If you missed it last week, the core rules of AD&D 1st Edition are now back in print, via Drive Thru RPG's...

If you missed it last week, the core rules of AD&D 1st Edition are now back in print, via Drive Thru RPG's print-on-demand offering. The Monster Manual is usable with Holmes or OD&D with little adjustment, as I've written about before.

http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2017/01/ad-core-back-in-print.html

This past Sunday I had my first taste of historical miniatures wargaming at a local annual gameday.

This past Sunday I had my first taste of historical miniatures wargaming at a local annual gameday. My son commanded WWII tanks in a fun Panzer Kids game run by Peter Schweighofer, the author of the game. Read his write-up of the game here:

Originally shared by Peter Schweighofer

NOVAG Game Day Success
Yesterday we trekked up to Northern Virginia for the NOVAG Game Day at the Centreville Regional Library. I hosted an afternoon of Panzer Kids games for an enthusiastic crowd of seven players.

The basic scenario put six Crusaders at one end and three Panzers at the other, with an impassible minefield in the middle and an oasis with a fuel dump in the middle along one edge, one additional Panzer guarding it. Everyone raced for the oasis, though the British got close first and started firing. Some tanks were knocked out, but the British managed to plant one right next to the fuel dump; to win it had to sit there one turn without moving or firing. Then another British tank shot at a Panzer near the fuel dump and rolled a 1...critical failure. Shot hits the fuel dump. Boom. Nobody wins the scenario.

We played out the basic scenario again with the addition of some optional rules (minefields, wrecks, flanking shots, close range) and some changes in the forces deployed: three M3 Grants for the British and an 88mm Flak guarding the fuel depot and a Panzer IV and two Marders coming to the rescue. One M3 and a Marder peeled off toward an oasis at the other end of the minefields to duel it out while everyone else went for the fuel depot. The Germans would have won, but the last surviving M3 Grant chose to shoot the fuel depot instead.... Nobody won that game, either.

A few players left and I decided to give the die-hards a treat: running the promo scenario “Tiger by the Tail,” with three M3 Grants charging a lone 88mm Flak; on turn 4 the Tiger showed up, though he wasn’t deployed to take the best advantage of the tactical situation. The British lost a tank or two, but eventually dispatched the Tiger with some lucky rolls and outflanked the 88mm to win the game.

Despite two draws and a close British victory, everyone seemed to have a great time. I think the ages ranged from 7-12 years old. Some kids had played wargames before, some hadn’t. Everyone learned the rules pretty quickly and deftly applied the optional rules to their advantage in the second game.

The NOVAG game day featured nine different miniature wargames in the library’s event room, with enthusiastic crowds of players, many onlookers, and an afternoon of fun for everyone. I had a chance to meet fellow Google Plusser Zach H and game with his son (who proved quite adept at maneuvering across the desert battlefield).

For those who like fancy GM screens.

For those who like fancy GM screens.

Originally shared by Follow Me, And Die!

If you like fancy GM screens this may be for you.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wyrmwood/the-wyrmwood-magnetic-game-master-screen

Five year anniversary post on the oldschoolfrp tumblr, which features classic RPG art.

Five year anniversary post on the oldschoolfrp tumblr, which features classic RPG art. This one shows the cover of Holmes Basic.
http://oldschoolfrp.tumblr.com/post/156317299771/oldschoolfrp-dd-basic-set-blue-box-holmes

I've not seen it mentioned/talked about so I'll ramble.

Originally shared by Eric Norred

I've not seen it mentioned/talked about so I'll ramble. Remember the ICE Middle-Earth game-books and the Lord of the Rings Adventure Game? There's a game on RPGNow/DriveThru/Lulu that seems to be fairly obviously a 'retro-clone' of said rules, fleshed out and beefed up and made more complete, all along with an appropriate name: Tales & Legends. The pdf is only a dollar fifty and the Lulu paperback (the only choice I'm afraid) is 8 bucks. Buy them both. Roll your eyes at The One Ring's over-long-rambling rules set and grab this and reference your ol' MERP stuff and get to the wild, wonderful weirdness that is/was ICE's Middle-Earth-type adventures but with rules you can actually use. (Then demand the author offer a hardback! ;) )

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/184022/Tales--Legends
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/184022/Tales--Legends

Gen Con is working on making scans of all its past programs available, which will will be great for research.

Gen Con is working on making scans of all its past programs available, which will will be great for research.
https://www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?cache=1&f=10&t=16205&c=1

AD&D T-shirt from 1982 Sears Catalog. I don't recall seeing this artbefore. I wonder who the artist is?

