The Mirkwood Tales RPG: the link between the original D&D rules and text-based computer games

Cover of Mirkwood Tales, 1977, by Eric S. Roberts

In May 1977, the all-text computer game Adventure, also known as Advent or Colossal Cave, "became the first computer game blockbuster", per the book 50 Years of Text Games by Aaron A. Reed (2023). Its popularity led to a whole genre of text-based adventure games that enjoyed popularity in the 80s, the best known being the Infocom games such as Zork, a close cousin of Adventure. While the start of Adventure approximates a real-world cave system, the game includes many fantasy elements, and it has long been known that the initial developer, Willie Crowther, was inspired by playing a D&D-type fantasy RPG.

Some of the earliest information came from Barry Gold, husband of Alarums & Excursions editor Lee Gold, in his article "Computers and Fantasy Gaming" from issue 30 of A&E, January 1978 (which I happen to have a physical copy of):

"As far as I know, Willie Crowther of Stanford University wrote the first fantasy simulation game. Don Woods added several features and expanded the dungeon to produce the current ADVENTURE game. Tim Anderson and Dave Lebling of MIT built on the Adventure game by using a more powerful computer language and including some ideas from D&D (Dave Lebling plays it). With help from two other users they came up with ZORK, sometimes called DUNGEON."

Later in the article, Gold adds follow-up information from Adventure co-designer Woods:

"ADVENT: Willie Crowther was at BBN (Bolt-Beranek and Newman - Massachusetts) when he wrote the original Adventure program. He was inspired by a Middle-Earth offshoot called Mirkwood Tales. Neither Willie nor Don appear to have drawn any ideas from the D&D rules in building Advent. Don Woods doesn't play any RPG games."

"The original program by Willie Crowther was much less complex than Don Wood's current version, and the dungeon was only about half its current size."

"Don Woods also provided a short genealogy of these games: war games, D&D, Mirkwood Tales, Adventures (original), Adventure (Don dropped the 's' from the name of his version), Zork."

From Gold's account, one might gather that this Mirkwood Tales was some kind of game situated between D&D and Adventure, but from this it's not really clear from this which it is closer to.

A 1996 Washington Post article by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon clarifies that Mirkwood Tales was a version of D&D set in Middle-Earth, in which Crowther played a thief sharing his first name:

"Dave Walden, who had been a programming ace working under Crowther at BBN, got his introduction to the game one night in 1975, when Eric Roberts, a student from a class he was teaching at Harvard, took him to a D&D session. Walden immediately rounded up a group of friends for continued sessions. Roberts created the Mirkwood Tales, an elaborate version of Dungeons and Dragons set in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth. The game stretched on for the better part of a year and was played mostly on Walden's living room floor. One of the regulars was Will Crowther. Where the dozen other players chose names like Zandar, Klarf or Groan for their characters, Crowther was simply Willie, a stealthy thief."

In 2012, the epilogue of the first edition of Playing at the World by Jon Peterson has a section "The First Virtual Worlds", which contains the first detailed description of the Mirkwood Tales rules, based on an unpublished 1977 manuscript written by Eric S. Roberts, the DM of the game (page 617). Peterson quotes from the Introduction and Acknowledgements section to demonstrate the "debt of Mirkwood Tales to Dungeons & Dragons", and then notes some of the significant differences in classes and combat from D&D, but concludes:

"Mirkwood Tales is a game of stratified progression, where characters accumulate experience points while adventuring and go up in level as they reach certain experience totals. It moreover relies on underworld exploration, combat and treasure to drive an engaging narrative. In all those respects, it very closely follows the precedent of Dungeons & Dragons" (page 617). 

Later in the section, Peterson reveals that Dave Lebling, one of the developers of Zork, also played in Roberts' Mirkwood Tales campaign (page 622).

(Note: The 2012 edition of Playing at the World is out of print, and is being republished in a two-volume edition; the first volume is already out but does not contain the above material).

Until this month, this was the most detail about The Mirkwood Tales RPG that was generally available. Now, however, Eric Roberts has made public a reformatted pdf of Mirkwood Tales, as announced recently on Renga in Blue by blogger Jason Dyer:

Renga in Blue: Crowther's Adventure and Mirkwood Tales

Head over there to find the link to the pdf, hosted on the Internet Archive, and much more in a deep dive back into Crowther's original version Adventure - before Woods added on to it - as viewed anew through the lens of the full Mirkwood Tales rules. Dyer has an ongoing project called All the Adventures, wirh the goal of playing and blogging "about every adventure game ever made in (nearly) chronological order" (!), and has previously played through the many variations of Adventure, and thus has great insight into the details of the game. 

