Part 4: "...And a Half-Human, Half-Serpent Naga"

Part 4 of a comparison of Holmes' manuscript with the published Basic Set rulebook. Turn to page 7 of your 'Blue Book' and follow along...

Character Record, Hit Points, Gold: These sections are not titled in the original manuscript or the published rulebook. There are no changes to the first paragraph about recording your character, the single sentence that follows it, or the final paragraph about rolling for gold. The third paragraph about hit points has some changes in the first half, with regard to formatting and clarification. Here is the original:

And here is the published version (1st print):

           "First generate a random number for "hit points." To generate the numbers roll the special dice in this game — 8-sided, 6-sided, 4-sided. This represents the amount of damage the character can take. For the number of "hit points" roll the proper sided die mentioned below. The die pertaining to players' character type is rolled once per level of experience. (See the section EXPERIENCE POINTS AND EXPERIENCE LEVELS.) Fighters, including dwarves, generate random numbers from 1 to 8, clerics from 1 to 6, and magic-users and thieves from 1 to 4. Elves use a spread of from 1 to 6 as they are both fighters (1-8) and magic-users ( 1 -4). Although hobbits are always fighters, they also use a 1 to 6 point spread due to their size. Note that constitution can add or subtract hit points, but no character can have less than 1 point per level regardless of subtractions."

Holmes' sentence near the middle, which reads "One way to generate the numbers is to roll the special dice - 8 sided, 6 sided or 4 sided, but numbered cards can be drawn from a set, or some other system used" has been edited to make the use of the dice included in the game the standard, and moved to be the second sentence of the paragraph: "To generate the numbers roll the special dice in this game - 8-sided, 6-sided, 4-sided". In addition, TSR adds three clarifying sentences starting with "For the number of "hit points"... 

Notably, Holmes' original includes the information that the "alternating elves" use a d6 for hit points. As far as I can tell he doesn't clarify when the d6 is rolled for elves - when one class gains 2nd level or both? Presumably an elf could choose to only gain levels in one class, so I guess the d6 would just be rolled whenever a higher level is gained in either class.

COST OF EQUIPMENT & WEAPONS: This section doesn't have a title in Holmes' original, so it is not separated from the preceding paragraphs. Holmes did have an entry in the Contents for "TABLE Equipment and Costs". TSR changed this entry to "COST OF WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT" in the Contents, and imported the title, with "equipment" and "weapons" reversed, here.

Holmes very precisely copies the Equipment Table directly from the one in OD&D, Vol 1, down to the exact note at the end ("Other items cost may be calculated by comparing to similar items listed above"), with just a few changes. 

Five entries are dropped; four of these are the four highest price entries in the original list, each 5,000 gold pieces or more and are all large sea-going vessels: Small Merchant Ship, Large Merchant Ship, Small Galley and Large Galley. Holmes presumably dropped these as being outside the scope of Basic level adventuring. 

The other one that was dropped is Belladonna (5 gold pieces), possibly because there was no further explanation for it or Wolvesbane in Original D&D, and Holmes may have viewed that as confusing or duplicative. Holmes also added a note to the entry for Lycanthrope that stated "All were-creatures are repelled by wolfsbane"; this is its first official description in D&D. Belladonna is first explained in the Monster Manual, which states, "If the person is carrying belladonna there is a 25% chance that this will cure the affliction if eaten within one hour. Note that this infusion will incapacitate the person for 1-4 days and there is a 1% chance of the poison in it killing the creature". This is the closest to an OD&D description for belladonna.

Otherwise, the Manuscript retains the order of items in the list, and the prices. This includes the weapons from Men & Magic in the table, which appears random at first glance but is actually in the same order as the twelve different weapon categories Chainmail, from shortest to longest (Pole Arms & Halberd go together). 

In Holmes, the price of a spear is 2 gold pieces, which one may think is a change from the 1 gp price in the LBBs. However, a spear is only price at 1 gp in later printings of the LBBs; the first printing had it  at 2 gp. This is evidence that Holmes had an early printing  of the LBBs. In the next iteration of Basic, Moldvay increased the price by one more gold piece, to 3 gp.

