First RPG Purchased: Advanced D&D Players Handbook

I bought the Players Handbook after discovering Dungeons & Dragons in the Winter of 1978-79. Thirty years later Tim Kask would declare:

It all starting going bad with the publishing of AD&D, The Player’s Handbook... 

So I guess I was late to the party, as always.

In seriousness, I agree with Kask that the seeds of what was to later go wrong with the game were contained in that book--the legalistic codification of the rules, the excessive detail offered in the spell descriptions, the further importance placed on superior ability scores and thus the ability score "inflation" that went with it, and finally the additional class and race options for player-characters--something that at the time probably seemed like an undeniable good, but would lead down the road to "kits" and "builds" and all sorts of other horribles.

But, we're taking about the seeds. Both at the time and looking back, the book itself was stunning--perhaps the best single RPG product ever.

And of course it began with the art. That cover summed up Dungeons & Dragons for me--and it still does: In a room, presumably somewhere deep in the dungeon, we are witness not to a scene of combat but to the aftermath of one. Two characters (thieves?) are attempting to pry the jewel out of the eye of a grinning idol. Two others are consulting a map--where to go next? A fighter is sharpening his sword next to the bloodied corpses of some kind of reptile, while a magic-user, leaning on a staff, looks on.

The interior art by Trampier, Sutherland and others contains some of the best illustrations the genre has ever produced. For me, this piece in particular is iconic:

And of course there was Gary Gygax' wonderful prose and, well, opinions:

You will find no pretentious dictums herein, no baseless limits arbitrarily placed on female strength or male charisma, no ponderous combat systems for greater "realism", there isn't a hint of a spell point system whose record keeping would warm the heart of a monomaniacal statistics lover, or anything else of the sort.

Let's give him the last word:

All in all, this is a game for enjoyment. We are certain that it will provide endless hours of entertainment and excitement. That is the sole purpose for its creation. So enjoy, and may the dice be good to you!

First RPG Gamemastered: Dungeons & Dragons

Note: I edited the last post to add a year to the dates. I played Melee, Wizard and Death Test in the fall of 1978, and first encountered Dungeons & Dragons in the winter of 1978-79. I was in 10th grade.

At the start of 1979 the final book of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons trilogy, The Dungeon Masters Guide, was nine months away from being published. I believe that the three little brown books and the supplements were still technically in print, but I don't remember them being easily obtainable or something that new players sought out. The Holmes Basic Set was on sale, but I think my view of it and the view of other high schoolers in my circle was that it was the "baby" edition, only suitable for one's kid brother, or whatever.

So I used the Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets for combat tables. Dragon Magazine also had a "preview" of the Dungeon Masters Guide featuring attack and saving throw tables that we circulated Xeroxed copies of.

The only TSR AD&D modules available were high level adventures such as Against the Giants or the Drow series. (The low level modules were for "Basic D&D". Again, kids stuff.) Therefore, I didn't draw from any published examples. 

I don't know where I obtained a list of magic items, but I must have gotten them somewhere, as my dungeon was full of them.

So the point is that during (what I now know) what was an explosive period in the game, the rules were in flux and incomplete. Kids were patching them together from all sorts of sources, "official" and not.

But it didn't matter. The game was glorious.

My "megadungeon" had five levels, drawn out on 8 1/2 x 11 inch graph paper. I think it was an abandoned Dwarven (or perhaps Gnomish) mine. You had to travel for weeks through a secret Gnome tunnel under the mountains to get to the underground entrance.

And after passing through the great double door, you encountered The Stirge Room.

I didn't design it to be deadly. But it turned out to be. I think three parties TPK'd before one of them defeated the resilient critters and was thus able to move on.

I suppose looking back there were a number of "lessons":

1. Characters died quickly and often (at least at first) but that was fun. It became a challenge: "This time we're going to kill those blood-sucking bastards."

2. Alignments were silly (or at least they were the way we played them). My characters were usually Chaotic Evil (I think my players thought that gave them more freedom) but when it came to their relationship with other party members they were practically holy. I remember, during the final TPK, the Chaotic Evil Fighter shouting (as he was being pecked to death by Stirges), “Fly, friends! Go through the north door. Don’t worry about me! I’ll hold them off!” I haven’t talked to him in a while but I think he’s now the chairman of a Philosophy Department.

