OD&D content in Diplomacy fanzines
Mar 25, 2017 10:36:16 GMT -6
Finarvyn, grodog, and 12 more like this
Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2017 10:36:16 GMT -6
redhighlander wrote:
I have been looking through old Diplomacy fanzines for examples of early fan-made OD&D content. There is a website called the Postal Diplomacy Zine Archive that has scans of many diplomacy fanzines, but it is a little overwhelming trying to go through them all. I started with some titles that were mentioned in Dragon Magazine / Strategic Review, or titles that were mentioned on the Web, etc. If anyone knows of any other fanzines I should look through, that would help narrow my search. If you know of any specific issues (rather than just titles), that would be even more helpful. A summary of D&D content would be even better, and actual links to fanzines online would be above and beyond.
Below, I will summarize what I have found so far. I do not necessarily note very mention of D&D – for example, “I heard of this new game called D&D” or “I played D&D last weekend” with no actual details. What I am interested in is play reports showing how people actually played D&D in the early days, variant rules, rules additions, or rule interpretations, new character classes, monsters, races, etc. (basically, any substantial D&D content).
Most of the fanzines listed below can be found at this link:
whiningkentpigs.com/DW/kent/diplomacyzinearchive.htm
I should also note that for the purpose of this post, I have been exclusively focusing on less well known fanzines (particularly Diplomacy related), rather than more well known fanzines such as Alarums & Excursions.
El Conquistador (September 1975)
This issue contains THE EXPEDITION INTO THE BLACK RESERVOIR: A DUNGEON ADVENTURE AT GREYHAWK CASTLE, by Gary Gygax
GIGO #2 (March 1975?)
This issue describes a D&D game held at Boskone Con
GIGO #3 (1975)
This issue contains a D&D play report from LUNACON, where Greg Costikyan was DM.
GIGO #4 September 21, 1975 (some was also in Pocket Armenian #19/20, August 30, 1975)
There are several different play reports of D&D games held at DipCon. It is mentioned that Gary Gygax was DM for a wilderness expedition at the convention, but unfortunately no one wrote this up. Maybe someone else has details on this?
Great Plains Game Players Newsletter #7 (April 1975)
This issue contains a story called The Giant's Bag, a Greyhawk Adventure by Gary Gygax.
Liaisons Dangereuse #62 (September 9, 1975) by Gary Gygax and Len Lakofka
This issue contains a play report that is more properly a play report of Len Lakofka’s miniatures fantasy game. It is a D&D inspired miniatures battle report, which may be of interest (it was to me). Lakofka’s rules are described in Dragon Magazine #1 as well as this fanzine. You will note lots of similarities, including spell names, etc. It is set in Middle Earth. Note that while all D&D articles in this fanzine were supposedly co-written by Gygax, online sources indicate that Lakofka wrote them solo, crediting Gygax as the creator of D&D.
Liaisons Dangereuse #64 (November 5, 1975) by Gary Gygax and Len Lakofka
Just like the above, this issue contains a play report of Len Lakofka’s miniatures fantasy game. It is also set in Middle Earth.
Liaisons Dangereuse #70 (April 28, 1976) by Gary Gygax and Len Lakofka
“This issue has a short article by Gary that talks about how D&D and the first two supplements did.” This summary quote comes from this site, which also has links to this and other D&D issues of this fanzine:
blog.retroroleplaying.com/2009/09/1976-od-articles-by-gary-gygax-and-len.html
Liaisons Dangereuse #72 (July 17, 1976) by Gary Gygax and Len Lakofka
This issue has “Women and Magic by Gary and Len. This appears to be an early version of The Dragon article.”
Liaisons Dangereuse #73 (August 18, 1976) by Gary Gygax and Len Lakofka
This issue “includes expanding the combat tables in D&D and a long article about dungeon doors and some other material about the Blackmoor campaign.” Personally, I did not see any information about Blackmoor.
Liaisons Dangereuse #74 (September 27, 1976) by Gary Gygax and Len Lakofka
This issue “has an article by Len and Gary (called) The Pyrologist: a Study in Magic – a fire mage subclass for D&D. Also Capture and Bondage in D&D – rules for tying people up. Errata for some previous D&D articles.”
Liaisons Dangereuse #75 (November 17, 1976) by Len Lakofka and Gary Gygax
This issue contains a D&D play report. It also has “an article by Len and Gary on Scrying in Dungeons & Dragons.”
