Gary Con 2022: Day 2

DMing "Expedition to Skull Stack Crater".
Photo by Gary W.

This post covers the gaming highlights of my second day at Gary Con XIV, Friday the 25th. If you missed it, the report for first day can be found here.

In the morning I ran Expedition to Skull Stack Crater, a newly revised version of a scenario that I originally ran for my son and his cousins more than five years ago, and had planned to run at Gary Con in 2020 before the pandemic unfolded. The setting is inspired by the various skull-faced dungeons and mountains of fiction, including of course the Skull Mountain cross-section of the Holmes Basic rulebook, but is an original location rather than a writeup of something pre-existing. You can read the introduction from the convention program here.

The pre-generated characters for this adventure are 3rd level, so it mostly uses the Holmes rules, with any higher level material filled in from OD&D. There were six players which is pretty much optimal for a con game. Several I knew previously, including Demos from OSR Grimoire and Larry from Follow Me and Die!, each of whom played in my Zenopus sequel at the last in-person Gary Con in 2019. And I'd exchanged forum posts with two others that I met here for the first time, James and Gary. The game fun was run and ran well with this fairly experienced group, who finished just before our time was up. I plan to revise this scenario and make it available on DrivethruRPG. Demos briefly mentions the game in his Gary Con recap here, and Larry shows off another photo from the game here.

Mike Carr refereeing Don't Give Up the Ship

In the afternoon I played in the annual session of TSR's Don't Give Up The Ship, refereed by Mike Carr, who co-authored the rules with Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Carr is also well known to aficionados of Holmes Basic as the author of the module B1 In Search of the Unknown, the first Basic module ever published, and one of only two written for specifically for the Holmes set.

The DGUTS game took place in the Legends of Wargaming hall, and the large group of players - over 20 (!) - sat on chairs in a ring around a large blue sheet, representing the sea, where Carr carefully crouched or lay to manipulate the ships after receiving our written orders each turn. The scenario this time was an engagement between the French and British fleets during the Napoleonic era, specifically 17 October, 1812, and the players were divided evenly between the two sides.

My "Ship Data Sheet" & mini for the game

I played Andre Cheviot, captain of the French frigate Nereide, although these details were simply flavor as resolution of actions relied solely on movement orders, opportunities to fire, the ship's stats and dice rolls. The game moved slowly with so many players; in the five hours scheduled for the game I think we only finished 6 turns, but it was fun to participate in one of the more unique centerpiece events of the con. 

Gary Con XVI GM's Cup,
featuring Geezel from Snarfquest

Towards the end of the game I ducked out into the hall to fill up on Spotted Cow beer from one of the Happy Hour stations, so this is a good point to show off my GM's Cup featuring art from Larry Elmore's Snarfquest comic, which ran for years in Dragon magazine in the mid-1980s. Other cups available this year featured Telerie and Snarf himself. Elmore was a guest at the con once again this year, and there was even a Snarfquest 5E D&D game as an event.

My last game of the day was part of the Legends of Roleplaying Tournament, an annual AD&D tournament organized by Paul Stormberg. For each one, Paul develops a scenario derived from old school material; for example, 2019 featured a sequel to the module B1 that was newly co-written by Paul and Mike Carr. This year's scenario was listed as "Depths of Terror", a level hidden deep within Gary Gygax's Castle Greyhawk. However, as a surprise, it actually turned out to be an expanded version of The Tomb of Ra-Hotep, a 1970s dungeon by Alan Lucien that Gygax hid in part of Castle Greyhawk, and which inspired Gygax's own Tomb of Horrors. The version for the tournament was expanded by Paul from the original together with additional vintage campaign material supplied by Lucien. Paul later indicated on Facebook that he plans to publish this version soon.

I joined a team of ten players who drew Steve Winter, former TSR employee, as our DM. I've played in Steve's games a number of times, including the in-person tournament in 2019. My group this time was very clever, and did a great job with the riddles and devious traps, placing 5th out of the 13 teams, and only a few points behind another team.

Dave and I after his game,
photo by one of the other players.

After the tournament ended, I stopped by to say hi to Dave W. of RPG Retro Reviews, who was running a 6-hour session of the original Tower of Zenopus dungeon using the Holmes Basic rules. I had met Dave in person back in 2020 when he played in my Zenopus sequel at the second Scrum Con. 

