I recently finished reading Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Monster Manual, Players Handbook, and the Dungeon Masters Guide (Gygax, 1977, 1978, 1979) for first edition, the purpose of which is answered here.
So I've been looking for a game system to play. There's Basic D&D (Basic/Expert; which I have been playing a little), D&D modern (aka 5th ed.), and AD&D (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, aka 1st ed., though I'm including 2nd edition under "AD&D").
RIP James Ward, author of many many games and a game designer of many games. Notable on my shelf is the Deities and Demigods Advanced Dungeons and Dragons expansion, but of course he did more.
By way of my friendly neighborhood Bosco's.
It's 1984; Dad's in the Navy and receives his next orders after Antigua, and we fly to Orlando, arrange to drive to the Pacific coast in order to catch an international flight to Tokyo International, Japan. Our final destination: Yokota Air Force Base.
I'd yet to encounter roleplaying games of any kind, and the most sophisticated game I'd played up to then was probably Risk or Stratego.
I'm back at it, in spite of having skipped the past 9 days. This time, it's for AD&D, first edition.
It's 1984.
Art like this reminds me why I really love Erol Otus' work. It's iconic, graphic, and I've always loved the colorful and cartoonlike approach to his fantasy art.
Pure, quintessential of a lot of 1970s and early 1980s fantasy art. (Scanned from the “Days of the Dragon” calendar for 1982.)
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