D&D General A tour of each and every TSR/D&D release

[darjr]

And then we have a throwback to the old style. Really I think this have have been a delayed printing.

We are in the TSR/D&D release year of 1978. There were some pretty iconic releases that year, but I admit that today's offering is not one of them. But for the sake of being complete, I give you Monster & Treasure Assortment Set Three: Levels Seven - Nine. My 1st and 4th printing

I don't know why these are not on the DMSGuild. The collected one is but not these, meanwhile G1 is and the G1-G2-G3 is. Odd.

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[darjr]

The underdark. Yea. That was a lot of what was D&D to me. It seems so weird now how early it came about. To me years later as I encountered it it seemed like such a wonderful new thing.

D1!

We continue in the year 1978 on our D&D/TSR release tour. Up today is another iconic module release, D1 - Descent into the Depths of the Earth. Printings from my collection: A shrink 1st, a shrink 4th, an Australian and a Games Workshop.

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This is another strange missing one on the DMSGuild. D2 and D3 are there as separate products, but not this one. I wonder why?

 

[GuyBoy]

I think I’ve run Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, in various iterations, more than any other adventure. It’s certainly flawed but it will always be number one in my heart for gaming.

 

[GuyBoy]

Thank you @darjr for taking the time to post this wonderful thread.

 

[darjr]

I'm going to grab several days in a single post. Note if you like Alex sharing this stuff let him know? A like on one of his posts or go to Gameholecon.

If or when he moves from Twitter pending it's implosion I'll try and follow him.

D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa​

We continue with some pretty iconic D&D releases from the year 1978. Up today we have D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa. This was before my time as the 1981 D1-2 module was the printing I remember as a kid. Anyway, here are my shrink 1st and 2nd printings and the AUS printing just for fun

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I think it's very interesting that at the very begining of tournament play the best path through one event was a non-violent path. Now that IS part of D&D tradition!

However the most points went to parties that pursued the "perfect" path, which appears to have involved moving nonviolently through the shrine. Points were also awarded for slaying kuo-toa and for surviving the experience.

Found here at the DMSGuild via my affiliate link. The histories there really are a wealth of knowledge and a treasure.
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D3 Vault of the Drow​

TSR was still a fledgling company back in 1978 so there were not a lot of D&D releases that year. We are rapidly approaching the end of that year's products. Up today we have the conclusion of the "D" series, D3 Vault of the Drow. Here are my shrink 1st printing and my shrink 4th

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I find it interesting that these adventures were written as a break from writing AD&D for Gary Gygax. Might be a clue there to why they were so great.

Again the D&D historian on the DMSGuild has cool history for us.

During his lifetime, Gygax offered a few different sources for his drow. Ultimately, they're probably derived from the Svartálfaheimr — the dark elves of Norse mythology. Ironically, when the drow were printed up in the Fiend Folio (1980), that book also contained the "xvart," which had been called the "svart" when published in White Dwarf #9 (October/November 1978) and which were thus another Svartálfaheimr derivative.

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[Stormonu]

The underdark. Yea. That was a lot of what was D&D to me. It seems so weird now how early it came about. To me years later as I encountered it it seemed like such a wonderful new thing.

D1!

We continue in the year 1978 on our D&D/TSR release tour. Up today is another iconic module release, D1 - Descent into the Depths of the Earth. Printings from my collection: A shrink 1st, a shrink 4th, an Australian and a Games Workshop.

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This is another strange missing one on the DMSGuild. D2 and D3 are there as separate products, but not this one. I wonder why?

For the 25th anniversary, there was a boxed set that had reprintings of some of these famous old modules. I'm guessing the ones on DriveThru RPG as from that 2th anniversary set, and the ones they are lacking are because they weren't among those, and they didn't have physical copies to scan.

BTW, D2 & D3 were the first AD&D modules I ever had, given to me by a friend.

 

[darjr]

This one needs to stand on it's own.

I love this adventure. Sure it's suffered from mal-informed bad takes and criticisms and I do indeed think it can be very bad for the wrong group. But with buy in it's terrrifically fun.

For instance we ran a "Tower of Gygax" style event. Where folks would form groups of 1st level characters and see how far they could actually get. Surprisingly far! Note this was all in the 5e version of the Tomb for AL legal characters, before the level limit guidance came out for the adventure.

Let's put a bow on the D&D release year of 1978 with a very iconic module/adventure. Up today is S1 Tomb of Horrors. From my collection are a shrink 2nd printing as well as TSR's Editing Department's copy. Yes. This is actually that. Onto 1979!

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this one is weird on the DMSGuild too. Like D1 I can't find an individual listing for it. Just in bundles of one sort or another. Odd that.
In the history section of one of those compilations it says it was inspired by an adventure sent into TSR. Did you know you can get a copy o that submitted adventure in the book Art & Arcana?

S1: Tomb of Horrors

(1978) is the original killer dungeon. It was designed by Gary Gygax based on a similar tomb by Californian player Alan Lucien. Gygax originally used it to challenge Rob Kuntz's Robilar and Ernie Gygax's Tenser, but later carried it around in a briefcase to test arrogant players. It was used as a tournament for Origins 1 (1975), then became one of TSR's first adventures.

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[darjr]

I hope y’all don’t mind if I indulge a little and post some of the things I have up to date.


These are really good condition.




This was a book of tables.



And these are in shrink, I have copies that are not in shrink.





And this, despite it didn’t have a lot of rules copy, was my second because I read the first one to pieces.

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

Tomb of Horrors was available as an individual PDF at some point. I have it in my drivethrurpg library. I'm not sure why or when it was taken down.

 

[Echohawk]

Tomb of Horrors was available as an individual PDF at some point. I have it in my drivethrurpg library. I'm not sure why or when it was taken down.

If anyone is desparate for a PDF of S1, it is included with Return to the Tomb of Horrors if you spend the $9.99 for that.