The strong Halfling; note this is after leveling,
so the level should be 2, not 1

By the time I arrived, another player had already left, so I ended up running his PC, a halfling with 18 strength (!), for the last hour of the game. He was mostly silent during my time due to my knowledge of the dungeon. The party had already rescued Lemunda, earning her father the mayor's favor, but I witnessed showdowns with the flying dagger (which killed a PC), the ghouls, and the evil thaumaturgist. I always enjoy see other folks spin on this ur-dungeon. 

This report continues with Days 3 and 4.

Into the Borderlands review by paleologos

Advance copies of Into the Borderlands were on sale at Gary Con earlier this month, as shown above in a photo of the Black Blade Publishing booth. Also on the table are copies of Tales of Peril and issues one and two of the Holmes Basic art-inspired zine Fantastic! Exciting! Imaginative!

Dragonsfoot member paleologos purchased a copy of Into the Borderlands at the con and has now posted a comprehensive review of the book over there in the Reviews section:

Into the Borderlands (Goodman Games, 2018)

Into the Borderlands for Pre-Order

The new project from Goodman Games, Into the Borderlands, is now available for pre-order, per an announcement on their site a few days ago. This compilation includes reprints of the Holmes Basic versions of the modules B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, along with the later B/X versions and new 5E conversions, plus other material. 

The format is hardcover and in a standard 8.5 by 11 inch size, as opposed to their oversized Metamorphosis Alpha and Judges Guild books. A whopping 384 pages, some of that due to 5E stat bloat as they admit in the FAQ. $49.99, and there will also be a PDF option eventually.

One interesting detail is that this is labeled "Original Adventures Reincarnated #1" on the order page and in the upper left corner of the book - see the yellow banner and the circled 1. This implies there will be further projects in this series.

Direct link to pre-order page

Part 41: "Dungeon Mastering as a Fine Art"

Part 41 of a comparison of Holmes' manuscript with the published Basic Set rulebook. Turn to page 39 of your 'Blue Book' (page 38 for the 1st edition) and follow along...

The next two sections in the manuscript come from the first page of content (page 3) in the third volume of OD&D, The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures.

DUNGEON MASTERING AS A FINE ART

Holmes changes the title from "THE UNDERWORLD" to "DUNGEON MASTERING AS A FINE ART". I can think of two reasons for this change. First, Holmes' guidance is mostly limited to dungeons, with just a brief mention wilderness treks, so he no longer needs the original's separate headers for "The Underworld" and "The Wilderness". Second, Holmes' new title helps convey the significance of the work of the Dungeon Master, and that D&D is more than just a board game. Referring to a performing or practical art like acting or photography "as a fine art" is a long-standing tradition going back more than a century. Searching Google Books turns up numerous usages from the 19th century including books such as "Dress as a Fine Art" and "Walking as a Fine Art". In his 1981 FRPG book, Holmes later wrote that "The art of the creative storyteller has been with Homo sapiens since he first learned to build fire in front of his cave and gather around it with a few companions to while away the long winter nights in friendly excitement" (pg 46). 

Immediately after the title, the manuscript has a single paragraph adapting the very first paragraph of OD&D Vol 3. This is the original source material:

And here is Holmes' edit of this material:

The first edition of the published rulebook keeps these sentences unchanged (except for adding a comma between "passages" and "stairs") but adds an additional one at the end: "The geomorphic dungeon levels provided with this game contain many suggestions and will prove very useful", referring to the Dungeon Geomorphs Set One: Basic Dungeons included in the first edition of the Basic Set.

In the second edition (Nov 1978), the Geomorphs were replaced with the new module B1 In Search of the Unknown, so this sentence was revised to "The geomorphic dungeon levels (available from TSR or your retailer) contain many suggestions and will prove very useful", and a new paragraph was added referring to the module: "The Basic Set of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS includes the introductory module "In Search of the Unknown", which will be usable for initial adventuring as well as provide ideas for dungeon construction." This paragraph was left unchanged even in the third edition when the module B2 Keep on the Borderlands replaced B1.

SAMPLE CROSS SECTION OF LEVELS

In OD&D Vol 3, the same page continues with an uncredited illustration of a dungeon:

The published Holmes Basic rulebook features a new cross-section, the famous 'Skull Mountain' drawing by Tom Wham, discussed in my previous post. Wham's drawing retains certain features from the original, including a split 4th level (A and B), a cavern at the bottom, and stairs, slanting passages and chutes connecting the levels.

