Appendix A: Manuscript Copy Order Form

Now that we've finished our journey through the Holmes Manuscript, here's a look at what Holmes did after he finished writing & editing it. Here's a picture of a related artifact that Billy Galaxy sent me:

This is the form that Holmes filled out to order ten photocopies of the final version of the Manuscript at his work place, the University of Southern California School of Medicine, where he was an associate professor of neurology. Presumably either the original and/or at least one of these ten copies was sent on to Gygax at TSR.

The 138 pages of "originals" listed here exactly matches the length of the Manuscript, which includes a duplicate page (37) and a missing page (67), as I noted here. It's unclear whether the duplication/missing page occurred before or during copying, although Billy noted that all copies of the final version he has seen have the missing page.

Importantly, this form tells us that the final version of the Manuscript was completed prior to February 4, 1977, when the request was made. The copying work was finished & paid for on February 7th. The Basic Set first appeared in July 1977, so it took about five months for TSR to receive, review and edit the rulebook into form for publication.

As Chris mentioned in his recent Save or Die interview that after his father wrote to TSR proposing the beginner's rulebook, TSR told him "they didn't have any money, so if he didn't mind doing it for free, he could go right ahead". In 2007 Gygax wrote on DF, "The Basic Set sold very well, and it was to TSR's benefit that Holmes' did that version, and it cost the company nary a red cent."

When I sent this picture to Chris he wrote, "I think we have a good case here that TSR owes Dad $55 for printing."

Continue on to Appendix B: Chris Holmes Manuscript Artwork

or Go Back to Part 55: Summary of Changes
or Or Go Back to the Index: The Holmes Manuscript

Part 23.5: "There Are Many Kinds of Dragons"

In this post I cover material I didn't have the first time through:

Part 23.5 of a comparison of Holmes' manuscript with the published Basic Set rulebook. Turn to page 24 of your 'Blue Book' and follow along...

The Material from the Missing Page

As mentioned here and here, numbered page 67 is missing from all copies of the 138-page final version of the Holmes Manuscript. Which meant that I skipped the material as I went through the manuscript. Later, Billy Galaxy sent me photos of pages 62 and 63 of an earlier draft of the manuscript, which cover the missing material. The earlier draft has art by Chris Holmes drawn directly on the pages, so here we get to see his illustration of a dragon as a bonus. Chris writes, "Notice how I put the dragons’ leg behind the text. That would be clever except I didn’t think that they would reset the text in type. If we hadn’t done the drawings right on the manuscript they probably would have been lost."

Page 62 of an earlier draft of the Holmes Manuscript; art by Chris Holmes

Page 63 of an earlier draft of the Holmes Manuscript

After looking over Holmes' material from this earlier draft and comparing it to the published ruleboook, I think this page was missing from the copy(s) of the manuscript that Holmes sent to TSR. The published rulebook entries in the Monster List differ from Holmes' originals more than most other entries. Generally Gygax edited the manuscript simply by placing a new sentence or two at the end if additions or clarification were needed, but here the entries have been completely re-written.

Dopplegangers

Page 66 of the final version of the Holmes Manuscript has the title "Dopplegangers" at the bottom of the page; the rest of the entry was on missing page 67. But I presume this let TSR to know that Holmes intended to include Dopplegangers in Basic.
  
As you can see above, Holmes' write-up is two simple sentences, drawn from the original in the Greyhawk Supplement. Holmes omits the immunity to Sleep/Charm, and gives them a +2 save versus magic rather than a save as a 10th level Fighter. Looking at the Men & Magic Saving Throw Matrix, a 10th level figher should get a +4 over that of a 4th level fighter (which is what a 4 HD monster should save as).
 
In contrast, the published description for the Doppelganger is seven sentences over two paragraphs, much longer than what Holmes wrote. Some of the sentences are very close to the Greyhawk description, so it looks like the author went back and re-wrote/expanded the original entry. The later Monster Manual entry is of similar length although the specific text has been rewritten again. The published rulebook paragraph gives the correct saving throw values for spells and wands for 10th level fighter.

Dragons

The beginning of Holmes' manuscript entry follows the format established in OD&D:

OD&D, Vol 2: "There are six varieties of Dragons, each with separate characteristics
in particular and other things in common. The varieties will be dealt with first"

Greyhawk: "These additional varities of Dragons conform to the typical characteristics
of their species except where noted..."

