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No. The barbarian class originally appeared in Dragon #63 (July 1982), the acrobat in Dragon #69 (January 1983), and the cavalier in Dragon #72 (April 1983). The D&D cartoon began airing in September 1983. Unearthed Arcana was published in the summer of 1985, by which time the D&D cartoon had...

One great big central campaign-dungeon, with numerous smaller lair-dungeons and adventure-dungeons scattered hither and yon across the wilderness.

Indeed. I could probably work up a treatment for a "D&D" version of this, The Searchers, Stagecoach, or Rio Bravo this weekend. Heck, I could probably do it this afternoon.

Assuming that keeping Hackmaster going with all the core rulebooks out-of-print isn't KCo's long-term strategy, I look forward to seeing the "5th Edition Hackmaster" rules and how (A)D&Dish they'll manage to remain.

Original RuneQuest is IMO probably the best rpg of its era (late 70s-early 80s); either it or Classic Traveller. RuneQuest 3 improved some stuff but messed up a lot of other stuff, plus enough other games had begun to follow its path that it no longer seemed quite as unique or groundbreaking...

Absolutely 100% spot-on correct.

Sort of. Chainmail has a lot of details about combat that aren't in the D&D rules -- stuff like rates of fire and ranges for missile weapons, how far you can move and still attack in the same round, how long you can fight/move without becoming fatigued, the initiative rules, the morale rules...

Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (Haha! Beat diaglo! :p )

D&D's lawful-aligned werebear is clearly modeled primarily on Beorn. OD&D directly cites Tolkien for two monsters that weren't listed in the OP -- rocs (which later D&D editions separated into two different monsters -- giant eagles (from Tolkien) and rocs (from mythology)), and spectres (which...

black pudding = The Blob (1950s horror movie)

shadow = A. Merritt's Creep, Shadow, Creep lich = Gardner Fox's "The Sword of the Sorcerer" (CAS used the word "lich" a lot, but the D&D monster comes straight out of this story, see this old thread where I provided the exact quote)

Nope. No critical hits in Chainmail (unless you consider every hit a critical, since there are also no hit points -- in Chainmail a "hit" = a kill...). P.S. Don't know how many of you already know this, but there's actually an essay/rant by Gary Gygax in the 1E DMG about how critical hits are a...

Here's my favorite games that I have on my shelf: Dungeons & Dragons (1974, 77-78 (Holmes), 81 (Moldvay), and 83-86 (Mentzer) editions) Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st edition) Empire of the Petal Throne Metamorphosis Alpha (1st edition) Gamma World (1st & 2nd editions) Traveller (&...

Cool that Jonathan Tweet's D&D game is set in Tekumel :)

Not a fan of teh C&C. If I wanted a d20-based game (which I don't, but if I did...) I think I'd rather go with True20 or SW Saga Edition; for D&D I prefer OD&D or 1E AD&D.

FWIW, there's no mention of any spell immunity (Maze excepted or otherwise) in the OD&D Will O'Wisp description from Supplement I, so that's purely an AD&Dism.

There are 8 or so stores that I know of within an hour's drive; I've been to all of them at least once and usually visit each one every 1-2 years. There's one store (Game Empire in Pasadena) that I've recently been going to more often (about once a month) because the store is clean and...

Surely it comes from Michael Shea's fantasy novel Nifft the Lean?!

That's actually a pretty interesting idea...

What about Prospero in John Bellairs' The Face in the Frost, or various magic-using characters in Jack Vance's The Dying Earth? It's no coincidence that those are the two books Gary Gygax singles out by name in the AD&D DMG for readers wanting to know more about the D&D magic system. See also de...