Gary Con 2025: Day 2 - BECMI D&D, OD&D and AD&D all in one day

Dungeon Map for the Eye of Arzaz adventure by J. Eric Holmes,
from his 1981 book. Photo by J. B. (mondotikiman)

It's just about one week until Gary Con 2026 starts, which means it's a great time to try to finish up my con report from last year. : )

This post covers Friday, March 21, 2025, my second full day at the con, where in a single day I played in or ran D&D games from three different eras: BECMI D&D, OD&D and AD&D.

The previous days can be found here: Day 0 (Wed) - Day 1 (Thur)

AC7 Master Player Screen with the The Spindle of Heaven mini-adventure.
Photo from the AC series page at Wayne's Books.

(1) My first game on Friday was nothing less than the start of a quest for Immortality in a very high level D&D adventure, The Spindle of Heaven (1985), run by Demos Sahlas of the OSR Grimoire blog. I try to play in one of his games every year. In addition to being a great GM, his picks are overlooked gems from the past, often Mystara/D&D or Judges Guild modules, which means that I get to play through adventures that I've known about for decades but never thought I would get a chance to experience.

This TSR "mini-adventure" (8-pages), which was written by Bruce Nesmith for Master-level BECMI D&D, came bundled with the AC7 Master Player Screen, and finds the PCs taking their first steps on a path towards BECMI Immortal-level play. One reason Demos chose this is because it was the 40th anniversary of its release.

As Demos explains here, he used the pre-gens from another Master-level adventure, M2 Vengeance of Alphaks by Skip Williams. I was Trent the White, a 30th Level Paladin (112 Hit Points!), who I believe is the highest level character that I have ever played. (For those unfamiliar with high level BECMI D&D, Lawful Fighters can opt to become Paladins once they reach 9th Level). The party successfully navigated the adventure, and if this was a campaign, would then continue on further adventures to attempt achieve Immortality, at which point their characters would be transferred over to the Immortals Rules boxed set.

Convention event listing description:

"The Spindle of Heaven is reborn." An epic quest for the secret of immortality, the endgame of the BECMI boxed sets, using the D&D Master Set rules. Here's your chance to play a character of 28th-30th levels. Do you have what it takes to confront the elemental powers guarding the path to immortality?"

Photos:

Demos running the Spindle of Heaven

Trent the Paladin

(2) As with the day before, the afternoon was when I ran a game. This time it was The Eye of Arzaz, the *other* sample dungeon written by J. Eric Holmes, which appears in his 1981 book, Fantasy Role-Playing Games. While in the book it is part of a chapter that includes its own simple d6-based FRPG, I decided to run the game using OD&D rules, which let me use my Boinger & Zereth & friends pre-gens that I previously created for my In Search of the Brazen Head of Zenopus con game. 

I made a few modifications to the Arzaz adventure as written by Holmes to fill it out a bit, including adding an encounter from an Example of Play in the opening chapter of his book. There was lots of creative play and the party was successful in retrieving the legendary Eye. 

Thanks to all of my players in this game, four of whom were returning from previous games of mine: Lee (Sunna), Gary (Sir Geoffrey), Joel (Zereth), Steven (Bardan), J. B. (Maximilian), Jarrett (Murray) and Paul (Brother Ambrose). 

Convention event listing description:

"Delve into a classic dungeon filled with monsters, traps and magic in search of the legendary jewel, The Eye of Arzaz. J. Eric Holmes, the editor of the original D&D Basic Set, wrote this introductory dungeon for his 1981 book Fantasy Role-Playing Games, and it will be run using OD&D rules."

Photos:

Attention wanders as I draw part of the map... Photo by J. B. (mondotikiman)

Partial dungeon map. To speed things along for time-limited con games
I usually draw the map on a giant sheet of graph paper. Photo by J.B.

Detail of the pre-gen Maximillian the Centaur taken by his player, J.B.

Table photo by player Gary Welsh. I'm behind two players on the right.
Also captured in this photo is game behind us being including T
om Morello, Joe Mangiello and D.B. Weiss as players!

