Rappan Athuk: inspired by Skull Mountain

Bill Webb (tsathogga) of Frog God Games recently announced that his company will release an expanded version of his Rappan Athuk megadungeon "next summer as a hardbound, library-stitched book in both Pathfinder and Swords and Wizardry formats".

He further shared some of the inspiration for the origins of this megadungeon:

"The background of the big announcement goes all the way back to 1978, when I read a small book by Gary Gygax detailing the use of outdoor and wilderness adventures in D&D. This book, along with what has affectionately been termed the “Skull Dungeon” of John [Eric] Holmes fame, formed the basis of my thinking when I began to write my own vast dungeon that I called Rappan Athuk". The "small book" is Vol 3 of OD&D (The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures), and the "Skull Dungeon" is the "Sample Cross Section of Levels" from page 39 of the Blue Book:

35 years of D&D Basic Sets

The new Pathfinder Beginner Box is now available and is reported to be of high quality. It's not something I will likely be purchasing, but it is nice to see the continuing legacy of the Holmes Basic Set in the field. Next year marks the 35th anniversary of the publication of the original Basic Set in the late summer of 1977.  

"[S]ufficient information across the board to enable play for a group for a limited period of time--enough to determine if the game is "right" for the group. That's what the Basic Set of D&D was for, and that was a good idea that J. Eric Holmes came up with." --- Gary Gygax, Dragonsfoot forum post, 2002

Chronology of D&D Basic Sets:

1977 - Holmes Basic D&D set

1980 - Arduin Adventure

1981 - Moldvay Basic D&D set

1983 - Mentzer Basic D&D set

1991 - The New, Easy to Master D&D Game 

1994 - The Classic D&D Game

1996 - The Classic D&D Game (different cover)

1999 - Holmes Basic rulebook and B2 reprints included in Silver Anniversary Box

1999 - D&D Adventure Game (2nd edition AD&D)

2000 - D&D Adventure Game (3rd edition AD&D)

2004 - D&D Basic Game (3rd)

2006 - D&D Basic Game (revised; 3rd)

2008 - D&D Roleplaying Game Starter Set (4th edition AD&D)

2010 - D&D Fantasy Roleplaying Game Starter Set (4th)

2011 -  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner Box

(with thanks to the Acaeum, as always).

We still await a beginner's set for the OSR, either for an existing retroclone or a "community starter" as discussed at the OD&D Discussion Forums. (Let me know if I have forgotten something; I refer here to a physical boxed set, not just a pdf of starter rules, etc).  

Addendum: Yesterday, James on the Underdark Gazette posted An Introduction to Game-Mastering an Old School FRPG, a revision of a piece previously intended for either a Brave Halfling intro set (which changed to a different project) or the OD&D community starter linked above (which petered out).

TSR publication dates through 1981

From the copyright registration records in the Office of Copyright searchable database. The electronic database starts in 1978, so any product registered earlier is not included (possibly OD&D; Geomorphs Set 1). I stopped at 1981; in 1982 there's a big increase in licensed products, and I have declining interest in the dates at that point. : )

These come with the caveat that the publication dates are self-reported by TSR and may not be accurate. Many were registered years after the publication date. Please comment on any inconsistencies with any other evidence of known printing dates. 

Edit: I just corrected one typo. The original printing of the Monster Manual should be 12/28/77 per the database, not 12/18/77. The 12/28/77 date is consistent with a Gygax column in Dragon where he wrote that the MM wasn't available until after Xmas that year. 

Edit #2: I realized yesterday that the formatting for the table is not showing up correctly on a PC (I created it in Excel on a Mac and simply copied and pasted it here). I'll try to fix it. You can see the same info in an image (rather than text), here.

