What is this Archive?

This archive preserves many of the posts made to the Holmes Basic D&D Community on the late G+. I created this Community in late 2012, not long after Communities were added, and it existed through April 2nd 2019, when G+ was shutdown for non-commercial users. By the end there were over 600 members. While most were not active, there was always a core group of commenters to keep things interesting.

There are over 2100 posts included, made by myself and various members of the community, each accompanied by its original comments. While a number of posts (~500?) are shares and thus duplicative of posts on the Zenopus Archives blog, these have been saved because they include different comments. The other ~1600 posts fall into two broad categories. I often used G+ for quick shares of images and links of interest to the community, material often not posted to the ZA blog. And then there are the many posts by other members of the community. A big thank you to everyone who participated!

Due to limitations of the application (Google+ Exporter) used to extract the posts from G+, every post here is labeled as "Posted by Zenopus Archives", whether or not I was the original poster. However, the identity of the original poster is preserved as one of the labels, and as time allows I have been slowly adding this information to each applicable post. All of an individual's posts can be found by clicking on the relevant name in the Label list in the right sidebar (only visible in desktop format). 

Most of the originally posted images are preserved. I went through the entire blog and manually downloaded and re-uploaded the images so they wouldn't be lost. The harvester preserved a link to each image in the relevant users Google+ "Album Archive", but Google may delete these at any time going forward. A few images seem to be missing; I don't know if the harvesting program failed to grab them or the original source had been removed. I've also noticed that a number of links are missing as well, and I will eventually re-add these.

All of the posts originally made to the Holmes Basic G+ Community are tagged with the label "Holmes Basic: Discussion".

I added a few other posts of interest that I made to other communities or to one of my G+ collections. I will try to note these here:

~50 posts from the OD&D Community. These are each labeled with "Original Dungeons Dragon (OD&D): Discussion" or "Original Dungeons Dragon (OD&D): Links & Resources" or "Original Dungeons Dragon (OD&D): Classified".

~70 posts from the OSR Community. These are each labeled with "OSR: Discussion" or "OSR: Free Stuff" or "OSR: News".

~150 Public Posts. These are labeled only with "Zenopus Archives" without a "Holmes Basic: Discussion" label.

For each of the above, click on the relevant post to bring up all posts with that label.

A fun story about how Greg Stafford may have received the first ever sold copy of OD&D ---

A fun story about how Greg Stafford may have received the first ever sold copy of OD&D ---

http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2018/10/greg-staffords-story-about-getting-od.html?m=1

OD&D stats for Mordenkainen, as written up by Gygax in 1974. Courtesy Jon Peterson

OD&D stats for Mordenkainen, as written up by Gygax in 1974. Courtesy Jon Peterson

http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2018/06/mordenkainen-in-1974-and-today.html

Review of the recent POD reprint of the original Empire of the Petal Throne RPG, by R'lyeh Reviews

Review of the recent POD reprint of the original Empire of the Petal Throne RPG, by R'lyeh Reviews

http://rlyehreviews.blogspot.com/2017/11/an-original-rpg.html?m=1
http://rlyehreviews.blogspot.com/2017/11/an-original-rpg.html?m=1

A new post on those original "low impact" dice we love so much:

A new post on those original "low impact" dice we love so much:

http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2017/11/dice-of-gods.html
http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2017/11/dice-of-gods.html

Discussion of some confusing notation in the Maps table on page 27 of OD&D Vol 2 - "#1 Magic (already there)"

Discussion of some confusing notation in the Maps table on page 27 of OD&D Vol 2 - "#1 Magic (already there)"
http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/11584

8 years of OD&D Discussion at ODD74!

8 years of OD&D Discussion at ODD74!
http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/11043/happy-8th-birthday?page=1&scrollTo=166314

Mike Mornard (Gronan) fills us in on Gygax's XP requirements for characters over name level in the LBBs.

Mike Mornard (Gronan) fills us in on Gygax's XP requirements for characters over name level in the LBBs. This information is missing from the tables in Men & Magic, so it's very useful to have.
http://odd74.proboards.com/post/161241

Thread discussing the MU % chance to know table in Greyhawk.