Holmes split the original table into two halves, but this may just be an artifact of the formatting in the manuscript, where he put the items that didn't fit on the first page on another page, and included the same headers. TSR retained this formatting as published, resulting in the table being split. 

As published, the table has no changes other than minor formatting (changing the headers from underlined to bold, capitalizing "Mail" in "Chain-type mail"), and the addition of one item added by Gygax: Tinder Box, with a price of 3 gold pieces. This is its first appearance in a D&D rulebook.

ADDITIONAL CHARACTER CLASSES: This was always one of my favorite sections, and provided a lot of flavor to the rulebook. Back when I only had Holmes Basic it provided a glimpse of the exciting material to come in AD&D. There are some interesting changes here. I'll quote Holmes' original in full:

Points of Interest:

(1) In developing this material, particularly the second paragraph that allows for monster-type characters, Holmes draws on a section in OD&D, Vol 1, called "Other Character Types".

(2) In the first paragraph, Holmes is just describing what was already added in the OD&D supplements: Half-elves, paladins and demi-human thieves in Greyhawk. Monks and assassins in Blackmoor. Druids and psionics from Eldritch Wizardry. Rangers and illusionists from the Strategic Review magazine.

 

For publication, TSR simply changed Holmes' reference to "DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, and the various supplements" to "ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS", indicating that all of this material would be found in AD&D. Notably, in AD&D the monk was changed from a subclass of cleric to its own class.

(3) No witch! Holmes does not have the famous reference to the witch being a subclass of magic-user, which puzzled many kids when they got AD&D and found it wasn't there.

Many years later, Gygax said that he was never planning on adding a witch class to AD&D:

"That mention slipped by me, and all I can assume was that either Eric was planning to force such a class upon me, or else someone editing the work thought it a good joke to play. I never had a PC class of that sort in mind for the game."
-Gygax on Enworld in 2005, see here for a link to the original post

So, with the evidence here that it wasn't from Holmes, we are left either "someone else editing the work" to add the reference to the witch, or Gygax forgetting that he added it for some reason.

(4) "seven basic classes": Holmes' terminology here, which treats dwarves, elves and hobbits as classes along with fighter, magic-user, cleric and thief, is in line with the "race as class" concept that was further developed in Moldvay Basic. However, earlier in the manuscript Holmes included references to the rules for non-human thieves in AD&D, so I don't think too much should be read into this with regard to Holmes' views that the non-human races are classes. Notably, the revised paragraph changes "seven basic classes" to "four basic classes and races", which is the only appearance of the word "race" in the first printing (the second edition of the rulebook also includes the word in the new entry for Troglodytes).

(5) More examples of "anything" classes! Holmes' original reads: "Thus, an expedition might include, in addition to the seven basic classes, an African witch doctor/magic-user, a centaur, an Amerindian medicine man/cleric, a lawful werebear, a Japanese Samurai fighting man and a half-human, half-serpent Naga". TSR cut out half of these, leaving the sentence as the familiar "a centaur, a lawful werebear, and a Japanese Samurai fighting man". All of these alternate classes were used by Holmes in his own games and are mentioned in one or another of his writings.

African witch doctor/magic-user: A witch doctor is part of Boinger and Zereth's party in The Adventure of the Lost City: Part One, Alarums & Excursions #17, November 1976.

Centaur: A centaur is a minor character that Boinger and Zereth meet in The Maze of Peril (1986, written earlier), and Holmes also mentions a centaur PC in his article "Confessions of a Dungeon Master" (Psychology Today, 1980).

Amerindian medicine man/cleric: An American Indian Cleric plays a prominent role in The Adventure of the Giant Chameleon, Alarums & Excursions #14, August 1976.

Lawful Werebear: A Beorning character is also mentioned briefly in the The Adventure of the Giant Chameleon. A Beorning character class appeared in The Manual of Aurania.

Japanese Samurai Fighting Man: A samurai is also part of the party in The Adventure of the Lost City. A samurai character class appeared DRAGON #3 (Oct 1976), and also in the Manual of Aurania.

Half-human, half-serpent Naga: A Naga PC is also mentioned in Confessions of a Dungeon Master. Nagas first appeared as a D&D monster in the Strategic Review #3 (Autumn 1975), but alternately Holmes may be referring to the Naga of Indian mythology, which have a mix of human and serpent traits but are not necessarily a human-headed snake.

