A Complete Timeline of Early D&D Scenarios III: 1977

We have reached 1977 and the explosion in publications continues - there are more entries for this year alone than we have had so far in total for the first six years! I've had a great time researching this - I've only ever DM'ed a few of them and there are many I've never read in depth, and several are new to me - so I'm going to have to read through many of these fully and I definately plan to DM several. A big thanks to Andy Ravenscroft who's helped me out with early UK fanzines - he contributed to several early fanzines and in some places below I've given his thoughts from a perspective of someone who was reading fanzines in the last 70s.

    A short request for help. I appear to have omitted some items from Alarums & Excursions. It's
    tricky as the contents are often just the names of the sub-zines. The ones I've spotted are:
    #3 (1975.8) "including a map of Richard Tatgel's maze"
    #7 (1976.1) "a 'random-dungeon program'  described, with simple outputs"
    #14 (1976.8) there's a scan of a page at RPGGeek which shows a map
   I've sent off to Lee Gold to purchase the pdfs of these issues - if you know any other issues of
   interest (up to and including #59) please let me know.

Name: Tower of Ulission
Date: 1977.1 (1979.12)
Author: Dave Emigh
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG119)
Type: Tournament (Winter War IV)
Notes on date: See Judges Guild Journal 18 to see it was Winter War. I cannot find corroborating evidence that it was #4. This was Instalment 18, which means Dec 1979 (despite the 1980 copyright notice)
Notes: This was the first part of the tournament, Sword of Hope the second. It's a very unusual presentation where for each room there is a handout for the players describing the room and with a map - then there's a second description for the DM with details.

Name: Sword of Hope
Date: 1977.1 (1980.1)
Author: Dave Emigh
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG118)
Type: Tournament (Winter War IV)
Notes on date: Despite being a lower number than Tower of Ulission, it is not yet available in JGJ 18 so I've put it a month later.
Notes: Possibly influenced by Tomb of Horrors - not published yet but also a tournament adventure which Dave Emigh may have played in or heard of. There are poems around warning you what's beyond one door - and if you ignore the poem and go through that door... "All the players save verses death . Those that survive find themselves in room 23, those that don't are as if they never existed at all."

Name: Wilderlands of High Fantasy (including Huberic of Haghill)
Date: 1977.2 - 10
Author: Bob Bledsaw
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG48)
Type: Wilderness, Village  Notes on date: Instalments K, N & O. 
Notes: Contains “Caves & Lairs”  - mini-dungeon creation rules and many random tables for helping populate those unkeyed dungeons. It is, of course, more famous for Judges Guild's third famous map(s) - the Wilderland. But I'm sure you're all familiar with them, so here's Haghill instead. The back of this booklet introduces the well-known "Campaign Hexagon" system, where a single hex on the wilderlands is reproduced at a larger scale with lots of smaller hexes - in this case the hex containing the City State itself.

Name: Dungeon Geomorphs Sets 1-3
Date: 1977.2 - 6
Author: Gary Gygax
Publisher: TSR
Type: Random dungeon
Notes on date: Set 1 is “New” in JGJ K (1977.2). #3 is not available Dragon #6 (April), but all are available by Instalment M (1977.6)
Notes: These three products contain the first ever published dungeon geomorphs. The idea of TSR publishing "Geomporphic Dungeon Maps" was mooted in SR 1.5 (1975.12) with the assumption that everyone knew what they were (despite the name being nonsensical). It appears this misuse comes from the 1970 Avalon Hill game PanzerBlitz which advertises on the back “geo-morphic mapboard” where geo-morphic implies the mapboard contains terrain, not that it can be rearranged. The Gygax geomorphs are not all square (like modern geomorphs) - some are long and thin - which seems inexplicable until you see they are the same shape as the original PanzerBlitz sections. Note these look like the Castle Greyhawk maps, and also contain a very interesting sample dungeon key.

Name: Overland and dungeon maps (Arduin Grimoir Vol 1)
Date: 1977.2
Author: David A Hargreaves
Publisher: Self-published Type: Sample maps with no key
Notes on Date: Advert in The Dragon #6. Guy points out that PaTW p576-577 cites A&E #20 which dates it earlier, to Dundracon II. Note that vols 2 & 3 were apparently April 78 and April 79 respectively (Vol 2 for sale in JGJ R, Vol 3 reviewed in WD #12) but they don’t have any scenarios.
Notes: “The overland and dungeon maps on the next two pages are provided for your interest and enjoyment”. There is no key. Arduin is an extremely strange product, so it should come as no surprise that Dave Hargreave's maps are equally idiosyncratic. Almost every room is a randomly odd shape for no discernable purpose (though perhaps it is an anti-mapper device like the diagonal corridors in Blackmoor and Greyhawk) and there's been an outbreak of a Secret Door plague.