3. The concept of a dungeon was fun and interesting: “Let’s go down to second level!" “No, we’re not ready!" “I don’t care. I don’t want to go back and forth through that bloody underground tunnel again. What if they rebuild things before we return?” “Okay, we’re powerful enough now. Let’s just clean out those Goblins (whatever level they live on) once and for all. We owe them that!” And so on.

This wasn't based on anything, let alone, reading old school blogs (obviously) or whatever. It just happened.

Here's to you, Soma, Bromarle the Green Wizard, Khumzaal, Peras, Corwin and all the rest of the crew. You killed the Goblin King (on the fifth level) and moved on to defeat the Slavers and the minions of the Temple of Elemental Evil.

I remember.

May God grant you peace, wherever you are.

First RPG Played: Death Test

Back in July, Tom Chapman of Autocratik proposed that everyone spend each day in August talking about one RPG, framed by these questions:

1st - First RPG Played

2nd - First RPG Gamemastered

3rd - First RPG Purchased

4th - Most recent RPG purchase

5th - Most Old School RPG owned

6th - Favorite RPG Never get to play

7th - Most “intellectual” RPG owned

8th - Favorite character

9th - Favorite Die / Dice Set

10th - Favorite tie-in Novel / Game Fiction

11th - Weirdest RPG owned

12th - Old RPG you still play / read

13th - Most Memorable Character Death

14th - Best Convention Purchase

15th - Favorite Convention Game

16th - Game you wish you owned

17th - Funniest Game you’ve played

18th - Favorite Game System

19th - Favorite Published Adventure

20th - Will still play in 20 years time…

21st - Favorite Licensed RPG

22nd - Best Secondhand RPG Purchase

23rd - Coolest looking RPG product / book

24th - Most Complicated RPG Owned

25th - Favorite RPG no one else wants to play

26th - Coolest character sheet

27th - Game You’d like to see a new / improved edition of…

28th - Scariest Game you’ve played

29th - Most memorable encounter

30th - Rarest RPG Owned

31st - Favorite RPG of all time

The idea seems to have taken off like, well, like Dungeons & Dragons circa 1978.

My answer to the first question is two answers really—The Fantasy Trip’s Death Test (if it counts as an RPG) in the fall of 1978, or (if Death Test doesn’t count), Dungeons & Dragons in the winter of 1978-79, played (presumably) with the three little brown books plus supplements.

As I remember it, Death Test was an expansion of the $2.95 “micro” games Melee and Wizard, giving rules for creating a “dungeon” to test a group of warriors created with the Melee and Wizard rules. Since it was usually played one-on-one with one player as referee and the other controlling all the “characters”, and since it was pretty one-dimensional in terms of stressing combat, it’s unclear whether it really qualifies as an RPG.

Melee and Wizard were pretty nifty as pocket games to take out and play for an hour or two, but the “extended” Death Test got boring pretty quickly. Or so it seemed to me after slogging solo through room after room of my friend’s original creation—“This time it’s NINE GOBLINS in an L-SHAPED ROOM, ha ha ha!!!”

I played Death Test once with my father who was always on a different wavelength where RPGs were concerned. He had never read a fantasy novel and didn’t believe in God-for I think the same sorts of reasons. And RPGs just confused him. It bugged him that one player got to “control” everything. He didn’t understand the “angle”.  But he didn’t mind a bit of controlling when the opportunity presented itself. In his first and only “dungeon”, created just for me, each room was named after an American president. The rooms didn’t have labels or anything. He just announced, when I opened a certain door, that I was now entering the John Adams room, or whatever (and three dragons, seven goblins and a minotaur were suddenly fast approaching). So I’d slam the door, go down the hall and open another door and “You’re now in the Dwight D. Eisenhower room” (five gargoyles and a wizard). And so on. I never did find out what it all meant. I suspect he didn’t know either.