UPDATE: Here's a relevant quote from Holmes from Dragon #52, when he was reviewing the new Moldvay Basic Set:

"Character classes: Player characters are restricted to being a Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Magic-User, Elf, Halfling or Dwarf. This probably covers the roles most beginning players want to try, but I am personally sorry to see the range of possibilities so restricted. The original rules (the three little brown books) specifically stated that a player could be a dragon if he wanted to be, and if he started at first level. For several years there was a dragon player character in my own game. At first level he could puff a little fire and do one die of damage. He could, of course, fly, even at first level. He was one of the most unpopular characters in the game, but this was because of the way he was played, not because he was a dragon. I enjoyed having dragons, centaurs, samurai and witch doctors in the game. My own most successful player character was a Dreenoi, an insectoid creature borrowed from McEwan’s Starguard. He reached fourth level (as high as any of my personal characters ever got), made an unfortunate decision, and was turned into a pool of green slime."

The rest of Holmes' article can be read at Sword & Shield.  

Continue on to Part 5: "Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic"
Or Go Back to Part 3: "Elves Must Decide"
Or Go Back to Start: The Holmes Manuscript

Part 3: "Elves Must Decide"

Part 3 of a comparison of Holmes' manuscript with the published Basic Set rulebook. Turn to page 6 of your 'Blue Book' and follow along...

Fighting Men: No changes to the text, other than the very last sentence, where we see the first reference to AD&D inserted by TSR:

This sentence illustrates two general points about the manuscript:
(1) As I have speculated previously, the references to AD&D in the text are made just by changing Holmes' references to "D&D", or a supplement, to "AD&D".

(2) There has been some speculation in the past that Holmes' original draft may have gone to higher levels, but was cut down by TSR. This sentence is the first in the manuscript showing that it only covers levels 1-3. I haven't seen Holmes' earlier drafts, so I can't rule out that one of them went to higher levels.


Magic-Users: The only change here is in the parenthetical aside in line six about the ability to cast spells, which Holmes originally had as "(shared with elves and clerics)" and TSR changed to "(shared with clerics and some elves)". Possibly TSR corrected this because Holmes also makes reference to Elvish thieves, which if single-classed would not be able to cast spells. Or they were anticipating single-classed Elves in AD&D.

Clerics: No changes.

Thieves: The only change in this section is the replacement of "GREYHAWK" with "ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS" in the sentence about special rules for non-human thieves:

So again we see that TSR has simply just replaced a reference to OD&D with AD&D.

Dwarves: Two minor changes here. The words "about one-third of the time" have been inserted following "new construction" in the list of features that can detected underground. And the languages (Gnomes, Kobolds, Goblins) were capitalized in the manuscript. 

As might be expected, Holmes' original contains the sentence about the +3 Magic War Hammer, which made it into the first print rulebook:

This was later deleted because it didn't make sense - there was no +3 Magic War Hammer described later in the published rulebook. I can now report that Holmes' section on Treasure does describe this magic item. More on that later.

Elves: In the first paragraph there are just minor changes similar to that of Dwarves: "about one-third of the time" after the note that they can detect secret hidden doors, and the languages they speak are de-capitalized. 

However, in the second paragraph several sentences were deleted, bringing about the most significant change to Holmes' version of the rules so far. Here it is in whole:

The deleted sentences are: "Elves must decide before an adventure begins, however, whether they are going to act as fighting men, in which case they can wear armor but can not throw spells, or assume the role of magic-user, gaining the use of spells but forfeiting weapons other than the dagger. For each adventure the elf can change his role but once the adventure stars he must not change". The last sentence was retained, forming the entire second paragraph in the published version.

Holmes' deleted sentences reflect the rules for elves in Men & Magic, Vol 1 of OD&D, pg 8:

Elves can begin as either Fighting-Men or Magic-Users and freely switch class whenever they choose, from adventure to adventure, but not during the course of a single game. Thus, they gain the benefits of both classes and may use both weaponry and spells. They may use magic armor and still act as Magic-Users

The original rules allow elves to wear magic armor when acting like a magic-user, implying they cannot wear normal armor when acting like a magic-user. Holmes is more explicit about the trade-off between the use of armor/weapons and spell-casting, and does not specifically provide any exception for magic armor.