Unlike Gold's early assertion, which appears to be based on communication with Woods rather than Crowther himself, after playing through Crowther's original version again, Dyer concludes that Adventure does draw upon several elements from The Mirkwood Tales:

"It isn’t like Crowther was trying to “adapt Dungeons and Dragons” entirely — this is not an RPG, and nearly every room has an analogue in the real cave — but there’s still clearly some flavor of Crowther’s world found in the campaign he participated in, with the treatment of magic, direct reference to the computer as the “eyes” of the player, and heavy emphasis on dwarves (if a bit more aggressive in this game)"

Of these, the element with the strongest ties to the original D&D rules is "the treatment of magic", which here refers to the identification of properties of magic items in the game. Dyer asked me about how magic items were identified in OD&D, and I pointed to the Example of Play in Vol 3, where a player tries on "old boots" to identify them as magical Elven boots:

Dyer notes that this concept, which is merely exemplary in OD&D, is expressly stated in The Mirkwood Tales rules:

"In addition to spells, magic appears in the Mirkwood Tales in the form of magical artifacts and equipment. More often than not, the magical effect of some object will not be clear from simple examination of the object, and it may require experimentation or searching for further clues to its nature" (The Mirkwood Tales, page 21, section "3.5.3 Magical Artifacts")

Adventure, in turn, requires the player to experiment to figure how out how to use magic such as items or words. The first magic item encountered in Adventure is the "the iconic three foot black rod with a rusty rod", which has two different properties in the game, and "the experience of fiddling with the rod — and finding two effects, both positive and negative — are similar to OD&D campaigns", per Dyer.

The Mirkwood Tales rules mostly rewrite the first volume of OD&D, Men & Magic, with some material from Vol 3, including a much longer Example of Play. The subject matter of Vol 2 is almost entirely missing; there are no lists of monsters or treasure. If I find time in the future I will take a closer look at how the Mirkwood Tales RPG rules differ from OD&D.

Lee Gold: 45 Years of Alarums & Excursions!

Alarums & Excursions #1, June 1975. Source: RPG Geek

As of this month, Lee Gold has been publishing the APAzine Alarums & Excursions for 45 years! During this time she has missed only a few months, which means that this month's issue is a jaw-dropping #535, per the RPG Geek page. Lee not only assembles every issue, she also contributes her own column Tantivy:

Lee Gold's Tantivy from A&E #1. Source: RPG Geek

A lengthy 2019 audio interview with Lee can be found here on YouTube, and follow the link at the bottom of this page to read a new profile of Lee over at the DM David blog.

A little more on A&E: it's an APAzine (Amateur Press Association zine), which means that it is assembled from contributions from various subscribers. When it started in the '70s, it was the closest thing to what we would now recognize as an internet forum for D&D discussion, with content and comments going back and forth between contributors. Issues are dense with content, ideas and discussion and can be over a hundred pages in length. Fans of Holmes Basic may recall that this is where J. Eric Holmes got his start writing D&D articles, along with many other RPG designers of the '70s, '80s and beyond, which DM David covers.

You can subscribe to, contribute to, or buy pdfs of back issues of A&E here at Lee's site. I own the first 29 issues in pdf, and if you are interested in the early history of D&D and RPGs they are well worth the money. I also own one copy in paper, issue #30:

Alarums & Excursions #30, January 1978 with cover art by Troy Hughes

Meet the Woman Who by 1976 Was the Most Important Gamer in Roleplaying After Gary

In 1976, after Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax, the most important person in roleplaying games was a Los Angeles woman named Lee Gold. She still contributes to the hobby and still runs a campaign using her Lands of Adventure (1983) game. Lee who? And what happened to Gary's co-designer Dave Arneson?

Holmes Ref: Rolling up an Adventurer

Another Holmes Ref sheet - actually a two-parter this time!

Go the Holmes Ref page to download the sheet

The first page is shown above and gather together the six standard abilities and modifiers, as appearing in Holmes and also including the expansions I posted a few years back (...has it really been that long?).

To make things more interesting I've included six alternate old school options for generating ability scores. 

The first, which I've termed The Bullpen, reflects the habit of early Lake Geneva players of rolling up multiple characters until they got one they liked, naturally with high stats. This was eventually immortalized in the AD&D DMG as Method IV of character generation, where 12 sets of 3d6 stats are rolled up and one is picked. A variation on this practice was also seen in Alarums & Excursions #2 (July 1975), where a character generation sheet (link goes to Playing at the World) suggested rolling three sets of stats for one character, or five sets of stats for two characters. I've added a restriction I've seen suggested occasionally (here or here, for example) that the extras are to be saved as replacement characters.

The Arnesonian method was mentioned here on ODD74 by Dave Arneson himself in 2008. That's right, Dave was a member of the forum and made over a 170 posts in 2008 and 2009 before he passed away.

