A Complete Timeline of Early D&D Scenarios V: 1978 July-Dec

In this (attempt at a) Complete Timeline of early D&D scenarios, we have now reached the second half of 1978, and with the continued explosion of popularity we have 30 entries for this later half of the year alone.

We've seen how the style has gradually developed over these few years, with Judges Guild, The Dungeoneer, and then British Fanzines taking it in turns to increase the sophistication and push up the standard - but there is about to be a major seismic shift in adventure design with the publication of a series of six modules by a company making a rather late entry into the competition.

If you've been following this series, you might be interested to know I've updated the earlier entries to include a few more scenarios I've uncovered so if you look back through the pictures you might spot one or two new and interesting items, in particular several Minneapolis entries in 1971-1975.

Name: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief
Date: 1978.7
Author: Gary Gygax
Publisher: TSR (G1)
Type:  Tournament (Origins IV)
Notes on Date: See tournament date link earlier. These are reviewed in WD #9, and advertised The Dragon #19 - EDIT but are "new" in JGJ S July '78 so it does look like these were available at Origins and they are the tourney modules to be available at the TSR booth advertised in The Dragon #14 & #15.
Notes: It is difficult to overstate how much G1 and its five brethren changed D&D. Up until this point there was an expectation of a megadungeon central to every campaign - published adventures were usually either a small stand-alone add-on (often a tomb), for a tournament (generally linear, also often a tomb), or an alternative dungeon of several levels. Although G1 was written for a tournament, it is not linear, and the main influence from it being a tournament is that Gygax has written up the rooms in a careful detailed fashion so that all DMs can offer the same experience. In a similar fashion to previous tournament dungeons each round is linked to the last, but in this case across two tournaments Gygax creates six linked modules, with a connected plot (however slight). A lot of scenarios at this time had humorous elements, which clearly irked Gygax (see below for his views on The Cliffs of Mentadorra 1978.8) and these modules all strongly eschew that frivolous/gonzo aspect - in G1 instead you'll find a dangerous Temple to a dark God hidden behind a rockfall. The whole place is described with details that encourage interesting play "Under the furs on the bed is a sleeping giantess who will awaken on a 1 in 4 if a loud noise occurs in the room", "There is no treasure, but by wearing the young giants garb, with suitable padding, the party could pass as the youngsters if not seen closer than 20'". The underground level has an ongoing standoff between the escaped orc slaves and the bugbears - how many parties did like my players and set them fighting each other?

From another angle, the production values of G1 far outstrip any standalone adventure that's gone before. Ironically the iconic blue maps were much criticised in reviews of the time for being unreadable, but it's not just nostalgia for those detachable cardboard covers - when you saw it in the store and knew there would be a map just on the other made them mysterious and enticing.

Name: Glacial Rift Of The Frost Giant Jarl
Date: 1978.7
Author: Gary Gygax
Publisher: TSR (G2)
Type:  Tournament (Origins IV)
Notes on Date: See above
Notes: The map here makes for great explorations - various caverns are scattered around the central rift, where high winds and drifting snow hide a terrifying beast. The Gygax style is to make monsters a challenge because they fight intelligently, not due to unfair tactics on the part of the DM - for example, in the large cave the Dragon swoops down to attack from above gaining surprise. (My youngest was always fond of  "checking the ceiling for dragons" which his older siblings thought hilarious - in this chamber I replied that indeed, there was a dragon swooping down to attack - so they didn't get surprised. Many years later, and ceilings are still occasionally checked for dragons).

Name: Hall of the Fire Giant King
Date: 1978.7
Author: Gary Gygax
Publisher: TSR (G3)
Type:  Tournament (Origins IV)
Notes on Date: See above.
Notes: The third in the series, following a similar pattern. These maps aren't as good - the rooms are laid haphazardly to fill the space available without any real design. Content wise it is stronger, introducing the Drow, and continuing the theme of the Weird Temple from G1 it has the disturbing Temple of the Eye (where it is best to obey your instincts and avoid it all costs).
These modules set down a pattern which replaced Megadungeons overnight. I don't believe this was the plan - the fuller description was necessary for Tournaments (up to now it has been usual for them to have more description), and the linking theme/plot was also normal for multi-round tournaments, as was mini-dungeons. However, Gygax did it so much better than the previously published Tournament adventures, and new players buying these modules must have assumed that this was how you were supposed to play the game. Few had the time or inclination to write up their own adventures with this amount of detail - so people who did attempted to publish them, those who didn't wanted to buy them.

Name: Moite Hall
Date: 1978.7
Author: Mike Ferguson and/or Gavin Denton
Publisher: Illusionist’s Vision #2
Notes on date: On the cover
Notes: Andy writes "This continues the growing trend in UK fanzines for more detailed scenarios that incorporate both a wilderness setting and the building where the main action takes place. The scenario has a loose connection to Michael Moorcock’s Elric series of novels with a backstory that involves Xiombarg, one of the lords of Chaos in those stories."

Name: Shrine of the Kuo-Toa
Date: 1978.8 / 1978.10
Author: Gary Gygax
Publisher: TSR (D2)
Notes on date: Tournament (Gen Con XI)
Notes: D1 I have placed later (when it was published) as it was not used at the tournament and was also likely written later. I've also placed discussion of the underworld there, as that was likely its first appearance. The bulk of D2 is the titular shrine (not the underworld) and is highly unusual in that the best option is to simply attempt to sneak through unnoticed and not engage the Kuo-Toa in combat.   