The Greyhawk Supplement (early 1975)  seems to change the "alternating elf" to the standard "multi-classed elf" that works in different classes simultaneously. This version was used in AD&D, so TSR probably decided not to include the earlier version in the Basic Set. So why did Holmes include it? He probably hadn't seen the AD&D rules in progress, and even Greyhawk is not entirely clear that the earlier rule has been replaced. Also, Holmes may have used the "alternating elf" in his own games.

Holmes' novel, The Maze of Peril, published in 1986 but probably written earlier (he mentioned it in a 1979 interview), has a scene where Zereth the Elf removes his armor so he can cast an invisibility spell:

"As the halfling [Boinger] watched with interest, the black elf divested himself of sword, helm, chain mail, and jacket, and boots until down to soft linen tunic. Then he washed his hands in the basin beside the bed and put on a long sleeved robe. "Can't have iron touching the body anywhere," he explained, "no iron, even nails in the boot heels. It drains the flow of force from the other world" (pg 34). 

Boinger and Zereth were two of Chris Holmes' first characters and their stories evolved from the games that Dr. Holmes ran, so this scene may reflect the rules they used.  On the other hand, there's a Boinger and Zereth story from 1981, "The Sorcerer's Jewel" (Dragon #46), where Zereth casts spells and uses scrolls, while also fighting with a sword and probably armored. This may have been written later and reflect the AD&D rules.

Hobbits: No changes.

Continue on to Part 4: "...And a Half-Human/Half-Serpent Naga"
Or Go Back to Part 2: "Fearsome Monsters, Fabulous Treasure and Frightful Perils"
Or Go Back to Start: The Holmes Manuscript

Part 2: "Fearsome Monsters, Fabulous Treasure, and Frightful Perils"

Part 2 of a comparison of Holmes' manuscript with the published Basic Set rulebook. Turn to page 2 of your 'Blue Book' and follow along...

PREFACE & FOREWORD: These two sections, on pages 2 and 3 of the published rulebook, are not found at all in the manuscript, suggesting they were added by Gygax/TSR.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: The manuscript has three TOC pages. Holmes' entries, including the wording, are followed for the most part, with some deleted or condensed. I won't go into detail right now, but may mention some changes when I get to the appropriate sections.

INTRODUCTION: The numbered pages of the manuscript start with the Introduction. Holmes' text is largely unchanged in the published version. In the first line, Holmes has "Dungeons and Dragons" which was changed to "Dungeons & Dragons" and bolded when published. The remainder of this section is word-for-word identical in the manuscript and the 1st printing of the rulebook, including the use of "hobbits", with the exception of the very last sentence, where Holmes originally had:

The published rulebook shortens this to "...20 sided dice which come with this game". Holmes probably didn't know whether or not TSR was going to include dice in the set; the original D&D set did not include dice. An irony here is that Holmes' original text refers to "numbered chits", a form of which infamously appeared in later editions of the Holmes Basic set during a dice shortage.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK: Identical, except that where Holmes uses "a random number generator", TSR changes it to "the set of dice".

CREATING CHARACTERS: No changes, other than "three six sided dice" to "three 6-sided dice" and changing underlining to italics, a standard for publishing in the era of typewriters (see Desert Scribe's comment below).

One interesting aspect of this section is the minimum scores of 9 constitution for dwarves and hobbits, and 9 dexterity for halflings. As far as I can tell/remember these minimums are not in the original D&D rules, so it appears that Holmes added these. He may have been influenced by his familiarity with the Warlock supplement, which has more extensive racial minimums for demi-humans. In Warlock, for example, dwarves must have at least Str 11 and Con 13, and "hobbits" must have at least a Str 9, Dex 11 and Con 11. 

TABLE OF BONUS AND PENALTIES DUE TO ABILITIES: Identical, other than some minor punctuation/capitalization changes.

This makes it clear that the limited selection of ability score bonuses/penalties, lacking those for Strength or Charisma found in OD&D, comes via Holmes. With the caveat that he may have discussed this material with Gygax prior to writing the manuscript under consideration.

