Eldritch Wizardry

Supplement III Eldritch Wizardry
I believe we are back to the world of Greyhawk with Eldritch Wizardry, at least it has always felt more in tune with Greyhawk than Blackmoor to me. Blackmoor seems more sinister, more dark and maybe a bit depressing. Greyhawk seems a little less so, but all the old White Box campaigns seem a little more serious and dangerous than what came later. With Supplement III we see the 1st full color cover in the series and are reminded both of the fact that this game is not aimed at children and that the game's roots are (at least partially) in pulp literature as the "sacrifice" on the cover of Supplement III could just as easily have been gracing the cover of Weird Tales or another pulp magazine.  My copy, seen above, was purchased new along with the rest of my White Box kit for Christmas 1977 and now shows considerable wear. The 58 page booklet is organized into the now familiar three sections titled Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure and Underworld & Wilderness Adventure.  The Druid class is introduced here in Supplement III as a subclass of cleric. Rules for psionics are introduced to the game as a new kind of mind magic available to all the player character classes, except monks and druids, and to certain monsters. New magic spells are introduced for the existing cleric and magic user as well as for the new druid class. Several new monsters including a number of demons are described and illustrated and available for the referee or DM (Dungeon Master) as he/she is now referred to as to challenge the heroes with. There are a number of artifacts or unique and powerful magic items listed under the heading The Treasures, many of them requiring the referee to roll for their magical powers randomly on tables, thereby individualizing the Artifact for each campaign. The names of many have become closely associated with the Dungeons & Dragons intellectual property, such as Vecna and Orcus. The Underworld & Wilderness Adventure section includes several new creature tables including one for astral and ethereal encounters and one for psionic encounters. The nature of the supplements gives me the impression it is permissible or even preferable for each referee to add to or change the game rules as they prefer, each producing their own creative version of the dungeon adventure game. This is a great strength of the White Box version of D&D and the main reason it remains my favorite version of the game. The rules are such that the referee can easily modify one aspect of the game without breaking anything else. Adding new classes, spells, monsters, and rule mechanics is essentially encouraged. The standardization later sought by TSR executives definitely has it's place in the hobby as is explained by the authors elsewhere, but White Box D&D has its own unique place as well. I personally think that place is as relevant today as it was back in 1977.  

More Blackmoor

The First Fantasy Campaign
Supplement II gives us a taste of Mr. Arneson's Blackmoor campaign, Judges Guilds The First Fantasy Campaign gives us an additional insight into the campaign that started it all.  In this playing aid, as it's referred to on the cover, are maps of castle Blackmoor and the village nearby, the dungeon beneath and some select sites such as Svenson's Freehold. Also included are two campaign maps printed on the signature heavy brown paper that makes Judges Guild maps a delight to handle. In this 92 page book Mr. Arneson shares information on how he ran his Blackmoor campaign, some of the characters involved and their fate, price lists, construction costs, a glimpse into how magic and melee were handled, the magical nature of swords, gypsy sayings and more. As inspiration The First Fantasy Campaign is just full of mysteries and snippets of information. Scattered throughout the book are a number of sketches depicting events which presumably occurred during Mr. Arneson's early campaign, and which give the reader ideas for developing their own adventures. A set of blue armor and an heroic horse are described which can seemingly make a hero out of anyone, no matter how unwilling they may be. Blackmoor as described in The First Fantasy Campaign, is a dynamic, living, ever changing setting for adventurers. The book describes how the early players discovered the dungeon beneath castle Blackmoor, how the castle was raised by Funk I, King of All the Orcs, who in turn was defeated by the elves who currently reside in what's left of the castle and for a time ran the dungeon as a sort of business enterprise called The Elven Tour. With a copyright of 1977 this Playing Aid would have been available about the time I started out in the hobby with the White Box. I don't recall when I purchased The First Fantasy Campaign, but I think it was the first Judges Guild product I owned. I never ran a Blackmoor campaign straight of the book, but rather was inspired by it to take pieces here and there, which ended up ideas twisted to fit into my own version of a White Box campaign.The First Fantasy Campaign definitely got me thinking beyond one-off dungeons and onto world building, elaborate back stories, and changes being brought about by player actions as well as by Non Player Characters. Together with Supplement II, The First Fantasy Campaign can take us back in time to the beginning of the hobby whare we can share in the magic of those early days of discovery as Mr. Arneson leads us into adventure in his Blackmoor campaign.

