1981 D&D Expert Set now available in POD

Ten years ago, I wrote about the newly released PDF of the 1981 D&D Expert Rules at DriveThruRPG. Now, they've finally added a Print-On-Demand (POD) option for both the Expert Rules and the 1981 verison of the Isle of Dread, the two main components of the 1981 Expert Set (other than dice & crayon). Find them here at DriveThruRPG:

Click here for the 1981 D&D Expert Rules in Print-on-Demand

Click here for the 1981 Isle of Dread module in Print-on-Demand

It's not widely known, but production on these rules started out as an expansion to the Holmes Basic rules. In March 1980, in Dragon #35, Gygax revealed that:

"Design is now hard at work on the second boxed D&D game, the Expert Set. It will take players through at least 12th level of experience, tie in the best of the “Original” material, and actually add some new classes, spells, magic, monsters and so on."

In context, this appeared to be an Expert Set that would complement the Holmes Basic Set. A late 1980 Gateway to Adventure catalog shows the Holmes Basic set side-by-side with an unpictured but soon-to-be-released Expert Set.

However, when the Expert Set finally arrived in 1981, it was instead accompanied by an entirely new Basic Set, which replaced the Holmes Basic set (although TSR continued to sell old stock of the rulebook through the Mail Order Hobby Shop until at least 1986). To aid owners of the original Basic rules who did not wish to buy the new Basic rulebook or set, the Cook/Marsh rulebook contained a section on page X4 titled "Using D&D Expert with an early edition of D&D Basic" which began "If your copy of the D&D Basic rules has a blue cover with a picture of a dragon on it, then this section is for you". This section then provides a summary of the "new material found in the 2nd edition of D&D Basic".

Over on the Holmes Ref page, I have a reference sheet with character info bridging Holmes with Cook/Marsh up to sixth level, titled "Holmes Basic / Cook Expert Reference Sheet v1.0".

Blueholme Kickstarter - Final Day

Octocat by Chris Holmes preview from blog post

There's just about a day left in the Kickstarter for the Blueholme Journeymanne rules, a Holmes clone plus expansion that takes the four core classes up to level 20 and adds numerous monsters. It's produced by Dreamscape Design, who has a blog over here.

Cave Creeper by Chris Holmes preview from Kickstater

The primary goal of the Kickstarter is to fund artwork for the finished product. The bullpen of artists - at least 15 - includes Chris Holmes, whose contributions will include both Carrion Crawler & Displacer Beast analogs (see previews above), rectifying TSR's failure to use Chris' original art for the Holmes Manuscript. Chris has also write a Foreword for the book.

Old One art preview from ODD74 post

I've made a minor contibution myself: write-ups for two monsters previously featured on this blog, including the Green Grabber / Sleepflower and the Ancient Builder (appearing as Old One). (Disclosure: I am not receiving any money for this).

I've backed the Kickstarter at the Lord level for a pdf and softcover copy of the rules.

Holmes Ref

Click for a larger view

The project I'm working on these days is Holmes Ref, my take on an OGL expansion for Holmes Basic, which I'm hoping WOTC will release as a pdf soon (or even reprint). "Ref" refers to both Referee and Reference, and pays tribute to the Judges Guild Ready Ref sheets. Like that set, Holmes Ref will be heavy on single-page reference sheets that can be used directly in DIY DM screens. It's not intended to replace Holmes Basic, but should have sufficient information to play the game, much as OD&D can (mostly) be played using only the Ready Ref sheets. 

As a preview, a portion of the table for magic items is pasted above (this is a draft version and specific details may change). The idea here is to take the Basic rulebook magic item tables and make them more expansive. For example, "Ring" powers are not necessarily limited to an item in the shape of a ring, and rings can have powers normally found in other forms. This expands on the 'quirk' in the Holmes rules that allows for Potion, Ring and Wand powers to be found on scrolls.  

Update: Reference sheets completed so far can be found on this ZA site page.

Holmes + OD&D Reference Sheet

Screenshot of Holmes + OD&D Reference Table (click for a larger view)

As promised, I've made a one-page reference sheet for using Holmes Basic with OD&D. As with the previous Holmes + Cook Expert Sheet, it includes Combat Tables for characters & monsters, saving throws, character advancement including spell numbers, turn undead & thieves' skills. The sheet follows Holmes for levels 1-3, and fills in the higher levels with material from the LBBs & Greyhawk.

By adjusting the row heights I found I was able to squeeze in the information for each character class up to name level. The resulting sheet is more crowded but contains more useful information on a single page.

This reference sheet can be downloaded from the Holmes Ref page on the Zenopus Archives site.

