What’s new?

A wraparound cover image! So normally I really like Dave Trampier’s art, but I’m gonna say, this cover is not his finest work. I mean, everything’s fine, it’s just the faces are kind of creepy.

Also the centrefold of the magazine is a backgammon table drawn by Tramp. You can’t see it in the pdfs on archive.org but there’s a picture of it here on Dungeoneers Syndicate: https://dungeonsyn.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-dragon-magazine-15-1978-david.html

The editorial mentions that Quag Keep is out. Also that a “Best of” Dragon should be out in time for Gencon in August.

An ad announcing the AD&D Players Handbook will be available at Gencon! And on the same page the announcement of Gamma World at Origins has it in the logo typeface.

Articles

• James Ward talks about wandering monsters and how, as a DM, you can prepare things ahead of time – he provides an example table of monsters with pre-rolled hit points etc
• Gygax talking about the origins of using feet in dungeons vs yards outdoors – most of the article is pretty tedious but the first couple of paragraphs are some great history about the Castle & Crusades Society and the progression from that through to Chainmail and then D&D

Variant articles

• dragon magic – a bunch of special spells just for dragons
• randomised tables for determining what’s in a pit – if you’re lucky, you may find a hatmaker or beer merchant! What the?
• randomised tables for settlements – perhaps there was recently a flood or an uprising in the town your PCs are travelling through – can add a lot of flavour
• randomised tables for weather and possible outcomes like flu – yep, we’re all about the randomised tables in this issue!
• notes from another barely successful D&D player – a very small list of dubious ideas

Lots of Sci-Fi and not a lot of D&D in this one.

Of note: an ad for Origins 78, July 14-16 – “Be sure to visit the TSR Booth for … new Gamma World RPG … and D&D tourney modules” – ie the G series of modules.

Winners announced for the “Name that Monster” contest from issue #8 – illustration was by Erol Otus.

Comments on the state of D&D by Gary Gygax – oh yeah, this is the really good stuff! He clarifies the intended audiences for the original D&D, the new Basic set, and the forthcoming AD&D. He’s drafting the final manuscript of the Player’s Handbook and has a rough outline of the “referee’s” volume (ie Dungeon Masters Guide), both supposedly out in 78 (ha! DMG came out around Oct 79). Also Kuntz & Ward are working on a revised Gods, Demi-gods and Heroes, supposedly coming in late 78 or early 79. (It didn’t actually come out till 1980 and was re-titled Deities and Demigods).

Interview with a Rust Monster – basically a long piece of fiction based off a play session – I skipped it.

The Adventures of Monty Haul and His Friends at Play – this was some sort of over-the-top re-telling of some fictional play sessions of TSR staff. It sounds better than it was. It was not funny.

A letter that seeks to clarify inaccuracies in the Cthulhu Mythos article.

D&D variant – a lengthy article about lycanthropy and playing it as a character – this was too tedious – I skimmed it. But it had some nice images by DAT! Dammit, I’m sure I’ve seen this horse one somewhere else but I couldn’t figure it out. Anyone know where it’s from? Ping me on twitter.

As with the second one, the first page describing how to use it, in addition to the examples, are a verbatim copy from the first M&T Assortment. And the second page is the same as M&TA2, even with the same drawing.

I’m not sure I understand why this came out so long after the first two.

Otherwise it’s much the same as the others – a bunch of random monster and treasure tables.

Illustrations

Honestly, the most interesting thing about all of these is actually the pictures. There are some cool ones in here including one by Bill Willingham!

Not sure if his stuff had appeared in anything before this… As far as I can tell, this is the first bit of D&D art by Willingham. Who of course, went on to do a bunch more for D&D and then went on to create the legendary Fables comic series. Love his art.

The cover is by Tramp. The other internal pictures don’t have signatures – I suspect most are by DCS, and the Harpy is most likely a Trampier.

