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Post by Zenopus on Jan 29, 2022 10:31:56 GMT -6
Trying to put myself in that 1977 head space: Human cloning was a major bioethics issue in the 1970s! For example James D. Watson's famous 1971 article in The Atlantic, titled "Moving Toward The Clonal Man"I betcha George Lucas read Watson's article in the Atlantic during the time he was writing Star Wars. Yes, cloning was very much in the popular culture in the 1970s. Widespread enough that we got a Clone spell in Greyhawk in 1975. Dune was obviously a huge influence on the first Star Wars movie with its desert planet setting and mention of spice, and Dune has its own version of a clone, a ghola, which first featured in 1969's Dune Messiah. Several years before Star Wars there was even a 1973 sci-fi movie called The Clones. Just after Star Wars, in 1978, we have an episode of the live action Spider-Man show called Night of the Clones where he battles his own evil clone (I remember watching this), and the Boys from Brazil, with a plot revolving around cloning. The very 1970s plot twist of having Luke battle his own clone was used by Zahn in the Thrawn trilogy.
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 29, 2022 10:18:47 GMT -6
I trained as a biologist, work in an adjacent field.
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 25, 2022 14:55:58 GMT -6
The thoul has two lines of invention: the name, which is known to be created by a typo; and the interpretation of what the monster actually was, which as far as I know is still not fully discovered and could have been anyone's invention. If you see my notes above about the Mangroll, it looks like Moldvay used characteristics from the Mangroll from their campaign in creating the version of the thoul for B/X. This would suggest that there wasn't a standard version in play at TSR at the time; or at least Gygax hadn't shared his version (if it existed) with them. James Mishler noted in the Piazza thread that that item and several others (Hawk Helm, Ring of Ruthlessness) are copied almost word-for-word from the Arduin Grimoire Vol 1. It appears the handwritten material was written out by Bill Wilkerson rather than Moldvay or Schick.
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 22, 2022 17:49:30 GMT -6
Interestingly, the Mangroll in the Moldvay/Schick/Wilkerson notes (page 34 of the compilation) shares several characteristics with the Thoul of Moldvay Basic. Notably, they are composed of three monsters, "part troll, part human, part ghoul"; two of these are the same as the thoul (troll and ghoul). They also paralyze and regenerate like thouls can do. A big difference is the Mangrolls have tentacle arms, whereas Thouls instead resemble hobgoblins. Page 55 of the compilation also has "Thoulls" on the Fourth Level table, but there doesn't seem to be a further description of them, perhaps because it was just taken from the OD&D tables.
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 22, 2022 16:57:02 GMT -6
Look at the wild "Wandering Dungeon Parties" (page 62 of the compiled doc assembled by Shannon Appelcline)
A few examples:
1st Level = Minotaur Fighter, Bugbear MU/T, Goblin Fighter, 5 Fighters
4th level = Hobbit MU, Lizard-Man Cleric, 6 fighters, 2 clerics, 2 MUs
5th level = Turtle-Man F/MU, 2 Dwarf fighters, 6 fighters, 3 MUs.
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 21, 2022 15:19:59 GMT -6
Holy Thyatis, Batman!
Thanks for the heads up, Falc.
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 19, 2022 18:34:47 GMT -6
Much as Sauron was Morgoth's lieutenant, and stepped in to fill the power vacuum once he was gone, you could have a lieutenant of Sauron's attempting to take over his remaining forces/assets after he is gone.
Possibilities: -Mouth of Sauron, Lieutenant of Barad-Dur (or another Black Numenorean) -Gothmog, Lieutenant of Morgul (only briefly mentioned once in LOTR) -A Balrog that Sauron unearthed from beneath the Mountains of Mordor -Blue Wizard(s) -An Uruk Hai or Olog Hai Chieftain -Some kind of military mastermind from afar (the East in LOTR) like Thrawn in the SW Expanded Universe.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 23, 2021 15:59:04 GMT -6
In the Sources and Acknowledgements, Jon lists at least 25 people who helped make the book possible through "interviews and conversations", and these are all people who were there at the time (Ward, Schick, Cook, Ernie Gygax, etc).