Holmes manuscript: "There are many kinds of dragons described in Dungeons & Dragons and Greyhawk. Only four are covered here."

Published rulebook: Four additional introductory sentences, followed by "Of the dozen different kinds found in ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS only four will be covered here."

The wording here in the published Basic rulebook does echo that of the manuscript, so perhaps TSR/Gygax did read & edit this material, just to a greater degree than in other parts of the Monster List. It's hard to tell for sure.

In each case, these sentences are followed by a short table describing the different types of dragons. OD&D Vol 2 has six types, Greyhawk adds six more (including two unique), and the Holmes Manuscript and published rulebook each cover only four of these, a different set in each. Holmes drops Black and Green Dragons, and moves Red Dragons to the first line, resulting in Red, White, Blue and Gold. He otherwise keeps each of the columns of the Dragon table on page 11 of Vol 2. 

The published rulebook includes Black and Brass instead of Blue and Gold; the Brass dragon being from the Greyhawk Supplement. It also replaces the Chance of Talking and Chance of Sleeping columns with an Alignment column. For three of the dragons, it uses the interesting dual alignment format that appears in some entries in the Holmes rulebook (e.g. "neutral/chaotic good" for the Brass Dragon).

In the manuscript Holmes follows the table with two paragraphs on Breath Weapons which very closely follow the material in OD&D, Vol 2. He then make clear that the breath weapon damage is equal to the dragon's hit points, which was not made so clear in the original material. He condenses the "Age" category table to a simple d6 roll that gives a HD multiplier to determine HP; none of the age categories are named. He ends with a clarification that saving throws reduce damage by half. He omits the material on pages 12 and 13 of OD&D that covers Special Characteristics, Attacking Dragons and Subdual.

The published version also includes the descriptions of Breath Weapons. Some changes are made to the source material. OD&D & the Holmes Manuscript use a 2d6 roll to determine how the dragon attacks (breath on a 7+), whereas the published rulebook replaces this with a 1d6 roll (breath on a 4+). OD&D & the Holmes Manuscript have cone-shaped breath weapons originate with a 5' diameter, whereas the published rulebook uses a 2' diameter.

OD&D mentioned that 20% of dragons were "small" and 20% "very large", which presumably referred to the HD distribution for each dragon type; for example, a Red Dragon has HD 9-11. In the manuscript, Holmes includes the variable HD but leaves out the percentages. The published rulebook alters the chances to 25%, using a d8 roll, and explains that it relates to the sex of the dragon, with a 1-2 small (female), 3-6 medium (equal male or female) and 7-8 large (male). The published rulebook further expands the OD&D age chart from 6 ages to 8 ages, adding new "Young Adult" and "Ancient" categories. This allows the eight ages to track the eight pips on the d8 now used for Hit Dice.

The published rulebook goes on to include several more paragraphs of material that Holmes left out of the manuscript, covering subdual, dragon intelligence, treasure, the special breath weapons of the brass dragon (sleep & fear).

The Monster Manual would later include all twelve dragons from OD&D & Greyhawk, while Moldvay Basic would stick to the original six from OD&D, Vol 2.

Continue on to Part 24: "Winged Beasts of Hideous Aspect"
Or Go Back to Part 23: "Shy and Beautiful Female Tree Sprites"
Or Go Back to Start: The Holmes Manuscript

Chris Holmes Interviewed by Save or Die!

The latest episode of the Save or Die podcast has an interview with Chris Holmes, son of J. Eric Holmes. Chris discusses the forthcoming Tales of Perils compilation, the origins of Boinger and Zereth, Pellucidar, Weresharks and more!

Part 54: "An Ape in an Iron Cage"

Part 54 of a comparison of the Holmes manuscript with the published Basic Set rulebook. Turn to page 45 of your 'Blue Book' (page 44 for the 1st edition) and follow along...
 
Room S2
 
The final area of the Sample Dungeon, this is the second floor of the thaumaturgist's tower, home to "the wizard's study". As with S1, this area is above Room S in the dungeon, and so is not shown directly on the map.
 
In size and shape, the room is similar to the one below. Access is from a trap door in the floor from the room below. There is a third spiral staircase around the way to the ceiling, in this case leading to a a trap door to the roof. There's no further description of the roof area, but this implies the roof is flat. Perhaps the M-U studies the stars at night...
 