Liaisons Dangereuse #76 (December 14, 1976) by Len Lakofka and Gary Gygax
This issue “has an article by Len and Gary entitled Dwarfs & Hobbits & Magic with magic-using classes for dwarfs and hobbits.”
Liaisons Dangereuse #77 (January 26, 1977) by Len Lakofka and Gary Gygax
This issue has faint, hard to read details on either D&D or Lakofka’s fantasy miniatures game. It has “an unreadably light article on Metamorphosis Alpha and an article by Gary and Len on Special Damage in Dungeons & Dragons.”
Mixumaxu Gazette #35 (June 28, 1975)
Robert Bryan Lipton mentions some of his D&D characters (brief mention).
Mixumaxu Gazette #36 (July 19, 1975)
This issue has a play report involving Stephen Tihor’s dungeon.
Mixumaxu Gazette #37 (August 9, 1975)
This issue has another play report involving Stephen Tihor’s dungeon.
Mixumaxu Gazette #38 (August 30, 1975)
This issue mentions an incident from Stephen Tihor/Scott Rosenberg’s joint campaign.
Mixumaxu Gazette #39 (September 20, 1975)
This issue has a brief D&D play report.
Mixumaxu Gazette #41 (November 1, 1975)
This issue has a D&D play report. There are also details of a new character type (not quite a character class, more of special ability) called Son of the Star, something like a Lawful quasi-religious saint.
Mixumaxu Gazette #43 (January 3, 1976)
There are two D&D play reports and a new monster called a Smoky Dragon.
Mixumaxu Gazette #44 (January 24, 1976)
There is a D&D play report involving a PC’s failed attempt to rob a bank.
Mixumaxu Gazette #46 (March 6, 1976)
This issue contains a follow up to an article from Alarums & Excursions #6 about Hokas (from the book Earthman’s Burden by Poul Anderson & Gordon Dickson). It is a new character class for NPCs, or PCs if you are so inclined.
Mixumaxu Gazette #47 (March 27, 1976)
This issue contains D&D three D&D play reports from Princeton Convention (PrinceCon 1). Incidentally, you can find the PrinceCon “Con Books” at the link below. I have not had a chance to read them yet, but a quick skim shows that they are house rules for D&D used at the convention. The spell system in particular seems to have been modified. www.princecon.org/con-books/
Mixumaxu Gazette #57 (October 23, 1976)
This issue is specifically marked as the “D&D Issue.” There are several different D&D play reports, a D&D inspired short story, and some essays / articles on D&D. Sadly, at the time I write this the link provided at the Diplomacy Zine Archive is broken. Luckily, those interested can find it at Archive.org using the following link: archive.org/details/The_Mixumaxu_Gazette_57-1976-10
I have not explored this site, so there may be other interesting fanzines here.
Mixumaxu Gazette #59 (December 5, 1976)
There is a brief D&D mention in this issue.
Mixumaxu Gazette #71 (September 4, 1977)
This issue contains some stories about Gen Con X. There are a few details of a D&D game played there, but mostly the write-up is about the author’s misadventures getting to the convention, getting a hotel room, finding places to eat, and he and his friends running around the convention with water guns.
The Pocket Armenian #17 (July 11, 1975) by Greg Costyikan
This issue has a number of new monsters that are basically spoofs of personalities involved in the postal Diplomacy community. There are some new magic items that also seem like inside jokes. It is doubtful that any of this was meant to be taken seriously.
The Pocket Armenian #21 (September 20, 1975) and & #22 (October 11, 1975) by Matthew Diller
These two issues contain parts 1 & 2 for Insanity Rules for D&D. OD&D is full of mishaps that cause characters to go insane, but vague as to what this means in game terms. These rules, while not perfect, provide some interesting examples of insanity to inflict on your PCs or NPC.
Pocket Armenian #27 by Peter Swanson (February 21, 1976)
This issue contains a D&D play report.
Urf Durfal #8 December 1975
This issue contains details about a D&D campaign, including some features of the world, some organizations, and character exploits. It seems like most of the PCs were in trouble with the law for various reasons (all detailed).
Urf Durfal #9 March 15, 1976
This issue contains more brief details of the author’s D&D campaign world.
Wargamer's Digest - Volume 1, Number 7 (May 1974)
This issue contains SWORDS AND SORCERY — IN WARGAMING written by Gary Gygax.
Wargamers Digest Volume 2, #8 (June 1975)
This issue contains a D&D play report called The Magician's Ring by Gary Gygax.