For Dungeons & Dragons, I say “presumably” the three little brown books, based on the dates, and because I had no idea what was going on. “I had my hand cut off. I had my hand cut off!” my best friend screamed with joy after playing D&D for the first time (he had tried to open a trap or something), “this is the greatest game ever!” The next night, he dragged me to a secret gathering of pimpled wallflowers (or so I liked to think of them—I thought I was different) in the back room of my favorite wargame store. As I remember, I tried to pick one of the pimpled guys’ pockets (I didn’t yet understand the cooperative aspect of the game) and was then invited to a back room of the back room where I was summarily psionicked to death.

De Profundis

Out of the depths I have cried unto Thee, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice.

Let Thine ears be attentive: to the voice of my supplication.
If Thou, O Lord, shalt mark our iniquities: O lord, who can abide it?
For with Thee there is mercy: and by reason of Thy law I have waited on Thee, O Lord.
My soul hath waited on His word : my soul hath hoped in the Lord.
From the morning watch even unto night: let Israel hope in the Lord.
For with the Lord there is mercy: and with Him is plenteous redemption.
And He shall redeem Israel: from all his iniquities.
Eternal rest give to them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
Amen.

Save or Die! Reviews Seven Voyages of Zylarthen

The current Save or Die Podcast, Episode 94, has a detailed hour-long review of Seven Voyages of Zylarthen. Save or Die was one of my primary sources of inspiration in writing the game, and so, to quote DM Jim in another context, I couldn't help feeling "warm and fuzzy" listening to my favorite podcast people--Mike, Liz and Jim (Glen was not on the show this week)--thoughtfully discuss Campion & Clitherow's "re-imagining" of the three little brown books. As usual, the members of the Save or Die cast were fun and funny as well as highly informed and intelligent...in the true NPC definition of the term!

Almost as cool were the references to Zylarthen's "Petersonesque" quality. My wife--she who was kind even to kobolds--let out a laugh of unmitigated joy and delight upon hearing that mention. She can tell you I carried Playing at the World around like a bible for a few weeks. I too would love to hear what Jon Peterson thinks. Though, just as I did before that Save or Die episode, I would probably fortify myself with a few drinks first. 

For those who may not have not yet encountered Save or Die (shame on you and/or where have you been?), it is I believe the only "straight" podcast dedicated exclusively to original and classic D&D and related games and materials (by "straight" I mean, devoted to discussion and not, say, to actual play reports). I think it's by far the most entertaining and informative OSR podcast out there (and yes, I thought that long before Episode 94). I'll be talking a bit more about the show in general in a later post. But I'll say here that if you haven't yet encountered any of the episodes--now stretching back almost four years--you're in for a treat.

You can listen or download this (or any?) episode from their website here. And it is also available, free of charge on iTunes and RSS.

Any considered and thoughtful reaction to an author's work, positive, neutral or negative is of course valid. On the other hand, there is nothing more gratifying for an author than to believe that a reader (or in this case three of them) just, well, "gets it" about what he or she was trying to do. It's also neat when a critic takes a "smaller" or less obvious idea, and just runs with it, prompting the author to re-evaluate what he or she might have (somehow) channelled from the creative font of all things. So it was with the False Gnomes. My wife gave another laugh of delight at their final appearance in the closing credits. Cheers, guys! I really appreciate it.

BTW: No damn idea how to "correctly" pronounce the name. I've gone back and forth myself. (I can't believe Spalding just admitted that!)  Xylarthen (spelled with an "x") was the first sample character in Men & Magic. Jeff Rients riffed on him in his excellent convention module Under Xylarthen's Tower. So perhaps Jeff or Jon might have an idea.

Link to Me, Baby!

I just spent a few hours updating my OSR blog link list (results at right). It was fun and I made a number of great discoveries. But undoubtedly I left off many worthwhile entries out of ignorance. Please email me or comment, below, if you would like your OSR gaming-related blog to be included.

In return, if you think my blog is worthy, add me to your blog roll. Or, rather...

LINK TO ME, BABY!!!

