Dungeon Mastering made easy: The Monster & Treasure Assortment and the Dungeon Masters Adventure Log

Greetings & Salutations fellow Old School gamers! Time for another installment of 1980's after school geekdom: Good 'ol D&D!
Now, I'll admit, I never owned these two old gems "....back in the day." I picked them both up off Ebay....and glad that I did! Both would have been a big help to a "DM in training"....and both contain some pretty damn cool art as well! Let's jump into the deep end, shall we?
The Dungeons & Dragons: Monster & Treasure Assortment (Sets One-three: Levels One-Nine

Now this beauty would have been a big help in adding the monsters to those gigantic dungeons we used to draw up when we were playing in the early 80's. Room after room....it does get a bit tedious after a while trying to dream up what's waiting around the next corner! 
Notice too that this is for "DUNGEONS & DRAGONS"....not AD&D...this was first published as 3 separate books....then compiled into one book in 1980....still has the old school Wizard TSR logo...

It gives the DM tables for generating monsters to inhabit a dungeon....from level 1 to level 9....if you were that ambitious to draw up 9 different levels!
It also has some killer art....mostly by that David Trampier genius! Such as the excellent cover with the giant snake guarding the treasure chest! 
David C. Sutherland III gets things started off with a dragon....definitely his style(no sig included).

Next up is a manticore...one of Tramp's signature subjects!

 One of his earlier works...notice the "Tramp" signature instead of the later used DAT. Another mythical monster guarding the treasure room....and no doubt spoiling for a fight!
Next up are a couple more of Tramp's works: A Harpy & a Giant Spider killing a Giant Frog!

You can see how every level had a 1-100 random monster generation...and the degree of toughness & difficulty increased exponentially with the level of the dungeon!
     Next are two drawings by DCS III: One showing 2 Ogre Magi & an evil fighter, the next showing two "fighting man" engaged with an Umber Hulk!

That guy is NOT fairing well with that Umber Hulk! And his friend needs to stop gawking & lend a hand...or spear!
      Then we are treated to a work of the "Clown Prince" of D&D art himself...the amazing Tom Wham! Seems to show a wizard and a fighter(maybe cleric?!?) talking to a dragon....while a thief is readying a misguided "Back-stab" attack! Somehow I don't see things going well for those three!

And then there is a piece by Bill Willingham...another personal favorite early D&D artist. I'll always be flabbergasted that he was "fired: from TSR! Brilliant artist! The Medusa face on the vase is cool...as is the spider & snake!

And as an extra bonus...the back cover as a drawing by Jeff Dee...another guy TSR should have never let go! This shows 2 adventurers battling an Owlbear...while a thief treats himself to the treasure at their expense!

Very cool little book....I can see it saving a bunch of time when I need to randomly throw some monsters in an adventure!
      Now we turn our collective attention to the "Advanced D&D Dungeon Masters Adventure Log".

Now this beauty is a bit of a "grab-bag" for a DM. It has charts for encounters & combat...drawings of the different types of armor...and charts to record all the pertinent information needed to track the character players in a campaign!
     Let's start with that awesome cover by the legendary Erol Otus! Looks like a dwarf fighter, a mage & a human fighter have run across a very large & surly Gnoll in a dungeon...with various baddies above and below!

And then the armor & helmet drawings! Looks like the work of DCS III to me....again no sig with the drawings! Very cool to give a DM (And players as well!) exact renderings of the various types of armor!

They even throw in armor for horses....just in case you were wondering! I know that somebody I knew had this book...I can remember seeing the drawings of the various armor & thinking it was very cool back then!
      A number of weapons get the treatment as well....just in case you couldn't visualize what a guisarme really looked like...or how a lucern hammer differed from a normal hammer!Fails, darts & even a bo stick!

They even threw in a "Sample Adventure Log Page" just to give the novice DM an idea of how to record all that info!

I could have gone thru a number of this books recording our adventures...but I'd have probably xeroxed the various pages so I wouldn't have gone bankrupt from having to purchase the same book over & over again! Great stuff....TSR never failed to deliver! 

Holmes Basic Dungeons and Dragons: The Blue Book box set

The "Holmes Blue Book"....Basic Dungeons and Dragons! For many this was the introduction to RPGs....lets set the WABAC Machine to the early 1980's again & give this early gem its proper respect!
Just for the record....I didn't own this early D&D book "back in the day"...I recently purchased mine off Ebay...a 1978 2nd edition! A couple of the guys in the group I played D&D with back in Middle School owned "The Basic Book". They both had the later boxed set....that came with the early D&D modules...

Had the colorful box, a module & a set of "Dragon Dice"! I remember my friend having "The Keep on the Borderlands" with his...great intro adventure!
This is the version of D&D that was intended for younger players....as opposed to the more complicated "Advanced D&D" that was just around the corner in '77. It was a streamlined version of the original D&D that had been released a few years earlier in small book form....and this version still carried both the names "Gygax & Arneson!

I remember liking how this book made the "rules" and game play easy to understand....something that AD&D didn't always do...at least to my "Tween" mind! Just role up those characters & off to explore the dungeons....and loot & kill of course!