Date Information

As a lower bound, The Basic Set 2nd print, which came out in Jan 78, says that it’s forthcoming. Enworld says May. White Dwarf #8 Aug/Sep 78 has a Game Workshop ad that lists it for sale (previous issues didn’t have as extensive lists so it’s unclear if they had it before then). The Judges Guild issue 12, U, Dec 1978/Jan 1979, lists it for sale. I’m happy to go with May until any further evidence shows up.

You know what?

I think this is the first really good cover on The Dragon magazine. It was done by Tom Canty (who also did the cover for Dragon #2).

He went on to do all sorts of book covers. See here: http://art.ofearna.us/canty.html

What’s New

It’s the first monthly issue.

Articles

• Oh boy, here’s one of those tedious ones where we calculate the dimensions and weight of giants and how far they’d sink in to various substances. I mean, really?
• Dragon sees how many ways they can misspell Tolkien – cover has Toklein, contents page has Tolkein and article title has Tolkein. At least the actual article uses Tolkien. And basically just says D&D != Lord of the Rings (Err, != means not equals)
• Monster drinking songs – really scraping the bottom of the barrel
• Notes from a semi-successful D&D player – a bunch of tips like clever uses of spells

Variants

• A random demon generator
• Japanese mythos

Date Information

Although this is the April issue, there’s an ad by TSR for the Spring Revel in Lake Geneva on April 1 & 2, which also gets a mention in the editorial. So they’d have to assume most people would get the magazine before that time, ie in March. I’m going to continue putting The Dragon dates as the month of issue but I’ll be aware that the contents are usually a month behind if it’s talking about other material.

So yes this book wasn’t published by TSR but I decided to read it and include it in this list because it was featured in The Dragon magazine and mainly because it’s considered the first ever D&D novel. This is a long time before the first DragonLance book!

Sometimes D&D books have the accusation levelled at them that you can hear the dice rolling in the background. In this one, that’s not the case. Instead you can literally hear the dice rolling in the foreground because all the main characters have bracelets with dice that occasionally spin whenever there’s something crucial happening.

The plot is so so. Real gamers in our world drawn into the fantasy world yadda yadda.

The main thing is… it’s just kind of boring. It felt very plodding. Even when there were fights it was boring. I guess I just didn’t like the writing style. The descriptions didn’t evoke very strong pictures in my mind.

Of course, the book’s main draw is as a portal into the then unknown world of Greyhawk. We get to visit the Sea of Dust and hear of other places that would later become known to us. There’s one interesting reference to the Temple of the Frog from Blackmoor, funnily enough because the player in the real world (in the novel) has played the scenario.

Ultimately the worst crime is that the story is frustratingly pointless.

I don’t regret reading it but I gave this 2 stars on Goodreads as a warning to anyone else wanting to go on this drab quest.

And don’t get too excited about the prospect of some sort of castle adventure – the damn Quag Keep doesn’t appear till about the last 10 pages! (No, that’s not a spoiler, it’s just making you aware of the false advertising in the title.)

Date Information

A preview was in Dragon 12 (February). It gets a mention in Dragon 15 (June). Copyright date of publication is March 10, 1978, so March it is.

There’s a lot in this one.

What’s New

• From the next issue in April, the Dragon will be going monthly
• We get circulation information – there are basically about 6000 copies of each issue printed and that number is continuing to rise
• The Souvenir font is used in a couple of ads. Eg:

Articles

• Humourus encounters in D&D with some funny anecdotes
• Variant – illusionists – basically a bunch of spell changes
• Variant – Persian mythos – ie a bunch of demi-god stats
• Thoughts on the Speed of a Lightning Bolt – tedious plussing and minussing of various factors in a melee round as detailed in Eldritch Wizardry (which splits rounds into segments) to show how a magic user could react before a fighter
• Ship’s Cargo – random table to determine what’s in the hold of a captured ship
• The Druids – the real world history of druids
• Official article – Cthulhu Mythos – this was pretty well done – not just stats and mechanics but quite a lot of flavour text – my knowledge of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos is almost non-existent so this was quite a good primer
• A very short review of the Monster Manual – big thumbs up

Story

• Quag Keep by Andre Norton – this is a preview of the full book, the first D&D book. Usually I don’t read the fiction in Dragon but in this case I’ve made an exception and I’ll read the book, seeing as it’s the first semi-official D&D book. Having said that, the writing is a bit rubbish! Lots of tortured sentences. More on this when I read the full thing.