(I could use the hits)

The fun illustration, above, Monsters Holding Hands, is by Jonathan Frazin, an artist and illustrator working in the Chicago area. He started the piece at our mutual place of business with a fifty-nine cent mechanical writing implement. Then, as he said later in private correspondence, "I was able to do much closer detail once I had my proper pencil." I think that's like a magic wand or something. For more of Mr. Frazin's wonderful work, visit his website, here.

The Monsters of Seven Voyages of Zylarthen, Part II

Author’s note: I’m writing a series of posts on Zylarthen not so much to plug it, nor merely because I like talking about my work. Rather, I think of Zylarthen as sort of a love letter to early OD&D. Thus, I hope that the design issues I grappled with and the eventual choices I made might be of interest to those who enjoy “thinking about Original Dungeons & Dragons”, whether or not they have read, played, or have any intention of reading or playing my attempted “re-imagining” of it.

In this post I break down the precise sources for the various Zylarthen monsters.

In a previous post I wrote that I decided to include all and only those monsters appearing (in whatever form) in “official” D&D sources through the fall of 1975—those three sources being the original 1974 edition of the game (henceforth the three little brown books or 3 LBB’s), the first supplement—Greyhawk—and the first four issues of The Strategic Review. Interestingly, this cut-off point yielded roughly two hundred distinct creatures, even excluding most of the various “man-types”—leveled non-player characters, hirelings, soldiers and the rest—almost triple the initial number of monsters described and “statted” in the first part of Monsters & Treasure. The place to begin, though, is with those monsters:

Note: in the following lists, re-imagined creatures, my own extrapolations and extrapolations based on later sources will generally be denoted by italics.

THE MONSTERS from Monsters & Treasure, pp. 3-20

Bandits, Basilisks, Berserkers, Black Pudding, Buccaneers, Cavemen, Centaurs, Chimerae, Cockatrices, Dervishes, Djinn, Black Dragons, Blue Dragons, Golden Dragons, Green Dragons, Red Dragons, White Dragons, Dryads, Dwarves, Efreet, Air Elementals, Earth Elementals, Fire Elementals, Water Elementals, Elves, Gargoyles, Ghouls, Cloud Giants, Fire Giants, Frost Giants, Hill Giants, Stone Giants, Goblins, Gnoles, Gnomes, Gorgons, Gray Ooze, Green Slime, Griffins, Hippogriffs, Horses, Mules, Camels, Hydras, Fire Breathing Hydras, Kobolds, Werebears, Wereboars, Weretigers, Werewolves, Manticoras, Medusae, Mermen, Minotaurs, Mummies, Nixies, Nomads, Ochre Jelly, Ogres, Orcs, Pegasi, Pixies, Purple Worms, Rocs, Sea Monsters, Skeletons, Spectres, Treants, Trolls, Unicorns, Vampires, Lesser Vampires, Wights, Wraiths, Wyverns, Yellow Mold, Zombies

Number of Monsters: 77.

Notes: These should obviously make up the core of any OD&D monster list. As it happens, none of them are non-SRD. A few are extrapolations. So, for example, I felt that Camels should be added to Horses and Mules, and that Lesser Vampires (the victims of the Stokeresque Vampires) should be added to Vampires. I fiddled with Gnomes to make them genuinely strange (as opposed to being merely more whimsical Dwarves). And I preserved the spelling of “Gnole” from the original Dunsany story as well as ignoring both the initial description of these monsters—“A cross between Gnomes and Trolls…otherwise they are similar to Hobgoblins”—and the description that would come a few years later in the Monster Manual—“There is a great resemblance between Gnolls and Hyenas”—in favor of leaving them explicitly undescribed, as they are in the story.

OTHER MONSTERS from Monsters & Treasure, pp. 20-22

Androids, Cyclopes, Gelatinous Cubes, Flesh Golems, Iron Golems, Stone Golems, Juggernauts, Living Statues, Robots, Salamanders, Titans

Number of Monsters: 11.

Notes: Some of these—Gelatinous Cubes, Golems, Salamanders and Titans—would later be more fully described in Greyhawk. For the fun of it I named all twelve of the Titans.

