Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 8298206" data-attributes="member: 21169">Players controlling monsters as their 'playing pieces' is older than D&amp;D. The fantasy supplement for the wargame Chainmail (1971), an important influence on D&amp;D, presents a battle between good (Law) and evil (Chaos) with each side controlled by a player. The forces of Chaos include balrogs, dragons, and orcs.This continued on into Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor campaign, which began in 1971. Playing at the World (2012) Jon Peterson:In Blackmoor, as it was played in the Twin Cities, most of the Baddies were nominally under the control of players; the orcs in the dungeon beneath Castle Blackmoor, for example, were answerable to Fred Funk (King Fred I of the Orcs)Dungeons &amp; Dragons (1974) Book I Men &amp; Magic:There is no reason that players cannot be allowed to play as virtually anything, provided they begin relatively weak and work up to the top, i.e., a player wishing to be a Balrog would have to begin as let us say, a &quot;young&quot; one and progress upwards in the usual manner, steps being predetermined by the campaign referee.<a href="http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2011/09/yesterday-i-discussed-sources-for-two.html" target="_blank">Mike Mornard played a balrog</a> in Gary Gygax’s Greyhawk campaign.Gary Gygax considered the possibility of drow PCs at least as early as 1979. From the Sorcerer’s Scroll, Dragon #31:The roles the various drow are designed to play in the series [D1-3] are commensurate with those of prospective player characters. In fact, the race could be used for player characters, providing that appropriate penalties were levied when a drow or half-drow was in the daylight world.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Doug McCrae, post: 8298206, member: 21169"] Players controlling monsters as their 'playing pieces' is older than D&D. The fantasy supplement for the wargame Chainmail (1971), an important influence on D&D, presents a battle between good (Law) and evil (Chaos) with each side controlled by a player. The forces of Chaos include balrogs, dragons, and orcs. This continued on into Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor campaign, which began in 1971. Playing at the World (2012) Jon Peterson: [INDENT]In Blackmoor, as it was played in the Twin Cities, most of the Baddies were nominally under the control of players; the orcs in the dungeon beneath Castle Blackmoor, for example, were answerable to Fred Funk (King Fred I of the Orcs)[/INDENT] Dungeons & Dragons (1974) Book I Men & Magic: [INDENT]There is no reason that players cannot be allowed to play as virtually anything, provided they begin relatively weak and work up to the top, i.e., a player wishing to be a Balrog would have to begin as let us say, a "young" one and progress upwards in the usual manner, steps being predetermined by the campaign referee.[/INDENT] [URL='http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2011/09/yesterday-i-discussed-sources-for-two.html']Mike Mornard played a balrog[/URL] in Gary Gygax’s Greyhawk campaign. Gary Gygax considered the possibility of drow PCs at least as early as 1979. From the Sorcerer’s Scroll, Dragon #31: [INDENT]The roles the various drow are designed to play in the series [D1-3] are commensurate with those of prospective player characters. In fact, the race could be used for player characters, providing that appropriate penalties were levied when a drow or half-drow was in the daylight world.[/INDENT] [/QUOTE]

Verification