The Gygaxian method comes from Method I of the AD&D DMG and Gygax's houserules for running OD&D games in the '00s.

The Holmesian method comes from Holmes early A&E article, "Warrior-for-Hire". It was intended for NPC men-at-arms, but there's no reason it couldn't be generalized it to PCs.

The Ivesian method was detailed by Wesley D. Ives in Alarums & Excursions #14 (August 1976), stated to be used in his "Homlas" campaign (page 26).

What I've termed the Swansonian method is simply an additional roll for a bonus ability for a character rolled up RAW. The first version of this kind of table by Mark Swanson was featured in the very first issue of Alarums & Excursions in mid-1975. It was presented by Lee Gold as Mark Swanson's Special Abilities, and was popular enough with A&E contributors to become known as "Swanson Abilities" by other A&E contributers. See the character generation sheet at Playing at the World linked above for an example of such a use. Jon also discusses the "Swanson Abilities" in his commentary in that post, which was the first to bring it to my attention. The Complete Warlock in 1978 included a variation on these, called "Table of Special Abilities", but includes more defects than bonuses. Gygax eventually developed a version of these called Knacks for his Lejendary Adventures RPG in the late 90s.

Swanson's original list was actually two lists, one for clerics/fighters and one for magic-users. I've instead made a single table for all characters with 50 entries, some inspired by Swanson's list but many others simply brainstormed while perusing Holmes Basic. See the screenshot below.

If you note any typos in either page, please let me know below in the comments and I will eventually correct and repost the sheets.

As with the previous new sheet (the Equipment Reference Sheet), these will eventually be incorporated into a new version of Holmes Ref. The various existing Holmes Ref sheets and compilations can be found here.

Update 4/29: Revised version posted at the same link. Corrected typos found by myself and others and clarifies some wording in places. Screenshots still reflect the original version, so check the pdf if you note a typo in the screenshot.

Holmes' FLGS is closing

Gary Switzer, owner of Aero Hobbies, '70s to '00s. Source: A.H. FB page

Aero Hobbies, the game store in Santa Monica where J. Eric Holmes bought his first D&D rulebooks and many of his miniatures, will be closing at the end of October according to this recent news article:

Development Displaces 80-year-old Hobby Shop

A few years back Chris Holmes told to me that "It was very soon after [playing D&D for the first time] that Dad bought the rules at Aero Hobbies, including Warlock, Chainmail and the board game Dungeon". Eric Frasier, who played Murray the Mage, recently recalled that "I loved going to Aero Hobbies back when we were playing in that first D&D group of Eric's/ours. It was some of those visits that inspired my dad's comment to Eric [about the selling of minis] that they'd solved the age-old puzzle of turning lead into gold. :)"

Aero's name comes from from its original location in the same building as the Aero Theatre on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, which is still located there. By the early '70s, Aero Hobbies had moved a few streets away to 1319 Santa Monica Blvd, an address I found in a 1976 issue of Lee Gold's Alarums & Excursions zine.

A gamer named Gary Switzer bought Aero in the early '70s - I'm not sure if this was before or after the move - and it quickly turned into one of the early centers of D&D activity in the L.A. area, along with Alarums & Excursions and Caltech's group that developed Warlock. One of the DMs in the Aero group, D. Daniel Wagner, created the first thief character class, which Switzer famously related to Gary Gygax in a phone call, leading Gygax to create the version that appeared in the Greyhawk supplement in 1975 (Wagner's version used ability lists rather than level-based percentile scores). The thief, or rogue as it is called these days, remains one of the four core classes of D&D, as evidenced by the current D&D Basic Rules.

In 1976 the same group published the Manual of Aurania, one of the earliest non-TSR D&D supplements with new classes and monsters. With Wagner's permission I posted several of these classes and monsters on this blog in 2013 (click on Aurania in the labels below to bring these up). A Kickstarter is now in the works to republish this together with the Libram of Aurania, a unpublished sequel, see the announcement on FB.

Wagner has a Q&A thread over on ODD74 (you will need to be logged in to read this), where he wrote that "[Holmes] had a character named Eric the Cleric. He liked one of my weird classes from the Manual of Aurania. But he usually ran a [demo] game for the kids, he only played with us a little."

Holmes & company used some of the classes of the Manual of Aurania in their games. The copy owned by Eric Frasier - along with his other game books - can be seen in Tales of Peril, and also appears on my Gaming Artifacts Page. On the late Holmes Basic G+ group, Chris wrote that "the Manual of Aurania inspired my Samurai character. We treated his armor like chain mail that weighed less". Holmes' game write-ups in Alarums & Excursion (reprinted in Tales of Peril) mention this Samurai character and also a Beorning, another new class from the Manual. This likely led to the memorable mentions of a "lawful werebear" and a "Samurai" in the "Additional Character Classes" section of the original Basic rulebook:

"Thus, an expedition might include, in addition to the four basic classes and races (human, elven, dwarven, hobbitish), a centaur, a lawful werebear, and a Japanese Samurai fighting man" (pg 7).