Blackmoor

Supplement II Blackmoor
Blackmoor, what a great name for a campaign. In homage my own campaign is called Dreadmoor. Blackmoor is the second official supplement to the White Box, but the first dungeon adventure campaign, or so the legend goes. Dave Arneson, co-author of the White Box rules, authored the material contained in this supplement and gave it the name of his campaign. There is a nice illustration (of castle Blackmoor?) on the cover and together with the name, this supplement always had a more ominous feel to it for me. Supplement II is organized along the same lines as Supplement I, that is to say it mimics the organization of the White Box. There are three sections, Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure and Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. Under Men & Magic two new character classes are described, the monk and assassin. From what I understand Mr. Arneson liked to experiment with more detailed combat mechanics and in Blackmoor he gives us a taste of this with his hit location percentile mechanic which includes adjustments for height differences and weapon reach. Monsters & Treasure introduces several giant animals, some dinosaurs and undersea creatures such as mermen and sahuagin. New treasures include some magic items directed at underwater adventuring. The Underworld & Wilderness adventure section includes rules for underwater adventures, disease and an adventure from the Loch Gloomen part of Blackmoor, The Temple of the Frog, which I believe is the first published adventure for the game. Temple of the Frog takes up about half of the 60 page book and includes background story, maps and descriptions of various rooms, above and below ground and the treasures and baddies that are present therein. The Temple gives us a brief peek into the world of Blackmoor specifically and by example into the world of limitless imagination that is possible.

Arduin Grimoire

The Arduin Grimoire: Volume 1
Inspiration can come from a lot of different places. About the time I acquired my White Box, a fellow out in Berkley, California published the first Arduin game book titled The Arduin Grimoire. The author, David Hargrave, must have been an exceptionally inspired referee and game designer based on the number and originality of the ideas contained in this and other products he authored. The cover illustration of this printing, done by Greg Espinosa, is dense with detail, just like the interior contents of the 94 page booklet, which has the look of a Little Brown Book. The cover depicts a combat taking place on what looks like the steps of a temple. The combatants include a phraint, an insect warrior unique to Arduin, a warrior who bears a resemblence to Clint Eastwood and an attractive female with face paint/tattoo, all fighting a pair of saurigs, Arduin lizardmen. Flipping the book over to it's back cover we see the "story" continued. The female warrior stands guard in her skimpy leather bikini. The saurigs are seemingly dead, the temple doors open and "Clint" and the phraint are examining the contents of a treasure chest, all while an evil visage looks on from the shadows.

Over the decades I have purchased and read many game supplements and rule systems, none have inspired me the way Arduin has. I heard an idea one time, that there are places where"the magic" seems to coalesce, at least for a time, and great imaginative things happen. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and the Twin Cities, Minnesota during the late sixties, early seventies for sure were "magic" places. I think Berkley, California and Phoenix, Arizona can be included in that magic mix as well based on the imaginative gaming going on there shortly after the White Box became available. The Arduin Grimoire describes Mr. Hargraves' roleplaying world often simply called Arduin.  Arduin is one of those words that sounds like we have heard of it before, but just can't quite place it.  Arduin is campaign, game system, world and philosophy and much more. It's a wild and crazy place in many ways, one where you get experience for dying (and being resurrected), where sharks fly through the air, often with goblin riders astride, and you can cast the Rosy Mist of Reason magic spell to compel hostile beings to parley with you rather than attack. The Arduin Grimoire is choke full of tables and charts that inspire my imagination. Mr. Hargrave concludes the book with a couple maps, one a wilderness area, the other a dungeon, neither with any explanations...just there, to inspire and get those creative juices flowing.