(3) In the evening, I once again played in the annual Friday night Legends of Role-Playing Tourney organized by Paul Stormberg. This time the scenario was the Dungeons of the Ghost Tower, a sequel to the TSR module C1 Ghost Tower of Inverness, written by former TSR employee Allen Hammack. Our GM turned out to be none other than Harold Johnson, also a former TSR employee, and co-author of the AD&D modules C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan and A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade.

As is standard for these tournaments, the pre-gens are provided on replicas of 1979 AD&D 1E characters sheets, and with character portraits by TSR artists, here Erol Otus. I ran Delkus, a 7th level M-U, whose name was apparently drawn from a brief mention in the AD&D module I9 The Day of Al'Akbar, also by Hammack.

Character sheet signed by GM Harold Johnson

I've played in this tournament several times before with low- to mid-levels of success, but have enjoyed teaming up with several regulars each year. Thanks to Harold for running the game, and returning team members Matthew, Demos, Steve and Vince for making the session fun.

Convention event listing:

"The 7th Annual Gary Con, Legends of Roleplaying Tournament! A single-round, open tournament inspired by legendary tournaments of the past. Gary Con's most popular gaming event with over 140 participants each year, making it the largest old-school D&D tournament in the world! The top scoring team receives free Silver Badges to next year's Gary Con and is crowned Legends of Roleplaying Champion!"

 

Handout from the game, Player Aid #1: Introduction

Also in this series:

Gary Con 2025: Day 0

Gary Con 2025: Day 1

Previous Gary Con convention summaries:

Gary Con 2023 (unfinished): Day 0

Gary Con 2022: Day 1 --- Day 2 --- Days 3 and 4

Gary Con 2019 (unfinished): Day 1 --- Day 2 (part 1)

Gary Con 2025: Day 1 - Chainmail & Balrogs

The moathouse model for the Battle for the Moathouse 

Finding myself with a some rare free time, I dove back into my unfinished blog posts, and found this one covering my highlights from the first official day of Gary Con XVII, Thursday March 19th, 2025, where I played in two wargames and ran an RPG. Better late than never...

See the preceding post in this series here: Day 0

(1) For my first game in the morning, I played in the epic Battle for the Moathouse, a Chainmail scenario that recreates  a piece of Greyhawk history; specifically, the assault that creates the Ruined Moathouse in T1 The Village of Hommlet. This was refereed by the indefatigable Paul Stormberg, who organizes the entire Legends of Wargaming hall and game series every year.

Convention event listing description:

"Legends of Wargaming event! This Chainmail fantasy battle recreates one of the battles fought in the greater struggle against the Temple of Elemental Evil. After the Battle of Emridy Meadows and the Temple itself, a small force marched on the Moathouse, an outpost of Elemental Evil. Join the forces of weal and their righteous cause or serve Elemental Evil to crush the armies of good!"

I was on the side on the Forces of Woe (Elemental Evil), defending the Moathouse against the Forces of Weal. If I recall correctly at this late date, the game fairly faithfully recreated the course of the original events, with Weal doing pretty well storming the Moathouse. Woe was still in control of the Moathouse at the end of the allotted time, which I think was technically a win for us (i.e., surviving a certain number of rounds), but if the game had gone on just a little longer our leaders would have been forced to flee.

Photos:

The lineup for the Forces of Woe

The Forces of Weal advance on the Moathouse

Woe's Troll goes down on the battlefield

(2) In the afternoon I ran my Party of Balrogs OD&D scenario, the first of two games I was scheduled to run. This was second time running Party, the first being the year before at Gary Con 2024. That game had a great group of players, but they completed the scenario more quickly than I had anticipated, so I revised/added a few things to it for this year. 

Here's my convention blurb for the game:

"The 1974 D&D rules allowed for a character to be "virtually anything", even a balrog. This adventure takes this to 11 by having *all* of the PCs be balrogs! Ensorcelled to serve a wizard deep in a megadungeon, the spell is now broken. Can you get past the other guardians and make the wizard pay? This game by the Zenopus Archives celebrates 50 years of D&D. Balrog PCs provided."

I again had a great group of players, including one fellow who had played in some of my games previously. They undertook their mission with gusto and creative play and were successful in their mission. I'm running this scenario again this year at Gary Con 2026; the event page for it is here: Party of Balrogs GC 2026.

Unfortunately, I didn't take or receive any table photos for this game.

