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Post by Zenopus on Feb 7, 2017 9:25:23 GMT -6
As the " crab spider", and even "giant crab spider", exist as names in the real world, another possibility to consider is that Kuntz and Moldvay independently created their own versions.
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Post by Zenopus on Feb 3, 2017 0:12:21 GMT -6
Dave Megarry has recently located a copy of the 1971 Great Kingdom Map. This is a version of the same map that Jon Peterson gave us a glimpse of a few years ago, and is a later version of the Great Kingdom map published in Domesday Book #9. You can see a scan of this map here and read my notes about it, vis-a-vis the published setting: Megarry's Copy of the Great Kingdom MapEdit: Added a picture of the map here. If you are wondering where the City of Greyhawk is on his map, it isn't shown because presumably it hadn't been created when this map was drawn - or because the map doesn't indicate most cities. It would most likely be located near the south corner of the Nyr Dyv, slightly up river.
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Pg. 14
Jan 28, 2017 13:29:07 GMT -6
Post by Zenopus on Jan 28, 2017 13:29:07 GMT -6
One clue that it is a later addition is that it is by Tom Wham. Most of his D&D artwork is from 1977 (Holmes Basic Set, Monster Manual), when he was a TSR staff artist. After that he got into producing his games and didn't create much D&D art (there is one later Polyhedron cover I can think).
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 27, 2017 19:25:17 GMT -6
Has anyone ever noticed the illustration on pg 14? It appears to show a thief attempting to pick the magic-user's pocket before the class was officially introduced... That illustration was actually added in 1977 to replace the Balrog entry! The art was recycled from the 1977 Character Record Sheets, which you can see here: www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/miscpages/character.html
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 15, 2017 0:39:10 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 10, 2017 13:16:33 GMT -6
Oh, and the new PDF has bookmarks. Which printing of 3rd Ed. is it? Hobbitses and Balrogs or not? The copyright page says 3rd Edition, copyright 1975, and 7th printing, April 1979. So no Hobbitses, my precious.
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 10, 2017 7:37:50 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 8, 2017 10:57:03 GMT -6
Thanks for the info! They usually add new releases on Tuesdays.
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 7, 2017 18:07:29 GMT -6
Great! I'm looking forward to learning more about of the Egg of Coot. One of my earliest D&D memories is reading the Foreword to Holmes Basic (which reprinted the one from OD&D):
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 7, 2017 17:37:12 GMT -6
Yes, that's an encouraging sign! I believe the same type of activity was noticed just before they started selling old school pdfs again.
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 7, 2017 17:26:25 GMT -6
What did you think of Maze of Peril? You should read the Boinger and Zereth Dragon magazine stories now. I'm currently reading a "Holmes" story - The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer, who later directed the Wrath of Khan. Also watching the new season of Sherlock on PBS.
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Post by Zenopus on Dec 28, 2016 16:32:20 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Dec 16, 2016 22:24:27 GMT -6
Chirine Ba Kal (who used to post here) noted in a comment here that the Bill mentioned in the auction is Bill Hoyt, one of the original Blackmoor players and known by Gronan ( here's a pic of them together at Gary Con). This led me to find that Bill's students' pamphlet (included as an extra in the auction) was mentioned in The Strategic Review #3, Fall 1975. This was the precursor to Dragon magazine. It was in the column Mapping the Dungeons, which is uncredited but probably by Gary Gygax, who was the editor: "John Bobek and Bill Hoyt have used D&D as a teaching aid in grade school classes. Bill has a great little book of accounts of adventures and illustrations of monsters prepared by his 6th graders. Wish I’d have had such luck as a child..."