ADJUSTING ABILITY SCORES: No changes here other than capitalization and underlining to italicization. As with the published version, Holmes does not mention elves in this section, leaving it unclear whether they are treated separately as fighters & magic-users, or do not have a prime requisite at all.

That's it for tonight. So far, remarkably few changes between Holmes' manuscript and the published version. The published rulebook uses the vast majority of what Holmes wrote, word-for-word, in these sections. In the next section on the various character classes/races we will see the first significant change.

Continue on to Part 3: "Elves Must Decide"
Or Go Back to Part 1: "D&D for Beginners"
Or Go Back to Start: The Holmes Manuscript

Part 1: "Dungeons & Dragons For Beginners"

What I referred to yesterday as 'The Holmes Manuscript' is actually the third draft of this material, which Billy described in a post at the Acaeum earlier this year:

"This [1st] version is a huge folder stuffed with handwritten pages, typed pages, photocopies, lots and lots of corrections as well as some crude illustrations by JEH and some great illustrations by Chris Holmes (which were submitted to TSR and I am surprised they were not used in lieu of some of the art that was) ..."

In the above photo you can see part of a Displacer Beast drawn by Chris Holmes.

"The 2nd is an intermediary stage between the one directly above and the one in the initial post. It is a cleaned up photocopied version of the above with numerous hand corrections/notes. Still includes a rough layout and illustrations by Chris."

"The 3rd [pictured at the top of this post] ... is a clean typeset document with no corrections or illustrations (other than the dungeon layout). There are multiple copies of this version with at least 2 colors of outer cover (blue & gray). The Holmes family retained one for their master set of Holmes material. I have 2, one of which will be up for grabs at some point this summer. And 1 (or possibly more) would have been sent to TSR where it was probably lost or destroyed since none have surfaced yet."

Based on the multiple copies, this is most likely the version that Holmes sent to TSR. When I spoke to Billy last week he told me about a sheet he had found with Holmes' order of multiple photocopies from U.S.C., where he worked. I am hoping there is a date on this.

The 3rd version of the Holmes Manuscript is 138 pages in length, which includes a title page, a dedication page, a three-page table of contents, and pages numbered 1-132. Of the numbered pages, page 37 is duplicated, page 67 is missing, and there is an inserted page 119A with the map of the Sample Dungeon that I posted yesterday. Billy wrote back to me that all of the copies of the 3rd version of the Manuscript are missing page 67, which covers the entries in the Monster List for Doppelganger and Dragon (1st half). This page was either removed from all copies, or more likely went missing before photocopying. The missing material is hopefully present in the earlier (2nd) version of the draft.
 

The title of the manuscript is "Dungeons and Dragons For Beginners", followed by the words appearing on the cover of the original D&D books, with the addition of "Complete Rules in This Volume", and then the names "Gary Gygax and Eric Holmes". The subsequent Dedication page simply says "for Jeff and Chris", Holmes' two children at the time.

The published version combines these two pages, placing the dedication below the credits. TSR dropped the "For Beginners" from the title, leaving it simply "Dungeons & Dragons"  here and on the cover, and using "Basic Set" instead on the corner of the box cover. As far as I can tell, the term "beginner" does not appear anywhere in the published version, rulebook or box. Holmes would later resurrect the title "D&D for Beginners" for tournaments that he and Chris ran at Gen Con in 1978 and 1979. 

TSR also dropped the "Complete Rules..." statement from the title page, moving this concept to the back cover of the box, which says (at least in the 3rd print I have): "This Box Contains Your Complete Dungeons & Dragons Game".

TSR also corrected the credits to add Dave Arneson's name, and gave Holmes an "Edited By". I personally think he should have also been credited with "additional material" based on his Sample Dungeon and other examples, which as we shall see are present in the manuscript. 

Continue On to Part 2: "Fearsome Monsters, Fabulous Treasure and Frightful Perils"
Or Go Back to the Index: The Holmes Manuscript

The Holmes Manuscript Series: Index of Posts

The Sample Dungeon map from The Holmes Manuscript.