The Holmes Manuscript also has a cross-section, but one that is different from either the original or Skull Mountain:

The dungeon cross-section from the Holmes Manuscript

This was presumably drawn by Holmes himself, or possibly his son Chris, an artist. To my eye, the handwriting is similar to that found on the two maps in Holmes' 1981 book. A nice treat, since we have only a handful of maps from the hand of Holmes.

Holmes' cross-section shares some elements with the original, most significantly a split 2nd level connected by a slanting passage and stairs, and a cavern area at the bottom. Holmes changes the chutes of the original to ladders, and adds an outside area, a ravine  reminiscent of the Caves of Chaos, housing the entrances to the dungeon. One entrance is a mine that goes straight to the 2nd level, whereas the original had two staircases entering into 1st level. Holmes' cross-section is more evocative than the original by having features such as "Hill Side", "Mine" and "Mine Shaft" labeled, as well as drawings of the ravine and trees, and stalagmites in the cave. It's possible that Wham included features from Holmes' version as Skull Mountain also contains two entrances, a main one also labeled "Entrance", and a second one, "The Pit", a vertical entrance in the same approximate location as the Mine/Mine Shaft of the manuscript. However, we can conclude that Wham added the most distinctive features of Skull Mountain, including the skull-face entrance and the domed city in the water-filled cavern.

Holmes' most significant change to the original is to limit the cross-section to three levels, aligning with the scope of the Basic rules, which includes wandering monsters for only levels 1-3. The next page of OD&D Vol 3 states that "In beginning a dungeon it is advisable to construct at least three levels at once...", so Holmes may have kept to this guidance even when constructing a much smaller dungeon than suggested by the original ("no less than a dozen levels down"). While Skull Mountain is fantastic, and perfect for stimulating the imagination of new players, Holmes' original is more line with the limits of Basic. The Moldvay set would later return to Holmes' original idea by including a similarly limited cross-section, drawn by Erol Otus:

Haunted Keep dungeon cross-section by Erol Otus, from the Moldvay Basic rulebook, 1981

Continue on to Part 42: "Sample Floor Plan, Part of First Level" (a forgotten map by Holmes)

Or go back to Interlude: "Skull Mountain by Tom Wham"

Or go back to Part 40: "Acts Like a Cannon Blast on Walls" (Miscellaneous Magic Items)
Or go back to the Index: The Holmes Manuscript

Ascending AC in Holmes Basic

from B1 In Search of the Unknown, pg 25

from B1, pg 8

  
TSR produced two official modules for Holmes Basic: the original versions of B1 In Search of the Unknown (1978) and B2 Keep on the Borderlands (1979). Each was included in the Basic Set at various times, and each was later revised for the next Basic Set. The original versions are essentially rules supplements for Holmes Basic, each providing clarifications and additions to the rules. 

The original 'monochrome' cover version of B1 from 1978. Source: Acaeum

One oft-overlooked idea provided by the original B1 is an early version of "ascending" armor class. In the monster entries, the AC stat lists both the standard armor class (e.g. AC 7 = leather armor) and the number required for a 1st-3rd level fighter to hit such AC (e.g. a to-hit roll of 12). Obviously this idea was not taken up by TSR for use in other products and was almost completely forgotten. However, this format ("AC 7/12") is similar to how the modern OD&D retroclone Swords & Wizardry now records its armor classes, and are the same armor classes used in that game - the total of two numbers always equals 19.

from the Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox Rules (3rd Print, 2010)

from the Swords & Wizardry Core Rules (4th Printing, 2011), pg 72

Talk Like a Corsair

"The Corsairs of Tallibar were one of the most feared bands of pirates that ever sailed the Nydar Sea.  Nearly 75 years have passed since any captain has quailed at the sight of that dreaded band at his bow.  Were they defeated in some unknown battle or swallowed up by the sea?"

Ahoy! If ye are in the mood to talk pirates today, let's remember Corsairs of Tallibar, an oft overlooked pirate-themed D&D module written by Mike Wilson and published by Judges Guild in 1982. I have to thank a 2012 review by Gnat the Beggar on the Acaeum for bringing it to my attention. Corsairs, and Trial by Fire from 1981 by the same author, seem to be a belated attempt by JG to produce introductory modules. They may be forgotten because they come late in the history of the original Judges Guild and use the "Universal Fantasy Supplement" system employed by JG after they lost the D&D license. They do have higher production values than earlier JG modules, closer to TSR products of the time.