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 23, 2021 15:44:33 GMT -6
I can still remember when my dad came home from the library with an early hardcover copy of the "Third Planet from Altair":  I think this was around 3rd grade, and before I had discovered D&D, so it was as significant life event for me from a "gaming" perspective. I loved it, and soon after read others in the series, mostly paperbacks from the library. I later enjoyed the Time Machine and Interplanetary Spy series, the latter of which had a lot of puzzles to solve as part of the story. Around the time I was getting into D&D, I also discovered the Endless Quest books, although I only really remember the first four, and one or two of the Super Endless Quest books I later had (where you had a character). I only every found one Fighting Fantasy book (City of Thieves), at our local library, so I never really got into those, but I loved the long-running Lone Wolf/Magnakai series. I think I played through most of the original 12 books. But best of all were the Tolkien Quest/Middle-Earth Quest gamebooks, some of which were the pinnacle '80s gamebook design, with hex maps to explore, events based on tracked time, a character you could bring from book-to-book, and essentially an entire simple 2d6-based RPG system. I played through 5 of 6 of those (I could never find the 6th) with a dwarf named Fori I; I still have his character sheet around here somewhere.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 23, 2021 15:38:35 GMT -6
A few "data points":
Chainmail, 2nd Edition refers to "Tolkien's trilogy" in the entry for Rocs
In "Fantasy Wargaming and the Influence of J.R.R. Tolkien" (1974), Gygax calls it "Tolkien's "Ring Trilogy""
In the Basic Set rulebook, Holmes calls it "Tolkien's great Lord of the Rings trilogy"
In the Appendix N list of the DMG, it's "Ring Trilogy".
In the revised Basic set rulebook, Moldvay calls it the "Lord of the Rings (trilogy)".
* * * *
I'd say it's natural to shorthand "Lord of the Rings trilogy" down to "Rings Trilogy", but that sounds little weird when you say it out loud, so it's further easy to switch to "Ring Trilogy", particularly because the first book also uses the singular ("Fellowship of the Ring").
Nowadays we are more aware that Tolkien thought of it as one long book, so we are more likely to refer to it as just "Lord of the Rings" without appending trilogy.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 21, 2021 13:17:40 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 20, 2021 6:52:12 GMT -6
Nice writeup- Dr. Holmes sure went all in when he decided to try out D&D.  Maybe better for another topic, but has Chris indicated whether his Dad adopted any/much of the Warlock rules to his games as they were starting out? Delayed reply, but I believe they used much of the Warlock rules when they started. Holmes mentions using the combat system in his book, and Chris has referenced the damage system (multiple d6s for variable damage). There are also references to specific spells from Warlock in Holmes' writing, and in some artifacts that have been preserved, like Murray the Magic-User's character sheet. Eric Frasier, who played Murray, still has his original Warlock rules (the Spartan magazine version) and Manual of Aurania; you can see a picture here.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 19, 2021 12:20:56 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 18, 2021 8:04:50 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 16, 2021 12:21:53 GMT -6
One tidbit I don't recall hearing before (or have forgotten) is that "an area of the "Great Kingdom" campaign world" contained Barsoomian creatures - the ones that appeared in the U&WA tables. increment : was this an area shown on one of the maps? It survives in a piece of the 1973 correspondence between Gygax and Arneson - just a passing mention from Gygax that "Keoland has Martian beasts, so we'll ride thoats and fight banths + apts." Thanks! That is intriguing. Previously, I had the impression that the OD&D Vol 3 table "Optional Arid Plains" - the one with the Barsoomian critters - was inspired primarily by running games in Barsoom itself ( accesible via Castle Greyhawk) rather than in part of the lands of the Great Kingdom (which later developed into the World of Greyhawk). The idea of using Mars per se is reinforced in that booklet by the "Desert (Mars)" subtable for Men, and the mention of Mars in the section "Other Worlds" ("Some areas of land could be gates into other worlds, dimensions, times, or whatever. Mars is given in these rules, but...") And I wouldn't have guessed Keoland as a home to Barsoomian fauna based on its later description in the World of Greyhawk folio, but it does fit better with the description in Quag Keep, where the "plains of Koeland" [sic, spelled Keoland elsewhere] are a largely empty and dry place, broken only by tributaries of a great river (geography which generally matches the "Megarry" version of the Great Kingdom map). The party in the story crosses "long dry patches" between the rivers, which causes problems for the lizardman in the party. "Arid Plains" certainly fits how Keoland is described there. On the Great Kingdom map, Keoland also runs up to the mountains bordering the Sea of Dust, another obviously dry area.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 15, 2021 17:12:08 GMT -6
I'm up to 1975 now! The first Origins approaches. I'm very much enjoying it. The amount of correspondence that survived to enable the telling of this story is jaw-dropping. One tidbit I don't recall hearing before (or have forgotten) is that "an area of the "Great Kingdom" campaign world" contained Barsoomian creatures - the ones that appeared in the U&WA tables. increment: was this an area shown on one of the maps?