Original Introductory Post: 

At long last! I now have in my 'hands' a scan of The Holmes Manuscript, which is what I am calling the manuscript for the Holmes Basic rulebook that J. Eric Holmes sent to TSR.  The scan comes courtesy Billy Galaxy, who this year has been running auctions of material from Holmes' collection. I plan to blog my way through the manuscript, comparing it with the published version.

Index of posts in the Holmes Manuscript series:

Part 1: "D&D for Beginners"
Part 2: "Fearsome Monsters, Fabulous Treasure and Frightful Perils"
Part 3: "Elves Must Decide"
Part 4: "...And a Half-Human/Half-Serpent Naga"
Part 5: "Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic" (alignment)
Part 6: "Fully Armored and Heavily Loaded" (movement, encumbrance)
Part 7: "Something Has Come Strolling Along" (wandering monsters)
Part 8: "Successively Deeper Strata" (experience, class tables, thief/cleric abilities, "levels")
Part 9: "Zombies are Poisoned by Salt" (magic and saving throws)
Part 10: "Book of First Level Spells"
Part 11: "Book of Second Level Spells"
Interlude: "Who Edited the Editor?"
Part 12: "Clerical Spells"
Part 13: "Melee is the Most Exciting Part of the Game" (Intro to Combat) 
Part 14: "A Curare Tipped Blowgun Dart" (Poison, Oil, Holy Water) 
Part 15: "Hits With Arrows" (Missile Fire, Cover, Magical Weapons)
Part 16: "An Exchange of Two Blows with Ordinary Weapons" (Attacks Per Round)
Part 17: "Highest Dexterity Strikes First" (Melee)
Part 18: "Bruno Dies a Horrible Death" (Combat Examples)
Part 19: "If One Wanted to Use a Red Dragon" (Intro to Monsters)
Part 20: "Monster List - Bandit to Zombie" (Bandits, Basilisks)
Part 21: "Always Hungry and Always Dangerous" (Berserkers to Bugbears)
Part 22: "Fierce Fighters If Cornered" (Carrion Crawler to Cockatrice)
Part 23: "Shy and Beautiful Female Tree Sprites" (Dervishes to Dwarves)
Part 23.5 "There Are Many Kinds of Dragons" (Doppleganger to Dragons)
Part 24: "Winged Beasts of Hideous Aspect" (Elves to Gelatinous Cube)
Part 25: "Horrors Are Naturals for Dungeons" (Giants to Gnolls)
Part 26: "Always Attack Dwarves on Sight" (Gnomes to Green Slime)
Part 27: "Mules Can Often Be Taken Into Dungeons" (Griffon to Horse)
Part 28: "Thus We Find Weresharks in Polynesia" (Hydra to Manticore)
Part 29: "They Usually Inhabit Tunnels, Mazes and Labyrinths" (Medusa to Nixies)
Part 30: "It is, Of Course, Ochre-Colored" (Nomads to Owl Bear)
Part 31: "This Inoffensive Looking Little Creature" (Pegasus to Rust Monster)
Part 32: "Commonly Found Near Graveyards..." (Shadow to Troll)
Part 33: "Spectral Armored Warriors" (Unicorn to Zombie)
Part 34: "Many Monsters Carry Treasure" (Introduction to Treasure, Treasure Types Table)
Part 35: "A Potent Weapon in the Hands of a Dwarf" (Magic Weapons & Armor)
Part 36: "They May Dare a Tiny Sip" (Potions)
Part 37: "Any Ring Spell Except Wishes" (Scrolls)
Part 38: "Rings Can Be Used by Anyone" (Rings)
Part 39: "The Wand Produces a Fire Ball Which Will Travel" (Wands & Staves)
Part 40: "Acts Like a Cannon Blast on Walls" (Miscellaneous Magic Items)