AD&D T-shirt from 1982 Sears Catalog. I don't recall seeing this art before. I wonder who the artist is?

Originally shared by Adam Hutcheson

My mom found an old Sears Wish Book from 1982. What I would give for this shirt...

I've been sculpting more miniatures for Old School gaming!

Gygax photo 1979

Scott Mob wrote:

The King of cool. R.I.P..

Originally shared by Scott Mob

1979.

Instagram Wereshark

Denis McCarthy wrote:

Found this on instagram

A draft of a dungeon map I've been working on.

Originally shared by Zenopus Archives

A draft of a dungeon map I've been working on. See the linked blog post for a larger view/more details on the features.
http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2017/01/a-dungeon-map.html

Skull Caverns by Karl Stjernberg

Skull Caverns by Karl Stjernberg. #skullmountain

Originally shared by Karl Stjernberg

Who dares enter the Skull Caverns™? A guy in the tavern told me that there's a lonely chap in the coffin vault that needs cheering up! Just look out for the maggot-lickers! If you need directions, you can always ask the bone-munchers, but offer 'em a bite first, hm?

Cover art for Tetra Horror, a 1983 or 1984 game for MSX, a home computer system most popular in Japan #skullmountain

Cover art for Tetra Horror, a 1983 or 1984 game for MSX, a home computer system most popular in Japan #skullmountain

Originally shared by Paul Vermeren
http://vgjunk.tumblr.com/post/152433544213/tetra-horror-msx

A draft of a dungeon map I've been working on.

Originally shared by Zenopus Archives

A draft of a dungeon map I've been working on. See the linked blog post for a larger view/more details on the features.
http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2017/01/a-dungeon-map.html

WHAT? Time to fire up the SNES (actually, SFAMI) and test for myself.

WHAT? Time to fire up the SNES (actually, SFAMI) and test for myself.

Originally shared by Jeff Rients

I can't believe this is real.
http://mashable.com/2017/01/12/super-mario-world-big-boo-hack/

Some excerpts from Alarums & Excursions #48, Aug 1979, including the fantastic cover and some Arduin related...

Some excerpts from Alarums & Excursions #48, Aug 1979, including the fantastic cover and some Arduin related material, courtesy Andy Action 

Originally shared by Andy Action

In my never-ending pursuit of all-things Arduin, I've obtained a few print issues of Alarums & Excursions. Here's a bit from A&E #48 - August 1979 with some Arduin-related material in it!

1. A 2-page Multiversal Trading Company ad (side 1 with Phraint image and side 2 with a note from Hargrave).

2. An edited comment section from Send In The Fire Brigade #302 by Matthew Whalley - I found his comments to Hargrave and Gygax particularly hilarious! It's good to know that nerd-rage was alive and well in 1979 - imagine if these guys had the internet within which to spar!

I also obtained # 63 - Nov. 1980 which has considerably more Arduin material in it, including 4 pages from Hargrave himself - more to come! Stay tuned!

As reported on the Tales to Astound blog, the PDF of the Pendragon RPG 1st edition by Greg Stafford (1985, Chaosium)...

As reported on the Tales to Astound blog, the PDF of the Pendragon RPG 1st edition by Greg Stafford (1985, Chaosium) is free on Drive Through RPG through the end of January.
https://talestoastound.wordpress.com/2017/01/14/king-arthur-pendragon-1st-edition-currently-free-on-drivethrurpg

First game night of the year tonight.

First game night of the year tonight. Continuing our long running T1-4 campaign, first started in fall 2010. 110+ sessions. I'm a player in this, not DM. Horq my half-orc Fighter/Cleric of Fharlanghn just hit Lvl 7 in Cleric. Hoping to finally take down the Temple soon!

New forthcoming Gygax bio in graphic novel format.

New forthcoming Gygax bio in graphic novel format. By David Kushner who wrote a 2008 Wired article: https://archive.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2008/03/ff_gygax?currentPage=all

Originally shared by Scott Mob

Gary Gygax - The graphic novel...

Gabor Lux on anti-minimalism (linked below).

Gabor Lux on anti-minimalism (linked below). Robert Fisher provides some context with a list of minimal D&D variants: https://malirath.blogspot.com/2017/01/minimal-d.html

Just a thought I had, with the fairly recent passing of DAT, is everyone who worked on Holmes Basic now sadly passed...