Date Information

Along with the announcement of going monthly, Kask mentions that the April issue will be sent out in the last week of March. Also in future, many articles will be selected a month or two before publication with only a few written just prior to publication.

Yes, finally AD&D is here!

Well almost. Still have to wait for the actual rules. But it makes all kind of sense to publish this first, as it could be used by existing players regardless.

The Monster Manual is definitely a step up in quality – being hardback is the most obvious thing – a first for the role-playing industry, let alone TSR.

Then there’s all the illustrations and the general layout with nice use of white space Also the organisation and comprehensiveness. It’s kind of funny that being Alphabetical is such a feature!

Shannon points out some interesting stuff on DriveThruRPG. In particular, I never realised the Monster Manual doesn’t even include the XP worth of each monster! I think that’s because, funnily enough, we didn’t have the Monster Manual growing up, only the list of monsters in the back of the DM’s Guide, which has the XP amount.

I like the occasional whimsy, eg the Tom Wham illustration of the Lynx. Also the Leprechaun – not only is one riding the nearby Giant Leech, one of them has tilted the organising title found at the top of each page on its side.

As I read it, I was constantly struck by how few monsters I’ve actually encountered while playing. And I’m not just talking about the zillions of dinosaurs like the Archelon Ischyras. I’m talking about things like the Floating Eye, not a Beholder or Eye of the Deep, just an eye that hangs out in water. Or the Masher. Or the Baluchtherium.

Whereas the descriptions in Holmes basic are often straight copies of the text in OD&D, a spot check of the descriptions in the Monster Manual against OD&D shows them to be completely reworked.

So, anyway, yeah, being a reference work, reading through every entry was at times a bit tedious. However, in amongst the boring stuff, there’s quite a lot of good flavour text.

Of special note are the occasional hints at lore yet to be discovered/published. For example, under Elf, the Drow are mentioned in a very brief paragraph that says they’re “only legend. They purportedly dwell deep beneath the surface in a strange subterranean realm”. And likewise, Mind Flayers “are rumored to have a city somewhere deep beneath the earth”.

Image Info

Left is a first printing, middle is a UK soft cover, right is a more ubiquitous 4th (gamma) printing.

Illustrations

David C Sutherland III, David A Trampier, Tom Wham, and later additions by Jean Wells.

Date info

Acaeum states “The first print was intended to be released in Sep 1977, but due to delays at the printer, was not released until after Christmas 1977 — possibly even Jan 1978”.

Obviously it was in the December Dragon magazine – both an ad and two editorial pieces saying it would be available soon. The February issue of the Dragon says it out in the shops.

Further, in the May Dragon issue, Gygax says the Monster Manual “… was anticipated to be ready prior to Christmas. (As usual, there were delays, mainly from the printer and the binder.)”

So really it was probably January but I’m still going to go with December – especially considering the copyright page says 1977.

Fairly good issue.

• A bit of a tirade by Gygax against people who don’t like the fact that TSR is protecting its copyrights. Special shout-out to companies doing it right by either licensing or creating their own new ip like Games Design Workshop with En Garde and Traveller. Also has a bit of a historical run-down and background to the initial publishing of D&D. Mentions ongoing work to develop it with the publishing of Basic, the Monster Manual and two forthcoming volumes, which may be ready around summer 78!
• Variant article by Kuntz with rules for brawling – basically a bunch of tables and dice rolls with the goal of knocking out the opponent and not actually causing any hp damage.
• Article by Thomas Filmore that encourages you to role play your character by thinking up a background and quirks and most importantly doing this for each new character you play, ensuring you don’t carry over stuff from previous characters.
• First appearance of “From the Sorcerer’s Scroll” by Kuntz. Most excitingly mentions the Monster Manual is at the printers. Also that work on AD&D is progressing, with some small snippets like the fact that Fighters will use a 10 sided die for hit dice. Also Monsters & Treasure Assortment Set 3 is being worked on. Odd mention of Brian Blume working on an outdoor map – not sure what became of that. Update on expansion of D&D overseas.
• Oh boy, here comes one of those articles with extremely convoluted rules – about fighting with quarterstaffs by James Ward. Would make fighting as exciting as doing your tax return.
• A short unfavourable review of the Rankin/Bass animated Hobbit film.
• A new complete boardgame – Snit’s Revenge, the sequel to Snit Smashing.
• And at last, an ad for the Monster Manual!!!