Name: The Pharoah’s Tomb
Date: 1977.3 (1979)
Author: Jim Ward
Publisher: The Dungeoneer #4 (later Judges Guild)
Notes: Yes - this is that Jim Ward - of Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World fame, and who later worked full time for TSR. At this point he was still a teacher and as well as his famous games for TSR he also wrote regularly for the Dungeoneer. This is yet another tomb adventure - a popular choice! The map is by Jennell Jaquays who uses again the style of squares between the rooms but not inside them - the opposite of the Judges Guild style. The secret doors in the tomb are all plastered over, Tomb of Horrors style. This is far more randomly deadly though... "There is a 25% chance that Anubis will appear and kill all in the room. When and if the robbers leave the tomb from the Pharoah's main tomb area, and they travel back the way they came in, there is a 50% chance that Anubis will appear and kill the robbers"

Name: Tegel Manor
Date: 1977.4
Author: Bob Bledsaw, Bill Owen (named only when republished)
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG27)
Type: Manor with Dungeon Notes on Date: Instalment L
Notes: The fourth great map from Judges Guild - and possibly their most famous. The descriptions are terse and wacky (15HD "mottled worm" hiding under a bed), there's a forgettable dungeon (though the rat tunnels are a cool idea), and you can't really be sure how the haunted portraits section works (and only half of them are on the map) - but - that map!!! The original version of the map has been recently published which contains more detail on the room contents and has coloured corridors - not for photo realism like the modern revised version - but to help the GM - which underlines how maps should always be made to be useful.

Name: The Tomb of the Jain Dzebek
Date: 1977.4
Author: Hartley Patterson
Publisher: News From Bree #21
Type: Mini dungeon
Notes on Date: Contents page of fanzine
Notes: Tombs do appear to be popular! A "pull-out monachrome supplement". This and "World of Tiers" from 1977.8 appear to be the only scenarios in NFB (though I haven't seen #16 or #20), a Tolkien fanzine which became a gaming & tolkien fanzine and then split. I'm not sure whether squares are omitted from the map in fanzine maps purely due to printing considerations. This is a fairly small and simple adventure - with rather silly monsters (Invisible Sheep, Wet Blanket). The author says it's a revised version of a mini-dungeon they've used several times locally, and they don't expect you to kill Jain Dzebek.

Name: Castle Fil
Date:1977.5
Author: D Bolton
Publisher: The Phoenix #7
Type: Dungeon including Environs
Notes on Date: From Cover
Notes: This is a fairly standard write-up of a game of D&D called "Expedition to Castle Fil", but unusually it comes with detailed annotated maps accompanying the description, which references locations on the map. One point of interest is that it contains a Troll Bridge, which is unusual in a British game as that originates (as a D&Dism) from Blackmoor. The write up is truly hilarious - it's D&D, but not as we know it - make sure to read it! (The mag is available online).

Name: Pandora’s Maze (In "Competitive D&D")
Date: 1977.5 (1977.6 - 1977.12)
Author: Fred Hemmings
Publisher: White Dwarf #1-#4 (Games Workshop)
Type: Tournament (D&D Day '77)

Notes: This is a series of articles on tournament - starting with a write-up of playing through "The Fabled Garden of Merlin" (1977.9) as a tournament, followed by how he designed his own tournament and then a partial description of it - the first few and the last are the only ones given, and the small section of map shown here is the only bit, which was clearly redrawn for the magazine as it matches the prior article. I don't know what to make of this as the first few rooms contain lots of content but none of it "gameable" - the floor of the corridor is made of glass and us unbreakable etc etc but has no effect and then halfway down the corridor you get randomly attacked. It seems that almost every room is literally just monster + treasure, and any route choice is meaningless.

Name: The Sorcerer’s Cave
Date: 1977.6
Author: Terence Peter Donnelly
Publisher: Philmar Ltd
Type: Boardgame Notes on Date: Earliest advert WD#1 p31
Note: Dungeon! and D&D inspired Boardgame. Notable as first use of dungeon Geomorphs in a boardgame– they predate TSR's Dungeon Geomorphs in design, but postdate them in publication (according to an interview in Games & Puzzles Autumn 1980) but look to be similarly derived from PanzerBlitz.

