Gary Con 2025: Day 1 - Chainmail & Balrogs

The moathouse model for the Battle for the Moathouse 

Finding myself with a some rare free time, I dove back into my unfinished blog posts, and found this one covering my highlights from the first official day of Gary Con XVII, Thursday March 19th, 2025, where I played in two wargames and ran an RPG. Better late than never...

See the preceding post in this series here: Day 0

(1) For my first game in the morning, I played in the epic Battle for the Moathouse, a Chainmail scenario that recreates  a piece of Greyhawk history; specifically, the assault that creates the Ruined Moathouse in T1 The Village of Hommlet. This was refereed by the indefatigable Paul Stormberg, who organizes the entire Legends of Wargaming hall and game series every year.

Convention event listing description:

"Legends of Wargaming event! This Chainmail fantasy battle recreates one of the battles fought in the greater struggle against the Temple of Elemental Evil. After the Battle of Emridy Meadows and the Temple itself, a small force marched on the Moathouse, an outpost of Elemental Evil. Join the forces of weal and their righteous cause or serve Elemental Evil to crush the armies of good!"

I was on the side on the Forces of Woe (Elemental Evil), defending the Moathouse against the Forces of Weal. If I recall correctly at this late date, the game fairly faithfully recreated the course of the original events, with Weal doing pretty well storming the Moathouse. Woe was still in control of the Moathouse at the end of the allotted time, which I think was technically a win for us (i.e., surviving a certain number of rounds), but if the game had gone on just a little longer our leaders would have been forced to flee.

Photos:

The lineup for the Forces of Woe

The Forces of Weal advance on the Moathouse

Woe's Troll goes down on the battlefield

(2) In the afternoon I ran my Party of Balrogs OD&D scenario, the first of two games I was scheduled to run. This was second time running Party, the first being the year before at Gary Con 2024. That game had a great group of players, but they completed the scenario more quickly than I had anticipated, so I revised/added a few things to it for this year. 

Here's my convention blurb for the game:

"The 1974 D&D rules allowed for a character to be "virtually anything", even a balrog. This adventure takes this to 11 by having *all* of the PCs be balrogs! Ensorcelled to serve a wizard deep in a megadungeon, the spell is now broken. Can you get past the other guardians and make the wizard pay? This game by the Zenopus Archives celebrates 50 years of D&D. Balrog PCs provided."

I again had a great group of players, including one fellow who had played in some of my games previously. They undertook their mission with gusto and creative play and were successful in their mission. A thank you to all of them: Shawn (Stan the Goremonger), Lauren (Murdertina), Bryon (Billy the Balrog), Jeff N. (Pip), Matt (Thalroth), and Jeff W. (Ny Olog)

I'm running this scenario again this year at Gary Con 2026; the event page for it is here: Party of Balrogs GC 2026.

Unfortunately, I didn't take or receive any table photos for this game.

Michael Mornard, who played the original Balrog character in Greyhawk, happened to be GMing the next game I was scheduled to play (see below). To show my appreciation for originating the concept of Balrogs as PCs, I found him before his game and was able to introduce myself and buy him a beer to thank him for his inspiration.

(3) My evening game was Michael Mornard's Battle on the Ice, another Chainmail game, but historical rather than fantasy, based on the actual battle of the same name. This was played on the famous sand table in the Legends of Wargaming hall, with white coloring added to simulate the ice. I was part of the team on the side of Prince Nevsky, who won the actual battle, but unlike the real battle, we didn't fight on the actual ice, but rather tried to defend a position on an island, which probably contributed to our loss. However, our biggest mistake was separating our commander from his cavalry troops, without realizing this would render him much more vulnerable.

Convention Blurb: 

"Legends of Wargaming sand table event! This Chainmail historical scenario will be conducted on the Gary Con Sand Table. Refight the glorious battle of the Teutonic Knights vs. Prince Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod! The referee will be none other than Michael Mornard an early participant in LGTSA games and the playtesting of the Dungeons & Dragons game."