Judges Guild Citadel of Fire

Citadel of Fire
More Judges Guild goodness, this time a reprint with new material by Goodman Games. Judges Guild published the original in 1978. I only have the recent reprint and it's a beauty.  The cover is heavy cardstock rather than the paper cover that probably came on the original...most Judges Guild products back in the day had a color printed paper cover that often didn't last too long with heavy game table use as I recall. Flipping through the book, I see a couple hex maps for exploring the surrounding area, several random tables full of potential surprises, floor plans and room descriptions. All the expected goodness that Bob Bledsaw and company usually packed into each of their products.  For a novice referee like I was when this product was first published, this would have been both teaching tool and ready-made fun for the gaming group. An adventure such as Citadel of Fire revealed some of the "how-to" for a referee through teaching by example. Here you have a tower to explore and some underground dungeon levels both aimed at higher level player characters. The surrounding countryside is also mapped out. So with Citadel of Fire the referee has an adventure module ready to run for the group and a template for the novice showing how it can be done. Inspiration can come from a lot of places, novels, comics, movies, published modules, random tables, conversations with friends or just day dreaming. The mechanics of turning an inspired idea into something playable is a skill learned mostly by doing, but having an example, or two or three, to follow is quite helpful in the beginning as I recall.

Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets

Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets
Bob Bledsaw and Bill Owen started Judges Guild in the late 1970's about the time I got my White Box and published some really useful and fun products at a time when I was trying to figure out this new game. I found many of those products very helpful and I'm guessing others did also. Tables are part of what makes the game fun for me as a player and as a referee. I like not knowing until the dice are rolled what is coming next. Random results can be very entertaining when approached with the right attitude. I actually think randomness verses choice is one of the ways the game has changed over the editions. If control is desired, then random is not good, unless it accidentally produces the desired result. On the other hand, if we are willing to go with whatever comes up, rolling on a random table is a great way to be surprised and that can be great fun. The Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets contains random tables and more tables.  Some are taken from the rules and some are taken from other Judges Guild products, some are probably new to this booklet. So I still don't know if Ref is short for reference, which I suspect, or short for referee.  It works either way. There is a lot of ambiguity in the Judges Guild products as well as in the White Box and I like to think this is intentional because it leads to different interpretations and individualizes the game. Now I know this can be an undesirable thing if it leads to argument, but with a referee system, the referee interprets the rules at the table and there really shouldn't be arguments during the game. What will happen and did often in those early days was that differences in interpretations often resulted in very different games being played at two different game tables. My understanding is that one of the goals of the Advanced game was to standardize rules so that people could easily expect to play a similar or identical game regardless who the referee was. One of my pleasures was to sit down with a new group and discover the ways they played the game differently than I had seen it played before. I still like to read the description of a new product and imagine what's in it, how it would work, the story that would flesh out the brief description...then buy it and read it. Often the stories I think of myself I like better than the ones I read, but certainly not always. Random tables are great for giving the referee's imagination someplace to start. A whole evening's play has frequently started with just a few random rolls on the tables...and a lot of referee improvisation. Judges Guild was my introduction to a style of play now referred to as hex crawl.  Many of the Judges Guild products paired random tables, brief descriptions keyed to a few locations with a map overlaid with hexagons.  It can be great fun to explore the world hex-by-hex, the referee having some prepared locations and access to random tables that can be used to prompt adventure for any hex not already detailed out. Over the years, Judges Guild has published some of my favorite gaming products, many of them using this technique. I look forward to writing about some of them in future posts. 