B/X Expert Set for use with Holmes Basic

Screen shot from the bonus catalog at the end of the new Expert Set rulebook pdf

The D&D Expert Set rulebook by Cook/Marsh is now available on pdf at dndclassic.com. It was designed to accompany Moldvay Basic, together forming what is commonly called B/X now, but it contains a section in the beginning on using it with the previous (Holmes) Basic Set. So in one sense it's the official Expert Set for Holmes Basic.

As I wrote on the Rules Expansion page on the ZA site: 

In Dragon #35, Gygax also revealed that "Design is now hard at work on the second boxed D&D game, the Expert Set. It will take players through at least 12th level of experience, tie in the best of the “Original” material, and actually add some new classes, spells, magic, monsters and so on." In context, this appeared to be an Expert Set that would complement the Holmes Basic Set. A late 1980 Gateway to Adventure catalog shows the Holmes Basic set side-by-side with an unpictured but soon-to-be-released Expert Set. However, when the Expert Set finally arrived in 1981 it was accompanied by an entirely new Basic Set that replaced the Holmes Basic set (although TSR continued to have the original in stock through the Mail Order Hobby Shop until at least 1986). To aid owners of the original Basic set who did not wish to buy a new set, the Cook/Marsh rulebook contained a section on page X4 titled "Using D&D Expert with an early edition of D&D Basic" which began "If your copy of the D&D Basic rules has a blue cover with a picture of a dragon on it, then this section is for you". This section then provides a summary of the "new material found in the 2nd edition of D&D Basic.

See also the previous post, Holmes Expert Set from TSR catalog.

Update: I ended up buying the new pdf of the Expert Set rulebook. See a future post for some notes.

Centaurs and Samurai and Werebears, Oh My

Werebear by Dave Trampier from the original Monster Manual (1977)

Tolkien Week continues...

In yesterday's Balrog post, I quoted a memorable line from page 7 of the Blue Book:
"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).

As I noted, here the example of a Balrog PC has been changed to a centaur, werebear and Samurai. The most likely inspiration for "lawful werebear" in this list is Beorn from the Hobbit. Beorn travels with Bilbo and Gandalf twice, once to the edge of Mirkwood, and once on the return trip from the Lonely Mountain, a member of the "party". Thus, even though the reference to the Balrog has been changed the example retains a Tolkien influence. I consider this one of the Tolkien allusions added to the Blue Book by Dr. Holmes (there a few, which I will discuss further in another post).

I don't know of any references by Dr. Holmes to a werebear in his other writings (campaign descriptions or stories). In the Monster List, werebears have the alignment "neutral/chaotic good", but this is a change from OD&D Vol 2, which has werebears as "Law/Neutral". The use of "lawful" without a good or evil appears to be a residual reference to the 3-point alignment system of OD&D. 

A few years later White Dwarf #17 (Feb 1980) ran an article titled "My Life As a Werebear" that includes rules for werebear character classes & several other monsters. 

Samurai as a fighter subclass first appeared in DRAGON #3 (Oct 1976), prior to the Holmes Basic set.

Centaurs are found in OD&D, Vol 2 (pg 4 & 14) but missing from the Monster List in the Blue Book.  Dr. Holmes mentions a centaur PC in his personal campaign in his 1980 Psychology Today article "Confessions of a Dungeon Master", and a centaur also appears as a minor character his novel Maze of Peril (1986). 

In an article in Dragon in 1981, Dr. Holmes also mentioned that he allowed players any type of character they wished, and in his 1981 book on FRPGs he wrote that: 

"Most game systems rather rigidly specify what kinds of characters players may assume, but the majority of referees are lenient. If a player particularly wants to be an unusual or inhuman character, many referees will let him. It's not unusual to encounter player characters that are werewolves, Vulcans, samurai, centaurs or whatever. Fantasy role playing is, after all, an exercise in imagination".

Update: see this follow-up post.

Holmes Expert Set from TSR catalog

In a previous post on Rules Expansions, I mentioned a late 1980 Gateway to Adventure catalog that shows the Holmes Basic Set side-by-side with an unpictured but soon-to-be-released Expert Set. A screenshot of this is above, taken from a scan of a page posted by TheMilford at the Tome of Treasures in 2009. As you can see, it's actually just the booklets that are advertised rather the whole sets. (If anyone has this catalog, please let me know if there is another entry for the sets).

While the listing shows the cover of the Blue Book, it is given the product code 2014, which was used for the Moldvay Basic Set rulebook. Most likely the new rulebooks were in production but not ready for photography at the time this catalog was prepared. The same page also shows the first print of B2 (written for Holmes) rather than the revised B/X version, and also has an unpictured listing for the module B3 (the first module for Moldvay), "the newest of the instructional settings for the D&D Basic Set".