The article linked above quotes a long-time customer saying that Switzer "had a career painting miniature figurines so I could ask him for tips on painting my armies", and on the ODD74 thread, Wagner wrote: "at the time, Switzer was likely the best figure painter around." Some miniatures painted by Switzer appear in photos Chapter 11 ("Little Metal People") of Holmes' 1981 book, Fantasy Role-Playing Games. The Aero Hobbies website once had a gallery of minis painted by Switzer called "Gary's Townsfolk", and although they took it down at some point, I had saved one image; I've heard from a local that these minis are still on display in the store:

One of "Gary's Townsfolk". Source: A.H. website. 

The sculpt is C1019h Gipsy from the C1019 Villagers and Townspeople set (1988) from the Metal Magic line from Hobby Magic, and still for sale (Thanks to DM Carl of Save or Die, a true "Metal Guru", for this info). The magic 8-ball appears to be Gary's touch. 😎

Holmes was still frequenting Aero in the early '80s; his recently republished 1983 review of the Call of Cthulhu game mentions a tip for running the game given to him by Switzer.

Holmes left L.A. in the mid-'80s and the other early D&D innovators like Wagner also moved on, but Switzer kept the store running for decades in the same friendly manner. The photo at the top of the column, which shows Switzer behind the register, is likely from the early '90s due to the preponderance of the TORG RPG (West End Games) for sale. He moved Aero once in the mid-'90s, but only a little over a mile down the street to 2918 Santa Monica Blvd, still its current location. As described in the article linked above, after his untimely death from cancer in 2006, the store was bought by one of his former employees, who has kept it running in the same tradition until the forced closure due to redevelopment. In 2016 it had a brush with fame when it hosted an HBO Game of Thrones promo:

Maisie Williams (aka Arya Stark) Pranks Game of Thrones Fans

If you live in the area, you have a few more weeks to visit the shop; per their post on FB everything is on sale with increasing discounts each week.

Update: An old friend who lives in the area pointed me to this his business page which has a partial walk through of the interior of the store. They are still using "TSR Adventure Gaming" racks to display merchandise. : )

Seligman on Holmes Basic

As I've written previously, the earliest reported public availability for Holmes Basic is at Origins 1977, which ran from Friday July 22nd to Sunday, July 24th at Wagner College on Staten Island, NYC. This weekend is the 40th anniversary of this event!

The above information is from a convention report by Bill Seligman (who has a blog here) in the August 1977 issue of the APAzine, The Wild Hunt (via Jon Peterson and Playing at the World).

Lee Gold is now offering pdf copies of early Alarums & Excursions issues (ordering details are here), and in these I found that Bill also included a convention report in issue #25 (8/16/77) as part of his contribution, "I WOULD HAVE MADE A GREAT PLATINUM DRAGON #10". Note that APAzines are compilations of mini-zines made by each contributor. 

As part of this report, Bill had several paragraphs devoted to the new Basic Set. First, he addressed Holmes directly as part his comments made to previous A&E contributors:

Eric Holmes: the new revised D&D is written extremely well, at least. Kudos to you, sir, at least future DMs will not have to struggle with what we had. (numbered page 3 of Seligman's mini-zine, unnumbered page 83 of A&E #25)

Second, his information & thoughts about the new set:

But now, for some even bigger news: THE NEW REVISED AND TRULY PROOFREAD VERSION OF D&D IS OUT!!! Well, not the whole thing, just the basic version, for $10.00, This includes dice, a dungeon geomorph (yuk) and a set of pre-allocated rooms for 1-3 levels (yuk). The whole set is designed for setting up to third level characters and up to the third level of the' dungeon. Further versions of D&D will expand the current one to the Nth level. The next D&D book to be put out will be on monsters — there will be 378 of them. It will be out in October [actually published in Dec - Z]. Future releases will be an advanced D&D playing volume, a Dungeonmasters guide, and a revised Gods, Demi-Gods, and Heroes, each of which will be 8'-1/2 by 11 inches and bound like a paperback.

What I think of Basic D&D-- it is far, far better written than the original. There are a lot, more examples. Including examples of melee, spell use, encumberance, and setting up a dungeon level. Naturally the spell system and combat system is the Gygaxian one — what did you expect? Kask [at Origins] justified this too -- he said that D&D is based on Vancian magic, and that it restricts high-level mages, who would otherwise control the whole game. I wish they had not included the geomorphs and dungeon example, since too many neo-DMs will use them with no individual changes when they first start out. However, if you are starting a D&D campaign, from the 1st level, then get this book. It is available w/o dice, geomorphs, pre-allocations, and box for $5.00, with for $10.00. 

