List of OD&D Campaign Worlds

[scottenkainen]

Hi all,

How comprehensive a list of named campaign worlds do we have from the pre-1980 gaming period?

Blackmoor, Greyhawk, Kalibruhn, Tekumel, Wilderlands,

Do Aquaria and Lendore date back that far? Is Arduin a world or just a ruleset? Do we know the names of any worlds from the California campaigns?

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

EDIT: This is my current list:
1. Aquaria (Mentzer)
2. Arduin (Hargraves)
3. Aurania (Wagner)
4. Baldemar (alternate Middle Earth used in the GenCon IX Dungeons)
5. Barsoom (as part of the Greyhawk campaign; not for Warriors of Mars, which was not a RPG)
6. Blackmoor (Arneson)(Temple of the Frog and the First Fantasy Campaign)
7. Edwyr - (Blacow) (co editor of TWH, author of the fourfold way classification of gamers)
8. Forgotten Realms (Greenwood)
9. Fred's World (Funk)
10. Glorantha (Stafford)(initially more D&D-like?)
11. Gorree - Mark Swanson (co editor of TWH)
12.Greenlands - Don Turnbull (frequent White Dwarf and Dragon contributor)
13. Greyhawk (Gygax)(quasi-published as part of C&C's Great Kingdom uber-setting, as well as referred to and partially described in modules, magazines, and the core D&D rules themselves)
14. Holmes Original Campaign (World of Caladan?) (Holmes)
15. Kalibruhn (Kuntz)
16. Known World (Mentzer & Shick)
17. Lendore Isles (Lakofka)
18. Middle Earth (often imitated, obliquely referenced in the original core rulebooks, and originally used by Bledsaw before Wilderlands)
19. Midkemia (Feist)
20. Minaria (a board game, but with its own campaign setting easily used in D&D)
21. "mythic Earth" (the real world with magic added to it, which many people essentially did and Chivalry & Sorcery officially did)
22. Perilous Lands (Snider)
23. Rythlondar (VanDeGraaf and Scensny)
24. Tekumel (Barker)(not D&D, but its rules are heavily influenced by D&D)
25. Toricandra (Jeff Grubb)
26. Trollworld (St. Andre)(not D&D, but its rules are heavily influenced by D&D)
27. Verbosh (Nevin and Faust)(separate setting published by JG)
28. Warden (Ward)(not D&D, but it had cross-overs with D&D characters)
29. Wilderlands (Bledsaw)(all Judges Guild products)

[Deleted]

What're the criteria for inclusion? Published?

[Finarvyn]

Aug 5, 2013 23:28:46 GMT -6 @gronanofsimmerya said:

What're the criteria for inclusion? Published?

I would assume either (1) published, or (2) something run by one of the creators. Mostly published, but I don't want to exclude Rob's Kalibruhn campaign even though it hasn't been published the way the others have.

To return to Scott's thought, I think the first step would be to look at a combination of the settings and the people of the time.

Blackmoor -- Dave Arneson, OD&D creator.
Greyhawk -- Gary Gygax, OD&D creator.
Kalibruhn -- Rob Kuntz, Supplement I co-author, also ran games with Gary
Tekumel -- M.A.R. Barker, EPT creator (is EPT "D&D"?)
Wilderlands -- Bob Bledsaw, Judges Guild (officially sanctioned for OD&D)

That's Scott's list, and the only question I would have is: does EPT count?

Let's go back to OD&D. Eldritch Wizardry is listed as "Gygax and Blume" and G,DG&H is "Kuntz & Ward." So I would ask: did Brian Blume and/or Jim Ward run OD&D campaigns? Blume is known for Boot Hill, clearly not D&D. I don't know if he ever ran a campaign of D&D, though. If so, it's pretty obscure. Ward is known for Metamorphosis Alpha, which to me is a lot like EPT in its "grey area" status. It's not really OD&D but isn't that far removed, either.

