The Ryth Chronicle

[kesher]

The Ryth Chronicle

We need to keep digging up the past of this game! You guys out there who are even older than me--ransack you basements, garages and attics! I want more!


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Moderator Notes:

10/29/17 Update. Kesher's link above goes to "The Ryth Chronicle Post" on the Fantasy Game Blog, post dated 6/11/12, and which is still available.

However, that post in turn linked to a post on the Risus Monkey blog, which no longer exists. But the post is archived at the Internet Archive:

Ryth Chronicle 1975-1977 - 6/21/11 - includes a link for downloading the pdf, also archived.

Rythlonder.pdf - direct link for downloading the Ryth Chronicle pdf from Internet Archive


Other posts on Ryth at Risus Monkey, now archived at the Internet Archive:

Fascinating Artifact From 1975-1977 - 6/17/11 (the first post about Ryth on Risus Monkey)

Ryth and the Expeditionary Campaign - 6/23/11

Ryth Followup: A Solid Ending - 7/7/11

Ryth Chronicle Number 10 (update) - 7/11/11

Ryth Q&A - 7/12/11

Ryth Q&A Part 2 - 7/20/11

Your Ryth Questions Answered - 11/12/11

Ryth XP Follow-Up - 11/14/11

Return to Ryth - 3/19/12


6/18/20 Update. Don't miss this related material posted later in this thread:

D&D In the News (1976): Fazzle on the Ryth: a post on the Playing at the World blog about a 1976 newspaper article in the Detroit Free Press about the group behind Ryth; includes a scan of an earlier version of the map of Rythlondar from a zine.

Zulgyan's pdf compilation of "all the Rythlondar materials into one document, with a cover featuring a "non-related" pic, but thematically appropriate".

---Zenopus

[Fandomaniac]

I agree with Kesher! If anyone could provide any additional information or content, that would be FAN-tastic! ;D

[aldarron]

Personally, I love the character sheets, especially the bit for keeping a weekly track of income/expenses and exp.

[kesher]

There's just too much good stuff in there. I'm going to do a cover-to-cover on my blog starting in the next few days. Hopefully the authors will stop by and comment...

[ragnorakk]

I grabbed it but haven't had a chance to read through. I look forward to it!

[xerxez]

Thanks for sharing this. It is very insightful and sounds like some folks had a blast!

[Zenopus]

Perhaps everyone knows this, but it's not really made clear in that blog post (or the Risus post) that John Van De Graaf is the co-author (along with Laurie Van De Graaf) of the TSR module O1 The Gem and the Staff (1983, for the D&D Expert Set), and the earlier tournament version Quest for the Fazzlewood (1978, which I presume was written for OD&D, so of particular interest to this board).

"Quest for the Fazzlewood was published by Metro Detroit Gamers, who also published Lost Caverns of Tsojconth. It was used as a tournament module at Wintercon VII in 1978, and later publicly released (probably in very small quantities). The module was expanded (and many of the names inside were changed) into O1 Gem and the Staff by TSR in the mid-1980's."

O1 at the Acaeum

It would be interesting to compare the Ryth Chronicles to the module, particular the Fazzlewood version (since many names were changed in the later version). Of course, Fazzlewood is extremely rare & expensive so it may be difficult to find someone willing to do this.

[aldarron]

Jun 24, 2011 7:37:07 GMT -6 Zenopus said:

Of course, Fazzlewood is extremely rare & expensive so it may be difficult to find someone willing to do this.

Yes, but Fazzlewood is great for kitchen cabinets, particularly when finished with Bleakwood oil....

<ducks>

Thanks for the info Zen

[Valandil]

I agree. This is pure gold. Last week I started playing WB again after a four month hiatus, and seeing this awesome texts inspired me to start my own "cronicle". I shamelessly copied the "report" format (and the Adventurers Index as well):

"Sir PlateMail the First lead a group of 12 adventurers... fought orcs, two harpies, and some skeletons... retrieved 2.000 gp and a magic wand, four died... etc"

We just played one session, but in case anyone wants to take a look here it is (its in spanish).

[kesher]

Val, that's great!

Google even translated the page pretty decently. Well, except where it translated "elfo" (even I got that one!) to "The Buddha"...

All the artwork you have for your posts looks like it's from the same hands--are they yours?

[Valandil]

Thanks kesher!

I wish I could draw like that! No, they're from an excellent oldie PC game called Majesty 1, wich (and I apologize for the off-topic here) is about playing in a D&D world, as the Sovereign. You send heroes to fulfill quests, explore the lay of the land, raid monster lairs, reward them with gold, they go up in levels, get items, its awesome, and pretty old school too. You can check it out in Wikipedia, or google it. You can download the images that you saw on the blog here.

