Scrum in Miniature: The Lost Art of Games Workshop's Holmes Basic

My fellow Scrum Club member Joe has started a series called the "Lost Art of D&D" on his blog Scrum in Miniature, and the second installment covers the replacement art by John Blanche and Fangorn that was used by Games Workshop in the first printing of Holmes Basic rulebook, first released in December 1977. The post goes through the rulebook and shows each replacement work contrasted with the original from the U.S. version (example above).

In a 2001 interview, Gary Gygax was asked about the UK version, and responded:

"Yes, I saw the work, and I approved. Ian [Livingstone] and Steve [Jackson of Games Workshop] convinced me that their audience didn't like the illustrations used in American versions of the game, so I gave them the okay to produce their own. I had a copy of the Basic Set rules, but it was lost when Lorraine Williams took over TSR..."

Lost Art of D&D No. 2: Games Workshop's Holmes Basic (1977)

After Games Workshop attained the license to print a co-branded edition of TSR's 1977 Dungeons & Dragons basic rules book, they set about putting their own stamp on it, designing a new cover and replacing a number of the illustrations they deemed too crudely drawn for their U.K. market.

Heroic Worlds on the Holmes Basic Set

     

     Heroic Worlds is a 1991 encyclopedia of role-playing games, written by Lawrence Schick, formerly of TSR, where he is probably best remembered for authoring the module S2 White Plume Mountain. It covers most game products that had been published up to the time, including many obscure games, although the folks at the Acaeum have found some that are not covered. It's still in print and remains an excellent resource for those interested in the first two decades of rpgs. As I wrote on the Acaeum in 2007 when I first found my copy: "The product lists are comprehensive, well-organized (by genre) and have well-written capsule reviews of each product. There are a nice quantity of illustrations recycled from covered products (with permission). For example, Tramp's Lizardman from the Monster Manual squats threateningly at the top of page 104. The short essays are a real treat (by EGG, Greg Stafford, Ken St. Andre, Dave Arneson, Tom Moldvay, Sandy Peterson, Paul Jacquays and others). Law Schick's intro covers the history of RPGs, starting with Dave Wesely's Braunsteins."

     Here's what Schick has to say about the Basic Set in his History section:

     "By 1977 TSR realized they would never be able to meet the demand for D&D products by simply releasing more rules supplements. The game was so succesful that even the big toy store chains were starting to sit up and take notice, bu tth eoriginal three-book set would never do for distribution to the mass market - it didn't look or read like a mass market product. TSR decided to publish a simplified, easy-to-learn version of D&D in a larger box with new artwork. Writer J. Eric Holmes revised the rules for mass consumption, and the first Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set was released to the toy stores of America in time for Christmas. It was the first attempt at a really introductory role-playing game, and it was a big hit. Suddenly obscure little D&D was being printed in runs of 100,000 - unprecedented numbers for anything resembling a "wargame". TSR had hit the jackpot.

     The Basic Set was revised in 1980 [released Jan 1981 - Z], and again in 1983, improving each time as TSR's game design and graphic standards improved. Over ten years several million copies of the D&D Basic Set have been sold. It was an remains the single most common introduction to role-playing gaming. Today's Basic Set contains only enough rules for character classes to advance to the third level of skill - if they want to go further, players have to buy the Expert Set. In 1977, when Basic was first released, there was no Expert Set and no plans for one; instead, players were directed to buy TSR's new improvement on D&D, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

      Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, or AD&D, was intended to consolidate all the many and contradictory D&D rules into one comprehensive game, a system that reflected author Gary Gygax's opinion of how D&D ought to be played. It was originally conceived as the replacement for Original D&D: new players would buy the D&D Basic Set, then move on to AD&D, and the Original D&D boxed set would be phased out. Two factors derailed this agenda.

     The first was the incredible popularity of Original D&D, which wouldn't die no matter how popular AD&D became (and it became very popular). TSR kept Original D&D in print long after it became an embarrassment because they couldn't bear not to sell it if people wanted to buy it.

     The second factor was the perceived legal necessity to separate D&D from Advanced D&D after Dave Arneson sued for royalties from Advanced D&D, which bore Gygax's name alone. TSR had to contend that AD&D was a different game from D&D, so that the differences between the two were exaggerated and eventually AD&D actually became a different game from D&D. The Arneson case was ultimately settled, but by the time things were straightened out the two games had acquired quite different identities."

     Frank Mentzer, writing on Dragonsfoot in 2008, commented further on the print run info:

     "Before '77 a large print run in gaming was 10,000. A huge run was 50k, and iirc that's what 1st print Holmes was, maybe 2nd print as well. Most of the reprints were 100,000 each (I think Law mentions this in Heroic Worlds) except for the last one (down to 50-75k iirc since TSR was planning a new version)."

     There are at least eight distinct printings of the rulebook between 1977 and 1980, so if these numbers are correct, there were at least 600,000 copies in total during that time.

     And here's the Basic Set entry from Heroic Worlds, page 130-131. It covers all of the basic sets together but I've extracted the information for the Holmes edition:

     Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules Set

     Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson; 1st ed. edited by J. Eric Holmes

     The rulebook covers character levels 1-3 and dungeon adventuring, with an emphasis on easy introduction to the concepts of the game. The 1st ed. incorporates concepts from Greyhawk, Blackmoor and Eldritch Wizardry supplements and leads the players who want to go beyond third level to the AD&D system.