Title		Publication Date		Registration Date
Greyhawk		1/15/75		9/12/83
Blackmoor		8/15/75		9/12/83
Eldritch Wizardry		1/15/76		9/12/83
Swords & Spells		8/15/76		9/12/83
Metamorphosis Alpha RPG		12/1/76		8/14/78
Suspicion (mystery boardgame)		1/15/77		8/14/78
Monster & Treasure Assortment, Sets 1 & 2 (2 sets)		2/15/77		12/30/82
D&D Character Record Sheets		4/25/77		3/7/83
Outdoor Geomorphs		6/12/77		12/30/82
D&D Holmes Basic Set		7/10/77		6/21/78
Modern Armor (wargame rules)		7/15/77		6/21/78
Cordite & Steel wargame		7/15/77		8/14/78
Star Empires game		7/20/77		8/14/78
Warlocks & Warriors boardgame		7/25/77		8/14/78
Legions of the Petal Throne		8/20/77		8/14/78
Geomorphs, Sets 2 and 3 (2 sets)		9/21/77		12/30/82
Cohorts (Roman Checkers)		12/21/77		8/14/78
Monster Manual		12/28/77		6/21/78
Gamma World RPG		1/24/78		3/3/83
Monster & Treasure Assortment, Set 3		5/10/78		1/27/83
G1, G2, G3 monos (3 modules)		5/12/78		1/12/83
S1 Tomb of Horrors		6/29/78		1/27/83
Player's Handbook		8/15/78		3/19/80
D1, D2, D3 monos (3 modules)		9/26/78		1/27/83
AD&D Permanent Character Folder		3/7/79		2/8/83
B1 In Search of the Unknown		3/13/79		3/24/83
Official AD&D Coloring Album		4/10/79		7/17/80
Boot Hill RPG		4/15/79		3/19/80
Divine Right boardgame		5/24/79		3/19/80
AD&D PC Record Sheets		6/11/79		3/7/83
AD&D NPC Record Sheets		6/12/79		3/7/83
AD&D DM Screen		7/2/79		1/27/83
T1 Village of Hommlet		7/14/79		3/7/83
Dungeon Masters' Guide		8/1/79		3/19/80
Awful Green Things from Outer Space		8/1/79		2/16/82
Monster Manual, 4th printing		8/15/79		5/3/83
S2 White Plume Mountain		8/21/79		3/4/83
Rogues Gallery		1/23/80		2/8/83
S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks		2/5/80		3/24/83
Top Secret RPG		2/19/80		3/19/80
C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (mono)		5/7/80		3/4/83
World of Greyhawk Folio		5/7/80		2/8/83
Days of the Dragon Calendar 1981		5/15/80		8/29/83
Monster & Treasure Assortment Sets 1-3		5/21/80		7/19/83
Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits		6/12/80		3/24/83
B2 Keep on the Borderlands		7/2/80		1/27/83
Dragontales fiction collection		8/1/80		4/6/83
Best of Dragon, Vol I		8/15/80		4/6/83
A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity		10/14/80		3/4/83
Deities & Demigods		11/1/80		10/15/85
GW1 Legion of Gold		11/19/80		7/19/83
TS001 Operation: Rapidstrike!		12/15/80		2/8/83
AD&D DM Adventure Log		12/30/80		2/8/83
Finieous Treasury		1/1/81		4/6/83
Dungeon! Boardgame		1/29/81		11/8/82
D&D Moldvay Basic rulebook		2/16/81		3/25/81
D&D Moldvay Basic Set		2/16/81		4/29/82
D&D Cook Expert rulebook		2/16/81		3/25/81
D&D Cook Expert Set		2/16/81		4/29/82
Hexagonal Mapping Booklet		2/18/81		2/8/83
BH1 Mad Mesa		2/20/81		1/12/83
C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (color)		2/22/81		5/6/83
Awful Green Things from Outer Space (revised)		2/26/81		2/12/82
G1-2-3 Against the Giants		3/4/81		4/6/83
4 minigames (Antares, SAGA, Vampyre, Pleasantville)		4/3/81		9/7/82
Dungeon Geomorphs: Set 1-3		4/15/81		4/25/83
X1 Isle of Dread		4/22/81		4/13/83
A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords		5/4/81		2/8/83
Fantasy Forest boardgame		5/24/81		8/19/82
A4 In the Dungeon of the Slave Lords		5/27/81		1/12/83
B3 Palace of the Silver Princess		6/10/81		2/8/83
AD&D DM Screen (revised)		6/10/81		4/6/83
C2 Ghost Tower of Inverness		6/17/80		4/25/83
L1 Secret of Bone Hill		6/22/81		1/12/83
A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade		7/7/81		4/13/83
X2 Castle Amber		10/6/81		2/8/83
U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh		10/14/81		8/25/83
Best of Dragon, Vol II		11/1/81		4/6/83
I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City		11/18/81		4/13/83
Fiend Folio		12/15/81		5/21/84
Boot Hill Referee's Screen		12/3/81		3/24/83
Gamma World Referee Screen		12/15/81		1/27/83
Top Secret Administrator's Screen		12/15/81		1/27/83

More Copyright Records

More copyright records related to Holmes Basic:

Monster & Treasure Assortment Set 1, included in the 1st edition Holmes set:

     This has a 2/15/77 publication date, indicating it was available before the Holmes Set. I've always had that impression, probably from something written on the Acaeum. M&TA Set 2 has the same publication date in the database, but Set 3 is listed as being published 5/10/78. This matches the Acaeum, which records a 1978 copyright date for Set 3. Was there really more than a year between the publication of the first two sets and the third one?

Edit: These dates do fit with the product lists for the first three printings of the Holmes rulebook. The first (1977) and second printing (Jan 1978) list the first two M&TA sets listed with prices (i.e., available for purchase), with the third as a "Future Release". The third printing (May 1978) has the third M&TA now listed with a price.

