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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7902767" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>[USER=87576]@Scrivener of Doom[/USER] I did a bit of digging. Appendix L: RANDOM GENERATION of CREATURES FROM THE LOWER PLANES appeared in the original 1979 AD&D DMG.</p><p></p><p>There was, immediately preceding its release, an article in <em>The Dragon #23</em> (March 1979) by Gygax entitled RANDOM GENERATION OF CREATURES FROM THE LOWER PLANES. It's worth clarifying that this was intended to be used for all fiends, not just demons of the Abyss.</p><p></p><p>It appears to be pretty much the same content, with the following introduction / note:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Gygax seemed to be anticipating D&D shifting toward more planar adventures, and that the burden of creating monsters to inhabit these places would fall on the DM. The design ethos appears to be: We can't possibly account for the wide diversity of extraplanar monsters, so here's some tables to procedurally generate your own in a myriad of forms.</p><p></p><p>I tracked down Jon Picken's article in <em>The Dragon</em> #13 (April 1978) D&D OPTION: DEMON GENERATION. The table of contents has interesting italicized text next to the article name: <em>fooling players who’ve memorized G, D-G & H. </em>From the introduction / note to the one-page article:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Unlike Gygax, Pickens does seem to be referring to "demons" in the 5e demons vs. devils sense. However, his design ethos is uncertain... it could be simple old school adversarial DMing ("Aha! You thought it was such-and-such, but you should be careful what DM books you memorize, because it's actually so-and-so!"). Whereas Gygax focused mostly on generating a <em>fiend's</em> <em>appearance</em> (as well as some special attacks/defenses), Pickens focused entirely on generating a <em>demon's powers</em> (and assumed the DM would creatively interpret with an eye toward coming up with an appearance matching its power).</p><p></p><p>The other article he mentions has a fun little title: DEMONOLOGY MADE EASY; or, How To Deal With Orcus For Fun and Profit by Gregory Rihn. It appears in <em>The Dragon</em> #20 (November 1978).</p><p></p><p>One thing that becomes clear is that Rihn is using "demon" here not in the modern D&D sense as distinct from a "devil", but instead exactly like 5e's "fiend" type. For instance, he mentions Asmodeus and Baal in the same breath as Demogorgon, Orcus, and Yeenoghu. This article is about <em>fiend</em> summoning, binding, pact-making, and exorcism.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 7902767, member: 20323"] [USER=87576]@Scrivener of Doom[/USER] I did a bit of digging. Appendix L: RANDOM GENERATION of CREATURES FROM THE LOWER PLANES appeared in the original 1979 AD&D DMG. There was, immediately preceding its release, an article in [I]The Dragon #23[/I] (March 1979) by Gygax entitled RANDOM GENERATION OF CREATURES FROM THE LOWER PLANES. It's worth clarifying that this was intended to be used for all fiends, not just demons of the Abyss. It appears to be pretty much the same content, with the following introduction / note: Gygax seemed to be anticipating D&D shifting toward more planar adventures, and that the burden of creating monsters to inhabit these places would fall on the DM. The design ethos appears to be: We can't possibly account for the wide diversity of extraplanar monsters, so here's some tables to procedurally generate your own in a myriad of forms. I tracked down Jon Picken's article in [I]The Dragon[/I] #13 (April 1978) D&D OPTION: DEMON GENERATION. The table of contents has interesting italicized text next to the article name: [I]fooling players who’ve memorized G, D-G & H. [/I]From the introduction / note to the one-page article: Unlike Gygax, Pickens does seem to be referring to "demons" in the 5e demons vs. devils sense. However, his design ethos is uncertain... it could be simple old school adversarial DMing ("Aha! You thought it was such-and-such, but you should be careful what DM books you memorize, because it's actually so-and-so!"). Whereas Gygax focused mostly on generating a [I]fiend's[/I] [I]appearance[/I] (as well as some special attacks/defenses), Pickens focused entirely on generating a [I]demon's powers[/I] (and assumed the DM would creatively interpret with an eye toward coming up with an appearance matching its power). The other article he mentions has a fun little title: DEMONOLOGY MADE EASY; or, How To Deal With Orcus For Fun and Profit by Gregory Rihn. It appears in [I]The Dragon[/I] #20 (November 1978). One thing that becomes clear is that Rihn is using "demon" here not in the modern D&D sense as distinct from a "devil", but instead exactly like 5e's "fiend" type. For instance, he mentions Asmodeus and Baal in the same breath as Demogorgon, Orcus, and Yeenoghu. This article is about [I]fiend[/I] summoning, binding, pact-making, and exorcism. [/QUOTE]
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