Beyond that you have to recall other variant rules sets of the era, a subject which I am not totally an expert. I recall that CalTech had a Warlock rules variant, and certainly they must have had a world for it but I don't think I've ever seen one. Dave Hargrave had Arduin, which was a variant rules set and I assume a world as well. Those are the two variants which seem to have been the most famous, at least the ones I'm most aware of. I think that Jon Peterson's book mentioned another one, but its name escapes me at the moment.

Last, we might look at the near-OD&D products. If MA and EPT are gray area settings, these can't be any closer. I'm thinking of Ken St.Andre's Tunnels & Trolls "Trollworld" and Greg Stafford's Glorantha that went with Runequest. Chivalry & Sorcery was out there but its world was essentially our own, and I don't know if that would count at all as a D&D campaign. If there were others of the day, they were certainly under my radar.

Bottom line, I think that Scott's list is a good one overall. I would welcome discussion about EPT and/or MA for inclusion.

[Deleted]

I would include EPT in the "First Order" ("Published Original Worlds") settings, if not at the least in the "Second Order" (i.e., "Influential Early Worlds") list. Though it changes some things around system- and rules-wise, it is from the early experimentation era of D&D, and influenced the design of the game and the ideals of a "campaign setting." After all, it really was a triad of campaigns, with Gary's Greyhawk, Dave's Blackmoor, and Barker's Tekumel crossfeeding each other to a greater or lesser extent.

MA is another bag of tricks, though. Strictly speaking, while the system is not at all that much different, and is in many ways even closer to the original Chainmail D&D (especially with the use of weapon classes to determine combat), MA is not really a "setting" per se, it is more of a "setting toolkit." From my recollection of the presentation of the Warden in the book (my copy being 1200 miles away in a storage locker), IIRC the Warden was never presented definitively, or even in the broad. Examples were given of possible decks and how they might all work together, but it was never assembled as a definitive, set location for the consumption of others in the earliest days. Not like Greyhawk, Blackmoor, or Tekumel. Still, it belongs on the Second Order of Influential Early Worlds, as its science-fantasy sensibilities (as opposed to the forms iun Tekumel) also had a strong influence on later campaigns.

Here is the list as I would start it:

First Order(Published Original Worlds)
Greyhawk (Gygax)
Blackmoor (Arneson)
Tekumel (Barker)
Wilderlands (Bledsaw)

Second Order (Influential Early Worlds)
Kalibruhn (Kuntz)
Warden (Ward)
Arduin (Hargraves)
Glorantha (Stafford)
Trollworld (St. Andre)
Rythlondar (VanDeGraaf and Scensny)
Others?

Third Order (Influential Later Worlds)
Forgotten Realms (Greenwood)

[Deleted]

Well, but Greyhawk and Blackmoor, though the names of supplements, were never really "published" per se. Dave's FFC might come close.

[scottenkainen]

I love this thought of separating them into orders or tiers. The top tier is reserved for the real movers & shakers who were publishing (if not their actual campaign worlds) and were playing D&D or a *very* close derivation. The second tier also looks good. The third tier I would like to see fleshed out with any campaign setting so much as mentioned in a publication or that a top tier contributor sat in on once and may have been influenced by.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

[kent]

Nothing compares to Glorantha, not even Tekumel, so I'd either leave it out altogether for being too distantly related to D&D or place it by itself at the top.

[bexley]

Aug 6, 2013 14:27:43 GMT -6 kent said:

Nothing compares to Glorantha, not even Tekumel, so I'd either leave it out altogether for being too distantly related to D&D or place it by itself at the top.

I think they belong together. Glorantha, if the stories are true, was an exercise in mythology as metaphysics but Tekumel was a stricter exercise in anthropology and sociological understanding. Both have great ambition and any other comparisons would be an exercise in taste. I'm curious as the why you are adamant that Tekumel does not belong on the same level as Glorantha.

[keith418]

Misty Isles?