     The database doesn't have a record for the Dungeon Geomorphs Set 1, which was also included in the early Holmes sets. The Acaeum records a 1976 date for this product, which means that it may have been registered before the Copyright Office electronic records begin in 1978. Geomorphs Set II and III each have a 9/21/77 date, after the Basic Set.

Edit: On the other hand, all three Geomorphs sets are listed as available starting with first printing of the Holmes rulebook.

B1 In Search of the Unknown, included in the 2nd edition Holmes Set:

     This record indicates a 3/13/79 publication date. This seems late, as the 2nd Edition Holmes Basic rulebook is dated Nov 1978 on the title page, and also refers to B1 by name on page 39. On the other hand, the copyright information in the B1 module itself is dated 1979. Perhaps the Holmes Set that included the 2nd Edition rulebook and B1 was not actually available until March '79? Alternately, the B1 copyright record is incorrect, as the Acaeum seems to assume (dating the first print of B1 to Nov 78 despite the 1979 date). It's hard to know how accurate the registration records are, particularly because some of them were registered long after the fact; for example this B1 record was registered in 1983. Dragon magazine #22 (Feb '78) has a full-page advertisement for B1 but this doesn't really provide evidence either way.

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, included in the 3rd edition Holmes Set:

     This record indicates a 7/2/80 publication date. This is also much later than I'd previously thought for B2. Again, the associated rulebook (3rd edition Bluebook) has a much earlier title page date (Dec 1979). And again, the module itself list the next year (here, 1980) for the copyright date, and the Acaeum indicates that it must be wrong. I'm not really sure. But if the 1st print of B2 didn't come out in July 1980, that doesn't leave much time for it be for sale until the Moldvay set comes out with a revised version (Feb 81, according to the copyright info).

Anonymous

    Saw Anonymous last night, the new "Who's the Real Shakespeare?" movie, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I don't believe the theories, but they make for an entertaining story, and they push them to the limit in this one. Lots of polearms, too.

TSR Basic Set copyright record

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

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

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

Two new Hobbit books out today

   
     Each year produces a crop of new Tolkien-related books. Already having a decent collection of "Tolkien Studies" (the entire History of Middle-Earth series by Chris Tolkien; books by Tom Shippey, Douglas Anderson, Wayne Hammond & Christina Scull, John Rateliff and Charles Kane), I've grown selective about new acquisitions. But two books released today look promising. Both tie in with next year's 75th anniversary of the original publication of The Hobbit. They are currently only available in the UK but hopefully they will be released in the U.S.

- The Art of the Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Wayne Hammond & Christina Scull

     This is an book of art by Tolkien, like Hammond and Scull's earlier (and awesome) Artist and Illustrator. This one focuses solely on the art for the The Hobbit, containing "the complete collection of more than 100 Hobbit sketches, drawings, paintings and maps by J.R.R. Tolkien ... Some of these images are now published for the first time, and others for the first time in colour". And with a nice slipcover! (see picture above).

-The History of the Hobbit (One-Volume Edition) by J.R.R. Tolkien and John D. Rateliff

     This book combines the two volumes of the History of the Hobbit published in 2007 (Mr. Baggins and Return to Bag-End), with corrections and new additions. I have the originals and love to pick one up before bed and read one of the short essays by Rateliff on various Tolkien themes. In a recent long interview at Middle-Earth.Xenite.org, Rateliff said the following about the new edition:

 "...I spent this summer preparing the new edition that’ll be out soon (sometime later this month, I think). I’d prepared a new appendix (Appendix V: The Author’s Copies List) and what I call the Addendum several years back, but they needed a lot of work to see them through the press. Esp. the latter, which represents a few pages of new material by Tolkien, mainly dating from circa 1965-66 (found by Christopher Tolkien in one of his father’s copies of The Hobbit, but too late for me to include in the original printing).

This is a ‘new edition’ in that it adds some new material at the end and fixes errors where I’m aware of them. But it’s not a complete re-write: we weren’t able to re-typeset the whole, so I couldn’t add as much new material as I would have otherwise. For example, information I’d put up on my blog re. a Sixth and Seventh ring of invisibility that could have been among Tolkien’s sources for Bilbo’s ring is referenced in a daggered note referring people to the blog entry, since we weren’t able to squeeze whole new paragraphs into that chapter. A long piece on trolls turning to stone in Grettir’s Saga (which I owe to Marjorie Burns) and in a piece by Helen Buckhurst (which I owe to Doug Anderson) appears in abbreviated form. I’d also have liked to add more acknowledgments than there was room for, to thank all those who sent in errata by name. I was able to add about a page regarding a still-earlier form of Denham’s list. And the whole benefits from Charles Noad’s scrupulous proofing."