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Post by Zenopus on Dec 16, 2016 21:33:00 GMT -6
Ring Mail, Scale Mail, Banded Mail, et al, are from Sir Samuel Rush Meyerick's "A critical enquiry into antient armour as it existed in Europe". Thanks for the lead, Gronan. I hadn't heard of that source before. I see it's the first reference that Ffoulkes (1909) cites in his list for further reading (pg 10). I found on Amazon there's an inexpensive Dover book that collects all of the color plates from "A critical enquiry..." www.amazon.com/Meyricks-Medieval-Knights-Military-History/dp/0486457516I understand. I'm okay with some flavorful made-up armor types in my D&D to go along with the Salamanders, Platinum Pieces & Animated Brooms.
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Post by Zenopus on Dec 14, 2016 14:16:47 GMT -6
We often think of Gygaxian armor types such as Padded Armor, Studded Leather, Splint Mail and Banded Mail as AD&D-isms, but they actually appeared back in Chainmail in the Man-to-Man table: While only Leather, Chain and Plate appeared in OD&D, the AD&D Monster Manual, which uses the original AC system (unarmored AC 9) gives us a few clues for adapting additional armor types to OD&D. Halflings: "The usual protection ... consists of padded or leather armor", with an AC of 7. Wood Elf: "They usually wear studded leather or ring mail (AC 6)". Gnomes: "...armored with leather armor which is ringed or well studded with metal and shield ( armor class 5)". These differ from their AD&D counterparts in the Players Handbook Book, showing they were conceived for the original AC system. Thus, if adapting the additional AD&D types to OD&D or Holmes Basic, one might use: Padded Armor: AC 7, MV 9", 10 GP Leather Armor: AC 7, MV 12", 15 GP Studded Leather: AC 6, MV 9", 20 GP Ring Mail: AC 6, MV 9", 20 GP Scale Mail: AC 5, MV 6", 25 GP Chain Mail: AC 5, MV 9", 30 GP Splint Mail: AC 4, MV 6", 40 GP Banded Mail: AC 4, MV 9", 45 GP Plate Mail: AC 3, MV 6", 50 GP Plate Armor: AC 2, MV 9", 200 GP The AC & prices for Leather/Chain/Plate come from the original list in OD&D and Holmes Basic. In AD&D, there's little functional difference between Studded Leather and Ring, other than Ring being slightly heavier and costing twice as much, so I made them identical on this chart. One practical use for this table in OD&D might be in adapting AD&D modules containing these armor types. Extracted from a post I made here, which also includes an illustration of the AD&D armor types plus the corresponding DMG descriptions: zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2016/12/gygaxian-armor.html
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Post by Zenopus on Dec 11, 2016 18:22:59 GMT -6
Nice list. This season of Marvel's Agents of Shield has been prominently featuring the Darkhold, an evil grimoire. It goes back to 1972 in the actual comics. In OD&D, there's the Codex of the Infinite Planes, an artifact described in Eldritch Wizardry (and then in revised form in the 1E DMG).
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Post by Zenopus on Dec 1, 2016 7:48:35 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Nov 29, 2016 7:28:42 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Nov 22, 2016 8:29:12 GMT -6
As TPD hinted to, from what I understand, it's a question of demand - on the different oldschool PDF stores, late 2e usually seems to do best. Pre-1981 stuff was not available for many years, back when SVGames (?) still did the PDF sales, and now, with POD, I expect the process to be about the same. If we will get POD versions of the old supplements, at all, I expect it to be way later. That said, I'm happy if I'm wrong. I think you may be right. The first release last week had one 1981 product (L1 Secret of Bone Hill) and some others from a few years later in the '80s, but this week the oldest is from 1992, and the others are all from later editions: This week's D&D listThe oldest item is one of the Thunder Rift modules, Assault on Raven's Ruin. This was the last line of Basic D&D modules. A good choice for print-on-demand because they came with fold-up minis and poster map, which are often missing from second hand copies and drive up the prices. It will be interesting to see how they handle these. Will they be bound directly into the product? If so, you'll have to cut out several pages from your printed copy to use them. The pdf scan looks nice but doesn't show the minis or map.
