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    D&D Historian Benn Riggs On Gary Gygax & Sexism

    You're not wrong or crazy. "Making of" was not a peer-reviewed history book. That said, it's a book of facsimile sources, more of a reader with bare-minimum context than a historical narrative.
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    D&D Historian Benn Riggs On Gary Gygax & Sexism

    I'm not attempting to support that argument, totally agreed that in the era of Gygax's "Women's Lib" comment she wasn't dubbed Tiamat in the text. I was just throwing in a source that may shed light on why circa 1977 the pre-existing Queen of Chaotic Dragons acquired the name "Tiamat" - it might...
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    D&D Historian Benn Riggs On Gary Gygax & Sexism

    It's only relevant in so far as this thread has wrapped itself around the relationship of "historical" Tiamat to the Tiamat in D&D. I'm only suggesting the possibility that the name Tiamat got attached to something chaotic through a source that TSR folks provably knew, something that didn't...
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    D&D Historian Benn Riggs On Gary Gygax & Sexism

    TSR drew a number of its ideas about monsters in the mid-late 1970s from the Lehners' Fantastic Bestiary. It identifies Tiamat (on page 189) as a "serpent-monster of chaos." Not gendered, and possibly not a direct inspiration for the account in 1975 Greyhawk, but still might be a factor in how...
  5. tiamat-lehner.jpg

    tiamat-lehner.jpg

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    The Origins of ‘Rule Zero’

    This. "Rule Zero" wasn't a patch slapped on to a rigid boardgamesque ruleset, it was a holdover from an era of miniature wargame design when people self-consciously published a loose framework or set of guidelines with the intention that players (and referees) around the table would flesh them...
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    OD&D Evidence Chainmail Had Material from Dave Arneson

    Instead of one sentence, here's two: Because we got off on the wrong foot long before this thread, I will not be induced to post sources that support or refute your thesis here, despite your generosity in posting receipts, nor am I really inclined to bump this thread with my responses. If for...
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    OD&D Evidence Chainmail Had Material from Dave Arneson

    Um, I was not trying to produce any tangible evidence that the publication of Chainmail preceded the "Northern Marches" description letter. Why would I? We all knew that Blackmoor emerged out of Arneson's area of the C&CS game, which this letter describes, and we knew the C&CS game preceded the...
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    OD&D Evidence Chainmail Had Material from Dave Arneson

    I did not enter this thread to opine on your thesis, but just to explain why PatW said what it did (though I have apparently broadened that to include whether the "Northern Marches" piece changed my thinking). Regarding Sir Jenkins and when he gained his honorifics, PatW here followed FFC pg25...
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    OD&D Evidence Chainmail Had Material from Dave Arneson

    I am familiar with that general line of reasoning, sure, but I see it as poking at the timeline over when work towards the "Great Kingdom" blossomed into the thing that we call the "Blackmoor Campaign." There's no doubt there was work towards the "Great Kingdom" before Chainmail came out, and...
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    OD&D Evidence Chainmail Had Material from Dave Arneson

    Rather then establishing when Chainmail went on sale, I'd say that the April IW establishes when you could have ordered Chainmail if your only way of learning about it was through the IW - there was no IW sent in March. But as I said above, Dave Arneson was not "just anybody," and he had other...
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    OD&D Evidence Chainmail Had Material from Dave Arneson

    I wish. My DB#9 does not have a postmark; some were mailed in separate envelopes. It seems pretty random which were and which weren't.
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    OD&D Evidence Chainmail Had Material from Dave Arneson

    So, having been pointed to this thread a number of times now, let me start out by saying that the OP and I have a bit of history from another forum, and I am weighing in here with due dread of causing cross-forum drama. Sorry for that. Dates for these early games are nearly always problematic...
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    Happy Birthday To Dungeons & Dragons!

    Art & Arcana probably serves as this quite nicely.
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    Doctor Strange: The Original D&D Grognard

    This article's presentation of those attributions takes Playing at the World out of context. Section 5.6 of PatW on psionics draws attention to the particular issue of Astounding where Campbell popularized psionics, and does not connect psionics in any way with the Doctor Strange comic - the...
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    RPG Evolution: The Crazy Origin of the Dungeon

    When you put it in these terms, that's perfectly reasonable - but the claims in the article (which only mirror Gary's own claims) come across stronger than that. The title is "The Crazy Origin of the Dungeon." The intro paragraph talks about how "It turns out there was a formative experience in...
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    RPG Evolution: The Crazy Origin of the Dungeon

    This is a nice series, Mike, and I've enjoyed reading various installments. This edition lends Gary's later reminiscences too much credence, I fear. Back in 1975, Gary gave a very different account of the origin of dungeon adventures: in the intro to the TSR Blackmoor pamphlet, he calls Dave...
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    The Origin of the Fireball

    An update, now featuring a conversation with Len Patt about his rules: http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-conversation-with-len-patt.html
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    Is TOMB OF HORRORS the Worst Adventure Of All Time?

    Well, in fairness, I was citing a write-up that Mark Swanson produced for Alarums & Excursions #4 within a week of playing in the tournament personally, which I corroborate with a direct comparison to the actual 1975 Tomb draft used by Gygax to run the game, as well as the Origins program and a...
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