Photos:

Mike talking about the scenario prior to us placing our forces 

My team. I think Mike took this photo. I'm on the far right, wearing a Vecna tee.

The two opposing forces facing each other across the field

The other side advancing towards our island

Mike in action refereeing

Also in this series:

Gary Con 2025: Day 0

Gary Con 2025: Day 2 (forthcoming)

Previous Gary Con convention summaries:

Gary Con 2023 (unfinished): Day 0

Gary Con 2022: Day 1 --- Day 2 --- Days 3 and 4

Gary Con 2019 (unfinished): Day 1 --- Day 2 (part 1)

Gary Con 2025 Games Scheduled!

Gary Con XVII illustration by Chet Minton

In March I'm returning to GARY CON, now in its 17th year, and as has been typical for me the past few years, I will be running two sessions of D&D; one that I've run before and one that is new to me. These are:

(1) Party of Balrogs on Thursday afternoon from 1-5 pm. Character level: Balrog; 6 seats.

Description:

"The 1974 D&D rules allowed for a character to be "virtually anything", even a balrog. This adventure takes this to 11 by having *all* of the PCs be balrogs! Ensorcelled to serve a wizard deep in a megadungeon, the spell is now broken. Can you get past the other guardians and make the wizard pay? This game by the Zenopus Archives celebrates 50 years of D&D. Balrog PCs provided."

This will be my second time running this after a successful session last year.

Find it here on Tabletop Events: https://tabletop.events/conventions/gary-con-xvii/schedule/1962

(2) The Eye of Arzaz on Friday afternoon from 1-5 pm. Character level: 1; 6 seats.

Description:

"Delve into a classic dungeon filled with monsters, traps and magic in search of the legendary jewel, The Eye of Arzaz. J. Eric Holmes, the editor of the original D&D Basic Set, wrote this introductory dungeon for his 1981 book Fantasy Role-Playing Games, and it will be run using OD&D rules. First level characters provided."

This is Holmes' other sample dungeon, from his 1981 book about RPGs (one of the first every written), and I will be running it for the first time.

Find it here on Tabletop Events: https://tabletop.events/conventions/gary-con-xvii/schedule/2131

* * * * *

This will be my sixth time attending in person, the previous years being 2017, 2019, 2022-2024, eight counting virtual years (2020, 2021), and my third consecutive year in a row. I've run two game sessions each year starting with the second time I attended.

I have a page on the Zenopus Archives site with a full list of scenarios I've run at game conventions.

Read previous Gary Con convention summaries I've written:

Gary Con 2023 (unfinished): Day 0

Gary Con 2022: Day 1 --- Day 2 --- Days 3 and 4

Gary Con 2019 (unfinished): Day 1 --- Day 2 (part 1)

Other Gary Con links of interest:
Gary Con website
Badge Purchase
Full Schedule of Events on Tabletop Events (searchable)
Grand Geneva Resort website
Facebook Group (main source for announcements)

Visualizing Castle Greyhawk

In memory of Gary Gygax (July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008), here is a glimpse of Castle Greyhawk using his words & some relevant pictures.

^{Walled City[1]}

"To the east of the busy walled city of Greyhawk the land is forsaken, overgrown with thorns and thistles. Oozing marsh creeps slowly down. The copses are huddles of weird, bloated trees. The wiry grass seems to grasp at the feet of any who dare to tread upon it. In the center of this unwholesome place, on a rock-boned prominence, hulks the ruin of the grim Greyhawk Castle..."^[2]

^Castle[3]

"The fallen west gate of Greyhawk Castle was at hand, and through this mouldering portal the party passed. In a few moments they had entered the great central keep, heaved open an inner door, and carefully proceeded down a set of winding stone steps---steps worn with age and slippery with dampness. They had entered the dungeons."^[2]

Castle Courtyard with Keep^[4]

"... Old Greyhawk Castle was 13 levels deep. 

The first level was a simple maze of rooms and corridors..."^[5]

One version of Castle Greyhawk Level 1^[6]

"The second level had two unusual items, a nixie pool and a fountain of [endless] snakes.