[kent]

Aug 6, 2013 15:22:41 GMT -6 bexley said:

I'm curious as the why you are adamant that Tekumel does not belong on the same level as Glorantha.

I didn't imply I was 'adamant', I believe having read both carefully for a few years that Stafford's is a greater achievement. Both worlds are dedicated, exhaustive and in the end very impressive. Glorantha's broad mythological roots are more substantial than Barker's idiosyncratic obsessions which are as narrow as they are exotic.

[bexley]

Aug 6, 2013 16:07:52 GMT -6 kent said:

Aug 6, 2013 15:22:41 GMT -6 bexley said:

I'm curious as the why you are adamant that Tekumel does not belong on the same level as Glorantha.

I didn't imply I was 'adamant', I believe having read both carefully for a few years that Stafford's is a greater achievement. Both worlds are dedicated, exhaustive and in the end very impressive. Glorantha's broad mythological roots are more substantial than Barker's idiosyncratic obsessions which are as narrow as they are exotic.

Oh, sorry. The tone sounded very matter of fact. I have to disagree, mythology is just as narrow a subject matter as anthropology etc. There might be a bigger discussion about the function of game-worlds in there but I fear that I've gotten a bit too pedantic at this point.

[kent]

Aug 6, 2013 17:31:52 GMT -6 bexley said:

I have to disagree, mythology is just as narrow a subject matter as anthropology etc..

That is not relevant to anything I said. Stafford's mythological approach is broad, Barker's anthropological focus is very narrow.

[Zenopus]

Another early one is the personal campaign of J. Eric Holmes from ~1975-1977, OD&D using the Warlock variant rules, before he had contact with TSR. Mostly unpublished, but we see glimpses in the Boinger and Zereth stories. The later stories in Dragon Magazine and Maze of Peril are distorted by time, but the Alarums & Excursions stories ('76-'77) are basically session journals that give a small window into the campaign at the time. Lots of stuff grabbed from the literature and the real world, coexisting side-by-side - witch doctors, samurai, vikings, Dune-like sandworms, Cthulhoid horrors etc

Some threads for further reading on "Holmes campaign" elements:


odd74.proboards.com/thread/1090/holmes-basic-setting-thread
odd74.proboards.com/thread/1590/putting-holmes-campaign

[crusssdaddy]

Aug 6, 2013 20:18:41 GMT -6 Zenopus said:

Another early one is the personal campaign of J. Eric Holmes from ~1975-1977, OD&D using the Warlock variant rules, before he had contact with TSR. Mostly unpublished, but we see glimpses in the Boinger and Zereth stories. The later stories in Dragon Magazine and Maze of Peril are distorted by time, but the Alarums & Excursions stories ('76-'77) are basically session journals that give a small window into the campaign at the time. Lots of stuff grabbed from the literature and the real world, coexisting side-by-side - witch doctors, samurai, vikings, Dune-like sandworms, Cthulhoid horrors etc

You have any samples of that on your website or blog? Love some links if you do.

[Falconer]

Here’s my list, in the format “World (core product)”

PROPER OD&D WORLDS
Wilderlands (City State of the Invincible Overlord)
The Great Kingdom (The First Fantasy Campaign)

OD&D-RELATED WORLDS
Barsoom (Warriors of Mars)
Tekumel (Empire of the Petal Throne)
Starship Warden (Metamorphosis Alpha)

I tried to stick with published products from the 70s that included substantial overland maps for use with OD&D. Wilderlands is basically the only one that is 100% “for” OD&D; it has very substantial maps; it has calendars and histories and religions.

FFC is sort of proto-OD&D, but it still counts, IMO. It of course details a region of the famed “Great Kingdom,” and while it’s sketchy and quirky, it obviously has a very important place in the game’s history. Expanded by The Gnome Cache, Quag Keep, Blackmoor, etc. (and of course developed in several different directions in the 80s).