Greyhawk

Supplement I
Greyhawk is the first of many supplements expanding the Dungeons & Dragons game.  The White Box had lit the fires of imagination and the fire was spreading.  Written by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz, my understanding of Supplement I is that it brought us the rules changes and interpretations as they were used in Mr. Gygax's home campaign of Greyhawk.  Mr. Kuntz, co author of Supplement I, was also a referee in the Greyhawk campaign as I understand.  Supplement I builds on the creativity first expressed in the White Box and while not detailing much about the locations in the world of Greyhawk, Supplement I shows us how we can use the White Box rules in a world of our own creation. Creating new worlds of imagination, populating them with fantastic creatures undreamed of and creatively modifying and adding to the game rules was becoming the norm for player of Dungeons & Dragons almost from the very start.  Supplement I is organized along the lines of the 3 Little Brown Books.  There is a section on Men & Magic, one titled Monsters & Treasure and finally The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures.  Each section describes the rules differences, additions and alterations, that pertain to play in the world of Greyhawk.  Under the heading Men & Magic, Supplement I notes there are four main classes of player character, Fighting Men, Magic-Users, Clerics and the new class of Thieves.  Paladins make their appearance as a sub-class of Fighting Men. The tailoring of character classes to a specific campaign quickly became standard in D&D and it is here in Greyhawk that we first encounter this.  The addition of Thieves, common in fantasy literature as character types, significantly altered the game for some referees. As a separate class with specific abilities such as open locks, find traps and climb sheer surfaces brought into question whether the Thief class was the only class capable of such feats or whether they were just better at these activities than say Fighting Men.  There are descriptions of dwarves, elves and hobbits as they appear in Greyhawk as well as a new character race, half elves.  A character can belong to multiple classes usually combining Thief with some other class.  Races other than humans are limited in class level as a balancing mechanic.  Abilities in Greyhawk take on more importance as the bonus or penalty for high or low scores can be greater, thus making good ability scores more desirable. The computation of hit points is changed as classes no longer all use a six-sided die for hit points.  Dice with different numbers of sides are now used for hit points. Thus the familiar Magic-User four-sided hit point die and the eight sided Fighter hit point die is used in Greyhawk. There are guidelines for awarding experience points for monster slaying based on the monster's hit-dice. Killing the monster now gains the player character experience as well as taking it's treasure. A matrix listing bonuses or penalties to hit with some weapons against some armor types makes its appearance here as an alternative to the standard combat procedures. Weapons and monsters now do damage using different dice ranges rather than all being rolled on a six-sider. The sword, for example, now does 1-8 (1d8) damage points.  Magic-Users and Clerics now get expanded spell lists with both new spells and some higher level spells.  The Monster and Treasure sections introduces several new creatures and magic items for referees to challenge and reward players.  Among them are some iconic D&D baddies seen for the first time, such as the Beholder seen on the front cover illustration. The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures section provides additional traps and expanded monsters by level tables. The whole tome weighs in at 68 pages of D&D goodness and with Supplement I we have a glimpse into the possibilities of customizing the game to a specific campaign. 

Chainmail Link

Before Dungeons and Dragons Gary Gygax wrote a short 12 page Fantasy Supplement for Chainmail, a set of wargame rules for medieval miniatures. From the first line of the Fantasy Supplement we see the connection to literature as Mr. Gygax notes many of the fantastic battles in fantasy literature more closely resemble the medieval period than other periods.  He goes on to mention a couple of authors of such work by name. Chainmail appears here on White Box and Beyond because the White Box rules draw from Chainmail in several instances.  D&D monster descriptions say things like.. as described in Chainmail.  The reader of the Little Brown Books is referred to Chainmail for rules to resolve larger combats and the combat mechanic is based on that found in the Chainmail Fantasy Supplement, although there is the alternative d20 combat system which in future editions will become the only combat mechanic. The Fantasy Supplement includes many of the fantastic races that have become standard fantasy gaming fare, elves, dwarves, goblins, orcs and so forth. Dragons make their appearance here and can be killed by an arrow shot as they pass overhead, just like in the famous novel.  There is a brief description of each type of character, be they monster or hero, including a morale rating and a point value for building armies (using miniatures) based on such points.  Wizards are a type of hero and are given a list of spells including lightning bolts and fire balls.  The spell system includes rules for casting counter-spells requiring a dice score and optional rules for spell complexity which requires the Wizard to roll dice (all dice in Chainmail are six-sided) to determine if the spell goes off immediately, is delayed a turn or negated.  Magic weapons and enchanted armor makes its appearance in the Fantasy Supplement. I didn't own or have access to Chainmail at the time I acquired the White Box, but learning the Dungeons & Dragons game might have been easier if I had. As it was, Chainmail remained one of the mysteries of Dungeons & Dragons for a while and its eventual discovery was part of the fun of the hobby.  At it's core White Box D&D is about discovery and exploration, both in game and out. 