Mike Wilson may have been influenced by Holmes Basic in creating these introductory level modules. Trial by Fire is for 1st level characters, and "is clearly trying to be the B1 of AD&D" according to a review by Ken on goodreads, who elaborates: "even the map looks somewhat similar. It has the same theme of exploring an abandoned fortress with all kinds of interesting rooms". I also noted a room with a door-opening mechanism similar to that of Room D of the Sample Dungeon.

Corsairs of Tallibar is for the same levels as the Basic Set (1-3), and has pirates, a giant octopus, and a sea cave - sort of as if Room M in the Sample Dungeon were used as the inspiration for an entire adventure. 

Bonus Pirate Content: Lemunda = Tiger Lily?

A pirate-themed post from earlier this year, if you missed it previously.

Holmesian Random Names

Meet & Greet at the Green Dragon Inn? Illustration by DCSIII from B1

Often I have trouble thinking of interesting character names on the spot, so I've put together a table of 100 syllables for generating random character (player or NPC) names. The syllables are drawn from the proper names in Holmes Basic Rulebook and the module B1 by Mike Carr (mostly the many pre-gen characters in the back, but also some from the text). B1 was included in the 2nd edition of the Holmes Basic set, so this list generates what someone having only that set might have come up with for D&D names. This list could be used with B2, the other Holmes module, which has no proper names at all for the many inhabitants of the Keep.

First, roll d100 for the # of syllables in the name:
01-10 One syllable (double the last letter if desired)
11-70 Two syllables
71-90 Three syllables
91-100 Four syllables

Syllables can be placed together to form one word, or separated by spaces or hyphens.

Second, roll d100 for each syllable:

1. Af
2. Al or Ael
3. Baf
4. Bel
5. Ber or Berd
6. Bes
7. Bo
8. Bor
9. Bran
10. Bru
11. Car
12. Chor
13. Cig
14. Cla
15. Da
16. Do or Doh
17. Don
18. Dor
19. Dre or Dreb
20. Eg or Feg
21. Er
22. Es
23. Ev
24. Fal or Ful
25. Fan or Fen
26. Far
27. Fum
28. Ga or Gahn
29. Gaith
30. Gar
31. Gen or Glen
32. Go
33. Gram
34. Ha
35. Hag or Harg
36. Ho
37. Ig
38. Ka
39. Kar
40. Kra or Krac
41. Ky
42. Lag
43. Lap
44. Le
45. Lef
46. Lis
47. Lo
48. Lu
49. Mal
50. Mar
51. Me
52. Mez
53. Mich
54. Mil or Mul
55. Mo
56. Mun
57. Mus
58. Ned
59. Nic
60. No
61. Nor
62. Nu
63. Os
64. Pal
65. Pen
66. Phil
67. Po or Poy
68. Pos or Pus
69. Pres
70. Quas
71. Que
72. Rag
73. Ralt
74. Ram
75. Rin or Ron
76. Ris
77. Ro
78. Sa
79. See
80. Ser or Sur
81. Sho
82. Sit
83. Spor
84. Tar
85. Tas
86. Ten or Ton
87. To
88. Tra
89. Treb or Tred
90. Tue
91. Vak
92. Ven
93. Web
94. Wil
95. Yor
96. Zef
97. Zell
98. Zen
99. Zo
100. Vowel (roll d6: 1=A; 2=E; 3=I; 4=O; 5=U; 6=Y)

Finally, if desired add a title (pick or d20):

1. of the North/South/East/West/City/Hills/Mountains/Plains/Woods/Coast
2. the Bold/Daring
3. the Barbarian/Civilized
4. the Battler
5. the Black/Blue/Brown/Green/Red/Yellow
6. the Fearless/Brave
7. the Fair/Foul/Lovely/Loathsome
8. the First, Second, Third, Fourth etc (roll d20)
9. the Gentle/Cruel
10. the Great
11. the Merciful/Merciless
12. the Mighty
13. the Mysterious/Unknown
14. the Old/Young/Boy/Girl
15. the Quick/Slow
16. the Quiet/Silent/Loud
17. the Steady/Unready
18. the Traveller/Wanderer
19. the Unexpected  
20. the Hooded/Cloaked/Robed

Options:
The character's class or race can also be added: "Old Magician", "Loud Dwarf" etc

Clerics can roll for the name of their deity using the same process, and then add, "Servant of" (see example below).


