Vintage 1977 Dungeon Map in Geomorphs style

[Zenopus]

This jaw-dropping dungeon map, tagged "Holmes 1977", is attracting a lot of attention over in the r/DnD subreddit, here. You can see a larger view of the map if you over there and click on the image.

Here are the comments that I posted over there:

I love the dense map and minimal key; it's even more extreme than Gygax's Castle Greyhawk dungeons! It demonstrates how you can set up an enormous level without the stocking getting out of hand.

The first edition of Holmes Basic set, released in July 1977, included Set 1 of the Dungeon Geomorphs and a Monster & Treasure Assortment, because the first Basic module had not been published yet. This wouldn't change until the second edition in late 1978. So, if this dungeon is from 1977 or 1978, the style probably reflects the influence of the Dungeons Geomorphs included in that set, which were similarly filled with rooms and corridors with paper-thin walls.

The notes mention the alignment "Lawful Evil", which was first properly introduced into D&D in the Holmes rulebook.

At least two monsters are mentioned that are not in Holmes, the Stone Golem and Succubus, so either the mapper also had either the Greyhawk (Golems) & Eldritch Wizardry (Succubus) OD&D supplements, or the Monster Manual, which came out the last week of 1977.

And my guess is that the "r" in the majority of the room is for "random"; i.e., random monster/treasure. Note the circled "r" is annotated at the bottom as "All creatures must be lawful evil"; i.e., the random monster here must be lawful evil.

The bowling alley in the Southwest corner may reflect the influence of Original D&D Vol 3, which mentioned that Castle Greyhawk included, among other things, "a bowling alley for 20' high Giants" (page 4).

The tiny "Dragon Lair", which is marked D on the map, is in the northeast quadrant (sort of a Where's Waldo on this map). Assuming the squares are 10' to a side, then the lair, which is laid out on the diagonal, is all of about 14' by 14' feet in size!

[Vile Traveller]

It's pretty crazy, although I have to admit I never liked this style of dungeon (cue the "walls like paper" scene from The Man With Two Brains). There were clearly key 'designed' parts of the dungeon, with lots of random filler rooms. You can kind of work out some of the DM's plan - judging from the mark-up ("S" for "searched?) they didn't get to those bits. Story of every home brewer DM's life!

[Deleted]

Apparently the S is for Succubus if we go by the key at the bottom. What a wild place.

[Vile Traveller]

Apr 2, 2022 18:05:33 GMT -6 @ampleframework said:

Apparently the S is for Succubus if we go by the key at the bottom. What a wild place.

Yeah but I think that only applies to the (one?) pencil "S". I reckon the pen mark-ups near the entrance were done during play.

[geoffrey]

While that dungeon level might not be my cup of tea, one has to respect just how real it is. That's some D&D love right there.

[doublejig2]

With a different map key, it could readily function as a densely populated city state.

[bobjester0e]

It could really be just ONE succubus, encountered over & over again. I'm beginning to understand exactly what kind of dungeon this might have been...

[cometaryorbit]

Apr 2, 2022 14:57:09 GMT -6 Zenopus said:

The tiny "Dragon Lair", which is marked D on the map, is in the northeast quadrant (sort of a Where's Waldo on this map). Assuming the squares are 10' to a side, then the lair, which is laid out on the diagonal, is all of about 14' by 14' feet in size!

Hopefully it's a young dragon...

--

Wow, that's a lot of rooms! You don't see that map style much except in the earliest dungeons.

[muddy]

My early dungeons were always like that. Until one player knew there HAD to be a secret door and some rooms because I never left empty space on the page. Back i the day that small square graph paper was like the Holy Grail for those kinds of maps.