MONSTER LEVEL TABLES and WILDERNESS WANDERING MONSTERS from The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, pp. 10-11 and 18-19

Apes, Boars, Lions, Snakes, Spiders, Giant Ants, Giant Beetles, Fire Beetles, Centipedes, Giant Hogs, Giant Lizards, Giant Rats, Giant Scorpions, Giant Poisonous Snakes, Giant Spitting Snakes, Huge Spiders, Large Spiders, Water Spiders, Giant Toads, Giant Weasels, Cave Bears, Dire Wolves, Mammoths, Mastodons, Saber-Toothed Cats, Spotted Lions, Titanotheres, Wooly Rhinoceroses, Brontosaurus, Pterodactyls, Stegosaurs, Triceratopses, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Cyborgs, Doppelgangers, Invisible Stalkers, Shadows, Thoblins, Apts, Banths, Calots, Darseen, Black Martians, Green Martians, Red Martians, Ancients, Therns, Holy Therns, Lotharians, Yellow Martians, Orluks, Sith, Tharks, Thoats, White Apes

Number of Monsters: 55.

Notes: So, counting the Zylarthen extrapolations, the number of these “missing monsters” almost equals the fully described monsters in Monsters & Treasure. The attentive reader will notice the cases where I consulted Blackmoor or even the Monster Manual. But some monsters such as Giant Ants were intentionally re-imagined. (For the Ants, think those creepy bugs from that great Outer Limits episode, “The Zanti Misfits”.) Of course the four varieties of White Martians are extrapolations based on the actual Burroughs stories. For all Martians, I learned much from David Bruce Bozarth’s A Barsoom Glossary as well as from the original Warriors of Mars and the OD&D version by “Doc”.

NAVAL COMBAT in The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, pp. 28-35

Giant Crabs, Crocodiles, Giant Crocodiles, Dragon Turtles, Giant Fish, Giant Leeches, Giant Octopi, Giant Sea Snakes, Giant Squids

Number of Monsters: 9.

Notes: Some of these appeared in the earlier encounter tables, and all them (I think) reappeared in the aquatic-fixated Blackmoor.

Other Monsters from “The Three Little Brown Books”

Amazons, Assassins, Barbarians, Bats, Huge Bats, Bears, Elephants, Halflings, Prisoners, Rats, Tigers, Vikings, Witches, Wolves

Number of Monsters: 14.

Notes: This is perhaps the most interesting group. There are illustrations of Amazons, Barbarians and Witches in Men & Magic, yet these beings were never described in that source or in any other early source (1974-75) nor have they been included in any of the retro-clones, as far as I am aware. Witches would seem to be almost paradigmatic in terms of being staples of fantasy stories as well as being featured in the classic explanation of the charisma ability score in Men & Magic. Vikings (or “Viking” things) are actually mentioned four times in The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures but they fell out in later editions I assume because they were too “historical”. Ditto for Amazons. For Amazons I jettisoned the sexist (though intriguing!) interpretation that they fought without clothing (I kept that for Barbarians, and there is historical justification for that) but kept the fun (for me at least) assumptions concerning body modification and the rumor that Amazons would temporarily take captured males as lovers. I took some of the inspiration for Barbarians from the description of them in that great Avalon Hill wargame Caesar at Alesia, though inexplicably I forgot to cite it in my otherwise relatively long Sources section. There’s a fair amount of reference to “prisoners” in the Treasure Tables of Monsters & Treasure so I decided to expand on that.

Gods and Goddesses

Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Balder the Beautiful, Girra the Fire God, Ishtar, Isis, Kali, Lakshmi, Manannan the Sea God, Math the Great Wizard, Odin the One-Eyed, Pan, Set Lord of Shadows, Silvanus, The Spider God, Thor, Thoth the Terrible, Tsathoggus, Untamo God of Sleep and Dreams

Number of Monsters: 20.