Michael Mornard, who played the original Balrog character in Greyhawk, happened to be GMing the next game I was scheduled to play (see below). To show my appreciation for originating the concept of Balrogs as PCs, I found him before his game and was able to introduce myself and buy him a beer to thank him for his inspiration.

(3) My evening game was Michael Mornard's Battle on the Ice, another Chainmail game, but historical rather than fantasy, based on the actual battle of the same name. This was played on the famous sand table in the Legends of Wargaming hall, with white coloring added to simulate the ice. I was part of the team on the side of Prince Nevsky, who won the actual battle, but unlike the real battle, we didn't fight on the actual ice, but rather tried to defend a position on an island, which probably contributed to our loss. However, our biggest mistake was separating our commander from his cavalry troops, without realizing this would render him much more vulnerable.

Convention Blurb: 

"Legends of Wargaming sand table event! This Chainmail historical scenario will be conducted on the Gary Con Sand Table. Refight the glorious battle of the Teutonic Knights vs. Prince Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod! The referee will be none other than Michael Mornard an early participant in LGTSA games and the playtesting of the Dungeons & Dragons game."

Photos:

Mike talking about the scenario prior to us placing our forces 

My team. I think Mike took this photo. I'm on the far right, wearing a Vecna tee.

The two opposing forces facing each other across the field

The other side advancing towards our island

Mike in action refereeing

Also in this series:

Gary Con 2025: Day 0

Gary Con 2025: Day 2 (forthcoming)

Previous Gary Con convention summaries:

Gary Con 2023 (unfinished): Day 0

Gary Con 2022: Day 1 --- Day 2 --- Days 3 and 4

Gary Con 2019 (unfinished): Day 1 --- Day 2 (part 1)

Metal Minis based on the Holmes Basic Set Cover are Forthcoming

"Computer-generated" mockup from the Sirius Miniatures website.

Enworld reports that a set of metal miniatures based on David Sutherland's cover for the Holmes Basic Set cover is coming soon from Sirius Miniatures, a company that I am not otherwise familiar with.  

Rogahn and Zelligar, perhaps?

The Sirius pre-order webpage can be found here, with the set titled "1977 D&D Holmes Boxed". Glad to see the correct year. Ignore the "Sold Out" button; I read on EnWorld that is what their page says until pre-orders open up. The retail price is $49.99 for the set of three miniatures, and the set will also be available in stores. The Sirius product description:

"Step back into the golden age of tabletop roleplaying with the Sirius Metal Miniatures: 1977 D&D Holmes Boxed Set—the first release in the Sirius Miniatures line. Inspired by the iconic artwork of David C. Sutherland III, this collector’s edition miniature set faithfully recreates one of Dungeons & Dragons’ most legendary battles in a durable Zinc alloy.

This boxed set includes three finely crafted miniatures:

●        Red Dragon (Huge, 75mm base) 

●        Wizard 

●        Fighter 

Designed for collectors, dungeon masters, and tabletop RPG players, this set comes in premium collector’s packaging, making it a striking display piece as well as a playable set of miniatures.

Whether you’re reliving the nostalgia of early D&D or adding a unique collectible to your miniature collection, the 1977 D&D Holmes Boxed Set is a must-have for fans of fantasy miniatures, D&D history, and tabletop gaming."

Last year saw Wizkids release plastic miniatures of the same figures. While the dragon was sold separately, and retailed for about $30, the wizard and warrior were only available as rare figures in blind boxes, and loose ones now run upwards of $50 each on Ebay, so I'm happy to see this set avoid the blind box nonsense. Perhaps it's time I finally learn to paint minis.

"RRRROOOOAAAARRRR!!!!"

Ruined Tower of Zenopus Goes Mithral!

Find it here

I haven't had much free time lately, hence the dearth of posts, but here's a quick update on the Ruined Tower of Zenopus 5E conversion/expansion: last week it achieved Mithral Best Seller status (2,501+ copies sold) on DMs Guild! A big thank you to every one who has purchased it over the years.