Wargamer’s Newsletter #16 (November 1971)
This issue contains a play report of a Chainmail battle called the Battle of the Brown Hills. While not technically D&D, it was written by Gary Gygax.
I have been looking through old Diplomacy fanzines for examples of early fan-made OD&D content. There is a website called the Postal Diplomacy Zine Archive that has scans of many diplomacy fanzines, but it is a little overwhelming trying to go through them all. I started with some titles that were mentioned in Dragon Magazine / Strategic Review, or titles that were mentioned on the Web, etc. If anyone knows of any other fanzines I should look through, that would help narrow my search. If you know of any specific issues (rather than just titles), that would be even more helpful. A summary of D&D content would be even better, and actual links to fanzines online would be above and beyond.
Below, I will summarize what I have found so far. I do not necessarily note very mention of D&D – for example, “I heard of this new game called D&D” or “I played D&D last weekend” with no actual details. What I am interested in is play reports showing how people actually played D&D in the early days, variant rules, rules additions, or rule interpretations, new character classes, monsters, races, etc. (basically, any substantial D&D content).
Most of the fanzines listed below can be found at this link:
whiningkentpigs.com/DW/kent/diplomacyzinearchive.htm
I should also note that for the purpose of this post, I have been exclusively focusing on less well known fanzines (particularly Diplomacy related), rather than more well known fanzines such as Alarums & Excursions.
El Conquistador (September 1975)
This issue contains THE EXPEDITION INTO THE BLACK RESERVOIR: A DUNGEON ADVENTURE AT GREYHAWK CASTLE, by Gary Gygax
GIGO #2 (March 1975?)
This issue describes a D&D game held at Boskone Con
GIGO #3 (1975)
This issue contains a D&D play report from LUNACON, where Greg Costikyan was DM.
GIGO #4 September 21, 1975 (some was also in Pocket Armenian #19/20, August 30, 1975)
There are several different play reports of D&D games held at DipCon. It is mentioned that Gary Gygax was DM for a wilderness expedition at the convention, but unfortunately no one wrote this up. Maybe someone else has details on this?
Great Plains Game Players Newsletter #7 (April 1975)
This issue contains a story called The Giant's Bag, a Greyhawk Adventure by Gary Gygax.
Liaisons Dangereuse #62 (September 9, 1975) by Gary Gygax and Len Lakofka
This issue contains a play report that is more properly a play report of Len Lakofka’s miniatures fantasy game. It is a D&D inspired miniatures battle report, which may be of interest (it was to me). Lakofka’s rules are described in Dragon Magazine #1 as well as this fanzine. You will note lots of similarities, including spell names, etc. It is set in Middle Earth. Note that while all D&D articles in this fanzine were supposedly co-written by Gygax, online sources indicate that Lakofka wrote them solo, crediting Gygax as the creator of D&D.
Liaisons Dangereuse #64 (November 5, 1975) by Gary Gygax and Len Lakofka
Just like the above, this issue contains a play report of Len Lakofka’s miniatures fantasy game. It is also set in Middle Earth.
Liaisons Dangereuse #70 (April 28, 1976) by Gary Gygax and Len Lakofka
“This issue has a short article by Gary that talks about how D&D and the first two supplements did.” This summary quote comes from this site, which also has links to this and other D&D issues of this fanzine:
blog.retroroleplaying.com/2009/09/1976-od-articles-by-gary-gygax-and-len.html
Liaisons Dangereuse #72 (July 17, 1976) by Gary Gygax and Len Lakofka
This issue has “Women and Magic by Gary and Len. This appears to be an early version of The Dragon article.”
Liaisons Dangereuse #73 (August 18, 1976) by Gary Gygax and Len Lakofka
This issue “includes expanding the combat tables in D&D and a long article about dungeon doors and some other material about the Blackmoor campaign.” Personally, I did not see any information about Blackmoor.
Liaisons Dangereuse #74 (September 27, 1976) by Gary Gygax and Len Lakofka
This issue “has an article by Len and Gary (called) The Pyrologist: a Study in Magic – a fire mage subclass for D&D. Also Capture and Bondage in D&D – rules for tying people up. Errata for some previous D&D articles.”
Liaisons Dangereuse #75 (November 17, 1976) by Len Lakofka and Gary Gygax
This issue contains a D&D play report. It also has “an article by Len and Gary on Scrying in Dungeons & Dragons.”
Liaisons Dangereuse #76 (December 14, 1976) by Len Lakofka and Gary Gygax
This issue “has an article by Len and Gary entitled Dwarfs & Hobbits & Magic with magic-using classes for dwarfs and hobbits.”