Thread discussing the MU % chance to know table in Greyhawk. The original version doesn't have explanation, but there is one in Holmes Basic.
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=88&t=69585

In memory of Gary Gygax (July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008), a glimpse of Castle Greyhawk using his words & some...

In memory of Gary Gygax (July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008), a glimpse of Castle Greyhawk using his words & some relevant pictures.
http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2015/03/visualizing-castle-greyhawk.html

Revealed: According to Lawrence Schick, the Known World/Mystara of B/X D&D was originally created by him and Tom...

Revealed: According to Lawrence Schick, the Known World/Mystara of B/X D&D was originally created by him and Tom Moldvay as their OD&D campaign world.
http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2015/02/ur-known-world.html

Idle thought on adding subclasses to whitebox OD&D or Holmes, but without adding any new rules.

Idle thought on adding subclasses to whitebox OD&D or Holmes, but without adding any new rules.
Paladin = Fighter/Cleric
Ranger = Fighter/Thief
Monk = Cleric/Thief
Druid = Cleric/MU
Bard = Thief/MU
Subclasses are for humans only (Fighter/MU is still just elves).
Use whatever multi-class rules you use for elves.

Here's a great one-sheet by Austinjimm to use for an OD&D Small Merchant ship (5000 gp).

Here's a great one-sheet by Austinjimm to use for an OD&D Small Merchant ship (5000 gp).
http://knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12579&p=189662#p189647

20 Backgrounds for OD&D or Holmes Basic characters, drawn from the source material. #holmesref

20 Backgrounds for OD&D or Holmes Basic characters, drawn from the source material. #holmesref
http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2014/08/20-backgrounds-for-od.html

OD&D rule buried in the description of the monk in Blackmoor: "Note however that extremely silent creatures will...

OD&D rule buried in the description of the monk in Blackmoor: "Note however that extremely silent creatures will double surprise possibilities, i.e., halflings, thieves, bugbears and undead double possibilities".

Barker's copy of OD&D

"Men & Magic inside cover with Prof. Barker’s signature"

"As part of the process of cataloging Professor Barker’s vast collection of games and material related to Tekumel, we discovered Professor Barker’s copy of OD&D.  When we looked inside the covers, though, we discovered that Professor Barker not only signed the books but dated them as well."
http://blog.tekumelfoundation.org/2014/02/19/another-40th-anniversary-for-original-dd

In the Greyhawk Supplment, Men are listed as getting 1 or 2 attacks

Here's something I never noticed in Greyhawk before. Men are listed as getting 1 or 2 attacks, unlike humanoids. As far as I can tell this is not explained anywhere. It could be reference back to the Chainmail "Weapon class" rules for Man-to-Man Combat.  If so though it should really be "1 or 2 or 3" per Chainmail, page 26. Also, it should apply to the humanoids if they are using weapons.

What is more likely is that it is an early reference to a rule change for Berserker. In OD&D Vol 2, they just get a single attack at +2 against normal men. But in the Monster Manual this was changed to 2 attacks or one at +2 to hit; thus their attacks are listed as 1 (or 2). So possibly Gygax was using this rule change at the time of Greyhawk but forgot to explain it in the text.

Old School FRP - Character creation in OD&D was nasty, brutish, and...

http://oldschoolfrp.tumblr.com/post/76016608728/character-creation-in-od-d-was-nasty-brutish-and

1976 D&D ad using the Eldritch Wizardry cover art, ran in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine, scan courtesy...

1976 D&D ad using the Eldritch Wizardry cover art, ran in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine, scan courtesy BNagata at the Acaeum.

"You Enter a World of Swords & Sorcery ... when you adventure into the strange and fantastic places awaiting in Dungeons & Dragons"
http://www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?cache=1&p=216945#p216945

Sidhe class for OD&D from the Manual of Aurania (1977)

Sidhe class for OD&D from the Manual of Aurania (1977)
http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2013/10/sidhe-aurania.html