One thing though -- in the monster encounter charts, they list creatures like Leprechauns and Troglodytes which are not listed in the monster descriptions. Kask said that if a person never saw a Lucky Charms commercial or read a fairy tale there was nothing he could do --but normally somebody could work up something for those monsters. I disagree - assuming a true neo, he would not be able to assign the monster any hit points that were reasonable - he would not even really understand what hit points were for. But, Kask said, Leprechauns would be explained in the next book. (numbered page 4 of Seligman's mini-zine, unnumbered page 84 of A&E #25)

The Cthulhu Mythos in D&D in the 1970s

Cover by Bruce Pennington for 1975 Panther paperback reprint of Tales of Cthulhu Mythos (1969), including Lovecraft's "Call of Cthulhu" and Mythos stories by Howard, Smith and others

A chronology of early references to the Cthulhu Mythos in Dungeons & Dragons:

Feb 1975
Greyhawk --- Supplement I by Gygax and Kuntz
Description of the Gate spell: "Employment of this spell opens a cosmic portal and allows an ultra-powerful being (such as Odin, Crom, Set, Cthulhu, the Shining One, a demi-god, or whatever) to come to this plane" (pg 28)

July 1975
Letter from Gary Gygax, Alarums & Excursions #2, an APAzine edited by Lee Gold

"...in Greyhawk we do not have existing religions included, for this is a touchy area. We have such groups as "The Church of the Latter Day Great Old Ones," "Church of Crom, Scientist," "Brethren of St. Cuthbert of the Cudgle", and so on. Gods sometimes intervene"
Mike Mornard (aka Gronan) also mentioned the first two of these in a post on ODD74.

July 1976
God, Demi-gods & Heroes --- Supplement IV by Kuntz and Ward
No Cthulhu mythos per se, but does include Robert E. Howard's Hyborea (i.e., Conan), on pages 45-52 including numerous deities, monsters and magic items. Some of note: Tsathoggus [sic, for Tsathoggua], a Clark Ashton Smith creation also used by Lovecraft and appearing only in Conan the Buccaneer by De Camp/Carter (pg 46). A note at the bottom of page 46 includes "The Old Ones" among other deities mentioned by Howard, likely due to a reference to the "Nameless Old Ones" in the Phoenix on the Sword. The Kraken "comes to us fully described in A. Meritt's Dwellers in the Mirage" (pg 48).

See also this article: Conan and Cthulhu Mythos

Dec 1976
"Fantasy/Swords & Sorcery Recommended Reading" by Gary Gygax, The Dragon #4
Gygax includes H.P. Lovecraft, Algneron Blackwood, Robert E. Howard and A. Merritt in this list, which can be seen here. With some revisions and additions, this list would later appear as Appendix N in the Dungeon Masters Guide (1979, see below). Lovecraft was also included the new Fantasy Gaming Hall of Fame in The Dragon #7 (June '77, pg 4). 

Mar 1977
The Adventure of the Lost City: Part Two, Boinger & Zereth campaign story, by J. Eric Holmes, in the APAzine Alarums & Excursions, issue #19. 
The party finds excerpts from the Necronomicon and spies the Spawn of Cthulhu: "In the center of the tower, rising up from the sea caves beneath, momentarily visible above the horizon before it fell back into the depths, the polyploid tentacled monstrosity wavered in the air, and its eerie screeching reached them across the waves. 'The Spawn of Cthulhu!'"

July 1977
Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set edited by J. Eric Holmes
"When characters swear they call on the wrath of their appropriate deities, be it Zeus, Crom, Cthulhu or whatever" (pg 39). 

Aug 1977
Kuntz and Holmes meet at Gen Con and discuss "ideas for a revision of the old "Gods Demigods & Heroes" D&D supplement ... a brief summary of the gods presented in the works of H.P. Lovecraft". This led to the article below.

Feb 1978
“Lovecraftian Mythos in D&D” by Holmes and Kuntz, The Dragon #12
"J. Eric Holmes (known for his work with Basic Dungeons and Dragons) with additions by my humble self bring you parts of the Cthulhu mythos. They are laid out to be compatible with Dungeons and Dragons Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes" (i.e., for OD&D).
Includes Azathoth, Cthulhu, Hastur, Nyarlathotep, Shub-Niggurath, The Necronomicon, The Elder Sign, Cthuga, Ithaqua, Yig, Yog Sothoth, Byakhee, The Deep Ones, The Great Race, The Old Ones, The Mi-Go and The Shaggoths [sic].