Reference Sheets

Rounding out the contents of the White Box is the Reference Sheets.  The Reference Sheets include most of the table information from the 3 Little Brown Books and once the rules are read an understood, I assume the idea is the referee could easily run the Dungeons & Dragons game from the Reference Sheets without need to refer to the rule volumes themselves. The Reference Sheets are several folded sheets of paper printed on both sides and form a nice booklet of sorts, although not stapled as the referee would obviously want to shuffle them around, spread them out and so on during play. Later editions would see the publication of a DM or referee's screen made of rigid card stock and allowing a barrier of sorts to be placed between the players and referee as well as having useful tables and game information made ready to hand at the table.  The White Box has no such barrier and I wonder if this isn't purposeful. White Box play requires more of a give and take exchange of information and ideas than some later versions of the game. Characters were more expendable and rolling the dice more sacred in terms of not fudging the rolls. This is save vs. poison or die D&D and if you missed the die roll, the character usually died. Roll up a new one. It takes just a few minutes. The wargames roots of D&D are perhaps showing here, since in the wargames of the day, the characters or toy soldiers, counters or whatever were just playing pieces, the loss of which was important to the game, but not something to fret about. I would argue that role-playing games themselves would eventually change this mind set as a character that has been played through several levels of experience acquires a certain "value" to the player not usually seen in wargames. There is more player investment in the gaming piece, i.e. character. Well, putting that thought aside, the Reference Sheets completes the contents of the White Box. The White Box was just the beginning of the new hobby of adventure gaming and many more products would soon follow.

The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures

Volume 3 of the White Box takes us on an adventure, designing world.s dungeons and wilderness areas in which to play our fantasy wargames.  The 36 page volume starts out with a cross-section dungeon showing the various layers and connections between layers.  Note, even at this early date there was an effort to avoid what came to be known as railroading.  In the example dungeon map there are several way to pass between the various levels.  The next page shows several dungeon features, some tricks and traps that the wily referee might use to challenge the party of adventurers and advice on how to keep the dungeon interesting. The basic dungeon design is to draw several levels or layers on paper.  The deeper levels will be home to more challenging monsters and correspondingly more valuable treasures. Each level is drawn out with one or more sheets of floor-plans. Rooms and hallways are labeled and a key is devised with notes for the referee regarding what is happening where. In this way the referee can reveal details as the adventurers enter an area by reading or paraphrasing the corresponding notes. The next section deals with treasure and one finds the usual randomness associated with the White Box as the values that can be rolled on the treasure by dungeon level table varies considerably. There are several tables to help the referee plan the dungeon by rolling the dice, including monster type and numbers by level, and treasure by level. Monsters who roam the halls or may show up when the adventurers stand around, make camp, argue or otherwise pass time can be rolled for on the wandering monster tables.  Movement, the passage of time and effects of light (or the lack of) are covered and it is interesting to note that monsters all see in the dark, except if under player character control! Rules for encountering monsters, avoiding monsters and determining their random reaction to the players rounds out the underground rules.  A nice example of underground play concludes this section. Volume 3 next takes the reader on to the wilderness where yet more adventure awaits.  The wilderness section suggests the referee consult the  Outdoor Survival game by Avalon Hill for its map and outdoor rules. The Outdoor Survival map is referred to as good for general adventures with the buildings representing towns and the basins representing castles. (My friends and I never owned a copy of Outdoor Survival, but I have to wonder how many referees took Mr. Gygax and Mr. Arneson's advice and used the Outdoor Survival map as the basis for many wilderness adventures.) There is a random table for castle inhabitants who may come out and confront the adventurers as they pass through their territory. The denizens of the castle may be friendly or no and may challenge an adventurer to cross lances. The rules suggest using the jousting rules found in Chainmail to play through such an encounter. In addition to castle residents, the wilderness is a place to encounter wandering monsters off an appropriate table and use up resources, perhaps through becoming lost or just from an extended overland journey. Evading and pursuit are possible tactics when encountering underground or in the wilderness. What to do with all the treasure the adventurer has accumulated.  Volume 3 has rules for constructing strong holds and hiring specialists to build and maintain the stronghold.  Rules for sieges, aerial combat and naval combat are given in an effort to provide the referee with a near endless variety of challenges with which to entertain the successful adventurers. Volume 3 concludes with the recommendation that referees make up their own solutions to situations not covered by the rules found in the 3 Little Brown Books for it is through the use of one's own imagination that the game truly comes alive and is its most rewarding.