First appearance of spitting cobras?

[kenmeister]

I'm running Palace of the Vampire Queen here as you probably know, and the party finally blundered into the room with the 5 spitting cobras. I can't find them anywhere referenced in OD&D. I must be overlooking something. The first appearance I could find was in Moldvay Basic. I'm pretty sure Palace of the Vampire Queen was published right after Greyhawk supplement I came out.

Edit: My OD&D lookup was using the WOTC reprint box set.

[Zenopus]

Giant Spitting Snakes, with Giant Spitting Cobras mentioned as an example, appear in the Monster Manual, but that is from late '77 and thus after Vampire Queen in '76.

I can't find any earlier OD&D reference to Spitting Cobras. They may just be referring to the real-world animals ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitting_cobra ) and expecting the DM to use the rules for "Insects or Small Animals" on pg 21 of OD&D Vol 2, which mentions snakes.

You might be able to adapt spitting rules from the Giant Slug in Greyhawk, or use one of the later versions of the Spitting Cobra.

[kenmeister]

Mar 5, 2017 9:29:58 GMT -6 Zenopus said:

Giant Spitting Snakes, with Giant Spitting Cobras mentioned as an example, appear in the Monster Manual, but that is from late '77 and thus after Vampire Queen in '76.

I can't find any earlier OD&D reference to Spitting Cobras. They may just be referring to the real-world animals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitting_cobra) and expecting the DM to use the rules for "Insects or Small Animals" on pg 21 of OD&D Vol 2, which mentions snakes.

You might be able to adapt spitting rules from the Giant Slug in Greyhawk, or use one of the later versions of the Spitting Cobra.

Spitting cobras specifically appear in Moldvay Basic so I'm using that, I'm just surprised that Palace of the Vampire Queen would reference something not in the books, especially because it doesn't supply stats.

[scottenkainen]

I suspect Zenopus has it right. In fact, their appearance in Palace of the Vampire Queen might have been what inspired Moldvay to include them in the Basic rules!

[kenmeister]

Mar 5, 2017 18:01:47 GMT -6 scottenkainen said:

I suspect Zenopus has it right. In fact, their appearance in Palace of the Vampire Queen might have been what inspired Moldvay to include them in the Basic rules!

Fascinating!