[kesher]

I've just posted the first installment of a cover-to-cover of the Ryth Chronicle on my blog:

Ryth Chronicle Cover-to-Cover #1

[kesher]

John Van De Graff replied to my initial post questions over at Risus Monkey

[DungeonDevil]

Wonderful investigations.
I found it surprising that they found CM complicated. *shock* Other than the awful post melee morale bit it's not all that bad.

[kesher]

Well, as he mentions, none of them came from a wargaming background nor, of course, had anyone ever heard of a role playing game before. I think the odds were stacked against them in terms of understanding the Chainmail fantasy combat system...

[tombowings]

I always found the mass combat chart in the back very difficult to understand until it was explained to me on these boards. I think there is a lot of knowledge here that we for granted sometimes.

[kesher]

Absolutely! It's hard to estimate the impact of prior knowledge in this context. I know it's taken me years to shed deeply embedded game assumptions when thinking about/playing ODD.

And, if there's one thing that the Ryth Chronicle cements for me, it's the there was never, ever, an actual "Original Edition".

[kesher]

Ryth Chronicle Cover-to-Cover #2

[Valandil]

Great posts Kesher

[kesher]

Thanks! It gets even better once we get to the actual expedition summaries...

[badger2305]

Kudoes to Kesher for picking this up; I have a set of the Ryth Chronicles from quite a few years ago when I contacted John directly and asked if he still had any issues.

One of the things I am struck by is the importance of gameplay as the vehicle for world development. I mean, what you have along the River Ryth is a series of dungeons, each of them developed by members of John and Len's group, most of them starting off as players. So the entire "world" was essentially a shared enterprise - with a result that possibly looked like what Jeff Rients was talking about awhile ago.

[DungeonDevil]

That sounds quite possibly the way things were run with Arneson's Blackmoor, if I understand things correctly. That idea of a campaign being the result of multiple contributors (and not just the product of the Referee's creation) is a concept that I have taken to heart with the development of my own campaign of late.

[badger2305]

Jul 21, 2011 10:32:13 GMT -6 DungeonDevil said:

That idea of a campaign being the result of multiple contributors (and not just the product of the Referee's creation) is a concept that I have taken to heart with the development of my own campaign of late.

Well, hmm. Not sure what you mean. I think something to remember is that while the entire "campaign" had this shared background, each dungeon was a particular referee's creation and they each ran them autonomously. I rather doubt there was a great deal of shared development of the background, except as it struck people's fancy or was required as part of resolving circumstances created by adventures in one or another dungeon.

[aldarron]

I think DD's refering to sections of the map and of history being developed by the players, like Stephen Rocheford coming up with the idea behind the Temple of the Frog or Greg Svenson creating Tonisborg.

[badger2305]

So I was cleaning up some old paperwork - this happens when you and your significant other recombine households after graduate school - and I chanced across this letter from John Van De Graaf to me, dated June 20, 1988.

This would've been John's response to my initial query for back issues of the Ryth Chronicle. I've taken the liberty of masking John's contact information, so as to avoid the massive hordes of fans beating a path to his door.

That having been said, I hope that John doesn't mind my posting his letter since I believe it helps illuminate some of what is found in the Ryth Chronicle. Enjoy!

Attachments:

[coffee]

Aug 5, 2011 15:26:20 GMT -6 badger2305 said:

So I was cleaning up some old paperwork - this happens when you and your significant other recombine households after graduate school - and I chanced across this letter from John Van De Graaf to me, dated June 20, 1988.

This would've been John's response to my initial query for back issues of the Ryth Chronicle. I've taken the liberty of masking John's contact information, so as to avoid the massive hordes of fans beating a path to his door.

That having been said, I hope that John doesn't mind my posting his letter since I believe it helps illuminate some of what is found in the Ryth Chronicle. Enjoy!

Very spiffy, Victor!

Have an exalt for bringing this to us.

[DungeonDevil]

That's a great letter. Very informative. I thought it was humorous that he thought hp increases made a PC 'fatter'.

[Falconer]

Fascinating read.

[Falconer]

I find it interesting the disdain he expresses towards OD&D, there. How common was it by 1977 to feel like D&D was wholly inadequate, and either the group should switch to something like C&S or else do a homebrew from the ground up? The irony is that OD&D spurred them to AMAZING creativity in the first place, not to mention incredibly successful campaigns (30 active players??). Perhaps it’s only in hindsight that we can appreciate OD&D’s shortcomings as actually being strengths.

[DungeonDevil]

Well, you'd have to admit that the OD&D booklets look rather hastily thrown-together. I too was startled by the letter's mention of a campaign with scores of participants. Hard to believe one community would have so many interested parties! I doubt there are 30 RPGers in this entire state (MO).