The other three are, I think, self-evidently OD&D-related. WoM and EPT both have overland maps, of course. Mars is suggested in the OD&D rules themselves as a setting, and it’s by now well-established that WoM was a “companion” to OD&D (this was before the concept of the 100%-compatible “supplements”). EPT and MA use similar-to-OD&D rules. MA doesn’t, really, but arguably it presents a world that doesn’t need one.

That’s really all I can come up with. My guess is that gaming in Middle-earth was pretty widespread; its races and monsters were well accounted-for in OD&D, and for ample maps and source material all you need is a copy of RotK. More-or-less the same thing could be said for any literature or mythology represented in Sup. IV. And then you have a TON of home campaigns that were later published for AD&D, or as novels, or whatever — Forgotten Realms, Midkemia, etc. etc. Not to mention home campaigns we know OF but that we know nothing ABOUT — Kalibruhn has been mentioned.

[scottenkainen]

Aug 6, 2013 20:18:41 GMT -6 Zenopus said:

Another early one is the personal campaign of J. Eric Holmes from ~1975-1977, OD&D using the Warlock variant rules, before he had contact with TSR. Mostly unpublished, but we see glimpses in the Boinger and Zereth stories. The later stories in Dragon Magazine and Maze of Peril are distorted by time, but the Alarums & Excursions stories ('76-'77) are basically session journals that give a small window into the campaign at the time. Lots of stuff grabbed from the literature and the real world, coexisting side-by-side - witch doctors, samurai, vikings, Dune-like sandworms, Cthulhoid horrors etc

But this campaign world never had a name that we know it was called? What should we call it? Holmesworld? The World of Boinger?

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

[bexley]

Aug 6, 2013 17:45:28 GMT -6 kent said:

Aug 6, 2013 17:31:52 GMT -6 bexley said:

I have to disagree, mythology is just as narrow a subject matter as anthropology etc..

That is not relevant to anything I said. Stafford's mythological approach is broad, Barker's anthropological focus is very narrow.

I wouldn't call a Campallian interpretation broad but each to their own.

[scottenkainen]

Since other posters have been derailing this thread, I thought I'd try to bring it back on target myself with a little web research.

Frank Mentzer's Aquaria campaign dates back to 1976, according to this - www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=4245&sid=bb9bd43ffde7f8913937409a89fec449&start=0
I think Len Lakofka's Lendore Isles campaign squeaks in at 1979, but it might have started earlier. The best clues I've found is a three-part Grognardia interview, but it never mentions a specific date.

Now we just have to decide which tier they belong in.

I just talked to Jim Ward on Facebook to see if he could name any more to add. He made an interesting observation that he didn't think many people were creating new campaign settings for OD&D, as they were waiting to see what AD&D would look like first.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

[Deleted]

Aug 6, 2013 10:04:59 GMT -6 jamesmishler said:

Here is the list as I would start it:

First Order(Published Original Worlds)
Blackmoor (Arneson)
Greyhawk (Gygax)
Kalibruhn (Kuntz)
Tekumel (Barker)
Wilderlands (Bledsaw)

Second Order (Influential Early Worlds)
Arduin (Hargraves)
Warden (Ward)
Glorantha (Stafford)
Trollworld (St. Andre)
Rythlondar (VanDeGraaf and Scensny)
Others?

Third Order (Influential Later Worlds)
Forgotten Realms (Greenwood)

I fixed the list and I am in substantial agreement with this list and I agree that EPT and MA count. I am very tempted to move Arduin to the first list simply because our gaming group had a copy within a couple of months of it being published. (Man I wish Gygax and Hargraves had been buddies)

I would list Mystara on the second order list. Then I would list all of the 2nd Ed AD&D worlds as Third order.

Aug 7, 2013 7:25:23 GMT -6 scottenkainen said:

Since other posters have been derailing this thread, I thought I'd try to bring it back on target myself with a little web research.