May 1978
"The Cthulhu Mythos Revisited" by Gerald Guinn, The Dragon #14
A letter from a reader criticizing some of the interpretations of the Mythos in the Feb article.

July 1978
"A Rebuttal to the Cthulhu Mythos Revisted" by J. Eric Holmes, The Dragon #16.
Holmes' response to Guinn, mentions that sources for the article included "The Cthulhu Mythos: A Glossary" by Francis Laney, in Beyond the Wall of Sleep (1943), and "H.P. Lovecraft: The Gods" by Lin Carter, in The Shuttered Room and Other Pieces (1959).

 

Summer 1979
AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide
Appendix N on page 224 is a revision of Gygax's 1976 recommended reading list (see above). The names of Lovecraft, Howard and Merritt are retained. No specific works are specified for Lovecraft, but Howard is tagged with the Conan Series, and Merritt is tagged with three works, incluidng the Dwellers in the Mirage. Algernon Blackwood is the only author from the earlier list that is dropped. August Derleth is added without specifying any particular works. Notably, Clark Ashton Smith is still not included.

Nov 1979
Trollshead, a Boinger and Zereth short story, by J. Eric Holmes, The Dragon # 31
At one point, Zereth swears, "Oh, Hastur, Cthulhu and Azathoth!", to which Boinger responds with a Sign of Protection (pg 42).

April 1980
Giants in the Earth column, by Lawrence Schick and Tom Moldvay, The Dragon #36
Includes an entry for "H.P. Lovecraft's Richard Upton Pickman (King of the Ghouls)", a character from the story Pickman's Model, including his seven magical paintings: The Lesson, Ghoul Feeding, Subway Accident, Welcome to Innsmouth, The Silver Key and The Colour Out of Space. Illustration of Pickman by Jeff Dee. The next issue of The Dragon included Lovecraft's Abdul Alhazred in list of candidates for future write-up, but this entry never appeared.

Aug 1980
Cthulhu Mythos in Deities & Demigods, AD&D hardcover rulesbook, pages 44-48. 
This is a revision by Jim Ward of the material from Holmes & Kuntz article.

1981
Call of Cthulhu RPG, Chaosium
The is a non-D&D game, but is included here for reference. Reviewed by Dave Cook in Dragon magazine in 1982.

X2 Castle Amber, Expert D&D module by Tom Moldvay
Clark Ashton Smith finally gains some belated appreciation in this module which includes an Averoigne setting based on Smith's stories set in the region of the same name.

This is just a start; I haven't done a comprehensive search of periodicals of the time period, so there are probably other references in Alarums & Excursions, The Dragon, White Dwarf, The Dungeoneer, Judges Guild Journal etc. If you come across them, let me know & I'll update this list.

One thing that I noted is that until Deities & Demigods in 1980, not one of these articles has a single illustration of any of the eldritch horrors that are mentioned! Which is why I included a 1975 paperback cover at the top of the post as a representation of what was available in bookstores around the time the chronology begins.

Updated 1/22 to include more Dragon Magazine references; thanks to jbeltman for valuable assistance in finding these.

Updated 6/16/20 to include a July 1975 reference by Gygax in A&E (see above)

When was the Basic Set first available?

Lot of early Wild Hunt APAzines, one of which is issue #19, from an Ebay auction

Yesterday I wrote about the first advertisement for the Basic Set, which ran in Dragon magazine in September 1977. Until recently this was the earliest recorded date that I knew of for the set being available for purchase. The copyright record for the set at the U.S. Copyright Office lists a publication date of July 10th, 1977, but as this record was filed in 1978 it was hard to judge the accuracy of this date. I'd speculated that the Basic Set was available at Gen Con X in August, which Holmes attended, but there was a lack of evidence. However, in the new book Playing at the World, author Jon Peterson notes that the set was available at conventions in the summer 1977:

"In time for the third incarnation of the Origins convention - this time beginning July 22 in Staten Island, New York, under the stewardship of SPI - TSR produced the Basic Set of Dungeons & Dragons" (pg 579-580) and "TSR promoted the Basic Set heavily at all of the 1977 summer conventions, beginning with Origins III" (pg 581).

There's no clear source for these particular statements in his book, but Jon kindly sent me some quotes from Bill Seligman's report on Origins III in The Wild Hunt #19 (Aug 1977):

"The new D&D is out, or at least, the first book of it. It's called 'Basic D&D' and it contains enough information to set up three Gygaxian D&D levels. The book itself costs five dollars, and contains new spells, better writing. (it was re-written by John Eric Holmes, who wrote some sequels to ERBs Pellucidar series) and more examples. There are still several errors - or are there? Some errors may be deliberate holes left for the advanced D&D rules to fill." 

