Playing the perhaps last game of a six year, 110+ session AD&D campaign tonight.

Playing the perhaps last game of a six year, 110+ session AD&D campaign tonight. One original player moves out of town later this month, so we may retire the PCs. The campaign set in Greyhawk has been centered around a single module, T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil. We hope to finally defeat the Temple forces tonight.

FANTASTIC! EXCITING! IMAGINATIVE!

FANTASTIC! EXCITING! IMAGINATIVE!
The "Basic" Art-Inspired Supplement Project


The goal of this project is to compile as many alternate stats and encounter ideas as possible based on the art from the JEH edited edition of The World's Most Famous Roleplaying Game, and to publish these in zine-format for free. In short, the aim is to create a compendium anyone can use to populate and enhance their Holmes-based adventure games!

Contributors! Base your work on any illustration from any published variant of the Basic rules, be that a printing variation or non-U.S. edition. This would either be all-new game stats for who or what is featured in the illustration (everyone that is depicted or just one creature) OR an idea for a creatively unique roleplaying encounter featuring the illustrated creature. To do both of those things for the same illustration would be two contributions (and perfectly welcome).

There is no need to ask what has already been done — for example, there are many bands of orcs, so 'duplication' should be no issue. If one person's minotaur encounter doesn't thrill a DM, maybe another's will... Write up what it most excites you to share!

Contributions should include the edition date for U.S. printings (e.g., Dec '79), or the Nation of Origin for other editions (and if there are variations thereof[?], then please include the year as well), along with the page number of the illustration that inspired the entry. Contributions should not exceed 500 words (but I don't expect to be draconian about that; but please keep your entries concise). [For quick reference, this entire proposal is about 500 words.]

New drawings inspired by the originals are also welcome. I will be providing a cover image and whatever any art we are short. If you've got a variant harpy attack rattling in your brain, or an alternate vision of a wizard bumping into gnolls, let's see it! Just remember the zine format (8.5" x 5.5") is smaller than the original book we're inspired by when creating your art.

I will do my best as editor to include everything submitted. I hope it will be as little as possible, but I may need to wave my editorial pen here and there; were there 15 variant illustrations of page 36, they may not all get in...

The resultant pdf when completed will be readily available from whatever pdf sources it winds up in/at (a google drive file linked in this community? RPGnow? elsewhere?).


TIMELINE

December 10th — Last Day to submit an article

December 20th — Last Day for art

January — Finalizing Layout and adding finishing touches

February — This Beast is let loose into the Wilds...


Note: The current title for the project — Fantastic! Exciting! Imaginative! — is taken from the first line of Holmes' description of the game, right there in his Introduction. There is probably a better title out there, drawn directly from the words of the good Doctor, and if you've spotted it, please let me know!

Had a great time at #tridentcon III this past Saturday!

Had a great time at #tridentcon III this past Saturday!

I was only made it for Saturday, but went to all three sessions.

My big accomplishment was running a con game for the first time, an OD&D adaptation of Corsairs of Tallibar by Judges Guild (1982). For a full table of 8 inc Paul Aparicio Eric Hoffman & his brother Kurt. I used the #holmesref sheets plus a new set of 3rd level pre-gens (coming soon). The group played well and finished the ~30 room dungeon just as the 4 hours were up, finding the pirate's treasure. I started the day with a sore throat and lost my voice by the end of the game. It's mostly back to normal as of today...

In the morning Larry Hollis introduced me to the world of Atomic Robo (FATE), along with John Appel and a Pathfinder-Card-Game kid Larry recruited. The setting reminded me of Agent Carter, investigating weird science just after WWII. The adventure, an original, had us exploring a deserted installation on a volcanic island in the South Pacific.

After dinner Charley Phipps ran nine of us including Paul and Rich McKee thru the first tournament section of I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, using the official pre-gens. I was Hieroman, 1/2 E Druid. I always loved this module but luckily hadn't read it in years. The party was successful until we ran out of time just as we were pursuing a Yuan-Ti into the city.

Zeb Cook was the special guest, and ran an improv D&D game that my friend Scott played in along with Noah Stevens. I talked to Zeb briefly and had him to sign a copy of A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity, joining those of cover artist Jeff Dee, interior artist Diesel and editor Frank Mentzer.

Thanks to Erik Jensen for much labor in organizing this con for us!

Detail from the Darlene Greyhawk map that appeared in the module WG11.

Detail from the Darlene Greyhawk map that appeared in the module WG11. Good slice of the map as it has Greyhawk, Maure Castle and Hommlet would be on the western edge of the Gnarley. Plus, Gary once suggested putting the Keep on the Borderlands on the edge of the Pomarj (Ulek would then be "The Realm"), so this map could serve as a larger area map for both B2 and T1. https://sites.google.com/site/zenopusarchives/home/modules-and-scenarios/b2-keep-on-the-borderlands/gygax-on-b2

Originally shared by Andy Action

Wild Coast & Woolly Bay B&W map from WG11 Puppets - at least something good came from this adventure!

For fun, today's blog entry has "Basic Stats" as well as the usual stuff.

For fun, today's blog entry has "Basic Stats" as well as the usual stuff. So if you need any Undead Lizardmen for a Halloween game, or a normal game, or a not-normal game, here you go.

I've had a request for an electronic copy of the Holmes Manuscript, which reminded me that I'd meant to release it...

I've had a request for an electronic copy of the Holmes Manuscript, which reminded me that I'd meant to release it (privately to interested parties, such as everyone here) after finishing the series. Billy Galaxy (owner of the actual document) said that was fine with him. I put it aside for two reasons:
(1) File size. Billy sent it to me as 138 jpg images, which I put together into a pdf. But it came out to be 175 MB. I seem to have later re-saved it at 37.8 MB (probably using my mac). But I'm still not sure if that's optimal.
(2) Page 67 is missing from the final draft of the manuscript. I now have a copy of the missing material from an earlier draft, and I've made a nice re-creation of the missing page as a one-page pdf. I need to insert this page into the pdf. I used to have a pdf editor but I think I deleted it at some point.
I thought I'd check with the group here and see if anyone here has more experience with optimizing/editing pdfs?

I DM'd my Holmes/OD&D group through the Gen Con IX Dungeons this past summer.

I DM'd my Holmes/OD&D group through the Gen Con IX Dungeons this past summer. Although designed for intermediate to high levels (part 1 for levels 6-8, and part 2 for levels 8-10) the dungeons could be pilfered for ideas to suit an expanded Holmes campaign.

Linked below is my review on Dragonsfoot, for those who wish to know more about this obscure tournament scenario.
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=75329&sid=9031f511b9c0297c34579524439222a1