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I'd add that his self-promotion also stretched as far as screwing over and suing his friends. I think D&D would be in a far better place if Gygax hadn't seen it as his way to get wealthy quick, and followed through with the intentions he claimed in OD&D and Blackmoor's introduction. However...

Most of the advice about multiple entrances, levels and such are found or implied in OD&D as of 1974. It seems unlikely Gygax is borrowing much from her, largely because their design is rather different. Jaquays was an amazing designer, and her maps/level design are extremely good. They...

I want to be careful either giving Gygax too much credit or too little. He was certainly a key figure in the creation of the RPG, but his own approach to rules varies quite a bit over time. Certainly the earliest D&D publications do have a focus on referee freedom and creativity ... but for...

Ah yes that is totally correct. Though G1 at least has a very different feel from the later tournament stuff. When I think Tournament modules I tend to think of stuff like Tamoachan and the A series. More aggressively structured and gimmicky. I still don't think Gygax's design is entirely a...

I mean neither the G series nor B2 are tournament modules - and mostly this is what I'm considering. Greyhawk (which I touch on in the prior post of the "stack" style of dungeon from OD&D's examples) is his early dungeon, but I suspect his own design evolved considerably over time. The issue...

Thanks again for posting and analyzing this. I think you're take is spot on. I still somewhat shocked with NuTSR's tenacity. Appeals aren't cheap, even if one has a free lawyer. Not cheap to defend either. Defamation law and the way it's used in the US remains a damn shame.

I wrote an essay the other day on the way Gygax designed his dungeons, specifically around the idea that many of his most famous dungeons are a break from the advice in OD&D. They are not randomly or otherwise quickly generated "funhouses" the several levels and a lot of efforts to thwart...

Barrowmaze is okay. It's the best of the Gillespie mega-dungeons but suffers a bit from its undead theming because most encounters are rather one (combat) dimensional. That's too be expected from a large number of classic undead. I guess it depends on what kind of play style you want to...

Thanks for the details Willie. I trust you're correct - we we slapping them onto a basically 1E chassis because we didn't have all the books. Well that one guy did, but no one really wanted to play with him for other (stupid kid) reasons... The main thing I think of when I look at the 2e stuff...

You Can't Trust a Hippie

First, I'm not sure "0 to Hero" was really much of an intended part of early play, in OD&D while PCs appear very weak by modern standards, the entire system has a flatter power level and characters rapidly gain potency, especially using the chainmail rules. The concept seems much more something...

Morgan Ironwolf, Sister Rebecca and Black Dougal come immediately to mind.

I agree with this but I suspect the issue goes a bit deeper. 5E obviously retains many elements that aren't part of the dominant 5E playstyle these days. Instead they are dragged along from older editions like toilet paper stuck to the bottom of a shoe. They don't help the game as it is played...

There should be hundreds of High-OSR era alternate classes written up for B/X or equivalent on the blogs of the era ('12 - '14 or so) but I can't currently find the curated list that I think Renaldo (guy who published BREAK recently) kept on his old blog. A google search for the sort of class...

For me I always want one thing from games - clarity about the purpose and play style. D&D has a big problem with this because of its name and history. For a lot of people it's synonymous with RPGs and the fandom has very strong feelings about specific rules. While personally I wish WotC would...

Dream-eating owl problem remains unresolved.

Stealing from the drunken dead.

It's generally quite good - factions and dungeon exploration. It does want you to create a whole buried city after the intro adventure... which I consider a plus, but could be daunting. I'd call it the last-gasp of pro-creativity TSR. Not especially good. It's main gimmick was cut and fold...

My https%3A//www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/357799/tomb-robbers-of-the-crystal-frontier']Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier[/URL] stuff is humanoid free and has generally received good reviews from a variety of people.

I don't remember a specific post or discussion, though I do remember talking about 1:1 time, likely based on the AD&D DMG advice on it, when Necropraxis was running his Pahvelorn campaign - we used basically 1:1 in that (by which I mean days between sessions counted as days in the game world)...