Frank Mentzer's Aquaria campaign dates back to 1976, according to this - www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=4245&sid=bb9bd43ffde7f8913937409a89fec449&start=0
I think Len Lakofka's Lendore Isles campaign squeaks in at 1979, but it might have started earlier. The best clues I've found is a three-part Grognardia interview, but it never mentions a specific date.

Now we just have to decide which tier they belong in.

I just talked to Jim Ward on Facebook to see if he could name any more to add. He made an interesting observation that he didn't think many people were creating new campaign settings for OD&D, as they were waiting to see what AD&D would look like first.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

Personally I would add them both to the second tier, because back in the day I had never heard of them.

[scottenkainen]

The third order has to be influential later worlds -- that already existed before 1980. I think that's the only reason Forgotten Realms qualifies for that list.

I'm of the opinion that we should include Tekumel, but place it in the second order because it's not, strictly, OD&D.

I take it we're including Ryth because it was sort-of published, like a print on demand fanzine, from what I'm reading.

So the revised list, for now, is:

1. Aquaria (Mentzer)
2. Arduin (Hargraves)
3. Barsoom (as part of the Greyhawk campaign; not for Warriors of Mars, which was not a RPG)
4. Blackmoor (Arneson)(Temple of the Frog and the First Fantasy Campaign)
5. Edwyr - (Blacow) (co editor of TWH, author of the fourfold way classification of gamers)
6. Forgotten Realms (Greenwood)
7. Glorantha (Stafford)(initially more D&D-like?)
8. Gorree - Mark Swanson (co editor of TWH)
9. Greyhawk (Gygax)(quasi-published as part of C&C's Great Kingdom uber-setting, as well as referred to and partially described in modules, magazines, and the core D&D rules themselves)
10. Holmes Original Campaign (Holmes)
11. Kalibruhn (Kuntz)
12. Known World (Mentzer & Shick)
13. Lendore Isles (Lakofka)
14. Middle Earth (often imitated, obliquely referenced in the original core rulebooks, and originally used by Bledsaw before Wilderlands)
15. Midkemia (Feist)
16. Minaria (a board game, but with its own campaign setting easily used in D&D)
17. "mythic Earth" (the real world with magic added to it, which many people essentially did and Chivalry & Sorcery officially did)
18. Rythlondar (VanDeGraaf and Scensny)
19. Tekumel (Barker)(not D&D, but its rules are heavily influenced by D&D)
20. Toricandra (Jeff Grubb)
21. Trollworld (St. Andre)(not D&D, but its rules are heavily influenced by D&D)
22. Warden (Ward)(not D&D, but it had cross-overs with D&D characters)
23. Wilderlands (Bledsaw)(all Judges Guild products)

[thorswulf]

My two coppers worth:

Glorantha and Tekumel are both creations of love. Each has its merits and flaws. Each has it's own approach. Neither is better or worse than the other because of this. I love them both, but they both assume a level of imagination and creativity that can be taxing for some.

FFC is an excellent resource into the origins of the game. I didn't buy mine on Evilbay, and payed a very reasonable, and low sum for it. Secondly this product has a an appeal for those of us who are historians of the fantasy wargaming and roleplaying movement. They probably won't be of much use to some people, but then again I found Swords and Spells to be the worst D&D supplement ever. My opinion, gents, is just that. An opinion. Please be a little more respectful to others on this board in the future. I was appalled at such activity.

[Finarvyn]

As an FYI, the bulk of the FFC discussion has been teleported into the Blackmoor section of the board and is in its own thread. Good stuff, but it was going off target from the concept of this thread.

Aug 7, 2013 7:33:42 GMT -6 @theperilousdreamer said:

Personally I would add them both to the second tier, because back in the day I had never heard of them.

You raise an excellent point. A camapign cannot be influencial if no one has heard of it. I guess we would need to decide if the intent of the thread was to name off all campaigns which existed prior to a given date (say, 1980, or whatever) or if the intent was to generate a list of influencial campaigns from the day.

If it's influencial, I think we really come down to something similar to the short list from the original post: Blackmoor, Greyhawk, Kalibruhn, Tekumel, Wilderlands.