Examples:

Bru Preslap
No Yar the Loud
Fan-lo the Merciful
Tenron
Eg Tasharg
Mezron the Mysterious
Posten Milberd
Borr the Unexpected
Nu Berd 
Raltig Os, Foul Wizard
Donsur the Old
Da Fen of the Woods
Ralt the Steady
Nuglen
Ragg the Wanderer
Mez-Feg the Green Halfling
Milterkagram 
Tar-gahn, Servant of Gram Al

Now that you've read B1 for the first time...

Simplified map of the upper level of B1, cartography by Mike (original drawing) and Arzon (blue map) of Dragonsfoot. The full-sized map can be found linked in this post.

...thanks to the free pdf from Wizards, take a look at the B1 page on the Zenopus Archives website for trivia and links to resources for use with it, such as the simplified map of the upper level made by Dragonsfoot members (for use if tricky mapping drives you and your players crazy) and the not-to-be-missed B1 sourcebook assembled by paleologos (link on B1 page). I've just made some new revisions & expansions to the B1 page, motivated by the new pdf availability. You can also click on the B1 tag below to see previous posts I've written about B1 trivia & artwork.

Ancient Treasures from the Cellars (D&D pdfs)

The whispered rumors were true; the Wizards have been excavating in their cellars in search of ancient treasures. OneBookShelf (RPGnow/DriveThruRPG) was preparing its website to re-issue the D&D backcatalog in pdf form. Today, they are available through a dedicated storefront called dndclassics.com with the tagline "Every Edition Available Again!"

Here are my notes and a roundup of news related to this:
-Eighty PDFs are currently available from a range of lines (Moldvay Basic, AD&D, etc). Francisa on the K&KA forums posted the following message from customer support : "Our initial release includes over 80 titles, though we plan to release smaller batches of additional titles on a rolling basis after that. Needless to say the final catalog will be extensive." They are releasing them as they become available from the Wizards. James Raggi reports the following from them: "All second edition and prior titles have been re-mastered with better quality scans and re-bookmarked. Scanning equipment has improved considerably over the last decade, and it was time to replace the scans created under the ESD program with all new scans."

-B1 In Search of the Unknown is free for download this week. Get it here. The normal list price is $5.50. It's the brown-colored Moldvay revision from 1981 rather than the original monochrome version for Holmes Basic. Quality is excellent, and fully text searchable (yes!). Badmike reports that the pdf is fully printable.

-Moldvay Basic is available on authorized pdf for the first time ever. It's $4.99, and currently the hottest product on the site. I haven't bought it yet, but I plan to. It will be nice to have a text searchable version. No Expert, as of yet but it's coming on Feb 5th (see updates below).

-Good news: if you purchased a pdf from them in the past, and there's a new version, you can download the new one for free. I checked my account and was able to download the new version of B6 Veiled Society, which I'd purchased previously. It's a completely new scan, much better than the old one. They even scanned the map on the inside of the folder as one large page rather than two separate pages in the old pdf.

-No Holmes Basic products yet. Hopefully we'll at least see the Holmes Basic rulebook. They'll probably also release the original B1 since it has a different cover that makes it easily distinguishable. I'd like to see the original B2 for Holmes Basic (with DX scores for monsters) as well. No OD&D yet, either but I'm 100% certain we'll see those.

-Each product has an excellent "Product History" page written by RPG historian Shannon Appelcline. Here's some quotes from the page for B1: "The story of "Search" begins with the first Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (1977), which was a reorganization of the rules from the original 3-book Dungeons & Dragons (1974) and Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975) produced by J. Eric Holmes. Following the publication of the Basic Set, TSR was looking for better introductory material to support it.

Enter TSR Games & Rule Editor Mike Carr, who saw the need for an introductory adventure that really taught GMs how to create and stock a dungeon. He offered to write such a product for TSR, who accepted. "In Search of the Unknown" was thus an introductory module for the introductory rule set - making it the ultimate introduction to the game."