Next up? Yes, the Monster Manual!

Date Information

Of interest to me, the Hobbit film was broadcast on Nov 27. Which means the earliest the complete contents of this issue was finished would have been the following day. Which means when they say this is the December issue, it really means it would have come out in December! (Unlike modern magazine publishing where they push everything forward a month – eg a December issue coming out in November.)

• Now 36 pages.
• A bit of a reorg in the structure of the magazine to clarify whether something is official or a variant.
• An article suggesting characters should only get XP from treasure as they spend it. Interesting idea, rather boring article.
• A report on Gencon X held in August.
• An article with tables to roll up random terrain info – like how steep a slope is and other exciting things like that. Yeah, that’s sarcasm.
• A more arresting article with lots of tables to create totally random monsters – not wandering monster tables – rather totally unique monsters never dreamt up before. You could get a large blue lawful undead flying creature with antennae that’s hostile to Hobbits and can only be destroyed by running water!
• A fantastic article by Richard Gilbert about designing dungeons – specifically coming up with a reason for the dungeon’s existence and even more specifically who the dungeon builder was. Answer that question and the design almost builds itself.
• Yet another tedious article adding more tables to randomly roll up things for your character like height/weight, hair length, etc etc.
• A tragic article about the process of gaining experience levels that I think is an attempt at humour but I think is also serious.
• Snit Smashing! A cut-out boardgame. I have a vague memory of playing this back in the day. It actually has reasonable mechanics.

Wow, that was a big issue.

Ok, so strictly speaking, this was never distributed by TSR but I wanted to read it anyway and I think others may want to conclude the Wee Warriors trilogy as well.

So, here we get a huge expansion in scope. Palace of the Vampire Queen was a single building. Dwarven Glory was slightly larger – a system of caverns. Misty Isles is the whole chain of islands that contain those two locations as but tiny points of interest. Basically it’s a campaign setting.

There are 9, count ’em, 9 islands – each map having 21 large hexes which are all keyed. The only thing missing is a map that shows where all the islands are situated.

There’s a lot of great background information for each island. And there’s quite a bit of interaction between them – warring factions, kidnapped princesses, etc. And it’s quite interesting going back and reading the background info in the other two modules, now that I can see how it all fits together.

Two more things to say.

1. there are lots of speling mestakes
2. a lot of the locations are on a big scale – eg “300 orcs guard the wood ramparts with 500 goblin archers”

A reprint is available at DriveThruRPG.

Date Info

Copyright is 1977. I can’t find any other info. Obviously it’s after Dwarven Glory which I’ve placed in June. The only date related information comes from the product page. After listing current products, it has a list of two products “Available soon”, with both “Available Fall/Winter ’77”. So it can’t be too late in the year. I’m going with September.

Again with the dodgy cover – same guy as last one. I won’t mention his name out of respect.

Finally an ad for the Basic Set!

And there’s an ad for issue 1 of White Dwarf.

Gygax has an article about character alignments and handling situations where character alignments differ. Probably the most interesting bit is a very small window into the Free City of Greyhawk and how alignments play a part in that place. On a funnier note, the editor feels the need to clarify the term DM.

There’s an article with some random tables for tombs – the general layout, the type of person buried there, and the treasure it contains.

And that’s it for D&D related content.