Name: Monster & Treasure Assortment Sets 1-3
Date: 1977.6 / 1977.8 / 1978.4
Author: Gary Gygax
Publisher: TSR
Type: Keys (without a dungeon)
Notes on date: Set 1 is “New” in JGJ M, Set 2 is "New" in JGJ N. Set 3 is advertised in JGJ R.
Notes: Note that you can see how the entries here strongly resemble those of the available keys for Greyhawk.

Name: Modron
Date: 1977.6
Author: Bob Bledsaw & Gary Adams
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG34)
Type: Town & Underwater
Notes on date: Instalment M
Notes: The town is fairly completely described but the main promise of the module - an underwater adventure - is only briefly described. It is clearly from a different adventure and is stapled on! The Temple of Modron is on a hill with the centre submerged - but on the previous page it is underground etc. etc.

Name: The Dwarven Glory (DM’s Kit #2)
Date: 1977.6
Author: Pete Kerestan
Publisher: Wee Warriors
Type: Random dungeon
Notes on date: Taken from Tome of Treasures which some have questioned.
Notes: This is a seven part linear (keyed) dungeon which can be rearranged as desired, sort of like geomorphs. Interesting concept, but doesn't really seem to pan out - especially with the sparse and fairly random keys. Note that the map of caverns is on hex paper.

Name: Night of the Walking Wet
Date: 1977.6 - 10 (1979)
Author: Paul Jaquays, Randy Cox, Tamara Wieland
Publisher: The Dungeoneer #5, #6 (Fantastic Dungeoneering Society) - (later Judges Guild)
Type: Wilderness and Dungeon
Notes: Andy Ravenscroft, who helped me by providing much of the information on fanzines said "The Dungeoneer featured excellent artwork by Paul Jaquays and Aaron Arocho that gave their scenarios an extra touch of class, and the maps were ahead of their time in terms of quality for a fanzine. The Dungeoneer would also feature new monsters that appeared in the scenarios in the magazine." This adventure also ties in to all the Dungeoneer scenarios published to date.

Name: Dungeon Hobby Shop Advert
Date: 1977.7
Publisher: The Dragon #8 (p20) - TSR
Type: Cartoon Dungeon
Notes: Although this is not a real dungeon, it features artwork and writing on the map - Judges Guild had already done writing but I don't think anyone had added illustrations of monsters in the rooms - see AD&D Coloring Book from 1979 for a continuation of this idea. Also note that Citadel Miniatures had a very similar advert in the early 80s with miniatures in the rooms. 

Name: Sample Adventure (Holmes Basic Set)
Date: 1977.7
Author: J. Eric Holmes
Publisher: TSR
Type: Sample dungeon
Notes on date: see OSR Grimoire.

Notes: Although only a sample dungeon, this one has proved very popular (see notes at Zenopus Archives for a start). It is often called The Tower of Zenopus after the ruined Wizard's Tower it lies beneath. This was published in the rulebook in the original Basic Set, initially along with the Geomorphs/Monster & Treaure.

Name: Stone Mountain (Holmes Basic Set)
Date: 1977.7
Author: J. Eric Holmes
Publisher: TSR
Type: Sample Dungeon
Notes: In addition to the Sample Adventure, the Holmes Basic Set contained a second dungeon - shown as an evocative side-on view. I've revised the list to include this as a separate entry, partially because it shows the evolution of side-on views of dungeons, but mostly because it's a great map and Zenopus himself asked for it to be included (via his earthly spokesman). The Moldvay basic set is out of scope for this blog series, but note how similar it is to the side-view in that set, and also compare it to the side-view in the original rules.

Name: Qualpatal’s Pyramid
Date: 1977.7
Author: Lou Nisbet Publisher: Underworld Oracle #1
Type: Dungeon
Notes: Underworld Oracle set a new benchmark for UK fanzines, featuring good quality artwork and a scenario in every issue. Their first dungeon was Qualpatal’s Pyramid and it is particularly notable for being the first time a dungeon came with a narrative of a playtest of the dungeon as an article!