Still, if you saw this catalog in 1980 you would probably have assumed that the forthcoming Expert Set was going to be a companion to the existing Holmes Basic Set, rather than the significant revision with new cover artwork that eventually appeared in 1981. Earlier in the year (Dragon #35, March 1980), Gygax had revealed that "Design is now hard at work on the second boxed D&D game, the Expert Set. It will take players through at least 12th level of experience, tie in the best of the “Original” material, and actually add some new classes, spells, magic, monsters and so on." In context, this appeared to be an Expert Set that would complement the Holmes Basic Set. The above catalog entry is the closest TSR got to advertising this mythical Holmes Expert Set.

Further thoughts:

Does anyone remember seeing this catalog at the time? Later copies of the Gateway to Adventure Catalog with the same cover, including the one I have from a Moldvay Set I found at a Goodwill in the mid-80s, replace the above entries with the B/X Sets. The copy from the Tome of Treasures site was found with a first print Cook/Marsh Expert Set.

Revised Gray Book

Traveller at the Acaeum reports a minor revision to the Gray Book, to fix "a problem with haste and slow spells not explaining how they affect the targets".

I've updated the link on the Rules Expansions page on my website.

The Gray Book

Rules Expansions - for higher level play

The Rules Expansions section of the site is newly revised following discussion on OD&D74.

Historic Rules Expansions
1. Extrapolate from the Holmes Basic rulebook. Internally consistent rules for 4th level characters, at the very least, can easily be generated by extending the tables in Holmes (although they will not necessarily match other versions of the game). Higher levels begin to require more work as magic-users would have the undescribed 3rd level spells, though some of these can be matched to magic items with similar effects. Hints for higher levels are sprinkled throughout the rulebook and the module B2.

2. Use OD&D. Dr. Holmes edited the Basic rulebook from the original D&D books and supplements, and thus the rules are in many ways closest to OD&D + some of Greyhawk. At the time of release of the Holmes Basic set in the fall of 1977, no AD&D rulebooks were available. Furthermore, the Holmes Basic set was originally packaged with the Monster & Treasure Assortment Levels 1-3, a product designed for OD&D. The M&TA assortment was eventually replaced by the module B1, which contained some further references to rules from Greyhawk. Thus, the OD&D rules are perhaps the most natural to use if expanding Holmes Basic.

3. Use AD&D. The Holmes Basic rules direct the player to AD&D for expanded play, including higher levels, in nine different locations. In Dragon #35 (March 1980), Gygax told us that the references to AD&D were added to Dr. Holmes' original draft by TSR. It's unclear whether or not they simply added the word "Advanced" where Holmes had written "Dungeons & Dragons". The rules themselves are closer to OD&D than AD&D. A few new M-U and Cleric Spells that later appeared in the Player's Handbook in 1978 were added to Holmes Basic.

4. Use the 1981 Expert Set rulebook (edited by Cook/Marsh). In Dragon #35, Gygax also revealed that "Design is now hard at work on the second boxed D&D game, the Expert Set. It will take players through at least 12th level of experience, tie in the best of the “Original” material, and actually add some new classes, spells, magic, monsters and so on." In context, this appeared to be an Expert Set that would complement the Holmes Basic Set. A late 1980 Gateway to Adventure catalog shows the Holmes Basic set side-by-side with an unpictured but soon-to-be-released Expert Set. However, when the Expert Set finally arrived in 1981 it was accompanied by an entirely new Basic Set that replaced the Holmes Basic set (although TSR continued to have the original in stock through the Mail Order Hobby Shop until at least 1986). To aid owners of the original Basic set who did not wish to buy a new set, the Cook/Marsh rulebook contained a section on page X4 titled "Using D&D Expert with an early edition of D&D Basic" which began "If your copy of the D&D Basic rules has a blue cover with a picture of a dragon on it, then this section is for you". This section then provides a summary of the "new material found in the 2nd edition of D&D Basic".
 
Thanks for Falconer on OD&D74 for inspiring the above list.

Modern Rule Expansions

Holmes Companion by Meepo - a concise 4-page expansion covering levels 4-9

Holmes Level 12 by aldarron and greyharp - thread describing creation

Holmes House Rules Supplement by oltekos

Holmes Treasury by delve

The Gray Book by Traveller

Holmes77 by RC Pinnell aka Thorkhammer (plus a rules expansion called Classic77)

Swords & Wizardry is an OD&D retroclone. The Core Rules 4th printing (May 2011) includes an optional "Blue Book" order of events for combat.

BlueBook for Swords & Wizardry by foxroe - S&W forum thread about this

Resources for expanding the rules

List of changes made to the Holmes Basic rulebook
 
List of References Not Described
(References to Monsters, Weapons, Magical Items, Higher Level Play not described in the rulebook, and references to other rulebooks)

Typical Monster Dexterity Scores

See also: 
Jeff's Gameblog: Expanding Holmes Parts I & II (using the Blue Book alone)
Hill Cantons: Holmes Expert Boxed Set: What If? - More on the Holmes Expert Set