Notes: As I wrote in the first post, it seemed a no-brainer to include gods and goddesses alongside the “regular” monsters. But I also thought the wide-open spirit of the original game dictated including beings from a diversity of sources—Classical, Egyptian, Norse, Middle-Eastern, Celtic, Finnish and of course Hyborian. Though most appeared in the 1976 Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes or its later 1980 incarnation, Deities  & Demigods, the descriptive content was almost entirely taken from original sources. Unlike for the other monsters, I did not give statistics to these immortals, believing that that would be a waste of space as well as sending the wrong message. Any god or goddess could easily defeat a character of any level if he or she had a mind to, so what’s the point of saying so and so has 300 hit points? But for each god or goddess, I did try to provide meaningful and useful information on how to actually include him or her (or his or her followers) in a campaign or adventure, if and when the occasion arose.

Giant Flyers

Bumblebees, Butterflies, Dragonflies, Eagles, Flies, Hornets, Locusts, Moths

Number of Monsters: 8.

Notes: Giant Eagles are mentioned in Chainmail, but the others are extrapolations based on the mention of “Large Insects” or “Giant Insects” in the rules on Aerial Combat in The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. It was another way to be “original” without completely departing from the sources. I thought these winged critters rounded out the list of standard giant creatures in a way that was both fun and added to the diversity of things.

Evil Men

Brawlers, Ruffians, Duellists, Black Knights, Rakehells, Villains, Bravos, Interfectors, Evil Lords, Malefics, Praecantors, Diabolists, Demonurgists, Black Magicians, Hecatontarchs, Haruspices, Evocators, Incantators, Necromants, Wizards, Lifters, Snatchers, Fingerers, Harpaces, Sicarians, Phansigars, Thugs, Evil Thieves, Evil Master Thieves, Evil High Priests or Priestesses, Evil Priests

Number of Monsters: 31.

Lawful Men

Fighters, Pavisers, Thanes, Knights, Guardians, Defenders, Protectors, Vindicators, Lords, Famuli, Chirosophists, Tregetours, Pellars, Theurges, Thaumaturges, Talismanists, Solonists, Mirabilists, Magi, Archimagi, Borrowers, Mousers, Gilters, Dodgers, Coursers, Rescuers, Targeteers, Swordmen, Thieves, Master Thieves, High Priests or Priestesses, Priests

Number of Monsters: 31.

Notes: I loved the evocative level titles of the early version of the original game—another thing that would gradually fall out over the editions. One thing that virtually everyone has noticed about Zylarthen is the (mostly) new level titles for both the Lawful and Evil members of the three main classes. This was done for legal reasons but also for the sheer fun of it. It’s true that Gygax chose some silly titles, but he also laid claim to some of the better and more obvious ones, so I can’t say the enterprise was quick or easy. A number of specialized dictionaries as well as the OED came in handy here. Zylarthen assumes that player-characters (even Thieves) are basically good-guys, so titles with sinister, dark or particularly violent connotations were reserved for the Evil list. Particular effort was taken to clearly distinguish practitioners of “white magic” from, say, the “Wizards” of the Old Testament and other historical sources. I think most people appreciated the new titles, but everyone (including me, secretly) has their choice for one or two they don’t like. Note that Priests and Evil Priests only have one level. Since in Zylarthen, priests and evil priests become non-player characters, I didn’t see a need fuss things up with a full list of levels. Evil High Priests and High Priests have many of the most powerful Cleric spells that were not collapsed into the list for Magic-Users (including Finger of Death for Evil High Priests) but Evil Priests and Priests simply have a sort of aura, or whatever, around them that helps their friends and harms their enemies.

Monsters from Greyhawk

Aerial Servants, Blink Dogs, Bugbears, Cave Creepers, Brass Dragons, Bronze Dragons, Copper Dragons, Silver Dragons, The Dragon Queen, The Dragon King, Druids, Storm Giants, False Gnomes, Half-Elves, Harpies, Hell Hounds, Hobgoblins, Homunculi, Lammasu, Liches, Lizard Men, Wererats, Ogre Magi, Owl Bears, Paladins, Phase Spiders, Phaetonians, Rust Monsters, Sea Horses, Shift Panthers, Giant Slugs, Stirges, Giant Ticks, Tritons, Will O’Wisps

Number of Monsters: 35.