Name: Outdoor Geomorphs
Date: 1977.8
Author: Gary Gygax
Publisher: TSR
Notes on date: “New” in JGJ N
Notes: The last of the TSR Geomorph sets. Two more were promised - Castle/Fortress and Ruins - but never published. Since the Dungeon Geomorphs look exactly like Castle Greyhawk's dungeons, perhaps the City of Greyhawk looked very much like this set of Geomorphs.

Name: Of Skulls & Scrapfaggot Green
Date: 1977.8
Author: Bob Blake
Publisher: Self-published (later Judges Guild JG80)
Type: Tournament (Gen Con X)
Notes: In the Judges Guild Journal W it apologies that the maps were missing - I think that qualifies as their worst ever quality control error. The first part is a town with interior maps for most buildings. The dungeon layout is very confusing - it needs the side on explanation - but even so I'm at a loss to know why the levels are numbered 0, 3, 3.5, 4.5, 6.5 and 10!

Name: World of Tiers
Date: 1977.8
Author: Hartley Patterson Publisher: News from Bree #22 Type: Wilderness Notes: Based on Philip Jose Farmer’s series of novels. This is the earliest published example of a D&D scenario explicitly based on a writer’s fantasy world. The World of Tiers lends itself well to D&D as the Tiers consist of different time periods in which multiple adjacent scenarios can be created. Several other works of fiction do this (for example, Jack Chalker’s 1977 novel Midnight At The Well Of Souls, which explicitly divides a planet into hexagonal regions of wildly varying types), but Farmer’s may be the best known. The introduction says that this scenario has already been "written up" in Alarums & Excursions 23 and a second is due to appear in Trollcrusher - showing how closely related the Fanzines all were.

Name: The Halls of Testing - Fighting Men
Date: 1977.9
Author: Lou Nisbet
Publisher: Underworld Oracle #2
Type: Halls of testing
Notes: The Halls of Testing was an unusual concept which merits a post of its own. From the back cover: "D&D for one player and D/M. One character against a dungeon designed to kill nine out of ten that enter. Any survivor will be a proven (Higher Level) Fighting Man". Starting with Fighting Men, the series continued through Magicians, Barbarians (from WD #4), Thieves & Assassins, Tumblers (from UO #6), and then finally David Flin provided the missing one for Clerics in Demonsblood after UO had folded.

Name: Lair of Raymond Huge
Date: 1977.9
Author: Howard Mahler
Publisher: Quick Quincy Gazette #8
Type: Mini-dungeon
Notes on Date: From a note on a sale on Ebay 
Notes: I knew extemely little about QQG, except that #8 had a dungeon, and here it is courtesy of Jon Peterson. He says it is ""Raymond Huge vs. T'Challa" (which prob should be called the "Lair of Raymond Huge"). The last was a scenario Howard Mahler ran at PrinceCon II in 1977." The best place for info about QQG, its editor Howard Mahler, and PrinceCon is a post Jon's website PlayingAtTheWorld. This scenario is for two teams - one lawful and one chaotic - playing against each other (which Jon says was often the case at PrinceCon). The map is unusual for having doors marked with the letter "D"!

Name: Dungeon Hobby Shop Advert #2
Date: 1977.10
Publisher: The Dragon #10 (p10) - TSR
Type: Cartoon Dungeon
Notes: A similar advert to earlier in the year, but smaller . 

Name: Solo Dungeon Mapping
Date: 1977.10
Author: Roger Moores
Publisher: White Dwarf #3 (Games Workshop)
Type: Random dungeon creation
Notes: This is for creating dungeons for solo-play on the fly. The concept is to draw up ~100 small dungeon sections beforehand and then roll to see which one you get next. Several examples are included, and oddly it says specifically they are not geomorphs (but doesn't say why).

Name: The Halls of Testing - Magicians
Date: 1977.11
Author: Lou Nisbet
Publisher: Underworld Oracle #3
Type: Halls of testing

Notes: The Halls of Testing for Magicians also includes a write up of a playtest of the scenario and a GM’s Appendix. The latter is an early example of GM’s notes on a scenario. Many scenarios were presented just as a list of what was in each room, but Nisbet’s attention to detail and his discursive style in talking about what went into the design of his scenarios was different and probably went some way to making his scenarios as popular as they were.

Name: The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor
Date: 1977.12
Author: Marc Summerlott et al.
Publisher: Judges Guild #52
Notes on date: Instalment P
Notes: This is the first Judges Guild adventure with proper keys. It is very much a funhouse dungeon. Of note is the "alternate descriptions" at the end, with different keys that you can switch out for the ones in the module if you don't like them!