The third featured a torture chamber and many small cells and prison rooms..."^[5]

Castle Greyhawk Level 3^[6]

"The fourth was a level of crypts and undead. 

The fifth was centered around a strange font of black fire and gargoyles. 

The sixth was a repeating maze with dozens of wild hogs (3 dice) in inconvenient spots, naturally backed up by appropriate numbers of wereboars. 

The seventh was centered around a circular labyrinth and a street of masses of ogres. 

The eighth through tenth levels were caves and caverns featuring trolls, giant insects, and a transporter nexus with an evil wizard (with a number of tough associates) guarding it. 

The eleventh level was the home of the most powerful wizard in the castle. He had balrogs as servants. The remainder of the level was populated by Martian white apes, except the sub-passage system underneath the corridors which was full of poisonous critters with no treasure. 

Level twelve was filled with dragons. 

The bottom level, number thirteen, contained an inescapable slide which took the players “clear through to China”, from whence they had to return via “Outdoor Adventure”.

It was quite possible to journey downward to the bottom level by an insidious series of slanting passages which began on the second level, but the likelihood of following such a route unknowingly didn’t become too great until the seventh or eighth level

Side levels included a barracks with orcs, hobgoblins, and gnolls continually warring with each other, a museum, a huge arena, an underground lake, a giant’s home, and a garden of fungi."^[5]

Notes:

[1] Art (uncredited) from Outdoor Geomorphs Set One: Walled City by Gary Gygax (TSR, 1977). The sample encounters from this set reference City of Greyhawk locations, so the art is possibly a picture of the city. 

[2] Excerpts from The Expedition into the Black Reservoir by Gary Gygax (El Conquistador, 1975).

[3] "Bodenburg Castle was used as the original model for the ruined upper works of Greyhawk Castle. Gygax had one in his basement at 330 Center Street" - caption for historical display by Paul Stormberg at Gary Con VI. Photo is by Allan Grohe (grodog).

[4] Siege at Bodenburg Map Inset. Source: The Army Men Homepage.

[5] Excerpt from "How to Set Up Your Dungeons & Dragons Campaign" by Gary Gygax (Europa #6-8, April 1975) & "'Greyhawk' had a fountain on its second level which issued endless numbers of snakes" (Greyhawk, 1975).

[6] Two Levels of the Real Castle Greyhawk by Random Wizard (2013). See also Gygax Castle Greyhawk Map thread at the Knights & Knaves Alehouse. These were maps that Gary was using to run the Castle at conventions in the last decade of his life. Please note that these maps, while appearing old, may not be the original maps for these levels; notably, the first dungeon level of the published Castle Zagyg uses a different map.

"Grue" [Aurania]

By D. Daniel Wagner
A new monster for the original Dungeons & Dragons game
Transcribed from the Manual of Aurania (1977) with permission from the author

Hit Dice: 15
Armor Class: 4
Number Appearing: 1
Treasure: F

This huge monster is humanoid in shape and extremely ugly. All characters that see this monster must make their saving throw against Fear (use Dragon Breath table) or run off in a random direction in blind fear. However, as it is known that Fighter types are braver than Magic-Users, Fighters add plus one to their saving throw and Magic-Users must subtract one and Clerics and all others save normally.

Also, all characters must subtract an additional five points from their saving throw the first time they meet th ecreature. The character(s) who kill the "Grue" are proof against its Fear spell thereafter. If the monster isn't defeated, all characters continue to subtract five points away from their saving throw, which must be made every turn fighting the "Grue".

"Grues" have a magic resistance equal to a Balrog's. A "Grue" does 2-20 points of damage plus one life level when one hits. A "Grue" is also followed by a black cloud that nullifies the powers of Good Luck charms, Spells and the like. "Grues" also fight down one level from normal. 

"Grues" aren't very smart and are rather lazy. Movement is 13 inches a turn. Lair 100%. Alignment is chaos.