Interlude: "Skull Mountain by Tom Wham"
Part 41: "Dungeon Mastering as a Fine Art" (DM Guidance, Sample Cross Section)
Part 42: "Sample Floor Plan, Part of First Level" (a forgotten map by Holmes)
Part 43: "Zap! You're Dead!" (DM Guidance) 
Part 44: "Knights Talk in Flowery Phrases" (DM Guidance, Example of Play)
Part 45: "Roll the Number and See What Happens!" (DM Guidance)
Part 46: "Zenopus Built a Tower" (Introduction to the Sample Dungeon)
Part 47: "The Occupants are Goblins" (Rooms A-E) 
Part 48: "The Shadow on the Gnomon" (Rooms F-I)
Part 49: "Will Drop on Unwary Adventurers" (Rooms J-M)
Part 50: "The Dancing Dagger is Hard to Hit" (Room N)
Part 51: "Indescribable Odds and Ends" (Room P) 
Part 52: "No End to the Rats" (Room RT)
Part 53: "The Room Contains a Giant Snake" (Rooms S and S1)
Part 54: "An Ape in an Iron Cage" (Room S2 and the Coda)
Part 55: Summary of Changes
Appendix A: Manuscript Copy Order Form
Appendix B: Chris Holmes Manuscript Artwork

"...I persuaded Gygax that the original D&D rules needed revision and that I was the person to rewrite them. He readily conceded that there was a need for a beginners' book and "if you want to try it, go ahead". I went through the original three rule books and the first two supplements, Blackmoor and Greyhawk, of which Greyhawk is the greatest help. Trying to use the original words of the two game creators as much as possible, I edited a slim (48 page) handbook for beginners in role playing, published by TSR in 1977 as Dungeons and Dragons and usually marketed as "the basic set".” 

--- J. Eric Holmes, Fantasy Role-Playing Games, 1981

The Jim Lamb DMG

The Jim Lamb DMG. Source: Ebay Auction

Above is a screenshot from a recent auction of a 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide, inscribed by Gary Gygax with: "2 August 1979 / This is the 1st copy of the DMG other than my own! for Jim Lamb Gatherer of the Mighty Brador! Gary Gygax"

Searching for the two names together, I found a column by Gygax on page 11 of Dragon #27, July 1979, titled "CANGAMES ’79 A brief report on the Canadian Gaming Convention at Ottawa, May 18-21, 1979", which relates that "Jim Lamb, one of the Cangames organizers, telephoned the motel, and after we had supper nearby, took me over to the convention site on the campus of the University of Ottawa". Possibly Gygax sent this copy to Lamb in return for his hospitality at the convention. Per the Acaeum, the DMG was first available to the public at Gen Con XII, August 16-19, 1979.
 
This putative "second copy" of the DMG was recently auctioned by Jim Lamb himself, and was bought by someone for an astounding $4500!

OD&D Reprint Previews

The contents. Source: Steve Winter on Facebook

The boxed set reprinting the original D&D set and the first four supplements is set to be released just before Christmas this year, pushed back from November. The cover art of each booklet has been updated in a 'modern' style, but the interior text and art is supposed to be mostly unchanged from the originals, similar to the AD&D hardback reprints.

Steve Winter of The Howling Tower blog and a former TSR employee, received his copy on his last day of his current contract work for Wizards, and posted pictures of it on FB. The set comes in a wooden box featuring an anachronistic '80s D&D ampersand on the cover:

 

The box cover. Source: Steve Winter on Facebook

The interior of the lid features new artwork of a wizard casting, which as pointed out by Falconer on OD&D Discussion is meant to be an updated version of the 'white box' cover (4th+ printing of OD&D):

Inside the Box. Source: Steve Winter on Facebook

Original 'White Box' cover. Source: The Acaeum

And over on the Wizards website, Bart Carroll has been running a series, "OD&D Excerpts", previewing the new booklets and showing comparisons of the covers with the originals. The original Volumes I-III and Supplements I-IV have been renumbered as Books I-VII:

Book I: Men & Magic
Book II: Monsters & Treasure
Book III: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures
Book IV: Greyhawk
Book V: Blackmoor
Book VI: Eldritch Wizardry
Book VII: Gods, Demigods & Heroes

The set also includes a reprint of the Reference Sheets from the original box and two sets of dice, but does not include Chainmail, the miniatures rules that D&D grew out of, or Swords & Spells, the D&D miniatures rules that are often considered Supplement V.

From these previews, we can see they are correcting some minor typos, such as changing "Forward" in the original Men & Magic to "Foreword". 

I can't say I am a fan of the updated artwork, but it is nice to see OD&D back in print and in the public eye.

For more discussion visit the OD&D Discussion thread, WOTC reprinting OD&D.