Finally there’s the introduction of Wormy by Dave Trampier.

(And a silly comic to introduce Snits… – Snit Smashing coming in Dragon 10!)

US D&D Basic Set

This may get long.

This is just a review of the Basic rule book. Coverage of the other items, such as the Geomorphs that came in the first printing and the B1 & B2 modules that came in later printings are dealt with separately.

I’ve been looking forward to reading this since starting this project. Basic was the first ever D&D I played. My brother bought the box set pictured above and he took me through B1. I can’t even remember how many sessions it took or how far I got.

It’s nice reading it now, having read all the preceding material. Back in the day, when I read the rule book for the first time, the stuff in the Foreword was like gobbledygook. Interesting that the Preface mentions AD&D even though it wasn’t available yet.

From the outset it’s apparent that much of the text is explaining the same things as in the original D&D, just with much greater clarity. For example: When rolling up ability scores, you’re allowed to adjust them. E.G., you can boost your Strength by 1 by reducing your Intelligence by 2 points. The original stated this information in a rather confusing manner. Holmes makes it very clear.

In some places, it’s almost word for word the same – e.g. the section on hiring NPCs. This can be confusing at times because it mentions something like encumbrance and then doesn’t give the weights for anything (whereas they were actually given in OD&D).

UK D&D Basic Set

What also stands out is how many references there are to AD&D, even though it wasn’t even published when this came out. E.g. “After they reach fourth level… refer to the more complete rules in AD&D”. It’s apparent that Basic D&D is just a stepping stone rather than the self contained thing that it would become in later iterations.

These rules are still pretty harsh compared to modern editions. You go down to 0HP – you die. You’re a first level Magic-User – you get 1 spell. You’re a first level Cleric – no spells for you! And Magic-Users aren’t allowed to bring their magic books into the dungeon. So to re-memorise a spell, they have to go out of the dungeon and spend a day in study! I guess with no healing spells available to the first level cleric, the party is going to be heading to the surface quite a bit anyway. (Which – allow me to indulge – is what it’s like playing your first level characters in the Apple II game, Wizardry – duck down, have one fight, head back to the surface – and pray you don’t encounter a wandering monster on the way!)

At least characters now get 1-3hp back for each day of rest back home. In the original, it was 0hp on the the first day of rest and then 1hp per day thereafter.

Speaking of time, the changes and clarifications around time/turns/rounds are vastly improved.

US on top, UK on bottom

Wait a second. What the heck is this? Am I reading these rules right? All characters, no matter what class, use the same combat table. And no matter what weapon they have, they all do 1-6 points of damage. And the to-hit is the same for all 3 levels. So by my reckoning, a first level magic-user with 3 Strength has just as much chance of hitting and doing the same damage with a dagger, as a third level fighter with 18 Strength and a sword! The only difference is the magic-user will generally have lower hit points and terrible armor class.

Huh. I guess in some ways that makes sense. The fact that first level magic users only have 1 spell and clerics have none is balanced by the fact they can dish out damage in the normal way.

Flicking back to original D&D, the to-hit varies by class but only once you get above level 3. I guess it stands out to me more because Basic is limiting itself to just those first 3 levels.

UK Basic Set contents

More stuff I find surprising:

• Daggers allow two hits per round – why would you ever use a sword!
• You don’t roll for initiative – whoever has the highest dexterity goes first.

Spells, for the most part, are the same as in the original plus Greyhawk. There are a few new spells as well.

There’s a section on fire and throwing flasks of oil. And one on holy water.

I haven’t got much to say about the monsters. Again, there’s some descriptions copied almost verbatim from the original and in other cases the text is clarified or modified. There are quite a few new monsters as well as a couple more giant and dragon types. A lot of the monsters would be rather challenging for a party of 1st-3rd level adventurers!

The same can be said for magic items. Some text is the same, other bits clarified. Some new items, others removed.

After this, there’s a nice section on the art of DMing which is much more extensive than what you get in the original, even if it is only a page worth.