* * * * *

Notes

(1) For reference, here is the magic resistance of a Balrog:
"There is a high probability that spells will not work against them. To determine success of spells use a base of 75% resistance at the 11th level and adjust upwards or downwards in 5% increments, i. e. a 12th level Magic-User would have a 70% chance of resistance."

This appeared as part of the entry for Balrogs in the original printings of Monsters & Treasures, Vol 2 of OD&D, but was later deleted when the Tolkien estate objected. IIRC, it is the first conception of "magic resistance" in Dungeons & Dragons.

(2) Playing at the World discusses the Manual of Aurania on pages 558-559, and in a footnote writes "One notable monsters in the Manual is a "Grue" ... Fans of the later computer game Zork pay heed. The grue figured previously in Jack Vance's Eyes of the Overworld" [aka Cugel the Clever], which can now be found as part of the omnibus Tales of the Dying Earth. The grue never appears directly in Vance's stories, and is only referenced cryptically.

See also the wikipedia entry for "Grue (monster)" for more info on Zork grues.

In 1983, four types of "Elemental Grues" appeared in TSR's Monster Manual II.

Centaurs and Samurai and Werebears, updated

Werebear by Dave Trampier from the original Monster Manual (1977)

An update to a post I wrote last fall, not long after I started the blog:

I was re-reading Holmes' Adventure of the Giant Chameleon (A&E #14, Aug '76)  and noticed a Beorning character in the first paragraph, "shifting nervously from human form and back again". This tale is a story from Holmes' games with his sons, so this shows he had a player running a werebear PC (presumably lawful) at least once. Thus, all of the exotic classes he mentioned in the Blue Book are now accounted for: centaurs, samurai and werebears.

If you look closely at the mention of the Green Dragon Inn at the start of the Sample Dungeon, you'll see it described as "human and non-humans from all over the globe meet here". Notably that's "non-humans" rather than demi-humans. In Maze of Peril, Holmes also has a Green Dragon Inn, where a centaur shows up, and at least one serpentman is mentioned in passing.  One of the Boinger and Zereth short stories in Dragon also has a noblewoman with a lizardman guard in the same town. Overall, this gives the Green Dragon Inn, and Holmes' campaign, a "Creature Cantina" feel. Very different from Gygax's preferences elaborated in the 1E DMG.

Looking back on the post, I didn't mention where a samurai character could be found. Zatushigi the samurai appears in the party with Boinger and Zereth in the Adventure of the Lost City, Part I (A&E #17, Nov '76).

Obscure Art Friday: Balrog by Greg Bell

"Balrog" by Greg Bell from pg 13 of Dungeons & Dragons, Vol 2, Monsters & Treasure

This picture of a Balrog is from the LBBs (aka OD&D), specifically Vol 2, Monsters & Treasure, pg 13. It's by Greg Bell, who did much of the artwork in the LBBs, including the original covers. The Balrog is flying, perhaps to attack, and is shrouded in faint flames (which did not reproduce well in the printed picture). Also note that he is wearing boots and a bracer.

I have a later (OCE) set of the LBBs, and I didn't realize until recently that this picture was is of a Balrog. But in the 1st through 5th printings, this picture was actually labeled "Balrog". It was followed on page 14 by the monster entry for Balrogs. In the 6th printing many Tolkien references were removed. The entry for Balrog was deleted and replaced by a cartoon by Tom Wham. This Balrog picture was left in, but the title "Balrog" was removed. Which is why this picture is missing a name unlike most of Bell's monsters.

For those who also have a later printing, I've created a Balrog Reference Sheet that lists all of the places where Balrog-related information was removed from the LBBs and Chainmail. It also lists the Balrog references in Greyhawk, but not Eldritch Wizardry, which fundamentally changed the original Balrog by turning it into a Type VI demon.

I've always considered Balrogs as part of D&D, as Holmes included two of the original references in the Blue Book. See my previous post Balrogs in the Blue Book for a description of these.

Possible inspiration for Bell's Balrog...?

Summary of Tolkien References in the Blue Book

And so we come to the end of this year's Tolkien week.

Here's a summary of Tolkien references in the Blue Book.