     The set also includes an introductory scenario designed to ease new players and GMs into the concepts of D&D. For the 1st ed., this was B1, In Search of the Unknown, replaced toward the end of its run by B2, The Keep on the Borderlands. [HW is missing mention of the earliest printing having a set of Geomorphs and Monster and Treasure Assortment - Z]

Record Prices for Holmes Basic

     Earlier this week an Ebay auction by the Collector's Trove for a Holmes Basic set in shrinkwrap ended at $315, with four bidders driving the price from $50 to $315. Believe it or not, this is not even the highest price a shrinked Holmes set has sold for. Here's are the four highest sale prices in my records:

1) SW 1st print (F115-R code, Lizard Logo) - owned by Brian Blume - ~$500 - GenCon 2009
2) SW 3rd print (Lizard Logo) - owned by Gygax - $331.05 - Jun 2011
3) SW 7th? print (Wizard Logo) - Collector's Trove personal auction - $315 - Mar 2012

4) SW 4th+ print (Wizard Logo) - owned by Gygax - $308.25 - Mar 2011 

     #2-4 were all auctioned by the Collector's Trove, with #2 and 4 being part of the Gygax collection, and these naturally went for much higher prices than normal due to celebrity and charity factors (in common with all of the Gygax collection items). #3 is surprising because it's simply from the Collector Trove's personal collection, but he may have benefited from the exposure from running so many Gygax and other TSR employee auctions. #1 was bought by one of the Acaeum's premier collectors (stratochamp) in the annual GenCon auction, and he knew exactly what he was paying for. 1st print Holmes sets are rare to begin with, and are very rare in shrinkwrap, and #1 was also from the collection of Brian Blume. #1 is also interesting in that it has a blank box bottom. Normally the 1st print has a printed picture on the box bottom, but a few copies have been found with the blank bottom, so #1 confirms that they were actually sold this way (rather than being a later "Frankenstein"). Generally with 1970's TSR products the blank box bottom preceded the printed box bottom, so it's possible this version is a "true 1st" print. There's been some speculation (see this thread) that this version was sold at Gen Con in Aug 1977; but I actually haven't even seen any hard proof that the Holmes Set was actually for sale there or by that time (as opposed to Sep or Oct '77). Also, it could just indicate a shortage of printed box bottoms.

"true?" 1st print Holmes Basic box top - not in shrinkwrap - sold on the Acaeum last fall

"true?" 1st print Holmes set box bottom

   I'm neutral with regard to the high prices. I'd never pay these prices myself, but I don't mind if someone else does. They also don't astound me after perusing the Acaeum forums for years and seeing how much collector's are willing pay for various rarities. And I'm glad that some of the shrinked copies are being preserved. There were probably 500,000 to 1 million of the Holmes sets produced and there are usually ~10 on Ebay at any given time for $10-$20, so it's not like the handful of shrinkwrapped sets is keeping anyone from getting a copy. It's kind of a tribute to the Holmes set that it's now valued enough to command that much money. Also, I would caution that the later print shrinked sets are more common than the most recent price would indicate. The Collector's Trove apparently sent out some second chance offers after the auction, suggesting he had multiple copies. Also some one immediately put one up on Ebay this week with a "bargain" price of $300 after seeing the final price for the Collector's Trove auction and it hasn't sold yet.

TSR Basic Set copyright record

     Above is a record I've never looked up until now - the copyright registration for the Holmes Basic Set at the U.S. Copyright Office, which maintains the records (and is part of the Library of Congress).

     The database can be searched on-line here and includes registrations from 1978 to present. Some older titles are included if they were registered later, such as the Basic Set (registered 6/21/78). The "Basis of Claim" is "rev. text, ill. & compilation". This could refer to 2nd edition of the set (Nov 1978), but more likely just refers to the changes over the OD&D set. Each TSR product seems to have only a single record in the database, regardless of how many editions/printings. There's not another one for the Basic Set until the Moldvay Set, which has a listed publication date of 2/16/1981, giving us a date for the start of the end of the Holmes Era (the Holmes Basic Set was still available through TSR's Mail Order Hobby Shop until at least 1986).

     The most interesting piece of information in the copyright registration is the publication date of 7/10/77. This is the earliest date I've seen for the set, but doesn't necessarily mean it was available for sale at this time. The earliest advertisement I've seen is in the September 1977 issue of The Dragon (#9). This advertisement describes but doesn't actually show the set itself, just the cover art. IIRC, Dragon magazines were prepared a few months in advance, which could approximate the July 10 date. A big question is whether the set was for sale at Gen Con X in Aug 1977. There is a record of Holmes being at this Gen Con, although it wasn't until the next Aug that he was honored as a special guest for his editorial work. A few 1st print Basic Sets have been spotted with blank bottoms, and one hypothesis advanced on the Acaeum is that these represent early Gen Con releases (They could also simply be some extra copies where TSR ran out of printed box bottoms and substituted blank ones). I asked Tim Kask (organizer of Gen Con X) about this on Dragonsfoot, and he said it was a possibility but he couldn't remember any specifics. The date listed in the copyright record at least supports the possibility the set was available at Gen Con X.