Jon comments that "Especially from this last sentence, it seems clear that he had seen a copy and had time to read it, not just heard that it was out ... Seligman was also aware of the boxed set."

The Wild Hunt was, like Lee Gold's Alarums & Excursions, an Amateur Press Association fanzine (APAzine). It was started in 1975 by editor Mark Swanson, based in Massachusetts, and lasted until the early '90s. In their time the APAzines served much the same role as blogs do today, allowing amateur writers to share their thoughts. The editor would bundle the contributions of each writer, which could be anything from new character classes for D&D to movie reviews, and send out a copy to each contributor. 

Bill Seligman was also a frequent contributor to A&E and The Dungeoneer, and wrote the famous Dragon magazine article "Gandalf Was Only a Fifth Level Magic-User" (The Dragon #5, pg 27).

Thanks to Jon and Mr. Seligman we now have strong evidence that the Basic Set was available as early as July 22nd, 1977, which is actually pretty close to the July 10th date of the copyright record.

Morno Calendar

     Bradley W. Schenck, the artist "Formerly Known As Morno" (his Acaeum handle), has put together a calendar of art from the 1970s including his covers for the first three D&D "Dungeon Masters Kits" (modules) published by Wee Warriors: Palace of the Vampire Queen, Dwarven Glory and Misty Isles. It's called Morno's Dice of Fate and can be previewed and ordered here (his website). You can pick the month you want it to start with.

     He's written a blog post about it on his website (Webomator); here's an excerpt:

     "From right around 1975 to sometime in 1978 I drew illustrations for some of the earliest D&D supplements, modules and fanzines, and even had one cover and two illustrated stories in TSR’s own The Dragon magazine. I also did some of the covers and illustrations for Dave Hargrave’s Arduin rules sets and for a great many products, some peculiar in retrospect, for Wee Warriors; that included the first commercial D&D character sheets and the very first module for the game (Palace of the Vampire Queen). There’s a huge, long and complex history of those products that I frankly don’t remember very well after all this time. But in this age of eBay and the Web it’s not too hard to ferret that history out."

     Some of his work for the Arduin Adventure (1980) can be seen in my 2011 post here.

     And on the Acaeum he writes:

     "So recently I fired up my scanner and Photoshop and worked through the pages of my 1978 "Dice of Fate" portfolio and some other bits and pieces from the seventies, and eventually I ended up with this calendar of old (or, I guess, distinguished) Morno art from 1975-1978.

     I can guarantee that there are some things in here that none of you will have seen; a couple made their only appearance in that portfolio, and a couple are Tolkien illustrations that only ever existed as greeting cards back in the day."

     As a bonus, here's his first ever cover for the APAzine Alarums & Excursions, edited by Lee Gold. This is from issue #11 (May 1976, scan courtesy Hall of the Mountain King), and is not in the calendar, although two other A&E covers are according to the artist (only one has the A&E logo). Issue #11 also happens to contain the very first published D&D article by J. Eric Holmes, Warrior-for-Hire.

Hall of the Mountain King: Warrior-for-Hire transcription

Illustration by Chris Holmes for Warrior-For-Hire

     Jason at Hall of the Mountain King has transcribed "Warrior-for-Hire", Dr. Holmes' contribution to issue #11 (May 1976) of the L.A.-based APAzine Alarums & Excursions (this issue also has a great cover illustration by Morno of Wee Warriors fame). This article predates the Holmes Basic Set by more than a year, and is as far as I know his earliest published D&D article. A few years ago I got a copy of Holmes' contributions from Lee Gold, editor of A&E, so I've read this article before, but my copy was missing the accompanying illustration by Chris Holmes, one of J. Eric's sons). Chris illustrated many of Holmes' early articles, including two that were in Dragon - Lost Civilizations (a Source of the Nile variant) and the first Boinger and Zereth story. The halfling shown above is probably Boinger, who was one of Chris' characters.

     I posted some commentary on "Warrior-for-Hire" on Dragonsfoot a few years ago, which is repeated below. The article predates the Basic Set so it's firmly in the era of OD&D.

* * * * *

     Holmes tells the reader that “you have outfitted your expedition for the dungeons of Greyhead Tower" but that your unbalanced party would “feel a lot safer with a few fighting men along” and that "advertising takes time and money, though, and you have little of either". This refers to the rules in Men & Magic, page 12, describing hiring of NPCs. The reference to the "Greyhead Tower" dungeons brings to mind the Basic rulebook Sample Dungeon describing the dungeons of the ruined tower of the wizard Zenopus.

