This is the blog. Click here to go to the Zenopus Archives website.

Note: Many older posts on this blog are missing images, but can be viewed at the corresponding page in the Internet Archive

FEATURED POST

The Forgotten Smugglers' Cave: Index of Posts

An index of posts describing the Forgotten Smugglers' Cave, an adventure for Holmes Basic characters levels 2-4.                    ...

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

The Making of OD&D: Half-Price Sale on Amazon




The Making of Orginal D&D is currently on sale for $49.99 on Amazon, which is 50% off the cover price ($99). This is the lowest price I've seen for the book so far, which came out back in July. It says "Limited Time Deal", but there's no date indicated, so I don't when it ends. If you've been on the fence due to the price here's your chance. Find the table of contents  below.

Find it here: 

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1977




See also these earlier posts:

Early Greyhawk Lore in the 1973 D&D Draft

"The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977": Out Today! 

"The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977": Table of Contents

"The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977": What Might the Precursors Be?

"How Dungeons & Dragons Started" (video about the book)

"The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977": Everything we know about this upcoming WOTC book

Playing at the World revised edition out in July 

Saturday, November 16, 2024

The Return of the Sample Dungeon


Cover of the 2024 DMG featuring Warduke, Skylla and Venger

Out this week is the latest version of the Dungeon Master's Guide, and in addition to bringing back Greyhawk as a sample setting, it also features the return of the Sample Dungeon. In this case, I don't mean the Tower of Zenopus, which goes only by the title "Sample Dungeon" in the Holmes Basic rulebook, but rather the general concept: an example of an adventure for new DMs to both run and base their own designs on.

This was a common feature in the DM section of D&D rulebooks throughout the 1970s and 80s, with OD&D, AD&D 1E and every version of Basic including one, and the dungeons while brief were strongly remembered due to their evocative details and because they were often the first adventure for new players. And decades later, these memories and shared experiences would promote a sense of community among the fan base for each rule set.

The idea started with the original D&D rules in 1974, which included a "Sample Map of Underworld Level" in Vol 3. This dungeon level by Gary Gygax lacked any real theme other providing examples, mostly of tricks and traps that could be used in designing a level. For the first Basic Set in 1977, J. Eric Holmes overhauled the example, creating a coherent first level for beginners complete with a brief backstory to provide a hook for exploring it, and concluding by inviting the DM to create additional levels.

Two years later, in the AD&D 1E DMG, Gygax followed Holmes' example with another dungeon level with a strong story behind it, colloquially known as the Ruined Monastery or the Dungeon of the Fire Opal. Unlike the Zenopus dungeon, only a few rooms of this level were fully detailed, presumably so the DM could complete the keying of the map, along with designing the unshown second level. It also advanced the use of this as a teaching tool by including an integrated Example of Play; i.e., it's set in the described dungeon rooms.

The next two iterations of Basic D&D continued the tradition of including a short dungeon written by the editor. Moldvay Basic (1981) had Tom Moldvay's Haunted Keep, which more tightly integrated the exemplary level into the dungeon design concepts presented in the DM section. The accompanying Cook-Marsh Expert rules from the same year also provided a Sample Wilderness which mentioned that a town, Luln, was a base for exploring the Haunted Keep, although the town was only briefly described. 

In Mentzer Basic (1983), Frank Mentzer expanded the introductory material by adding a solo adventure teaching the basics of play in the Players book, which was followed by a starting group adventure, Castle Mistamere, in the DMs book. One idea common to each of the above was that the dungeon was not complete, giving the new DM a base on which to practice adding their own ideas. The Mentzer Expert rules included the same Sample Wilderness from the previous set, but revised to include a new "Home Town", Threshold, along with a series of eighteen briefly described (single paragraphs) adventures for the DM to use with this setting.

In 1989, however, there was a big change: the revised DMG for AD&D 2E had no sample dungeon at all. The 1991 Rules Cyclopedia similarly lacked an adventure, although the complementary "Black Box" Basic Set from this time did include one, Escape from Zanzer Tem's Dungeon.

The DMGs from 3E (2000) and 3.5E (2003) brought back the sample dungeon by including a revised version of the Ruined Monastery dungeon from the original DMG. These include an updated map, partial level description (first three areas only) and an integrated Example of Play, but the background from the original is severely curtailed.

