Who was Gary Gygax’s Dungeon Master in the old days? Robert J. Kuntz was like a son to Gygax. Not only did Kuntz play in his Greyhawk campaign, but the elder was also a player at Kuntz’s table. Indeed, their campaigns were often linked and intertwined. This castle [El Raja Key] was intentionally designed to provide Gary with a source of adventuring enjoyment but quickly expanded in scope when EGG chose me to help co-DM the original Greyhawk campaign. Some of its levels were incorporated into the second (large and current) version of Greyhawk Castle, and many of its tricks, traps, monsters and ..read more

BLACKMOOR […] is the oldest and longest running DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game, and readers should find such material quite helpful in assuring the longevity of their own campaigns. Dave Arneson . . . Is there really such a creature? Yes, Gentle Readers, there is, and shudder when the name is spoken. Although he is a man of many talents who has authored many historic rules sets and games (which TSR will be publishing periodically), Dave is also the innovator of the “dungeon adventure” concept, creator of ghastly monsters, and inscrutable dungeonmaster par excellence. He devises complex combat sy ..read more

One of my new loves is the hardcover series, Original Adventures Reincarnated from Goodman Games. Each focuses on a classic module from 1980s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons / D&D, explores the adventure thoroughly, and faithfully expands on the original material. They follow a similar formula: Introductions and recollections by creators and commentators in the RPG community, followed by a full reproduction of the original module, and then wraps up with a D&D 5e conversion, plus a number of new, optional encounters and adventure areas linked to the original. They are beautiful books ..read more

TSR released this Dungeons & Dragons accessory in cooperation with stationery printer St Regis back in 1982. Few pads exist anymore, and so it’s now a collector item. (One like mine sold for $500 on Ebay in Sept 2021!) It’s a pad of graph paper, 5 squares per inch. 44 sheets. Stock number 2994. Cover art is uncredited. I’ve seen it stated online that it’s from Alex Nuckols, which matches the “AN” monogram. Check Wayne’s Books Inventory DriveThruRPG (PDF) St. Regis also made official D&D Binders and portfolios. Official (A)D&D BINDERS & PORTFOLIOS (1981-2) by St. Regis See ..read more

Original Dungeons & Dragons of the 1970s was found in nine booklets, plus supplementary material. Rules, Character Classes, Spells, and Treasure were scattered throughout. Given that OD&D was created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson – hobbyists gone professional – unsurprisingly, all this was published without an index. OD&D, all together: The 3 books & box set, plus supplements (Photos & printing notes) Dave Arneson decided to remedy this absence of a directory. TSR didn’t publish it though. Arneson did himself in cooperation with Heritage Models. The result is the Dungeon ..read more

Champions of Mystara (1993) had its origin in an episodic series of 35 Dragon Magazine articles by Bruce Heard from 1990 through 1992. Heard had guided the expansion of the default setting of Dungeons & Dragons – “The Known World” – through the well-known Gazetteer “GAZ” accessory books (1987-1991). Before the GAZ series, the Known World had been introduced in bits and pieces scattered throughout D&D’s classic B & X adventure modules. Known World map from Isle of Dread (X1) 1981Me with a bunch of Gazetteers (photo taken in 2013) D&D meets Star Trek The “Known World” slowly bec ..read more

This is the first time I’ve had the UK Edition of BECMI D&D in the shop. It’s a small book instead of a box set. This version of the Frank Mentzer-edited rules calls itself “3rd Edition”, and is rare on both sides of the Atlantic. The Acaeum notes: Fifth UK print (1986).  Same artwork as the Twelfth print US version, but consists of a single digest-sized booklet, 272 pages in length (roughly the size of a paperback novel).  Published by TSR UK, but actually printed by Garden City Press. Auction ended 19 March 2023 at $320 in 17 bids. Format Here’s a photo of the familiar US 1 ..read more

The Grand Duchy of Karameikos was the location of many old school D&D campaigns. The later B-Series modules for Dungeons & Dragons were located there. By 1994, the metaplot had promoted the Grand Duchy to a Kingdom, as seen in the Karameikos: Kingdom of Adventure box set. Back in the Grand Duchy years, we had some maps of the area in the D&D Expert set (1980) and GAZ1 (1987). These maps are small. The Kingdom of Adventure maps magnify the area into large scale! Here are the maps, Wayne sized… I’m just under 6 feet tall for scale. One could – and many have! – run an entire D&D ..read more

Arduin was a campaign setting ostensibly written for all fantasy roleplaying games, but clearly derived from, and intended for, Dungeons & Dragons. The Arduin Treasure Pak was one of many supplements written by the prolific David A. Hargrave. Despite its title, the pack also included a number of Arduin monsters as well. It comes in a ziploc bag, with a cover sheet, plus 9 cardstock sheets of 8 cards each. CONTAINS 72 CARDS, INCLUDING: 24 MONSTERS FROM THE ARDUIN GRIMOIRE, 24 MAGIK ARTIFACT CARDS, 24 MAGIK WEAPON CARDS. These illustrated cards are intended to provide visual impact and conv ..read more

The second module ever written for Dungeons & Dragons was a 1976 game convention tournament adventure written by Gary Gygax: The Lost Caverns of Tsojconth. In 1982, TsojcOnth would be heavily re-worked and released as the classic module S4: TsojcAnth. Why did the spelling change? I have no idea. What was the first D&D module? Palace of the Vampire Queen! Wee Warriors reprints in stock: Palace of the Vampire Queen and others The original Tsojconth was a very simple affair with loose typewritten sheets inside a folio cover, all contained in a ziploc bag. Only 300 were printed, and Ts ..read more