What it says on the cover. Kind of like the Monster Manual but not as much info. The foreword is interesting, saying that this is the last supplement and don’t hold your breath for another. It’s like D&D is “done” and there’ll only be minor new stuff in Dragon magazine. And a funny note about …
Category Archives: OD&D
Palace of the Vampire Queen
Dungeon Masters Kit – Number 1 The first ever published D&D module! It’s here because it was distributed by TSR. This is quite an impressive adventure considering there were basically no other examples to get ideas from (apart from the minimal and weird example in the D&D rulebooks). It’s quite amazing how polished the whole …
Eldritch Wizardry: Supplement III
Oh my, psionics… I never understood them. And I still don’t after reading this. I play a lot of board games and there’s an art to laying out the rules of a game. Often I find a game that seems difficult but turns out to be quite easy and comparable to other board games – …
Blackmoor: Supplement II
Laid out like the Original D&D booklets into 3 sections. First up we get two new subclasses – the monk and assassin. Oddly, the monk is a subclass of cleric but has no spells – it seems more a subclass of thief. Oh my. There’s a very extensive section on hit location – assigning various …
The Character Archaic
Unfortunately I haven’t read this in its entirety. I haven’t got a copy and I haven’t been able to find a pdf to either buy or download from anywhere on the net. What I have been able to see from various google searches are images of the cover, the character sheets and even a sideways …
Greyhawk: Supplement I
Greyhawk expands in interesting ways on the Original D&D. Most notably it introduces the Thief with all of that classes abilities. Also Paladins are added as a sub-class of Fighter. Races get a bit more of a description and half-elves are introduced. Next up are modifiers for Ability scores. For Strength – to hit and …
Dungeons & Dragons Vol. 3: Underworld & Wilderness Adventures
The third booklet is kind of like the DM’s guide and probably the weirdest of them all. In some ways, it seems the least developed and has the most references to use of the Chainmail rules. The sample dungeon is bizarre – all sorts of tricks and traps and a mapping nightmare. There’s also a …
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Dungeons & Dragons Vol. Two: Monsters & Treasure
The second book is effectively the Monster Manual. All the favourites are here. It’s a little bit odd in its organisation. Like Chainmail, the monsters aren’t in alphabetical order – rather they’re kind of in rough groups. The different colours of dragon are in there along with rules for subduing them. The treasure section has …
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Dungeons & Dragons Vol. One: Men & Magic
This first booklet is kind of like the Player’s Handbook. First oddity – it suggests a referee (not yet called Dungeon Master) to player ratio of 1:20. Whaaat? Next up – we have the 3 main classes – fighter, magic-user, cleric. The thief is a notable absence. Next, races – Humans, Dwarves, Elves and Halflings …
Original Dungeons & Dragons
This is it. The original. So much history are in these booklets. All the essentials of D&D are here, along with some oddities – holdovers from the war-gaming background. Absolutely fascinating. For more detail – see my reviews of each individual booklet: Volume 1: Men & Magic Volume 2: Monsters & Treasure Volume 3: Underworld …