The 4E D&D DMG (2008) included a sample town (Fallcrest) and setting (Nentir Value) with an integrated sample dungeon called "Kobold Hall", which with 5 encounter areas literally follows the 5 Room Dungeon design model. (Thanks to Karla Adder on Twitter for the heads up on this.)

Jumping ahead to 5E, while the 2014 DMG included material on generating random dungeons (Appendix A), and a number of sample maps (Appendix C), including an updated version of the Fire Opal dungeon map from the 1979 DMG, as with 2E it lacked a true introductory adventure. 

But now with the new DMG, the concept is back in full force and with new innovations. Rather than just a single dungeon level, there are five (!) short adventures, each for a different level of characters, and with the suggestion that they can be run sequentially, particularly the first three. There is also a mix of adventure settings: towns, wilderness, small dungeons that rely on the maps by Dyson Logos found in an appendix, nautical, and other planes. In addition, the first four adventures are given locations in Greyhawk that are found in the setting material and maps elsewhere in the book. 

In my next post, I will look a little closer at these adventures and their locations in Greyhawk.

The new DMG is available for order on Amazon


Saturday, October 19, 2024

A Return to Greyhawk!


"Behold Greyhawk" by Bruce Brenneise for the new DMG


A few days ago DMs Guild announced that Greyhawk is now available a campaign setting for community content:



This is because the newly revised 5E DMG, out November 11th, includes a 30-page chapter on detailing Greyhawk as a sample setting to show DMs how they can create their own settings. This will include a map of the City of Greyhawk and an updated version of Darlene's famous map of the setting:



Harking back to the Sample Dungeons of yore, the DMG will also contain a chapter of Sample Adventures that are set in Greyhawk.

Watch here for an 18 minute interview with Chris Perkins and James Wyatt about thoughts behind using Greyhawk as a sample campaign setting in the new DMG.

While WOTC may not support this setting any further, allowing it to be added to DMs Guild opens it up to fans who wish to add more content to the setting (albeit only in 5E form).

I don't have any specific plans at the moment for creating Greyhawk content for DMsGuild, but I have updated the Ruined Tower of Zenopus conversion/expansion to tag it as Greyhawk (as opposed to just "nonspecific/any setting"), given that I have an appendix in it on using it with the Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which draws its mini-setting details from Greyhawk.

The new DMG is available for order on Amazon.


Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Making of OD&D: Discounted at Game Nerdz



If you haven't picked up the Making of Orginal D&D, it's available at Game Nerdz for $70.47 plus shipping (if you get your order up to $75 you'll get free shipping). This is almost $20 cheaper than the current Amazon price of $89.35. The page says there are currently 26 copies in stock. I've ordered from Game Nerdz a few times before without problem. 

Find it here: 

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1977 

(includes affiliate link)

See also these earlier posts about the book:

Early Greyhawk Lore in the 1973 D&D Draft

"The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977": Out Today! 

"The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977": Table of Contents

"The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977": What Might the Precursors Be?

"How Dungeons & Dragons Started" (video about the book)

"The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977": Everything we know about this upcoming WOTC book

Playing at the World revised edition out in July

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Making of OD&D: Sale for Prime Members



FYI, right now Amazon is offering the Making of Orginal D&D book for $71.49, as a "Prime Big Deal" for Prime Member which is almost $30 off the cover price $99.99, and almost $20 off the "regular" sale price ($89.36). Unfortunately I just noticed this sale and it appears it ends in about 5 hours (the Big Deal Days are Oct 8-9).

Find it here: 

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1977


See also these earlier posts:

Early Greyhawk Lore in the 1973 D&D Draft

"The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977": Out Today! 

"The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977": Table of Contents

"The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977": What Might the Precursors Be?

"How Dungeons & Dragons Started" (video about the book)

"The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977": Everything we know about this upcoming WOTC book

Playing at the World revised edition out in July

Friday, September 27, 2024

Blackmoor Week: Blackmoor Foundations (New Book)


Blackmoor Week is the week leading up to the anniversary of Dave Arneson's birthday on October 1st, which is designated Dave Arneson Game Day. Thanks to Havard at Havard's Blackmoor Blog, who is making a whole series of posts this week, for reminding me of this.