Tolkien references carried over from the text of the OD&D booklets:

Hobbits: The 1st print (Lizard Logo, Fall 1977) uses "hobbits" throughout. The 2nd print (Lizard Logo, Jan 78) changes most to "halflings" but still uses "hobbits" in five locations. In the 2nd edition (Wizard Logo, Nov 78) and later printings a sole reference to "hobbits" remains, in the description of the spell "Cure Light Wounds". 

Balrogs: There are two references to Balrogs on page 14 of all printings; discussed previously. 

Nazgul & Barrow Wights: A reference to the "Nazgul of Tolkien" in the Monster List entry for Spectre (pg 32), and to "Barrow Wights (as per Tolkien)" in the entry for Wight (pg 33). These are straight from the original entries for Spectre and Wight in OD&D, Vol 2 (Monsters & Treasure), pg 9, and are in all printings of the Holmes rulebook.

It's clear from the above that Holmes edited the Blue Book from one of the earlier printings of the OD&D rulebooks (i.e., prior to the removal of the Tolkien references). While all of these references were removed from the OD&D booklets, only "hobbits" was removed from the Blue Book.

Tolkien references added by Dr. Holmes:

-"lawful werebear" (pg 7); most likely a reference to Beorn in The Hobbit; discussed previously.
Update: this may also reference the Beorning class from the 1976 Manual of Aurania

-"Drego the thief" (pg 12). The name "Drego" is a very hobbit-sounding name; it is particularly close to Drogo, the name of Frodo's father in The Lord of the Rings. Update: From the Holmes Manuscript, we know that Holmes originally had "Bingo" as the name here, which *is* directly from the Lord of the Rings, being Bilbo's uncle.

-"The imaginary universe of Dungeons & Dragons obviously lies not too far from the Middle Earth of J.R.R. Tolkien's great Lord of the Rings trilogy" (pg 40); discussed previously.

-"Green Dragon Inn" (pg 41); discussed previously.

* * * * *

Update: The first printing also includes TSR's Battle of the Five Armies game in the price list at the back of the rulebook; this was deleted in the 2nd printing as I noted here.

Centaurs and Samurai and Werebears, Oh My

Werebear by Dave Trampier from the original Monster Manual (1977)

Tolkien Week continues...

In yesterday's Balrog post, I quoted a memorable line from page 7 of the Blue Book:
"Thus, an expedition might include, in addition to the four basic classes and races (human, elven, dwarven, hobbitish), a centaur, a lawful werebear, and a Japanese Samurai fighting man" (pg 7).

As I noted, here the example of a Balrog PC has been changed to a centaur, werebear and Samurai. The most likely inspiration for "lawful werebear" in this list is Beorn from the Hobbit. Beorn travels with Bilbo and Gandalf twice, once to the edge of Mirkwood, and once on the return trip from the Lonely Mountain, a member of the "party". Thus, even though the reference to the Balrog has been changed the example retains a Tolkien influence. I consider this one of the Tolkien allusions added to the Blue Book by Dr. Holmes (there a few, which I will discuss further in another post).

I don't know of any references by Dr. Holmes to a werebear in his other writings (campaign descriptions or stories). In the Monster List, werebears have the alignment "neutral/chaotic good", but this is a change from OD&D Vol 2, which has werebears as "Law/Neutral". The use of "lawful" without a good or evil appears to be a residual reference to the 3-point alignment system of OD&D. 

A few years later White Dwarf #17 (Feb 1980) ran an article titled "My Life As a Werebear" that includes rules for werebear character classes & several other monsters. 

Samurai as a fighter subclass first appeared in DRAGON #3 (Oct 1976), prior to the Holmes Basic set.

Centaurs are found in OD&D, Vol 2 (pg 4 & 14) but missing from the Monster List in the Blue Book.  Dr. Holmes mentions a centaur PC in his personal campaign in his 1980 Psychology Today article "Confessions of a Dungeon Master", and a centaur also appears as a minor character his novel Maze of Peril (1986). 

