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It's Holmes Day 2025! I've got a new post up on the Zenopus Archives blog for it, with a roundup of Holmes-iana from the past year, find it here: Holmes Day 2025

To learn about the earliest history of Greyhawk - when it was actually being played in before publication as a setting - take a look at some of the posts on my blog (Zenopus Archives), particularly the ones tagged "Great Kingdom". In my most recent post on this subject, I looked at the Greyhawk...

Seconded. That's how I've pronounced it since the 80s. At least in my mind. Not sure I've ever said it out loud to anyone (even while playing in a Greyhawk campaign for 6+ years in the 2010s).

Nothing specific, right now at least. I did just go and add Greyhawk to the "Settings" list for my Zenopus conversion, since I have a section in there on using it with "Ghosts of Saltmarsh", which leans heavily on Greyhawk for the micro setting details. I would like to do a second level for the...

In light of the previews of the new DMG, I just came to EnWorld to ask this very question, and lo and behold - an entire thread on it! Thank you.

Love that character sheet, but always flummoxed by the lack of a space for Hit Points or Armor Class! AC is easily explained, as it was only tied to armor then; e.g. plate plus shield was always AC2, and magic armor subtracted from the Attackers to hit roll. So the DM just needed to know a PCs...

It's finally here! New post on the Zenopus Archives to celebrate the release today: "The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977": Out Today! Includes three of the most recent promo images that they used to promote the book. Here's one of them, showing pages from the Greyhawk supplement:

I think the fact he shepherded this massive project and went all in on including the near totality of the OD&D booklets speaks to being a fan. I do know he started out with Holmes Basic D&D.

I believe Mike Mornard (Gronan), who was a player then, would say "We Made Up Some Sh*t We Thought Would Be Fun..."

There's nothing in those rulesets in and of themselves that clearly indicate how. In view of later rulebook & clarifications, until recently I think most assumed there was a duration that was overlooked, or it just ended after the encounter was over, but now there's some evidence that it was...

Great point. I didn't mention it in my post, because it was getting too long already, but OD&D Vol 1 (Men & Magic) expressly mentions paralysis as one of the effects subject to Constitution's "withstand adversity" aspect in OD&D, which is the forerunner of "system shock". The description of Con...

Keep your eye out for sales. I missed it, but Game Nerdz apparently had an early bird pre-order for $65, which is unfortunately out of stock. The MSRP for the deluxe version of Art & Arcana (which includes the OD&D tournament version of Tomb of Horrors) was $125, but my pre-order charged price...

The "Alternative Combat System" is in Vol 1 (Men & Magic) of the LBBs. It's literally listed under that name in the Table of Contents. Greyhawk only provides some "Additions and Changes" to this (Weapon vs AC, Missile Ranges, Varying Damage by Weapon and Monster). But if you want to run LBB...

From the promo images that I've seen, each page of Chainmail will be printed on one page of the new book. See here for an example: https://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-making-of-original-d-1970-1977.html

I don't think we are getting the entirety of Chainmail either. The index lists it as "Chainmail's Fantasy Supplement" and it only covers 20 pages in the book, whereas Chainmail 2nd edition is 56 pages long. Which is unfortunate as you need the non-fantasy portion to actually run the game. But of...

New promo ad for the book posted by Wizards on Twitter/FB today. Shows two pages of tables from Chainmail plus part of the "Gygax on Armor" article from Panzerfaust. Never though I'd see Chainmail tables used in an ad!

Thanks for the article! I enjoyed reading it. The above section is confusing. It seems to be conflating The Dragon magazine with the Dungeon boardgame. The picture shows the first issue of Dragon, and the first sentence refers to the Dragon, but then the rest of it appears to be describing...

I always liked the cryptically intelligent monsters in the 1E Monster Manual. So much that I put together a list of them a few years back: d20 Unexpectedly Intelligent Monsters in the Monster Manual

Today on the Zenopus Archives, I look at a possibly surprising reason why monster paralysis in OD&D, Holmes and the AD&D (mostly) doesn't have any duration: a 1989 letter from Gygax suggests that he originally viewed it as permanent until removed...! See the letter and read about it here...

For the latest on the Zenopus Archives, I take a closer look what the "Precursor" documents listed in Table of Contents might be. Speculative, but informed by the listed titles and knowledge of existing documents. The Making of OD&D Book: What Might the "Precursors" Be?