The study is furnished as we might expect for a wizard's study: tables, lamps, chemicals, skulls, loose pages of parchment, mystic designs on the floor and, importantly, "two giant volumes of magic spells". Presumably his books of First and Second Level Spells, they should at a minimum have the spells he has memorized in his description in Room F. While the Basic rulebook doesn't explicitly state that each level is in a separate book, this is implied by the names "Book of First Level Spells" and "Book of Second Level Spells" on page 15, as well the references to "magic books" (plural) on page 13. The description of "giant volumes" here explains Holmes' rule that M-Us "can not bring their magic books into the dungeon with them" (pg 13); it's because the books are too heavy to lug about.

Carnivorous Ape by Dave Trampier, from the Monster Manual (1977)

S2 also has at least one occupant, described in the next paragraph, an ape locked in a iron cage. There is no explanation for why the ape is here, just that it hates the cage and "has been waiting to get even". Ironically, the ape doesn't realize that "the key is in the lock of the cage door". If released, the ape may attack the wizard or someone else and then escapes out a window and "off through the city streets" of Portown. In the Portown Rumors I wrote up recently I had the ape be the captured pet of a merchant in town, who is willing to pay a reward for his return.

As I wrote previously, "Kveldulf suggested in this DF thread that the ape in the wizard's tower is reminiscent of the ape kept by the Red Priest Nabonidius in the Conan story Rogues in the House (1934). Also, in the Conan story the Tower of the Elephant a sorcerer keeps a captive creature (not an ape) in the upper room of a tower. Going back further, in Edgar Allen Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) a sailor keeps an orangutang captive in Paris. A common theme throughout these, including the Holmes scenario, is the hatred of the captive primate for its master."

Also, the Planet of the Apes film series was a big presence in the popular culture in the earlier half of the 1970s. And a remake of King Kong came out in Dec of 1976, just around when Holmes was working on the Basic rulebook.

As with most of the non-standard monsters in the Sample Dungeon, the Ape gets a minimum of stats: 2 HD and AC7. But this is more than apes were given in the OD&D rules. "Apes" appear as one of 12 animal types on the "Basic Animals" table in the Wilderness Wandering Monster tables on pages 18-19 of Vol 3 of OD&D. "White Apes" also appear in that section in the "Optional Arid Planes" table (all Barsoomian encounters); the Level 4 dungeon table (pg 10); and as castle guards for Evil High Priests (pg 15). But as with most other animals, no specific stats are provided.

In Greyhawk, the 4th level apes are now "Carnivorous Apes". In Eldritch Wizardry, "Apes" again appear, in the "Jungle-Like" table. Again, no stats provided.

The first product which provides any stats for "Apes" is the first Monster & Treasure Assortment (1977), included in the first three printings of the Holmes Basic Set as well as being sold separately. In the Assortment, "Carnivorous Apes" appear as entry 19 on the 1st level table, and entry 45 of the 3rd level table. Apes would finally get a full description in the Monster Manual as "Ape (Gorilla)" and "Ape, Carnivorous", and in Moldvay Basic as the "Ape, White". Each of these versions has at least twice as many HD as our Sample Dungeon Ape, and a better AC.

The room has two major magic items hidden in it, described in the third paragraph, a wand of petrification and a hidden scroll that can reverse it. 

The wand is a non-standard magic item, appearing neither in the Holmes rulebook or in the previous OD&D books. However, it's a fairly natural extension of the various other D&D monsters, spells and magic items that can turn characters to stone.

Holmes writes that the wand "turns flesh to stone if he makes a hit with it", which indicates that using it requires a to-hit roll. As I wrote previously, "The thaumaturgist's wand of petrifaction is similar to the wand wielded by the White Witch in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe of the Chronicles of Narnia. It requires a to-hit roll, which may imply it is a touch-based attack similar to the wand of the White Witch (thanks to Lemunda's Brother for pointing this out in this Knights & Knaves Alehouse thread). On the other hand, the Holmes rules require a "to hit" roll for Magic Missile so the wand could also be interpreted as having a ray-based attack".

In the manuscript, Holmes names it a "wand of petrification". As published, this is changed to "petrifaction".  From what I have read, the term "petrifaction" was more common used prior to D&D, now "petrification" is more common. Prior to this rulebook, Gygax used "Petrification" in Greyhawk ("Eyes of Petrification"), and again later in the DMG. Interestingly, the Medusa entry in the Monster Manual also uses "petrifaction".