Notes: Even though these are relatively few in number, there are many canonical ones—so many that some don’t realize they didn’t exist in the original edition. This is why including Greyhawk was a must. A few of these as well some from the next two categories were non-SRD creations that I decided to modify into “science-fictional” or alien creatures. While I initially thought the issue annoying, I ended up with something I actually preferred, as the Androids, Cyborgs, Robots and Martians of the 3 LBB’s were now joined by entities hailing from Jupiter and the surface of the Sun.

Monsters from The Strategic Review

Clay Golems, Ghosts, Leprechauns, Lurkers Above, Guardian Nagas, Spirit Nagas, Water Nagas, Piercers, Rangers, Ropers, Shambling Mounds, Shriekers, Tentacle Men, Wind Walkers, Yeti

Number of Monsters: 14.

Notes: More canonical monsters. I liked what I did with Ghosts. Note that Zylarthen does include Rangers and Paladins (see Greyhawk, above), but only as non-player characters. I’m sure this was disappointing to many.

Monsters from Chainmail

Faeries, Solians, True Wraiths

Number of Monsters: 3.

Notes: Well, the last two fell out of the original for obvious copyright reasons (though the middle one would reappear in an inferior form). I decided to resurrect them.

Soldiers

From Men & Magic: Archers, Armored Foot, Barbarians, Crossbowmen, Heavy Foot, Heavy Horse, Horse Archers, Horsed Crossbowmen, Light Foot, Light Horse Bowmen, Light Horse Lancers, Mailed Bowmen (Medium Horse Bowmen), Mailed Crossbowmen (Heavy Crossbowmen), Medium Horse, Turcopoles

From Chainmail: Knights (Oddly, the term “Knight” appears nowhere in the 3 LBB’s), Javelineers

Extrapolations: Cataphracts, Cheirosiphoneers, Dwarf Guards, Elf Legionnaires, Halfling Slingers, Hoplites, Irregulars, Koursors, Peltasts, Pikemen, Mobs, Savages, Slingers, Varangians

Number of Monsters: 31.

Notes: I thought the original edition was simply begging for a clear and comprehensive list of soldier variations. And I thought it would be fun to include a table for the place of origin (native or foreign) and disposition of the soldiers upon encountering them. You probably don’t want to run into “friendlies” directly after they just got trounced in battle.

The AD&D Monster Manual

Troglodytes

Number of Monsters: 1.

Notes: My one concession to post-1975 modernity. Can you fault me?

So that’s the full list, 340 “monsters” if you count them broadly. Virtually all of them also appear in both the “Monster Encounter Tables” and “Wilderness Encounter Tables” of Zylarthen’s fourth and final volume—The Campaign. As with the encounter tables of the first version of the original game, a large proportion—one-third—are “man-types” of one form or another.

All in all, I’d like to think there’s enough “new” material to peak even the most veteran OD&D player’s interest.

Notes on Illustrations:

1. This drawing doesn't appear in the Book of Monsters but rather in the Book of Magic, p. 21.  What is it? Perhaps a Homunculus small enough to conceal itself in its master's mouth. I suppose you need an additional spell for that. Cropped from an illustration from “The Vision Of Macconglinney,” in Jacobs, Joseph, More Celtic Fairy Tales, illustrated by John Dickson Batten, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1895, orig. 1894, p. 73.
2. A Pixie from Book of Monsters, p. 47. From “My Own Self,” in Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, illustrated by John Dickson Batten, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1894, orig. 1893, p. 18.
3. A Witch from Book of Monsters, p. 62. From ”Morraha,” in More Celtic Fairy Tales, p. 87.
4. An Evil Man from Book of Monsters, p. 22. Cropped from The Magic Purse, from “The Three Soldiers,” in Jacobs, Europa’s Fairy Book, illustrated by John Dickson Batten, New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1916, p. 73.
5. A Ghost, one of the nastiest monsters in any category, from Book of Monsters, p. 25. Taken from the chapter illustration for “The Golden Arm,” in Jacobs, English Fairy Tales, illustrated by John Dickson Batten, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1892, orig. 1890, p. 143.