You can argue a few things here:
(1) Gary's Greyhawk has never really been published. However, thanks to the Folio and Boxed Set, plus the wealth of modules out there, a version of Greyhawk was quite influencial even if "the" version is secret.
(2) Kalibruhn is much the same. Rob has published peeks into this campaign but nothing comprehensive. As his game and Greyhawk seem to have overlapped quite a bit, I suspect you need to either include both or exclude both.
(3) Tekumel is old, but as others have noted it's not quite OD&D.

So, an extra-short list could be: Blackmoor, Wilderlands.

[Zenopus]

Aug 6, 2013 22:46:04 GMT -6 scottenkainen said:

But this campaign world never had a name that we know it was called? What should we call it? Holmesworld? The World of Boinger?

That's a good question. I almost suggested "Holmes World" as well, though to me it doesn't feel quite right. I'd probably go with "Holmes' Original Campaign" or something like that. "World" implies a fully realized setting like Tekumel. In his "Confessions of Dungeon Master" article (1980) he mentions "I have never mapped more than a small patch of my dream world ... What I have done, and what most DM's have done, is use the imaginative creations of my favorite authors to map my worlds".

[geoffrey]

Aug 6, 2013 20:36:54 GMT -6 Falconer said:

My guess is that gaming in Middle-earth was pretty widespread...

Bob Bledsaw used Middle-earth for his campaign world before the PCs in his campaign stepped through a magical gate into the Wilderlands (whose very name is D&Dish). I'd say the Wilderlands are a combination of swords & sorcery and The Hobbit.

[aldarron]

I don't really understand the first tier, second tier business in relation to the op. Current Fame? Otherwise, why would Wilderlands be first tier but Rythlondar only second? <shrug> Also are we only talking about D&D worlds or any campaign world, because in that case surely Magira/midgard would count.

In any case, Fred's World should be on the list.

[scottenkainen]

>Otherwise, why would Wilderlands be first tier but Rythlondar only second?

Not just current fame, but Judges Guild had a robust product line that lasted years. Ryth was, as far as I know, just the one product.

I didn't invent the notion of tier'ing the campaign settings, that was James, but as I understand it the tiers reflect both the influence of the campaign settings over time and the likelihood of a random gamer in the 1970s being able to learn about the campaign setting. As I was just discussing with someone else on Facebook, the influence value should be higher for campaigns run in or near Lake Geneva. "The potential for cross-pollination of ideas there was staggering" I wrote, or close to it.

Yes, I think we should limit ourselves to D&D, games themselves heavily influenced by D&D, or games that crossed-over with D&D (Metamorphosis Alpha may not have been, mechanically, like D&D, but D&D characters went there).

What is Fred's World?

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

[Deleted]

First Order, I feel, should be those worlds that:

1) Started with or even before OD&D;
2) Were influential in the development and design of the game system as OD&D developed;
3) Were widespread, with national rather than regional influence.

Thus:

Blackmoor counts, as it was the original gaming campaign setting, literally the "father" of Greyhawk;

Greyhawk counts, as it was the original OD&D setting;

Tekumel counts, as the rules development occured with and during and flowed back and forth with OD&D, even if the published rules were not exactly OD&D; just refer to Midkemia Press and Raymond Feist's Magician series to witness its influence.

Wilderlands counts, as it and the attendant Judges Guild Journal (which was half Wilderlands, half rules variants) were central to the development of OD&D and especially AD&D (refer to Gary's profuse thanks to Bob in the DMG; many of the tables in the back, and much of the sentiments expressed in the campaign sections, developed out of discussions with Bob and the developments in the Wilderlands and the JGG).

All four of the First Tier campaign settings had broad, deep, and national (and international) influence on subsequent campaigns and homebrewed versions of OD&D. There are a number of Second Order campaign settings whose influences were regional or of lesser stature.