-Deities & Demigods is available, but buyer beware: judging by the preview pdf, the new  scan is unfortunately of the fourth printing, without the Cthulhu or Melnibonean Mythos. The fourth printing was an oddity in that Holmes is still thanked for his help on the Cthulhu Mythos, and Chaosium is thanked for permission (pg 4), but these Mythos had been removed. If you look at the table of contents, it's the revised edition with only 128 pages.

-There's a GeekDad column on Wired about the new pdfs: "The PDFs are made from fresh scans of these old products. "We've rescanned everything," Schuh said. "It's the highest quality you can get out there." (I'd generally concur: The scans are good quality, and best of all, the PDFs are searchable. For example, you can search 1980's Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits for all instances of the word "Lolth" or "spider ship," which could come in handy during game play. I did see a few errors in the reproduction of multi-part gatefold-style maps, but hopefully these glitches will be resolved.)"

"The company also plans on releasing "conversion notes" so the older gaming products available on dndclassics.com can be played with newer editions of D&D, including the latest revamp of the rules, what is being called "D&D Next," now in development and scheduled to be released sometime in 2014."

-Some "Basic 4th Edition" products are available for free as well, including H1 Keep on the Shadowfell, for levels 1-3, which is 145 pages long (!) and includes 4E Quickstart Rules and lots of large maps for play (not sure how well these will print out). Also Khyber's Harvest, a 36-page adventure for 2nd level characters.

Updates:
-According to this Examiner interview, the next pdfs will come on Feb 5th, and will include among others the AD&D MMII, DSG, WSG, D&D Expert rulebook and the module DA2. And OD&D is on the way: "We are opening with around 80 titles covering all of the editions, well, maybe not the earliest Chainmail or Original Edition yet, but that will come."

The Treacherous Pathway to Quasqueton

Click for larger view

 A brief follow-up to yesterday's post: I later noticed that in this drawing Sutherland may have included the "treacherous pathway which leads up to the craggy outcropping of black rock". It's marked above in red. The portion at the bottom especially appears to be a path, marked by Sutherland with horizontal lines, which curve behind the rocks with the stump. Past these rocks it may then continue up the cliffside to the top. On the other hand, the treacherous pathway is supposed to lead to a cave opening to the first level of the dungeon rather than the watch tower. Perhaps the cave is right behind the rocks with the stump. 


By the way, the watch tower is not detailed in the module, but attempts have been made to flesh it out, for example the one here on Dragonsfoot by Shadowshack.

Update: The crevasse to the right might be another location for the entrance cave. I've circled this on the picture.

Quote of the Week: Quasqueton Exterior

The watch tower of Quasqueton as depicted by David Sutherland; scan from Old School FRP

"Far from the nearest settlement, away from traveled routes, and high upon a craggy hill, the new construction took shape. Carved out of the rock protrusion which crested the heavily forested hill, this mystical hideaway was well hidden, and its rumored existence was never common knowledge. Even less well known was its name, the Caverns of Quasqueton ... Vast amounts of rock were removed and tumbled off the rough cliffs into large piles now overgrown with vegetation. A single tower was constructed above ground for lookout purposes, even though there was little to see other than a hilly, forested wilderness for miles around" (pg 6; bolding added for emphasis)

"The Caverns of Quasqueton ... are hewn from a great rock outcropping at the crest of a large wooded hill. Winds buffet the hill continuously, blowing and whistling through the trees, vines, and other vegetation which blanket the prominence on all sides" (pg 7)

"A cave-like opening, somewhat obscured by vegetation, is noticeable at the end of a treacherous pathway which leads up to the craggy outcropping of black rock. By sweeping aside some of the vines and branches the opening becomes easily accessible to human-size explorers. The opening leads straight into the rock formation, with a 10'
wide corridor leading the way to a large wooden door ... " (pg 8)

-from B1 In Search of the Unknown, 1978 by Mike Carr     

Notes: The image above is a great visual aid for players from the back cover of the original monochrome version of B1, which was included in some versions of the Basic Set. When the module was revised in 1981 for the Moldvay Basic set and reissued with a new brown-colored cover, this image was unfortunately not included.

(I'm starting this quote of the week feature to highlight some of my favorite passages from Holmes Basic & the writings of J. Eric Holmes)  

Update: This image possibly shows the pathway/entrance to Quasqueton. See this post for an annotated image. 

