The Legacy of Second-hand Campaigns

[MerricB]

Over the past few years, I've been buying (mostly though e-bay) old AD&D and Basic D&D products that I missed back in the day... which is to say, most of them.

Sitting in front of me at present is a 2nd-hand copy of the AD&D Player Character Record Sheets and one of the Dungeon Masters [sic] Adventure Log. Both have been slightly used, and it's interesting to look at the scribblings of D&D players from - I presume - many years ago.

Only one character sheet was used - for Kendrick Fyn, a level 1 Human Ranger. Str 13, Int 14, Wis 16, Dex 12, Con 14, Cha 17. AC 4, hp 13. The character was made for a World of Greyhawk campaign in 575 CY. Interestingly, the background of the character is filled in - apparently by the DM.

"Abandoned in the Suss Forest as an infant, you learned the ways of the forest as you grew older. Your only friends were animals and birds until Astria, a kindly ranger adopted and educated you. You haven't had much contact with the outside world, and don't really understand the customs and prejudices of the human race. You harbour good will to all living things and help out where needed."

For all of that, there's no indication that the character was ever played - or, at least, the details of the adventure have never made themselves shown on the character sheet.

Meanwhile, the DM Log, although most of the pencil writing has been erased, it's still mostly legible.

On one occasion, the PC Firestone (NG Human Fighter 4) and his three NPC companions Striker (LN Human Fighter 1), Death (NE Human Fighter 1) and Hearty (NG Cleric 2) faced a number of opponents...

A Gnoll
Ogeres [sic]
10 orcs
Ratty the Lizardman
Teeth the Lizardman
Death the Lizardman, and
Strong the Orc

From that expedition, 150 GP was accrued.

Another expedition seems to indicate the PC was joined by a Manticore, Otyugh and a 8-headed Hydra, but I may be misinterpreting what the book was being used for by this point.

If you've bought second-hand D&D products, have you found similar legacies in the books?

Cheers!

 

[Crothian]

The ones I like are the hand drawn maps. In a box set I got off of e-bay there is a 2ft by 2ft piece of graph paper that has the first floor of a rather large castle drawn on it.

 

[Weregrognard]

My second-hand copy of The Haunted Halls of Eveningstar has each of the rooms on the map labeled with notes. One of the rooms reads: "Sh_t"

My copy of Keep on the Borderlands has lots of highlighting and notes, but the best part: a sweet puffy sticker of some 80's-looking warrior woman stuck on the inside of the cover!

I know some people are turned off by these things, but to me it feels like these books were well used and loved. As long as I can still read the text and use it, I think these things add charm to the book.

 

[DragonLancer]

I bought a 1st ed AD&D Monster Manual from Ebay to replace mine that was lost many years ago. Inside the front cover was a piece of lined paper where someone had drawn the picture of the Flesh Golem that was inside the book. I still have it tucked into the book. I always wondered who decided to draw that picture and why.

 

[wedgeski]

Great topic, I'll riff through my eBay stuff later and see what's there. I do remember in the red-box set I bought a few years ago (and subsequently binned because it fell apart), someone had gone through the entire rulebook and coloured-in all the lower-case o's and p's with pencil!

 

[howandwhy99]

My favorite use = Coloring Book. Monster manuals are built for kids and crayons.

 

[Agamon]

I bought a used copy of Secret of the Slaver's Stockade after mine "disappeared" and it had notes written in pencil in the margins, though I'm having trouble recalling what was written.

Personally, I've never written in any books I've owned or left anything inside anything I've sold, so my stuff that's out there is sadly boring and normal.

Edit: one exception: The second time I played was with the new module I (or, more likely, my parents) had just bought: The Sentinal. Me and my buddies had to end the session before the adventure was over, and I colored in the room in pencil that we left off in (I was 8, sue me ). That didn't erase too well. And that module, too, went missing.

 

[Jacob Marley]

I picked up another copy of the 1983 World of Greyhawk boxed set at a yard sale a few months back. Included inside the box were a couple of character sheets. The real gem, though, was when I went through the books and noticed that some of the names of the rulers were crossed out and replaced by the names on the character sheets.

 

[Mark CMG]

For all of that, there's no indication that the character was ever played

If there aren't any eraser marks by the hit points, then it probably wasn't played.

 

[Jack7]

When I was younger I did this (made notes, drawing, sketches, changes, and so forth) with a lot of my old D&D and other gaming materials (Gamma World, etc). I did it in rulebooks, dungeon or gaming modules, stuff I wrote, etc. I gave away or burned all of my old gaming stuff when I got into college, but of the stuff that survived my friends occasionally mention the notes I left behind.

I also did and still do this to books I own or to books people lend me (from their own libraries). I create codes, make notes, drawings, sketches, underline or highlight passages of import, even invention write ups and theory synopses in the margins of a book or wherever there is free space. I even do this in all of my Bibles. The only place I do not make notes of this kind is in my own notebooks, because there all of my notes are ordered in specific patterns, not created ad hoc. But in other books and materials, whatever I am reading, if it inspires some thought or design or theory or sketch, I log it there.

My friends used to get pissed off at me about this habit, but after awhile many of them told me that my notes were often as interesting or more interesting than the book text. So often friends would lend me books and tell me, "make sure and make notes in it, and let me know what you think of it." So I did.

Some of them later took up the same habit. And sometimes their notes would give me ideas.

Personally I very much like the idea. Sometimes when I find old notes or sketches like that, either my own or someone else's, it's like finding buried treasure. Or a sort of time-capsule.