It was originally released on January 22nd, 2020, which means that it's been out for more than 5 years now! Naturally, it sold most quickly right after release, achieving Platinum status (1,001+) in less than one year. The remaining sales accumulated slowly over the intervening four plus years. The next (and final) badge is Adamantine at 5,001+ sales, which is double the Mithral level; for those curious, you can see all of the badge levels here. To reach this it will need to sell additional copies in an amount equal to what has already been sold. So, it will probably take more than 5 more years, if ever, before it earns the final level.

The adventure remains at its original price of $1.99, and I have no plans to increase the price.

I've made a few updates to it over the years following the original release, which are all noted on the product page linked below. These mainly concern maps that I added, plus a piece of original art by Chris Holmes. If you purchased an earlier version, you should be able to go back and get the updated version. The most recent update, in October 2024, was merely to the product page to add the "Greyhawk" setting tag when DMs Guild opened up that setting for creative content. While the original module is not set in any specific setting other than Portown, the conversion includes a section on using the adventure with Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which is set along the Keoland coast of Greyhawk.

What's next for the Zenopus Archives? When I have more time, I hope to return to work on preparing the Forgotten Smugglers' Cave adventure for publication.

Product Link:
The Ruined Tower of Zenopus on DMs Guild

Click here to read reviews of the RTOZ by various bloggers

Gary Con 2025: Day 0

Gary Con XVII illustration by Chet Minton

In March, I attended Gary Con in Lake Geneva for the sixth time, and for a con report I'm going to make a short series of blog posts with highlights from each day.

The first is for Wednesday, March 19th, or "Day 0", when I traveled to Wisconsin, checked in to the hotel and picked up my badge, before the official start of the con the next day. Highlights included:

—Stopping at Renaissance Books in the Milwaukee Airport. The only used bookstore in an airport in the US, Renaissance always has a good selection of Appendix N and adjacent paperbacks in the sci-fi/fantasy section. I normally stop here on the way out, but this year I had time after arriving and before I was scheduled to get my rental car. 

Taking advantage of a "buy 3-get 1 free" for paperbacks, I picked up H. Rider Haggard's The People of the Mist (1894), ERB's Tarzan and the Leopard Men (1935), Alan Dean Foster's Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978)(for a friend; I read this in the 90s); and Conan the Undaunted (1984), #19 in TSR's Endless Quest series and written by the late Jim Ward, a longtime Gary Con regular.

—Visiting Mars Cheese Castle, a humongous cheese shop in the shape of castle located in Kenosha, which I stopped at on the way to Lake Geneva. Coincidentally, this is not far from the University of Wisconsin Parkside, where Gen Con was held from 1978-1984, during the heyday of AD&D 1E. 

Mars has gone all-in on the medieval theme, which you can see in the photos:

The Mars brand cheese curd selection

—Having lunch at the diner inside Mars, where I had the "World's Best Fried Cheese Curd's", which did not disappoint, with Dang! butterscotch root beer, which I'd never heard of before but was excellent.

—Arriving at the Grand Geneva hotel, checking in and feeling like it was the day after last year's con. 

View from my room at the Grand

—Seeing the new D&D Pinball Machines in the lobby. There were a few units set up throughout the hotel for free play, and on another day I was able to try one for a few minutes.

—Meeting up with friends from back home also attending the con, and sharing pizza delivered from the venerable Next Door Pub, a favorite of TSR staff employees, and a pecan kringle from Mars for dessert.

The extensive Kringle stand at Mars, with a wide variety of flavors

—Super quick badge pickup. In an improvement from last year, they had many more check-in stations so that there was essentially no line by the time I arrived.

—Luke Gygax's annual Welcome Party, with free Spotted Cow on tap.

Next: Highlights from Day 1.

Holmes Day 2025

J. Eric Holmes at his chalkboard game table, contemplating miniatures and notes.
Taken by Tony Bernard for the 1979 L.A. Times article, "Fantasy Life in a Game Without End";
a cropped version appears with the article. Scan of the original photo courtesy Bill Galaxy.

For fans of the Holmes Basic Set, today is notable as it marks the birthday of its editor, J. Eric Holmes. And this year he would have been 95 years old, although sadly we lost him in 2010 at the age of 80.

To mark the occasion, here are some Holmes-ian highlights from the last year:

February

For Leap Day 2024, I shared a new monster inspired by Holmes' Sample Dungeon: the Giant Zenopus.