The wand is hidden in a secret compartment in the table. Here we have a change to this room as published. The rulebook adds a parenthetical chance for finding the wand's compartment: "(only 5% chance of locating this compartment)".

The scroll is hidden among parchments on the table, and is simply described as "a scroll which reverses this spell, but only for 1 person and only once." As published, "this spell" is changed to "the wand effect".  The spell on the scroll is not further described, but is presumably the sixth level OD&D spell, Stone to Flesh. 

Finally, there's a brief mention that the M-U will be found here if not in Room F. This ties back to his actions in Room F where it states, "If he can get out the door he will put a wizard lock on it and run up the stairs to his tower ... He will use the wand on anybody entering his hideway".

Coda

Following Room S2 there is a single paragraph coda to the adventure:

"By the time the adventurers have worked their way through this, the Dungeon Master will probably have lots of ideas of his or her own to try out. Design your own dungeon or dig new passages and levels in this one. What lies in the (undiscovered) deeper levels where Zenopus met his doom? Do the pirates have other treasure troves hidden in the sea caves? What inhuman rites are practiced deep in the ghoul haunted passages beneath the graveyard? What are the townspeople going to do when they discover that our friends are tampering with Things Better Left Alone?"

There are no changes to this paragraph as published. It's a flavorful wrap-up to the adventure that gives many of suggestions to new DMs for expanding the adventure.  
There's a clue that Zenopus met his doom on a lower level. Chris Holmes & Eric (who played Murray) have no specific memories of any lower levels that Holmes designed.

There might be other sea caves with pirate treasure. The tunnel from Room P might be expanded to passages beneath the graveyard with ghouls and "inhuman rites" (cultists?). Finally, the people of Portown might not like what the adventurers discover.

And that's the end of the manuscript! All remaining material in the rulebook, including sections on "Using the Dice"*, "About the Editor" (starting in the second print), the product catalog and the reference sheets are not in the manuscript, and thus were presumably added by TSR.

I'll have a few more posts in this series, however. The Manuscript is missing one page (mostly covering dragons), which I skipped at the time. Billy Galaxy later sent me a scan of the missing material from an earlier draft, so next I will go back and cover that.

Continue on to Part 55: "Summary of Changes"
or Go Back to Part 53: "The Room Contains a Giant Snake" (Rooms S and S1)
or Go Back to the Index: The Holmes Manuscript

* 2021 Update: The "Using the Dice" section recycles text from an earlier TSR advertisement for dice; see this post.

Portown Rumors in Brief

Here's a shorter table of the Portown Rumors, done in the style of the rumor tables in B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 The Keep on the Borderlands. "F" denotes a false rumor. See the original post for more details on each rumor.

1.       A wizard in Portown once dug tunnels under his tower in search of ancient treasures.

2.       Portown was built on the ruins of an ancient city of unknown origin.

3.       A bottle of whiskey for an old man will buy a tale about the wizard he once worked for.

4.       A group went into the old ruins last year looking for treasure and never returned!

5.F     A mad wizard's gold is hidden under a hill, guarded by his vengeful ghost!

6.F     The old dungeons have nothing but empty tunnels and dangerous vermin.

7.       Bandits have been attacking caravans bringing up goods from the south.

8.       A merchant ship plying the Northern Sea is hiring guards to protect it from pirates.

9.       The best men-at-arms can be hired from Ajax at Warrior-For-Hire.

10.     The Guild is hiring extra guards to stop the nightly break-ins at the warehouses.

11.F   A magician on the west side of town is a dependable employer of adventurers.

12.     A drunk was fished out of the harbor after wandering into the sewers one night.

13.     The sea caves along the base of the sea cliff might hide pirate treasure.

14.     Merchants are complaining that their stolen goods keep reappearing in town.

15.F   The Lord's heir Lemunda the Lovely ran off with a band of adventurers!

16.     Fisherman have gone missing while checking crab pots to the west of the harbor!

17.F   The catacombs of the city hide many coffins filled with coins.

18.     A widow is offering a reward for an investigation of the scratching noises in her cellar.

19.F   Grave-robbers have been plundering coffins at the cemetery!

20.     A merchant is offering a reward for the return of his missing pet ape.

Update: These rumors, along with the longer versions, are now available as a Portown Rumors pdf.