Veteran of the Dice Wars

     Here's a nice picture of the "low impact" dice included with the Holmes Basic Set. On Flickr, found via Google Images. Good choice for the background:

     There's no ten-sided die in this set - they weren't available for sale until 1980. Instead, the white twenty-sider was numbered 0-9 twice, and was rolled with a control die (d6) to generate a d20 result (1-3 = 0-9; 4-6 = 11-20; per the instructions in the Holmes rulebook).

     Update: Note that these dice were all pre-inked by the manufacturer. If you look closely in the advertisements below you'll see that the dice already have ink on them.

     This set was included in the Holmes Basic Set starting with the 1st print (1977), and are shown (in black and white) in the photo on the bottom of the box with the Dungeon Geomorphs and the Monster & Treasure Assortment Set 1. The same photo showed up in color in a TSR catalog from 1977/1978 (a predecessor to the common "Gateway to Adventure" catalogs):

    The same set, which TSR called Polyhedra Dice, was also provided with Gamma World  boxed sets. TSR also sold the set separately ($1.49), as well as a set of two twenty-siders (one white, one pink) called Percentile Dice ($.89), as shown in the same catalog:

     In Nov 1978, TSR released the 2nd edition of the Holmes Basic Set, with the module B1 In Search of the Unknown replacing the Geomorphs and M&TA. The dice remained the same, as shown in this advertisement:

     At some point while they were selling this edition, the dice supply ran short and the infamous chits were introduced. Here's an advertisement showing the set with B1 and chits:

     In December 1979, the third edition was released, with B2 Keep on the Borderlands replacing B1. The sets still had chits in them, as shown in this ad, which is very similar to the one above:

     This is the version that I had as my first D&D set (which I got in 1982). The Acaeum also reports that some sets have been found with six dice, and the very last printing of the rule book refers to d10 with the other dice, so in 1980 they may have switched back to providing dice once they were available again.

     Which set did you have?

See also:
TSR Percentile Dice in the '70s
How Gaming Got Its Dice - article by Jon Peterson on Playing at the World

http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2014/05/tsr-percentile-dice-1970s.html

Sacnoth's B1

     

     I've previously mentioned Sacnoth's Scriptorium, the blog by John Rateliff, former TSR/WOTC employee who authored The Return to the Keep on the Borderlands, as well as independently writing the mighty History of the Hobbit. In a recent blog post he describes returning to AD&D 1st edition for the first time in some years, running B1 In Search of the Unknown with his own additions, such as a Decapus from B3:

"--a dining room, to which the unseen servants delivered the wh apparently had a decapus in it who attacked as soon as they entered. Here I did a switch. In its original appearance (in B3), PCs enter a room and see a group of men around a table attacking a woman with knives with apparent cannibalistic intent. But this is just an illusion, covering up the actual menace: a ten-tentacled monster who tries to gobble up the intruders. I decided to reverse that: in my dungeon, they saw the decapus, which here itself was an illusion hiding a room full of eight zombies. A secondary motive, besides creating a tough fight, was to throw off anyone who'd figured out which module we were playing (given that one of the players, Steve Winter, was already working for TSR about the time the adventure I was using was published back in '81), which was after all a classic. By throwing in an iconic monster from a different adventure, I thought it might muddy the waters -- and for those who hadn't played the old adventures it work just fine as a stand-on-its-own encounter"

See his entire post here:

http://sacnoths.blogspot.com/2011/12/1st-edition-how-it-went.html

And here's an interview with Rateliff (by Monte Cook) where he discusses his gaming history:

http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?int_dnd30_Rateliff

Obscure TSR art related to B1-B3, part IV

Advertisement in Strategic Review for the first issue of The Dragon

My original Holmes set was one of the last printings, which is not surprising because it was a birthday present in early '82. This set included the second printing of B2, which I still have (with a few missing pages). This printing has an excellent illustration of a dragon on page 6 by David C Sutherland III (DCS III). This alternate "Sutherland Dragon" differs significantly from the on  found on the cover of Holmes Basic in that it has no wings.

Later, when I got a copy of B1, which was the revised version for Moldvay Basic, I noticed this same dragon on page 6 of that module. So I've been familiar with this picture for a long time, and had wondered why it was used despite neither adventure having a dragon. 

