Early Greyhawk Lore in the 1973 D&D Draft

 

Cover of the 1973 draft, previously posted on Playing at the World,
and now included in MODD

The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977 (hereafter MODD) has been out for a few months now; if you haven't picked up a copy yet, find it here. You can read more about the book and find a table of contents in my previous posts, which are linked down below.

The longest section of "new" material in the book is the long-awaited The First Draft of D&D, as it is termed in MODD, which sheds light on the early development of the game, now in its 50th year. This document is alternately known as either the 1973 Draft or Guidon D&D, based on the "Forward" [sic], which Gygax signs as an editor for Guidon Games, and with a date of 1 July 1973, months before the November date of the revised Forward in the published rules.

Beyond the rules themselves, the draft also contains some "lore" (as the kids call it) from Gygax's early Greyhawk campaign, which is the subject of this post. These tidbits provide some insight as to what had already rapidly developed in the campaign in the months since February of 1973, when Arneson first ran his game for Gygax and Kuntz.

The list sticks to direct mentions of the Greyhawk campaign, and includes page numbers from the draft itself and MODD for reference. The notes include whether the made it into the published rulebook in revised form, but some of it did not.

THE LAND OF THE GREAT KINGDOM

On page ii of the draft (page 87 of MODD), in the "Forward" [sic], Gygax writes:

"From the map of the "land" of the Great Kingdom" and its environs, Dave [Arneson], Dave located the wierd [sic] enclave of "Blackmoor", just below the terrible "Egg of Coot".

This material made it into the published book in slightly revised and expanded form, reading:

"From the map of the "land" of the "Great Kingdom" and environs -- the territory of the C & C Society -- Dave located a nice bog wherein to nest the wierd [sic] enclave of "Blackmoor", a spot between the '''Great Kingdom" and the fearsome "Egg of Coot".

This text refers to the "Great Kindgom" map(s) that I've written about previously. The description of Blackmoor's location was changed as published, but remains accurate as it is both "below" (south) the Egg of Coot, and also between it and the Great Kingdom.

In 1977, the published version was also included in Holmes Basic with slight revisions, as "Foreword from the Original Edition".

NON-REAL PLAYERS

On page 11 of the draft (page 101 of MODD), in the section "NON-REAL PLAYERS" (an unintentionally hilarious term which later became "NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS"):

"In the "Greyhawk Castle" campaign most players have 1-4 men (or elves or dwarves) and quite a few have orcs, ogres, etc". The monster-types, however, with the exception of orcs, cannot serve in the underworld, but they will man castles or lurk in dungeons built under players' own stronghold".

Many years later, Gygax recalled the use of orcs in theses early games, particularly by Rob Kuntz's character Robilar, in an Up On a Soapbox column called "The First Orc Hero" in Dragon (Oct 2003); see this thread.

This material was removed from this section in Vol 1 as published, although Vol 3 has a section titled "Men-At-Arms" that indicates that Chaotic characters may employ Orcs and provides costs for such. No specific reference to the Greyhawk campaign remains, however.

EXAMPLE OF A MULTI-LEVEL DUNGEON

On page 32 of the 1973 draft (page 126 of MODD), in the section on the "UNDERWORLD", subsection "Levels", Gygax provides an example of a dungeon by describing his own creation:

"Consider "Greyhawk Castle" for example: It has over ten levels down (as it is still being played exact information cannot be given), and on some levels are items like an underground lake, a bowling alley for 30' giants, and enormous caverns filled with weirdly shaped and colored fungi"

This text, in expanded form, made it into the published version, Vol 3, page 4, section the "UNDERWORLD":

""Greyhawk Castle", for example, has over a dozen levels in succession downwards, more than that number branching from these, and not less than two new levels under construction at any given time. These levels contain such things as a museum from another age, an underground lake, a series of caverns filled with giant fungi, a bowling alley for 20' high Giants, an arena of evil, crypts, and so on."

Thus, from 1973 to 1974, the descripton of the dungeon grew: 10 levels becomes 12, and the three named features become six. The bowling giants are changed from 30 feet to 20, possibly to match the tallest Giants in Vol 2, and the fungi in the caverns change from "weirdly shaped and colored" to "giant".

The three added features ("museum of another age", the "arena of evil", and "crypts") were possibly either created or discovered by players, and thus revealable, after the time of the 1973 draft. Note that the original text expressly states Gary's concern with revealing secrets to the players of an ongoing campaign.

EXAMPLE OF A CAMPAIGN WORLD

On page 34 of draft, in the section "UPPER WORLD", Gygax describes part of his campaign world:

"In the Greyhawk game the world is somewhat like the real one, and players who are incautious can get transported thousands of miles away. Then, adventuring across a parallel world's India they might meet living gods with eight arms, learn the "rope trick", how to walk over beds of glowing coals, and so on. The mythology of each land can supply the referee with a basis for their surroundings."

Gygax's use of Earth for portions of his campaign suggests why Gods, Demigods & Heroes (1976), and then Deities & Demigods (1980), leaned so heavily into real world mythology. This text also reveals the origin of the spell Rope Trick, which was introduced in the Greyhawk supplement (1975).

This text disappeared completely from the published book, but in 1975 in Alarums & Excursions #15, Gygax made a similar reveal with respect to Greyhawk:

"The game world is a parallel earth, but the continents are somewhat different. Most of our campaign activity takes place on what corresponds to North America, on the eastern half of the continent. The "Blackmoor" lands lie far up on the northeast coast. "Greyhawk" is in the central portion. There are a few other independently run campaigns located on this map. There are also some other dungeons related to the "Greyhawk" campaign located at some distance from the free city of Greyhawk. Players in our campaign may freely play in "Blackmoor", but to get there they must adventure cross country. With one or two other campaigns, we do not allow any cross-campaign play other than this, for these is too great a disparity of DMing. The territory within 500 or so miles of our main dungeon is mapped out at 5 miles to the hex. Territory within 50 miles of Greyhawk city is mapped more closely, and monster locations are indicated. The entire world is mapped out in rough form, with notes regarding typical encounters in given areas as well as particular special places, for hardy souls who wish to go forth to seek their fortunes."

This also shows that the existence of Arneson's Blackmoor in the Great Kingdom/Greyhawk, mentioned in the "Forward" (see above) was still in effect in Gygax's campaign world in 1975.

* * * * 

In summary, these references to Greyhawk in the first draft show that by July of 1973, the Greyhawk campaign had a central dungeon with over ten levels and a variety of unusual features, characters commonly employing multiple henchmen/hirelings including orcs and other monsters, and a campaign world leaning heavily on the real world for details of the broader world.

See also these earlier posts:

"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