Kalibruhn itself counts as Second Order because its influence was felt only through its mark on Greyhawk;

Arduin counts as perhaps the biggest of the Second Order settings; had there not been so much push-back by Gary against Arduin, and had its influence been broader rather than regional in the day, it would certainly count as First Tier.

Glorantha is a second-tier setting, as it was mostly regional and quickly branched off into RuneQuest.

"Holmes World," though never published as such, was influential through the flavor provided in the 1st Edition Basic Set (which was an OD&D game), and through Holmes' articles in Dragon; it is Second Order.

Trollworld was of regional influence in the Southwest; it might have had greater influence if it had in fact been an OD&D setting, but as it was tied in with an OD&D competitor, its influence on OD&D and OD&D campaigns was lessened;

Rythlondar was of regional influence in the Midwest; it also had some additional influence through the people who played in it (including Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo and the Neiblings who went on to work for TSR and, of course, VanDeGraaf himself, who wrote many influential adventures played in Midwest conventions, and publish his own early products, two of which were combined to form module O1)

I hesitate to place the Forgotten Realms in the Third Order of later-day influences; after all, Ed's first articles using the Forgotten Realms were very influential, but were published after the release of AD&D. The setting, of course, was around long before even OD&D, as Ed's home for his fantasy fiction, and then for his OD&D campaign. But the early influence of his campaign setting, if any, was pretty limited to a local area in Canada...

What, if any, regional campaigns were influential in the East, I do not know. Perhaps Islandia from the Companions? Similarly, we should include Midkemia in that, though its influence was stronger through its literary arm than its RPG arm, though the RPG material predated Feist's Magician book by some years.

[Deleted]

Excellent James, I find nothing there to argue with and like the way you have divided it up, other than I put Kalibruhn in the first tier.

[ffilz]

Are we willing to look to campaigns discussed in depth in APAs? Or at least Alarums & Excursions and The Wild Hunt? If so, we could add from the significant Boston area APA contributors:

Edwyr - Glenn Blacow (co editor of TWH, author of the fourfold way classification of gamers)
not sure the name - Peter Aronson (creator of the Illusionist)
Gorree - Mark Swanson (co editor of TWH)
not sure of the name - George Phillies

From West Coast, I'm pretty sure Lee Gold (editor of A&E) ran a campaign.

Frank

[Deleted]

Frank: Definitely! The more information the better, frankly.

After all, D&D spread much like a virus. Each guy that bought the boxed set spread the game and his personal style of running the game through contact with his campaign players. Some of these players went on to run their own campaigns, integrating the traditions and ideas they got from their original DM into their own campaigns, and so on. So the earliest major regional OD&D campaigns (Second Order/Tier) and major regional/national early AD&D campaigns (Third Order/Tier) would be of great interest...

And as the APAs and fanzines were the method of dissemination among the major campaigns and beyond, those would be of paramount interest... especially as many of the originators may well have passed on, these may be the only primary sources remaining!

Here's a basic idea of how OD&D campaign influence works... a "reverse geneaology" of campaign styles, so to speak...


- Bledsaw -
/ \
/ \
Arneson --- Gygax ----------- OD&D Crucible
\ \ /
\ \ /
---- Barker --------


From my understanding, Barker got into the Braunstein style game about the same time as Gygax did. Some elements of the design of EPT reflect an Arnesonian style rather than the later Gygaxian style, which is why I place the branch a bit before Gygax, with a later feeder line back from Gygax to Barker (perhaps influence went both ways?) Bob came in after the initial release of OD&D, so he was influenced by all three before, with the developments through Judges Guild (a national and international organization) feeding back into and influencing the national play of the game. Within the OD&D Crucible, then, is where the Second Order/Tier Campaigns would be placed...

One other group that was brought up before was Wee Warriors with Misty Isles... was it a real campaign setting/rules variant or was it more of a broad adventure? I've never seen it... and if it was a campaign setting, as such, how widespread was it? Was it regional to the Midwest?