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Post by Zenopus on Nov 20, 2016 10:57:57 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Nov 20, 2016 9:45:27 GMT -6
Nice work. I like how you broke down the Chimera, Hydras and Balrogs to separate lines. You could also add in some of the humanoid leader types. It's limited in OD&D versus later editions, but Hobgoblin leaders fight as Ogres and Gnoll leaders fight as Trolls.
Another consideration: you don't list any special characteristics, such as Merman fighting at -1 on land, Troll regneration etc. Without this information, the DM will still need to consult the rulebook during a game.
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Post by Zenopus on Nov 15, 2016 23:49:03 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Nov 11, 2016 8:36:51 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Nov 10, 2016 18:48:07 GMT -6
Interesting. The "Spell Points", sixteen levels of spells are interesting, Appearance stat, and "True Name" are distinctive.
It's not from the Arduin Adventure (1980), which adds Agility and Ego but not Appearance, and has a different sheet in the rulebook.
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Post by Zenopus on Nov 7, 2016 17:25:09 GMT -6
The link may not be working correctly for others. But there are 417 items previously owned by Holmes that Billy Galaxy has listed right now. Many more have already sold over the last few years. You won't see his name in the auction unless you search within the auction description. All of the listings have this text (or something similar):
I've bought a few random things from the auctions including a painted Minifig Mythical Earth "Frog Man", a collection of E. C. Tubb Dumarest paperbacks, and a signed & dated (1977!) copy of the "The Knight Tales of Sir Gawain".
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Post by Zenopus on Nov 6, 2016 23:29:01 GMT -6
Heh, another Portlander here... Keep it weird, Frank! J. Eric Holmes lived in the Portland area for the last 20 years or so of his life, until he passed away in 2010. He was retired at that point but I believe he taught classes at one of the schools in the area for a while. Billy Galaxy Toys in downtown Portland has been selling off much of his collected books, magazines, toys, miniatures, etc for the last few years on Ebay.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 31, 2016 22:25:53 GMT -6
I like your ideas. Writing your own take on the thief is sort of an OSR master class. Surprise on 1-3. This gives the thief a surprise attack. There's some support for this in the write-up of the monk in Blackmoor: An ability to appraise Gems/Jewelry. When such is found, the DM tells the thief secretly what the value is. They can share this info or not with the party.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 23, 2016 13:50:03 GMT -6
I myself never played D&D with my dad...I wonder what this will mean for our kids as they grow older. Its a different draw for them (At least mine). Sure they like for all the reasons we did. But there's the added factor of spending time with dad that is so cool. Listen to Tkdco2, don't wait too long. There is a special feeling when your 16 year old daughter asks when you're going to play again... This is an interesting point, and reflects my experiences as well. My dad had read Lord of the Rings, and read me some fantastic literature (John Christopher's Tripods Trilogy left a strong impression), but I never played D&D with him or even really wanted to. It was just for my peer group. But as a parent I myself introduced my son to simple D&D concepts when he was four, starting with storytelling with B2 and then progressing to Dungeon, Lego Heroica and solo D&D using the Heroica pieces as minis. In the last year I've been running a periodic D&D game for him and his cousins when we get together. So he's growing up playing D&D with his father, completely different from myself.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 21, 2016 19:52:45 GMT -6
Similarly, different characters might "save" in different ways. While a thief might jump out of the way of a magical ray, a fighter could pick up the body of an enemy to use as a shield, whereas a wizard could quickly mutter a counter spell. Keeping the mechanic vague allows the DM (and players) to narrate the successful save in as many ways as they can imagine. Good point. In another reality we would have had a "Luck Roll" instead of a "Saving Throw".
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 19, 2016 20:54:17 GMT -6
Elves -> Serpent-men (ancient race, now rare, warriors and wizards) Dwarves -> Mole-men (think Naked Mole Rats) Halflings -> Fox-men (tricksters ala Reynard) Orcs -> Ape-men (per Rogues in the House with optional advance Planet of the Apes types in distant land) Goblinoids (Goblins-Hobgoblins-Bugbears) -> Bug-men of various sizes Edit: Added a few more details
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