Over the weekend a friend gave me some old roleplaying publications including The Mines of Keridav by Kerry Lloyd. The Mines has a copyright of 1979 and is published by Phoenix Games, the same company that published Dana Lombardy's Streets of Stalingrad monster wargame. (Streets of Stalingrad is one of the classic map and counter wargames and a personal favorite, but I was unaware Phoenix Games published RPG play-aids too.) The play-aid says it can be used with any system and lists Arduin Grimoire, Chivalry & Sorcery, Dungeons & Dragons, Runequest and Tunnels & Trolls as possible rules. The list covers what might be considered the "Big" games circa 1979.
The play-aid is 24 pages including 5 color maps on heavy stock and several b&w small area maps. In addition to the mines themselves, an entire valley is mapped and described. There is enough here for a small sandbox type campaign, a number of villages, bandits and other threats to hunt down and deal with, taverns full of rumors, gambling and excitement and several notable NPCs with whom to interact and develop side plots with. There's even a princess to save and a keep to win control of. The Mines was written to be combined with another play-aid by Mr. Lloyd titled the Demon Pits of Caeldo (hinted at in The Mines). The Demon Pits was supposed to follow the publication of The Mines of Keridav under the Phoenix Games label, but Phoenix Games went out of business before that happened. Fortunately Mr. Lloyd was able to publish Demon Pits of Caeldo under Gamelords, a company he co-founded in 1980 to publish Thieves Guild products. Together The Mines and Demon Pits might just make a pretty nice campaign.
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