Name: Greenlands Dungeon
Date: 1977.12 - 1978.12
Author: Don Turnbull
Publisher: White Dwarf #4, #7 (Games Workshop), The Dragon #21 (TSR)
Type: Personal megadungeon.
Notes: It is a shame that Don Turnbull's megadungeon looks to be lost and we'll never get to see it - but he published three levels of it across two years and two magazines - Alice In Dungeonland (WD4), Lair of the Demon Queen (WD7), The Hall of Mystery (Dragon 21). Note that the maps have been redrawn in the house-style of the magazine in question. The last hurrah of the megadungeon - no more would be published as an example of current play, and even the last is described as a "DIY module". After a lull of a few years megadungeons and portions thereof would re-appear but as items usually presented as being of historic value, yet also at the same time highly non-authentic (at best complete rewrites, at worst fakes). More info on Dragonsfoot about Greenlands and Don Turnbull.

Name: Inn of the Sunken Bridge
Date: 1977.12
Author: Fred Moye
Publisher: Judges Guild Journal P (Judges Guild)
Type: Village (actually an Inn)
Notes: This the first scenario in the Judges Guild Journal, and was just sent in as a "you might like to include this" letter, and the letter is itself included in the journal.

Name: Quarnoon Level 1
Date: 1977.12
Author: S. Johnson
Publisher: Spellbound #3
Type: Mini dungeon
Notes on date: It says "Winter 77" and "Origins VII was a couple of months ago" - which was held in July '77.
Notes: The map is a very simple affair drawn on squared paper (which can just be made out on the scan), and the key is also unremarkable - but the editorial says "If anyone would like to take the idea of Quarnoon dungeon and make a level or 2 of your own style then we would be happy to print it as a part of the dungeon. It should have a number of traps and possibly one special room for each level - the monster should be mainly lycanthropes - but not always. This would give our readers some variation in style and some different ideas about dungeon-creation". Unfortunately I don't have any other issues of Spellbound so I don't know if the dungeon continued...  

Name: Labyrinthine
Date: 1977
Author: Pete & Judy Kerestan
Publisher: Wee Warriors
Type: Boardgame Notes on date: Copyright is 1977, but no references until review WD #6 1978.4 On the products page at the back of Dragonlord it lists all three of these, but Char Archaic 2nd Edition is "available in Fall '77"

Notes: A cross between D&D Geomorphic aid and boardgame it contains “Geomorphic Labyrinth sections” - the review compares it (unfavourably) to Citadel from 1976, but it should actually be compared to The Sorcerer’s Cave. The geomorphs are very simplistic.

Name: The Vanquished Foe
Date: 1977
Author: Pete & Judy Kerestan
Publisher: Wee Warriors
Type: Boardgame Note on date: Nothing to go on apart from the copyright Notes: Board is a dungeon, with door counters. You have to cut all the monochrome parts out and glue them on to card yourself, and the parts are not very visually attractive. It seems unlikely that this ever have sold many copies, when compared to the high production values of Dungeon! and The Sorceror's Cave.

Name: The Misty Isles (DM’s Kit #3)
Date: 1977
Author: Pete & Judy Kerestan
Publisher: Wee Warriors
Type: Wilderness Notes on date: It says copyright 1977
Notes: With our final entry for Wee Warriors we have by far and away not only their best production, we have the first ever true hex-crawl! It is a series of nine islands, each with a hex map and almost every hex has a description - proper descriptions - and they're not too random. You can drop these islands on to your map and use them. I'm actually impressed!

This year sees strong entries from fanzines - they certainly hold their own compared to the "professional" published scenarios. Overall though this year proves inspirational more for the maps rather than the accompanying keys or text - much of the text is monster + treasure in a room, or clever ways to arbitrarily kill players - whereas people are still in love with the maps.

We've seen the second pair of Judges Guild's greatest contributions - the first Wilderlands map, and Tegel Manor. It's a close run contest between those, and Gary Gygax's Geomorphs which are still being imitated many years later - but the Geomorphs in concept are not Gary's, and the map style is simply Castle Greyhawk - whereas the Wilderlands and Tegel Manor maps are both revolutionary and inspirational - hence the prize for 1977 goes one again to Judges Guild.

Updated to add The Tomb of The Jain Dzebek, The Lair of Raymond Huge, Quarnoon Level 1, and Castle Fil.

Link to Part II