March

At Gary Con 2024, I ran two games, one of which was a session of the Forgotten Smugglers' Cave, my Ruined Tower of Zenopus-adjacent dungeon. Later in the year I worked on preparing this for publication, although I haven't been able to finish it yet.

April

At our local Scrum Con 2024, I ran the Forgotten Smugglers' Cave again, and also an impromptu fill-in session of the original Ruined Tower of Zenopus sample dungeon, which is always a blast.

May

May saw the publication of 50 Years of D&D, which includes an article, "Doctor Holmes I Presume?' How a California Neurology Professor Penned the first Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set", co-written by Tony Rowe and yours truly. Read more about the book here: 50 Years of D&D.

June

Pacesetter Games published the Islands of Peril, the latest adaptation of Holmes' original campaign maps and notes, to which I contributed a Foreword discussing the maps and notes on which it was based.

Wizkids promo photo. Source.

July

WizKids released a line of miniatures for the 50th anniversary of D&D, which included the Red Dragon, Blue Wizard and Green Knight from the cover of the Holmes Basic set. I have been somewhat frustrated with the availability of these figures, and haven't written a separate post about them on the blog, although I still might.

August 

I wrote about the return of the OSR zine Fight On #15, with an issue dedicated to Holmes, including an article by myself about how to Holmesify your OSR game.

September

I reviewed a Holmes Basic metal sign available from Ata-Boy via Amazon.

November

I wrote about the Coleman-Rider-Waite Deck tarot card The Tower, and its thematic similarities to the Tower of Zenopus.

December

I shared the "Tower of Xenopus", a writeup by Tony Stroppa of his adaptation of the Sample Dungeon for the Greek mythology-based Mazes & Minotaurs RPG.

January

Looking forward to Gary Con 2025, I wrote about the games I will be running, one of which is The Eye of Arzaz, Holmes' other sample dungeon from his 1981 book Fantasy Role-Playing Games.

 

Gary Con 2025 Games Scheduled!

Gary Con XVII illustration by Chet Minton

In March I'm returning to GARY CON, now in its 17th year, and as has been typical for me the past few years, I will be running two sessions of D&D; one that I've run before and one that is new to me. These are:

(1) Party of Balrogs on Thursday afternoon from 1-5 pm. Character level: Balrog; 6 seats.

Description:

"The 1974 D&D rules allowed for a character to be "virtually anything", even a balrog. This adventure takes this to 11 by having *all* of the PCs be balrogs! Ensorcelled to serve a wizard deep in a megadungeon, the spell is now broken. Can you get past the other guardians and make the wizard pay? This game by the Zenopus Archives celebrates 50 years of D&D. Balrog PCs provided."

This will be my second time running this after a successful session last year.

Find it here on Tabletop Events: https://tabletop.events/conventions/gary-con-xvii/schedule/1962

(2) The Eye of Arzaz on Friday afternoon from 1-5 pm. Character level: 1; 6 seats.

Description:

"Delve into a classic dungeon filled with monsters, traps and magic in search of the legendary jewel, The Eye of Arzaz. J. Eric Holmes, the editor of the original D&D Basic Set, wrote this introductory dungeon for his 1981 book Fantasy Role-Playing Games, and it will be run using OD&D rules. First level characters provided."

This is Holmes' other sample dungeon, from his 1981 book about RPGs (one of the first every written), and I will be running it for the first time.

Find it here on Tabletop Events: https://tabletop.events/conventions/gary-con-xvii/schedule/2131

* * * * *

This will be my sixth time attending in person, the previous years being 2017, 2019, 2022-2024, eight counting virtual years (2020, 2021), and my third consecutive year in a row. I've run two game sessions each year starting with the second time I attended.

I have a page on the Zenopus Archives site with a full list of scenarios I've run at game conventions.

Read previous Gary Con convention summaries I've written:

Gary Con 2023 (unfinished): Day 0

Gary Con 2022: Day 1 --- Day 2 --- Days 3 and 4

Gary Con 2019 (unfinished): Day 1 --- Day 2 (part 1)

Other Gary Con links of interest:
Gary Con website
Badge Purchase
Full Schedule of Events on Tabletop Events (searchable)
Grand Geneva Resort website
Facebook Group (main source for announcements)