Much later via the Acaeum I learned it was used in each case as filler to replace deleted text, described in more detail below, which explained the random usage. What I didn't know was that the original appearance of this art in the last issue of Strategic Review, as noted on DF by paleologos (who also pointed out the previous artwork I have featured under this topic). He further postulates it is a fire lizard from the Blackmoor Supplement, which are described as "of identical appearance to dragons, without wings", and suggests placing it in the Cave of the Unknown in B2!

Here's a summary of the wanderings of this "Wingless Sutherland Dragon":

• Strategic Review #7, Apr '76 (last issue), page 11. Advertisement pictured above, for the first issue of The Dragon, which first appeared in Jun '76.

• Second printing of B2, 1980, page 6. The first and second printings of B2 are for the Holmes rules. The 1st printing is distinguished by a sentence on the cover indicating that the module can be used with AD&D, and pages 5-6 have a small section on "Using this module with AD&D", the text of which I posted here a while back. The second printing deletes the references to AD&D and fills in the space with two illustrations, one of intertwining snakes (by an unknown artist) and one of the Wingless Sutherland Dragon.

• 3rd print of B1, ~1980, page 6. The first three printings of B1 are for the Holmes rules and have a monochrome yellow cover. In the 3rd print, the section titled "Using this module with AD&D" has been removed, and replaced with this Dragon. See this post by Geoffrey on DF.

• 4th-6th prints of B1, 1981+, page 6. Starting with the 4th print, the module was revised for the Moldvay rules and has a brown color cover. This Dragon remains in the same place on page 6.

Previous entries in this blog series: part I, part II, part III 

(Post revised 12/2024)

More Copyright Records

More copyright records related to Holmes Basic:

Monster & Treasure Assortment Set 1, included in the 1st edition Holmes set:

     This has a 2/15/77 publication date, indicating it was available before the Holmes Set. I've always had that impression, probably from something written on the Acaeum. M&TA Set 2 has the same publication date in the database, but Set 3 is listed as being published 5/10/78. This matches the Acaeum, which records a 1978 copyright date for Set 3. Was there really more than a year between the publication of the first two sets and the third one?

Edit: These dates do fit with the product lists for the first three printings of the Holmes rulebook. The first (1977) and second printing (Jan 1978) list the first two M&TA sets listed with prices (i.e., available for purchase), with the third as a "Future Release". The third printing (May 1978) has the third M&TA now listed with a price.

     The database doesn't have a record for the Dungeon Geomorphs Set 1, which was also included in the early Holmes sets. The Acaeum records a 1976 date for this product, which means that it may have been registered before the Copyright Office electronic records begin in 1978. Geomorphs Set II and III each have a 9/21/77 date, after the Basic Set.

Edit: On the other hand, all three Geomorphs sets are listed as available starting with first printing of the Holmes rulebook.

B1 In Search of the Unknown, included in the 2nd edition Holmes Set:

     This record indicates a 3/13/79 publication date. This seems late, as the 2nd Edition Holmes Basic rulebook is dated Nov 1978 on the title page, and also refers to B1 by name on page 39. On the other hand, the copyright information in the B1 module itself is dated 1979. Perhaps the Holmes Set that included the 2nd Edition rulebook and B1 was not actually available until March '79? Alternately, the B1 copyright record is incorrect, as the Acaeum seems to assume (dating the first print of B1 to Nov 78 despite the 1979 date). It's hard to know how accurate the registration records are, particularly because some of them were registered long after the fact; for example this B1 record was registered in 1983. Dragon magazine #22 (Feb '78) has a full-page advertisement for B1 but this doesn't really provide evidence either way.

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, included in the 3rd edition Holmes Set:

     This record indicates a 7/2/80 publication date. This is also much later than I'd previously thought for B2. Again, the associated rulebook (3rd edition Bluebook) has a much earlier title page date (Dec 1979). And again, the module itself list the next year (here, 1980) for the copyright date, and the Acaeum indicates that it must be wrong. I'm not really sure. But if the 1st print of B2 didn't come out in July 1980, that doesn't leave much time for it be for sale until the Moldvay set comes out with a revised version (Feb 81, according to the copyright info).

Obscure TSR art related to B1-B3

Dragonsfoot member paleologos recently made some interesting posts about obscure TSR art:

The original Trampier version of the B1 cover (published in Polyhedron #5)

A castle by Erol Otus (from Polyhedron #1) that resembles his picture of The Keep on the back of B2

Art from the French version of B3 by Darlene (I've never seen these pictures before)