In an article in Dragon in 1981, Dr. Holmes also mentioned that he allowed players any type of character they wished, and in his 1981 book on FRPGs he wrote that: 

"Most game systems rather rigidly specify what kinds of characters players may assume, but the majority of referees are lenient. If a player particularly wants to be an unusual or inhuman character, many referees will let him. It's not unusual to encounter player characters that are werewolves, Vulcans, samurai, centaurs or whatever. Fantasy role playing is, after all, an exercise in imagination".

Update: see this follow-up post.

Balrog PCs gone missing

Mock-up of a OD&D Balrog PC character sheet

Yesterday I discussed the sources for the two references to Balrogs in the Blue Book. For the second day of Tolkien week, I'll discuss another instance where Holmes did not retain a reference to Balrogs.

OD&D, Vol 1, Men & Magic, originally mentioned Balrogs under "Other Character Types":

"There is no reason that players cannot be allowed to play as virtually anything, provided they begin relatively weak and work up to the top, i.e., a player wishing to be a Balrog would have to begin as let us say, a "young" one and progress upwards in the usual manner, steps being predetermined by the campaign referee" (pg 8).

And there was actually a Balrog PC in Gygax's Greyhawk campaign, though I'm not sure if this was before or after Men & Magic was first published. In the OD&D Discussion forums, Mike Mornard (Gronan of Simmerya) told us:   

Interestingly, I played a Balrog in Greyhawk. Yes, THE Greyhawk. Of course, I started as a 1 HD, very weak Balrog. THAT is the problem, and why Gary later changed his mind; there is virtually constant pressure from the player of an unusual character to power up her or his character, and only a referee of the judgement, skill, and determination of Gary, Rob, and Dave can juggle this without totally unbalancing the game.

According to a post on Tome of Treasures (from the work of forum member harami), the reference to Balrog PCs persisted through the 5th printing of the OD&D set (~Spring 1976), finally being changed for the sixth printing (~late 1977) to replace "Balrog" with "Dragon". The other references to Balrogs (as well as Hobbits and other Tolkien references) were also removed from the 6th printing of  OD&D.

The first printing of Holmes (~early Fall 1977), was made prior to these changes and retained many of the original Tolkien references in OD&D, such as using "hobbits" instead of "halflings". Holmes, however, changed the sentence from page 8 of Men & Magic to read:

"At the Dungeon Master's discretion a character can be anything his or her player wants him to be. Characters must always start out inexperienced and relatively weak and build on their expedition. Thus, an expedition might include, in addition to the four basic classes and races (human, elven, dwarven, hobbitish), a centaur, a lawful werebear, and a Japanese Samurai fighting man" (pg 7).

Thus, while Holmes retained several other references to Balrogs in the Blue Book, here he chose to replace the example of a Balrog PC with a centaur, werebear and Samurai, presumably because these are less extreme variants for a beginning DM to handle. The revised sentence is well remembered due to the evocative imagery of these non-standard types in conjunction with the wide distribution of the Basic Set. The idea of a Balrog PC might be more widely remembered if Holmes had retained the original example.

Balrogs in the Blue Book

Today is the first day Tolkien Week, which is the week containing Hobbit Day (Sep 22, the birthday shared by Bilbo and Frodo). To kick it off I'll discuss the Balrogs in the Blue Book.

The Blue Book contains two references to Balrogs, each on page 14. These refer to the original OD&D text rather than being additions by Holmes. The first mentions that they are highly resistant to magic, and is a reference to the original entry for Balrogs in Monsters & Treasure (pg 14). The second reference describes Balrogs as being able to shatter Hold Portal spells. This is from the original description of the Hold Portal spell in Men & Magic (pg 23), and was probably inspired by the Balrog who broke Gandalf's spell on the door when the Fellowship was in Moria. While the OD&D books were eventually revised to remove these references to Balrogs, they were never removed from the Blue Book. 

Suppose you want to use a Balrog in your Holmes Basic or expanded game? I'd suggest looking to the original entry from the early printings of Monsters & Treasure. A transcription can be found here.