Australian Basic Rulebook – no white

And lastly we come to the sample dungeon – the Tower of Zenopus, entirely written by Holmes. Most striking is the detailed background story – full of flavour. The dungeon itself is a whole lot more realistic and makes more sense than the sample dungeon in Original D&D. It’s also fairly sparse. I guess that makes sense, considering it had to fit in several pages. It’s got giant rats, goblins, skeletons, pirates, and an evil magic user. What’s not to like?

Some notable things not included from Original + Supplements:

• No Strength adjustments – e.g. pluses to hit/damage/open doors
• Elves are purely multi-class fighter/magic user – no choice
• No fancy sub-classes like monks/assassins etc
• No hit location stuff, thank goodness
• No special damage by weapon type vs armor class
• In fact no different amounts of damage per weapon at all! (Unlike in Greyhawk.)
• No sword intelligence/ego
• No ships/underwater/outdoor/building castles
• No psionics, of course – pfew

Some notes on the design:

• They’re now rocking the Futura font (as opposed to Helvetica in the original and some other serif font in the supplements)
• the drawings are a definite step up in quality – the Sutherland cover is awesome!

There is way more information about Holmes Basic at these sites : https://sites.google.com/site/zenopusarchives/home
http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/

Image info

This the first D&D set my brother got – a 7th print Basic with those ridiculous chits and B2 in the box. Secondly, I have the Australian print rulebook (blue and black, no white on the cover). Lastly, I have a UK 4th print Basic Set.

Date info

The copyright date is 10th July 1977. There’s no reason to doubt this. The Acaeum says July. Of Dice and Men mentions July. Judges Guild issue N Aug/Sep mentions it.

More of the same.

All the instruction text is exactly the same, complete with the same example as Set 1 – ie they didn’t bother updating it with an example from Set 2.

Date Information

Same as Set One. Enworld has a date of February 1977. The copyright information, as Zenopus states, says February 15.

As with Set One, the copyright information was registered 5 years later, and looking at periodicals of the time paints a very different picture.

Judges Guild Journal issue N, August/September, does not list this. Then Judges Guild accessory O, November, does list it as “NEW”.

White Dwarf issue 3, October/November, does not list it. Issue 4, December 1977/January 1978 finally lists it. Of course, the UK is always behind.

What’s clear is that February is way off. I think around September is more likely.

I dunno about you but I think that’s a pretty darn ugly cover. Apologies to the artist.

The best part of the magazine is a very interesting article by Gygax about the Planes of existence. Although the planes have been mentioned in spells and items in the supplements, this is the first time the concept has been articulated. I found it fascinating to hear the reasoning for why some creatures can only be harmed by magic weapons – because they exist across 2 or more of the planes. And the +1 sword (or other magical item) also exists across the prime and another plane. So it can damage the monster in the other plane. As far as I know, this idea was never developed further. Funnily enough he mentions problems with the concept and says he probably won’t use it. There’s more info about the development of the planes here : http://ontologicalgeek.com/walking-the-planes-2-a-history-of-the-planes-in-dungeons-dragons/

There’s a very good, logical article about how to design a town for your campaign.

Monster & Treasure Assortment Set One gets a mention in the ad for The Dungeon Hobby Shop.

Not D&D related – there’s an interesting sneak preview of Gamma World, which presents the alt-history leading up to the game’s milieu. I mention this oddity, because at the same time, the new Basic D&D set was released in the same month as this magazine and it gets exactly zero mention!

Another one of those realism articles – tables to make your gems more realistic, with attributes like carats and types of stone.

By comparison there’s a funny small article by Brian Blume about ‘rolling’ up your 6 abilities in a more realistic way – eg Wisdom = 20 minus the number of hours you played/prepared D&D last week.

Feature creature : this time just a drawing by Erol Otus and a competition to name and describe it.

Next up – Holmes Basic – I’m excited!

This is the last Geomorphs set.

There were 3 more sets for future release that never happened – Castle/Fortress Outdoor Geomorphs, Ruins Geomorphs and Rooms, Chambers & Passages. They appear in the product list on the last page of this set and the 2nd printing of the Holmes Basic D&D book (in the product list on the back).