     Holmes describes a building in town with a banner reading “Expeditions Unlimited: Hire a Warrior!” run by Ajax, a “big heavy set fellow” and “veteran of the dungeons” who “has a patch over one eye and is missing several fingers of his left hand”. Ajax guarantees that all of his 1st level fighters are lawful, 15+ strong, and fully equipped with chainmail, a helmet, shield and sword and that the terms are “full shares in any treasure, ‘stead of your usual hireling half shares”. I can’t find any specific OD&D references to half shares for hirelings. Men & Magic states that a minimum of 100 gp is necessary to tempt a human into service, although it’s unclear whether this is given prior to the expedition or a share of the treasure.

     Holmes describes the rules for generating Ajax’s fighters. "In practice, what I do is roll 3 D6 until I get a 15 or better. Those are Ajax's tryouts; those who don't measure up are turned away. Once a strength of 15-18 is rolled, then I roll the rest of the character's traits in the usual way, adjusting his strength if possible. Ajax usually has a stable of six trained fighters. Originally they were all from the local area, youths seeking fortune and adventure. Recently there has been an influx of Viking barbarians, big blonde fighters from the north. Casualties run high. Rarely does a fighter reach second level, since he accumulates experience points at half rate". The strength adjustment refers to the rules in Men & Magic, pages 10-11, where fighters can increase their strength by 1 for each reduction of intelligence by 2 or wisdom by 3, with 9 being the minimum any score can be reduced to. The half-rate experience point accumulation for the hirelings refers to the section on "Awarding Experience to Non-Player Characters" on page 13 of Greyhawk (Supplement I).

    These rules were written for OD&D but are easily applied to Holmes Basic, which has nearly identical rules for non-player characters (Holmes edited the original Basic rulebook from the OD&D rules).

     Ajax and his “Warriors-for-Hire” later reappeared in Holmes’ novel The Maze of Peril (1986). The protagonists hire two of his employees, Haldor and Olaf, who is described as a big blonde man – obviously one of the Viking barbarians. Olaf tells the party “We Warriors-for-Hire accept burial on the field of battle as part of the risks of the game” and that Ajax “loves us all as sons, of which he has none, and he begrudges each as dies, though die we do in this business”.

List of OD&D products from the 1970s

Here's a product list I typed up for the new OD&D sub-forum on Dragonsfoot:

OD&D Products (most links are to the relevant Acaeum pages):

Rules & Supplements:
Chainmail (1971)
Dungeons & Dragons (1974) - the original D&D set, aka the Little Brown Books (LBBs).
Supplements I-V: Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, GD&H, S&S (1975-1976)
Warlock (1975) - non-TSR D&D supplement from CalTech group

Arduin Grimoire trilogy (1977-1978) - non-TSR D&D supplements by Dave Hargrave)

All the Worlds' Monsters, Vol 1-3 (1977, 1978, 1981, Chaosium) - monster compilations

Monster Manual (1977) - 1st AD&D release but compatible with OD&D/Holmes (e.g. no AC over 9, 5-point alignment, spell progressions per OD&D, magic missile requires "to hit" roll).

Accessories:
Dungeon Geomorphs Sets 1-3 (individual versions, 1976-1977)
Outdoor Geomorphs (1977)
Monster & Treasures Assortments 1-3 (individual versions, 1977-78)
Character Record Sheets (1977)
Ready Ref Sheets (1977, Judges Guild, booklet of tables for OD&D)
Judges Shield (1977, Judges Guild, OD&D DM screen)

Campaign Settings:

Empire of the Petal Throne (1975, TSR) - OD&D variant/campaign setting by M.A.R. Barker

City State of the Invincible Overlord Playing Aid (1977, Judges Guild)
First Fantasy Campaign (1977, Judges Guild) - Blackmoor setting by Dave Arneson)

Modules:
Palace of the Vampire Queen (1976, published by Wee Warriors, distributed by TSR)

Dwarven Glory (1977, published by Wee Warriors, distributed by TSR)

Misty Isles (1977, Wee Warriors)

Tegel Manor (1977, Judges Guild)
Modron (1977, Judges Guild)
Recent thread listing published OD&D tournament modules
See also Falconer's list of "official" modules of the 1970s

See also Judges Guild Product List by Code - many of the earlier products are for OD&D

Magazines (in 1978 these magazines begin to trend towards AD&D and other games)

Strategic Review (1975-1976)

The Dragon (1976-1979 or so)

Alarums & Excursions APAzine (1975-present), edited by Lee Gold

Dungeoneer (1976-1980)

Judges Guild Journal (1976-1980)

White Dwarf (1977-1979 or so)

See also: Reference List of Various Fanzines from the 70s

Holmes Basic Set & Modules:
Holmes Basic Set (1977) - edited from OD&D by J. Eric Holmes
B1 In Search of the Unknown (1978)
B2 The Keep on the Borderlands (1979)