Just a thought I had, with the fairly recent passing of DAT, is everyone who worked on Holmes Basic now sadly passed away? David Sutherland, DAT, Dr. Holmes, Gary Gygax....is there anyone else I missed? either writing or art?

Thanks

Thinking about going to Gary Con this year...Anyone here going?

CHAINMAIL is once again available for purchase in pdf form on DrivethruRPG.

CHAINMAIL is once again available for purchase in pdf form on DrivethruRPG. $5. Holmes used Chainmail as one of his sources for Basic, and he included some rules from it that don't appear elsewhere in OD&D, for example Parrying.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17010/Chainmail-Rules-for-Medieval-Miniatures-0e

My latest 3D model, with more to come in 2017, including some surprises. Enjoy.

Elmer, the Minotaur wizard

Olde House Rules wrote:

Elmer, the Minotaur wizard, casting his Glue spell...

I already mentioned it here, but here's the article on my blog about my 40th year of playing D&D.

I already mentioned it here, but here's the article on my blog about my 40th year of playing D&D.
http://followmeanddie.com/2017/01/08/40-years-of-playing-dd/

Here is the preview version of FANTASTIC! EXCITING! IMAGINATIVE!

Here is the preview version of FANTASTIC! EXCITING! IMAGINATIVE!

I've held back the cover, as well as the last page of the zine which features the art Chris Holmes submitted (plus the entry which that art inspired). It'll be nice to have a surprise or two to look forward to for the final release.

You'll see the empty art-blocks, where the art is still in progress. But since this zine will be available for free, there's no reason to hold it all back 'til it's done.

If you notice any typos or other editorial issues, please let me know.

And if the link isn't working, let me know, so I can learn myself a bit more google-fu.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8HxKwjra6zaYWNrRG5PLXRZTHM/view?usp=sharing_eixpa_nl&ts=5872a7b1

Can I email someone the FEI preview, to post here?

Can I email someone the FEI preview, to post here?

Google Drive is still not playing nice with me, and I can't get the file uploaded to share...

For some reason, for the past many years, I had it in my head that my brother and I started with Holmes Blue Box in...

For some reason, for the past many years, I had it in my head that my brother and I started with Holmes Blue Box in 8th grade.

However, a couple weeks ago, someone mentioned that the AD&D Monster Manual came out in 1978, and I know that we had to wait for all of the AD&D books to come out.

I called my brother tonight and confirmed that it was actually 7th grade that we started.

So in march/April of this year, I will have played D&D for 40 years!

The Holmes cover to me is D&D.

There was a report on ODD74 that previous Drivethru purchasers of the Chainmail PDF (when it was on sale years ago)...

There was a report on ODD74 that previous Drivethru purchasers of the Chainmail PDF (when it was on sale years ago) received a note that it has been updated, which may mean that it is about to go on sale again.
http://odd74.proboards.com/post/192320

Over on DF, Carl proposed a clever name for a Holmes Basic retroclone: The Elementary RPG

Over on DF, Carl proposed a clever name for a Holmes Basic retroclone: The Elementary RPG
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1808949#p1808949

Raise your flagons: we just hit 500 members here for the first time!

Raise your flagons: we just hit 500 members here for the first time!

And here we go!

And here we go! The final element of F.E.I. is upon us, and I hope to get many, many of you to pitch in brief ideas right here.

The concept is that this scabbard is decorated with single-use magical doo-dads. So we need many little ideas for what effects those doo-dads will have! They can simulate a spell, either on the user or on the next target of the weapon. They certainly need not be solely combat oriented — anything that an adventurer might find it a boon to call upon is fair game!

Post your own ideas below, each as it's own comment. I will compile these and organize them for the F.E.I. zine. Let's keep them short, since plenty of what's in Holmes is more the suggestion or idea of a thing, than a highly mechanical 'system' for use (but then, you already know that).

I'm hoping we'll have multiple d10 charts, or even multiple d12 or d20 charts to roll on! ...Is a percentile chart in reach??

This will be credited to the Holmes Basic on G+ group.

Aaaaand GO!

Saw a great post-apoc anime film over the holidays - Patema Inverted, from 2013.

Saw a great post-apoc anime film over the holidays - Patema Inverted, from 2013. It starts off in an underground society, like Logan's Run or City of Ember. Discovering the nature of the world is part of the fun, so recommended for fans of Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patema_Inverted

The next subject for your F.E.I. submissions?

The next subject for your F.E.I. submissions?

This guy.

email to wilson 4 6 8 12 20 at gmail