As to the content, you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.

This one has quite a bit more text than the others. Basically it gives instructions on how to create a realistic city or town, describing all the things to consider like history, government, divisions (eg thieves quarter) and a huge list of occupations. It even gives lists for things like building types, religious buildings, street types, etc.

The example keys are very elaborate, even with descriptive pointers to other non-existent keyed areas, eg “See #56, Society of Sages, for details of … “ and there’s no #56.

Design-wise, the major improvement is that it doesn’t use the typewriter style font that the other ones used.

Date Information

The copyright was registered as June 12 1977. No reason to disagree. It appears in Judges Guild issue O from Oct/Nov. It’s also on the back of the 1st printing of the Basic Set.

Dungeon Masters Kit – Number 2

Check out those dwarves! Check out that treasure! Check out that weird archway?

Like Palace of the Vampire Queen, this wasn’t created by TSR but is included here because it was distributed by them.

The weirdest thing about this? It uses hex maps, where every hex is 3 feet. Also weird is how the maps are broken up into sections which can be arranged in any order you like, which I guess is in keeping with this being a “Dungeon Master’s Kit”. The sections don’t seem to be in any order – the two suggested sequences for inexperienced or medium strength parties aren’t even B, C, D, etc but things like C, H, B, etc.

In fact there’s all sorts of “what the?” moments reading this.

Oh and there are numerous spelling mistakes.

And gems. There are so many gems that their locations are marked on the maps. Sooo many. Many with special powers.

Let’s examine some of the stand-out curiosities.

Section B

• There are measly half-orcs in a tavern and in a storeroom nearby, 10,000GP!
• The bar nearby has a barmaid that’s a level 14 magic user! She has a 100,000GP ruby. Yeehah!

Section C

• Room 1 – featuring 10 Kabols (??? Sometimes spelt Kobal elsewhere) each with a +2 sword!
• A room with a chess-playing ogre.

Section D

• Wow, one room has 6 gems worth 600,000GP each! And this area doesn’t even have any monsters to overcome.

Section F

• Huh, they use 2 creatures from the Elric section of Gods, Demi-gods and Heroes

Parts of the rest of the module actually make some coherent sense.

It’s almost like this is the next step up from the Dungeon Geomorphs but not quite a complete module as we would later understand it.

And it’s a definite step up from the sparsity of Palace of the Vampire Queen.

Of interest, this is set in the same setting as Palace of the Vampire Queen. That module mentions the king that defeated the 10 orc tribes, the same 10 tribes that overthrew the Dwarven Glory community on the island of Baylor.

A reprint is available at DriveThruRPG.

Date Information

The Acaeum says this was published in early 1977. Tome of Treasures reckons June.

I can’t find any ads or mentions in any magazines, so it’s hard to pin down. (In White Dwarf from 1977-1978, there are a number of ads that list Palace of the Vampire Queen, but none that mention Dwarven Glory or Misty Isles.) It was probably early 1977 as the Acaeum states but in lieu of any more data, I’m happy to go with June.

It’s announced that (the artist) Tom Wham is now on the staff of TSR.

An article that wouldn’t make any sense in our current world – What to do if you lose your dice and you have players coming over to play. No-one has any dice? How could that ever be possible?!

Probably the most interesting article in the Dragon mag for a while, an article by Gygax himself about the origins of D&D, talking about the C&C Society, his Domesday Book magazine, Chainmail, Arneson’s Blackmoor and his 18 pages of rules and then Gygax’s development of that into 300 manuscript pages. He also mentions that D&D was released before he was satisfied with it, due to the demands of the playtesters. And lastly he mentions he’s working on a complete revision!

For something different, there’s an article about Mystery Hill and Stonehenge.

Featured Creature – The Prowler, with a picture by Erol Otus.

There’s a small review of The Judges Guild by the editor where he positively gushes with enthusiasm.

