The First Dungeon Monster

[cadriel]

I had recently re-read Greg Svenson's article The First Dungeon Adventure and it reminded me of something interesting: the very first monster that was encountered in Blackmoor was a giant blob, like in the eponymous movie. I have more observations on my blog: Semper Initiativus Unum - The First Dungeon Monster. I'd be interested in thoughts from people who gamed with Dave or people who've studied the early days, on the role played by the classic "Creature Feature" in forming those early games, and the imagination of the period.

[cadriel]

James Mishler shared this fascinating detail on the blog comments:

Greg might have conflated The Blob (1958) with The H-Man (1959), a Japanese movie featuring a green slime... in fact, likely the original, true inspiration for D&D Green Slime, as it acts in almost every way as does D&D Green Slime, unlike the green slime of the movie, The Green Slime (1968), which are completely different monsters.

In The H-Man, the H-Man slime can slither along the ground, on walls, and up to ceilings, and drops down onto its prey, transforming whatever living creature it touches into more green slime. The only way to defeat the H-Man slime is with fire...

we know Dave was big into Japanese movies as well as Hammer Horror movies, so likely too were his players...

This makes a lot of sense out of the reference to an old Japanese movie.

[geoffrey]

I'm glad to know that one of the oozy, slimy, globy critters was the first. I've been enamored of them since I first spied them in the Monster Manual back in 1980.

[havard]

Great to see some attention to this! Here's something I wrote about the Slimes and Oozes of Blackmoor in the past: blackmoormystara.blogspot.no/2011/05/dungeon-clean-up-crew.html

Apparently Ross Maker, one of Arneson's players, also inserted some ideas about these creatures

-Havard

[Vile Traveller]

I love slimes, oozes, jellies and puddings - good for any setting from fantasy to SF, and anything in between!

[geoffrey]

Feb 20, 2015 14:10:01 GMT -6 havard said:

Great to see some attention to this! Here's something I wrote about the Slimes and Oozes of Blackmoor in the past: blackmoormystara.blogspot.no/2011/05/dungeon-clean-up-crew.html

Apparently Ross Maker, one of Arneson's players, also inserted some ideas about these creatures

-Havard

This lead another player, Ross Maker, to ask about what happened to all the corpses, rusty weapons and armor left behind after a party of adventurers had waded through a dungeon. Wouldn't that become messy after a while?

So, the Dungeon Clean-Up Crew was invented. These consisted of the Black Pudding, Oche Jelly, Grey Ooze, Yellow Mold, Green Slime and others. As this older article at Sham's Grog & Blog mentions, they were even referred to as the Clean-Up Crew in the rulebooks when the monsters first appeared in 1974.

Ooooooohhhhh. So that's where the term "clean-up crew" came from.

[aldarron]

Yep, and as is discussed in this thread odd74.proboards.com/thread/5545 black or grey puddings soon found thier way into Dave Megarry's 1973 Dungeon prototype.

[simrion]

Wasn't it cited somewhere that Dave created his original rules after a weekend of monster movie watching? Wonder if The Blob was one of those movies...