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 12, 2021 20:01:19 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 12, 2021 19:50:28 GMT -6
My condolences! It's really great that you played RPGs with her and she was part of your group.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 9, 2021 21:55:33 GMT -6
I looked at the Nature of Middle-Earth in person yesterday at B&N. It's nicely done, and I looked over some of the interesting bits. I'll put it on my Xmas list.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 9, 2021 21:53:20 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 7, 2021 9:45:15 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 6, 2021 20:08:19 GMT -6
Congrats on an epic first blog post...!
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 6, 2021 20:04:31 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 5, 2021 7:15:47 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 2, 2021 18:53:21 GMT -6
FYI, Terry Amthor has passed away. He was one of the founders of ICE, and wrote Court of Ardor, and co-wrote Iron Wind, among many other later projects. I enjoyed A Spy In Isengard, his contribution to the Middle-Earth Quest Series, as a teen and still have a copy.
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Post by Zenopus on Oct 1, 2021 15:35:40 GMT -6
Glad to hear you made it! Your post reminds me that I have another post to make with some close-ups of parts of the painting. Edit: I had almost finished this before, so I was able to get it posted quickly. Sutherland Dragon Details
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 8, 2021 12:47:34 GMT -6
I've always understood Philotomy Jurament's article (the one jeffb linked above) to be a rationalization for the rules for dungeons in OD&D as written, not a separate setting from the rules. A mindset to help modern-era players appreciate the rules of OD&D. I don't know of any published dungeons that lean into the "Mythic Underworld", but there aren't too many published OD&D dungeons in general. It does seem like an opportunity for someone. The one thing I wrote that would expand the concept beyond the OD&D rules is my " Fearsome Monster" - monsters generated by the dungeon in response to the characters entering. This was inspired by Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood series (and named after some text by J. Eric Holmes), in which primordial forests recreate ancient, often-forgotten ancestral myths from the minds of intruders.
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 6, 2021 18:41:15 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 3, 2021 12:47:03 GMT -6
 FYI, The Ruined Tower of Zenopus is currently on sale for $1.39 through September 7th, as part of DMsGuild's "September Starter Sale" of introductory adventures. The Ruined Tower of Zenopus on DMsGuildFor old-school enthusiasts, on the blog I also offer notes on retro-converting it (you can just use the original, but there is added material): Running It Retro, Part I Running It Retro, Part IIThe adventure went Platinum back in January (1,001 sales), and is now close to 1,500 sales. However, the next badge (Mithril) at DMs Guild doesn't come until 2,501 sales are hit. Click here to find links to reviews of the RTOZ on by various reviewers (bloggers, Youtubers etc)
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 28, 2021 22:14:18 GMT -6
The Tekumel Foundation is reprinting all of these novels. I believe Man of God is already out, and badger2305 has shown the cover for Flamesong on FB and indicated the others will eventually follow.
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