The Making of OD&D wasn't the only book of historical D&D documents to come out this year. The end of May also saw the release of Blackmoor Foundations, which is subtitled "The Early Fantasy RPG Works of David Arneson" (and can be purchased here). I recently ordered a copy, and while I'm only partway through, I thought I should highlight it in a post now for Blackmoor Week.

Here is an overview of Blackmoor Foundations:

---Paperback with glossy cover, 103 pages in length, and includes approximately 30 original documents including maps & letters, some of which are multiple typed pages in length including one ("Return to Black Moor") that is 15 (!) pages long.

---Nicely laid out with commentary by Griffith Morgan, the director of the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary, on the lefthand pages in a very readable san-serif font, and with the images of the documents on the right. I like this format for presenting these types of documents; it makes makes reading the notes while looking at the document very easy.

---Also credited for consultation are the "Northern Marches Historical Society", which among others includes D.H. Boggs, who has been presenting Blackmoor research for years over at the Hidden at Shadows blog, and Michael Calleia, who has published a comprehensive list of Dave Arneson publications on the Chance & Circumstance blog.

---The publisher's product page here has a table of contents and even a complete flip-through of the book.

---There are two lengthy reports of delves into Blackmoor Dungeon, "The Dungeons of Black Moore Castle" (5 typed pages) and "Into the Dungeons of Black Moor Castle and Back" (6 typed pages). These look interesting but are very dense and I haven't read through them fully yet.

---For actual use in gameplay, it could serve as a supplement to Judge's Guild First Fantasy Campaign (1977), which was the original publication sharing Arneson's notes about Blackmoor, but which sadly remains out of print. For example, while the FFC has a map of Blackmoor town, the Blackmoor Foundations has a "Blackmoor Surrounding Landscape Map" that shows more of the immediate surrounding area, laid out in hexes.

---In all, I applaud the publisher & Arneson estate for making these historical documents directly available to the public.

Blackmoor Foundations can be ordered for $39.95 via the publisher's page (linked above) or via Amazon where it is currently on sale for $32.75:

Blackmoor Foundations


Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Art & Arcana on sale again - get the original Tomb of Horrors


 

Today I notice that the Art & Arcana Special Edition - which includes a reprint of the original version of Tomb of Horrors resembling an OD&D supplement - is back in stock and on sale and at an even lower listed price than before, $61.61 (albeit there's no extra coupon). That's lower than the pre-order price I paid when it came out ($63.50). Find it here:


Art & Arcana Special Edition


One thing I forgot to mention last time that is of interest to readers of this blog is that the book includes a drawing by Chris Holmes of a displacer beast from the 70s, drawn for the Basic rulebook manuscript (which appears courtesy of Billy Galaxy).

Update: I was asked about the content of the posters in this set. I took a look at my set and found:

  • AD&D Player's Handbook cover (1978) by Dave Trampier (16 x 10")
  • DM Screen cover (1979) by Dave Trampier (18 x 14")
  • Keep on the Borderlands cover (1980) by Jim Roslof (8 x 10")
  • AD&D Fiend Folio cover (1981) by Emmanuel (16 x 10")
  • World of Greyhawk box cover (1983) by Jeff Easley (8 x 10")
  • Swords of Deceit module cover (1986) by Keith Parkinson (8 x 10")
  • AD&D 2E PHB interior (PCs with slain tiny dragon)(1989) by Larry Elmore (8 x10")
  • Forge of Fury module cover (2000) by Todd Lockwood (16 x 10")
  • "Promotional painting for D&D 30th Anniversary (2004) by Todd Lockwood (16 x 10")
  • Storm King's Thunder interior painting (2016) by Chris Rahn (24 x 16")

Earlier post (from April):

The Special Edition of the D&D artbook Art & Arcana is currently selling for $69.99 on Amazon, plus when I look at the page I'm also seeing a coupon for $23.33, making the total only $46.66. If you can get it for this, it's a great deal for a set that has a list price of $125. 

The real hidden gem of the set is a reprint of the original OD&D tournament version of Tomb of Horrors, in a digest format resembling the LBBs. FWIW, the page says only 10 copies are left in stock.


Art & Arcana Special Edition


See also my earlier posts:

Locations for the Tomb of Horrors on the Great Kingdom Map

Delta's D&D Hotspot: Tomb of Ra-Hotep


Earlier Update (from April):

Amazon is no longer has the coupon available, but the book is still available new for $69.99 (follow the link above).