Date Information

Just to confirm the dating of Dragon magazines, this is the June issue and there are many ads for things in July and even for some things in late June. And the Convention Schedule even includes one happening on June 4 & 5. So it’s apparent this means it was published at least by the start of June if not late May.

It’s a list of monsters. And a list of treasure.

No seriously. That’s about it.

Ok, so I guess if we consider when this came out, there were no published adventure modules, so you had to come up with your own dungeons, and I guess this made it a bit easier.

Apparently most of the content was randomly rolled up by Gary’s son Ernie Gygax when he was about 16, as recounted here and here.

The need for these would later be replaced by the tables of random monster encounters in the back of the 1st edition Dungeons Masters Guide.

Date Information

Enworld has a date of February 1977. The copyright information, as Zenopus states, says February 15. I am going to ignore these! The copyright was retroactively registered in 1982 and I think it was done in error.

Looking at periodicals from the time we have the following:

Judges Guild Journal – issue L, April/May 1977 does not list this item. It only lists Dungeon Geomorphs Set 1

Judges Guild Journal – issue M, June/July 1977 states “Just released… the first ‘Monster & Treasure Assortment – Set One: Levels 1 thru 3′”. Also in this issue, Dungeon Geormorphs Set 3 has just been released and Dragon #7 (June) is available in the Booty List. This give an indication of when this was published.

For comparison, White Dwarf is a bit behind the times, being in the UK. Issue 2, August/September lists Dungeon Geomorphs 3 for the first time along with Dragon #7. It’s only in issue 3, October/November that it has M&T1 available.

From White Dwarf it was plainly after Geomorphs 3. From Judges Guild it was around the same time. So chronologically, I’m placing this after Geomorphs 3.

So, it could have been June when this was published, but I’m going to lump it in to May along with Geomorphs 3.

Yet more of the same.

Of note, Set One was By Gary Gygax. Set Two was by Gary and Ernie. This one is back to just Gary.

As with the other sets, you can read the example encounter descriptions at Greyhawk Online.

Date Information

The copyright date is September 21st 1977 but that’s also the date for Set Two and quite plainly wrong, given other evidence.

Judges Guild Journal, issue M, June/July states “Just released … Monster & Treasure Assortment Set One ….. The third set in the Dungeon Geomorphs series … has also just been released.” Also in the Booty List, Dragon #7 June is available.

Unfortunately, although Dragon #6 April has an ad for Sets 1 and 2, there is no mention of Set 3 (or M&TA) in any subsequent issues.

White Dwarf issue 1, June/July has lists sets 1 and 2 (and Dragon #6) for sale. Issue 2, August/September lists Set 3 (and Dragon #7). Issue 3, October/November lists M&TA Set 1.

From all this, I conclude that Dungeon Geomorphs Set 3 came out before Monster & Treasure Assortment Set 1. And they both came out around May or June. For neatness, I’m going to go with May!

More of the same.

What’s surprising to me is how much of a gap there was between the first set and this one – almost a full year! (That’s assuming the date of the first set is anywhere near correct.)

As with the first set, you can read the example encounter descriptions at Greyhawk Online. One thing of note is a monster called an Aurotyugh – basically a pile of gold that can soften armour. It seems to have the barest connection to the Otyugh that would appear later in the Monster Manual.

Date Information

A date for this Set is incredibly hard to pin down. The copyright date is September 21st 1977 but that’s also the date for Set Three. And they were registered 5 years later in 1982, so I don’t think that’s very reliable. Echohawk’s list on Enworld (although it’s unclear where the information has been obtained) has a date of April, which seems much more likely.

The other major clue I could find is in White Dwarf magazine. Issue 1, June/July has an ad for Games Workshop which lists Set 2! White Dwarf #2, the August/September issue, lists Set 3. So I’m happy to go with April.

Likewise, Judges Guild Journal, issue M, June/July, states Set 3 is now available. Set 2 of course is also available and it doesn’t appear in the April/May issue.

The final clincher is the ad in the April issue of Dragon magazine.