, so like I said, there was a lot of blood in the water! But, I wanted Verbosh. Right Then!
It was important!
Between the good things I had heard about it and that thread at the Acaeum talking about how it was getting harder to find, as well as the influence of my own
Collecting Jones running full force, Verbosh had assumed a relatively large level of importance in my mind. Almost as essential to my collection as the CSIO!
Or, Caverns of Thracia, which the seller also had up for auction, but had already been bid up to more than I had to spend that week.
I was determined to get that copy of Verbosh!
"It's getting harder to find! Who Knows When Another Copy Might Appear On Ebay!!!!"
I became the kind of buyer, sellers dream of attracting. If I couldn't get Thracia, then by Gygax I was going to win that auction for Verbosh! The week before, I saw a copy go for $16 + shipping.
I waited until there was about 20 seconds left on the auction and put in a
max bid of $30!
Fortunately, I got it for $22. Mine's a nice copy, so I'm ok with that. Like I said, prices are rising on Verbosh.
Getting Restormel and Verbosh set me back $35 shipping and all.
"Fuck! All of this is starting to really add up!"
9. Time to Kill Some Gods!
The Unknown Gods! I had to get this, what with Petty Gods, coming out soon.
It was almost as important as Verbosh!!!
Total cost with Priority Shipping was $29 for a New condition copy, Buy It Now on ebay. Rather pricey, but after watching for several weeks, no auctions had came up at all, so I purchased this from Badmike's ebay store.
Badmike, of NTRPG Con fame, has decent store prices on his ebay stuff. Cheaper than Noble Knight. Higher than auction prices, obviously. That's ok. I like Badmike and just as with Noble Knight, I know I can count on getting the item I'm paying for, as described.
An auction finally came up for it, this week.
"Too late! I've already got it! So there!!!"
10. Hot Naked Sorceress Chick!
The Illheidren Book. A module, with a hot naked sorceress chick on the front and back. Nowadays, it's hard to find an FRPG module with a hot naked sorceress chick on the cover. Or, inside the covers, for that matter. If someone would put out a series of OSR supplements with the aesthetics of Heavy Metal, I'd be very appreciative.
Total spent: $5.00. So, is her hair specifically enchanted to cover her most tantalizing physical charms? Gotta remember that idea!
11. Pegasus, Baby!
Pegasus Magazine. 96 pages each of gaming goodness! I picked up #'s 4 and 5 from Noble Knight, then last week, someone put up an auction containing #'s 3, 6, 7, & 8, as a single lot! So, that was pretty much a Must Bid On kind of thing! I won the auction and now have issues three thru eight!
Pegasus has all sorts of gaming articles, including the Hanging Out in the City State series and the City State Campaign Installments in each issue. JG put up those features for free download and I'll dig up the links for you guys.
Like Gary Gygax, they panned the fuck out of Conan the Barbarian.
I spent a total of about $35, getting all six. They've become my go to Loo companions.
12. Phase I Complete!
So,
$325
"Gaahhh!"
...later, I've got a respectable start on my JG collection! I'm still missing several major items, like Caverns of Thracia, Dark Tower, Tarantis, etc., etc. I'm at least another
$600, or so away from getting the rest of the items I really want!
"Gaahhh! Double Gaahhh!!"
City State of the World Emperor alone, is going to cost me close to $100.
"Fuck!"
I'm now in the Loop!
If a bit Loopy!
But, I'm calling a temporary halt on my Judges Guild Collecting Campaign. A winter's break, as it were. Christmas is coming up and most of my disposable income will be going elsewhere. If I run into any really good deals, I'll go ahead and snag them, but the meat of Phase II of the Campaign, will wait until Spring.
13. I'm Gonna Buy Some OSR Stuff Soon, Promise!
So, with my resources going elsewhere for the past few months, I've been neglecting OSR publishing efforts. I shall start sending some cash your way, forthwith! There's a ton of really great stuff that's come out recently and is coming out in the near future! So, I need to set aside some cash...
"Gaahhh!"
14. There's Too Much Shit I Want to Buy!
Well, let's just see it as there being enough to keep me occupied, for a good, long while.
Once I get Judges Guild squared away, there's another collection, which I've just barely started on. I may or may not dig deeper into the whole Tekumel thing. I still have crazy dreams of collecting the I.C.E. Middle Earth supplements. Those can run $30-$40 a piece and up!
"Fuck!"
15. And Finally...
A hearty, Special Thank You to Robert Conley, Jeff Rients, Scott Driver, Al Krombach and James Maliszewski, for inspiring me to look into the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, The City State of the Invincible Overlord, Judges Guild and this aspect of the history of our hobby.
Special Thanks to the Acaeum, for providing research useful during my Buying Campaign and in the writing of this article.
Another special thanks to Tadashi of Different Worlds, Badmike of Badmike's Books and Games and the guys at Noble Knight Games, for quality, fast service.
Lastly, but most importantly, thanks to Bob Bledsaw and Bill Owen, who first set about creating this trail, for me and so many others to come along and follow, sometimes decades later.
"Now, where's my Gavel?"