Liaisons Dangereuse #77 (January 26, 1977) by Len Lakofka and Gary Gygax
This issue has faint, hard to read details on either D&D or Lakofka’s fantasy miniatures game. It has “an unreadably light article on Metamorphosis Alpha and an article by Gary and Len on Special Damage in Dungeons & Dragons.”
Mixumaxu Gazette #35 (June 28, 1975)
Robert Bryan Lipton mentions some of his D&D characters (brief mention).
Mixumaxu Gazette #36 (July 19, 1975)
This issue has a play report involving Stephen Tihor’s dungeon.
Mixumaxu Gazette #37 (August 9, 1975)
This issue has another play report involving Stephen Tihor’s dungeon.
Mixumaxu Gazette #38 (August 30, 1975)
This issue mentions an incident from Stephen Tihor/Scott Rosenberg’s joint campaign.
Mixumaxu Gazette #39 (September 20, 1975)
This issue has a brief D&D play report.
Mixumaxu Gazette #41 (November 1, 1975)
This issue has a D&D play report. There are also details of a new character type (not quite a character class, more of special ability) called Son of the Star, something like a Lawful quasi-religious saint.
Mixumaxu Gazette #43 (January 3, 1976)
There are two D&D play reports and a new monster called a Smoky Dragon.
Mixumaxu Gazette #44 (January 24, 1976)
There is a D&D play report involving a PC’s failed attempt to rob a bank.
Mixumaxu Gazette #46 (March 6, 1976)
This issue contains a follow up to an article from Alarums & Excursions #6 about Hokas (from the book Earthman’s Burden by Poul Anderson & Gordon Dickson). It is a new character class for NPCs, or PCs if you are so inclined.
Mixumaxu Gazette #47 (March 27, 1976)
This issue contains D&D three D&D play reports from Princeton Convention (PrinceCon 1). Incidentally, you can find the PrinceCon “Con Books” at the link below. I have not had a chance to read them yet, but a quick skim shows that they are house rules for D&D used at the convention. The spell system in particular seems to have been modified. www.princecon.org/con-books/
Mixumaxu Gazette #57 (October 23, 1976)
This issue is specifically marked as the “D&D Issue.” There are several different D&D play reports, a D&D inspired short story, and some essays / articles on D&D. Sadly, at the time I write this the link provided at the Diplomacy Zine Archive is broken. Luckily, those interested can find it at Archive.org using the following link: archive.org/details/The_Mixumaxu_Gazette_57-1976-10
I have not explored this site, so there may be other interesting fanzines here.
Mixumaxu Gazette #59 (December 5, 1976)
There is a brief D&D mention in this issue.
Mixumaxu Gazette #71 (September 4, 1977)
This issue contains some stories about Gen Con X. There are a few details of a D&D game played there, but mostly the write-up is about the author’s misadventures getting to the convention, getting a hotel room, finding places to eat, and he and his friends running around the convention with water guns.
The Pocket Armenian #17 (July 11, 1975) by Greg Costyikan
This issue has a number of new monsters that are basically spoofs of personalities involved in the postal Diplomacy community. There are some new magic items that also seem like inside jokes. It is doubtful that any of this was meant to be taken seriously.
The Pocket Armenian #21 (September 20, 1975) and & #22 (October 11, 1975) by Matthew Diller
These two issues contain parts 1 & 2 for Insanity Rules for D&D. OD&D is full of mishaps that cause characters to go insane, but vague as to what this means in game terms. These rules, while not perfect, provide some interesting examples of insanity to inflict on your PCs or NPC.
Pocket Armenian #27 by Peter Swanson (February 21, 1976)
This issue contains a D&D play report.
Urf Durfal #8 December 1975
This issue contains details about a D&D campaign, including some features of the world, some organizations, and character exploits. It seems like most of the PCs were in trouble with the law for various reasons (all detailed).
Urf Durfal #9 March 15, 1976
This issue contains more brief details of the author’s D&D campaign world.
Wargamer's Digest - Volume 1, Number 7 (May 1974)
This issue contains SWORDS AND SORCERY — IN WARGAMING written by Gary Gygax.
Wargamers Digest Volume 2, #8 (June 1975)
This issue contains a D&D play report called The Magician's Ring by Gary Gygax.
Wargamer’s Newsletter #16 (November 1971)
This issue contains a play report of a Chainmail battle called the Battle of the Brown Hills. While not technically D&D, it was written by Gary Gygax.