Less Character classes, less rules....right in our wheelhouse! Who wanted to spend countless hours agonizing over which character to play? Elves, Halflings & Dwarves were classes in the Holmes book....player friendly and lots of room for expansion by the players & DM.
Another thing I love about the Holmes version of D&D is the art work...

Great drawling of battle by the late David C. Sutherland III....Magic user & Fighters taking the fight to a band of Orcs! Classic stuff!
And of course the Holmes book introduced many of us to the artist I consider to be the absolute KING of "D&D ART"....the late GREAT DAT....aka David A. Trampier!

Just the best, in my humble opinion, of the not only the early TSR artist...but my fav of any D&D artist! Tramp's works are simply Iconic!

If you continue to follow this blog you'll find that I really favor the early artist....Dee, Willingham, Sutherland, Otis....but Tramp is the guy who's works are closest to my heart.
     Other great artist who's work is in the Holmes book include Tom Wham! Always found his stuff entertaining!

 DCS III's work, including the fantastic cover, always displayed a great deal of action! The busty Harpy's popped a few adolescent eyeballs! 

And this small drawing in the back of the book, though a bit crude, displayed his love of "fighting scenes"....gotta love the surprise attack of the skeletons!

The Holmes book also had a trial Dungeon included in it...the 1st many of us (mine was another, which I'll cover in a future post!)ever adventured in!

Rooms with letters instead of numbers...to each his own but it got a kid pointed in the right direction as far as creating an underground adventure world!

I dug(and still do!) this "sample cross section" of a Dungeon....giving the novice player a visual idea of how the various levels of a dungeon stacked over each other...as well as a basis for creating our own such layouts!
The Holmes book even had the "tear-out" page in the back with reference tables for aspiring DM's...

Maybe not necessary for a book this size...but a great idea that would culminate in the DM Screen that would arrive in 1979.
     Now for myself, and the groups of guys I played D&D with, the Holmes book wasn't "D&D lite" or "D&D for kids"...even though we were! We had the Holmes book at the same time as the Molday & Cook books....and the Advanced D&D books too....we just used the Holmes book as a speedier version....when we didn't want to hunt through the more complex tombs...and integrated them all into 1 system....as for my enduring love for the Holmes book? I'll leave you with a pic of a t shirt I picked up on line a few year back....always gets a "Great Shirt!" comment in public....until next time....light the torches & down the stairs!

Dawn of the 80's & D&D

So let's dig back, my fellow grognards, to the beginning. For me at least! I'm guessing it was 1980....
Middle school...12 years old, or there aboots, and I begin to hear rumblings of a new game people are playing. Most likely passed down from older siblings (some of whom had played the original D&D game and even the legendary Chainmail!) to guys my age. The Basic & Expert box sets were out...as well as all 3 core hardcover books....by I distinctly remember a guy in one of my classes bring this tomb to school...
"THE ROGUES GALLERY"

I was already a budding artist, drawing is something I have always done....so I was immediately drawn to the art in this book. Jeff Dee, Erol Otis, Darlene and DSL(David S. LaForce!)
As a matter of fact...I remember a couple of  drawings in particular that stuck with me for all these years...it wasn't until my recent quest to acquire as much of the "old school D&D material" as possible that I found them again...the 1st..."The Illusionist"

 For some reason this one sticks out in my minds eye...the crafty Illusionist casting his spell to trick the gullible...just a simple charcoal drawing, but it really resonated with the 12 year old me.
#2....."The 3 amigos"...specifically the Assassin 

Now this is a great drawing by Jeff Dee. The fighter with his crossbow & disdain for heavy armor is one thing....the awesome looking Lizardman is beyond cool....but I was completely fixated on the Assassin "Lassiviren the Dark"! My very 1st D&D character was an assassin...and I drew a picture(which has not survived the years!) of him that looked remarkably like the one above. Except that my assassin used a magic hammer...provided by the kid who owned "The Rogues Gallery" that I was so engrossed with....

I always appreciated the art of Darlene...its a bit more mature than the others....a bit more ethereal...yet brilliant all the same.

And Erol Otis...the guy is a genius artist of the highest caliber! I really started grabbing up these old D&D books in an attempt to reconnect with some of the art that inspired me as a youth!

And even though the RG was published in 1980 it bore the TSR "Wizard" logo....which really dates it for an "Old School" guy like me. Never really used the pre-fabricated NPCs in the book in any of our campaigns...but, the art contained in it inspired us to created are own drawings of our characters....but that's for another day & blog entry!

Welcome to the Dungeoneers Syndicate: A Storehouse of Old School D&D

Greetings fellow children of the 1970's! Here's a place where Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is the last version, and the Ultimate, to be played!
The "Basic Blue", Basic set & Expert set...

and then the 3 core books....

It'll all be here.....just throw on your vinyl copy of "Heaven & Hell" by Black Sabbath, order some Domino's Pizza & throw back some Boone's farm....we're going back in time...before the interwebs, cell phones & Digital.....OLD SCHOOL D&D!