Name: Vault of the Drow
Date: 1978.8 / 1978.10
Author: Gary Gygax
Publisher: TSR (D3)
Notes on date: Tournament (Gen Con XI)
Notes: The first half of this appears to be the tournament (and is fairly straightforward), the second (more interesting) half attempts to portray an underworld realm. Unfortunately it is over ambitious and the promise of the module isn't really fulfilled. In particular the two pages describing the noble houses has lots of game stats but little else. This part of the module was never playtested (as the players ran away!) and if it had been I'm sure that would have improved it greatly. I think it is remembered more for the inspiration it gave to people.

At PlayingAtTheWorld Jon discusses how the tournament section had an pit covered by an illusion which saw the TPKs of all but one of the parties! This was removed from the printed module (showing how Gygax was not trying to be vindictive). This confused me greatly, as my later printing of D3 does not have the pit (it should be there in the middle of room VIII) - perhaps in my copy the pit is covered by an illusion and I failed my saving throw? If you can see through the illusion, please let me know in the comments.

Name: Tesseracts
Date: 1978.8
Author: Gary Jordan
Publisher: The Dragon #17
Notes on Date: On the cover
Notes: I can't believe I missed this one out in the first version of this post! I first met this famous article in The Best of Dragon, and years later I implemented my own version of it as a centrepiece of a campaign to top off D1-D3 (to replace the subpar Q1), which is appropriate considering its place in the chronology. Read this article if you haven't already done so! In The Dragon #27 there's a follow-up for Traveller.

Name: Frontier Forts of Kelnore
Date: 1978.8
Author: Dave Sering
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG71)
Notes on date: Instalment T.
Notes: An unusual GM-aid for throwing together dungeons quickly. The idea is that all these frontier forts share the same layout, and then the DM uses the tables in the book to populate each one quickly. An interesting concept - but I think Geomorphs to create similar forts would have proved more interesting.

Name: A Bar-Room Brawl
Date: 1978.8 / 1979.2
Author: Lewis Pulsipher
Publisher: White Dwarf #11 (Games Workshop)
Notes on date: Dragonmeet 1
Type: Boardgame
Notes: Inspired by tales of a western brawl game, Lewis Pulsipher wrote one for D&D. The conceit is that every player controls a different PC, each with a short set of motivations. It is for 15(!) players + DM, which is a tall order to find, but the playtest was with 5 players (3 PCs each) so perhaps I should run it and see how it goes. It might benefit from some extra rules - but perhaps a ref is all you need.

Name: The Cliffs of Mentadora
Date: 1978.8
Author: David Berman
Publisher: The Apprentice #2
Notes on date: It says simply "Fall 78" inside.
Notes: The last Apprentice scenario was a bit silly - but that just made it a not particularly good adventure. This sequel takes silly and dials it up to 11. It revels in it. It is a masterpiece of silliness - I would never have thought of something this silly. If you're ever going to play a silly adventure - this should be the one!
In this issue David Berman also included an article of his lambasting The Dragon and D&D, then followed this up with an interview with Ken St Andre on how rubbish D&D is. This did not go down well with Gary Gygax who wrote a lengthy excoriating attack on the zine in The Dragon #22.
Gary's later recalled the incident (see EnWorld) and couldn't understand why the editor wouldn't speak to him despite how many sales it made as a consequence of his criticism. Perhaps it's because the editor was only sixteen when he was singled out for highly public shaming?
Anyway, Gary seems to think that the adventure is supposed to be taken seriously. Most assuredly it is not. The adventure is hard to obtain, but the review is not. Read the review and let it inspire you to similar heights of greatness (or depths of ridiculousness). 

Name: Erfung The Great
Date: 1978.8
Author: Peter Kovach
Publisher: Judges Guild Journal T
Notes on date: On the cover
Notes: The journal had two letters sections, "Omniscient Opinions" and "Prodigious Platemail", each containing not the usual gaming correspondence but a variety of gaming content that people had sent in (they were initially for reader-submitted articles and a standard letters page but that distinction has vanished). This journal fails to print the terms for material, but in Journal S it said $1 per 8 column inches, so it appears Peter's payment for this amounted to two free issues of the journal.In this issue (the last before Chuck Ansell of The Dungeoneer takes over) two short scenarios were published. This first one is a small town ruled over by Erfung the Great - one small map which has a minimal key (50% of it is stats). Some are helpful for play "Hepra is a loud man who is rather pushy when it comes to his sales", but some are rather uninspired "The Inn was named so because it is the only one in town".

Name: Esgalbar, Hidden Dwelling of the Elves
Date: 1978.8
Author: Charles Sagui
Publisher: Judges Guild Journal T
Notes on date:On the cover
Notes: Egalbar has a very simple map, but the key is a superior affair. Firstly it has a specific gaming purpose - a place of refuge in northern Dearthwood (it is placed on the City State map). It is reasonably well thought through, with a lookout tree for the Elves, and a magical smith who can heat the forge without any smoke to give away their location. I'd have words with the architect who designed the place however - the well is outside the walls! Paying by the inch shows its limitations here - Charles will have been paid less than Peter but his contribution was better!

Name: Temple of the Silver Moon
Date: 1978.9
Author: Steve Doubleday
Publisher: Gallimaufry #20
Type: Tournament
Notes on date: Bottom left of cover says 21.9.78
Notes: Downloadable from Diplomacy Zines. An unusually late date for D&D content to be appearing in Dippy zines (but I recall that in the 80s D&D zines often had Dippy games in them). This is by the editor and appears to be the only scenario in 31 issues, it is suprisingly substantial (7 pages). There is a list of common goals for the players (each worth points) and in addition everyone is provided with a secret objective (worth more points) - and you can still win even if you died! It is a DM-versus-players affair (which might be acceptable in a tournament) - with such things as "In the normal room is a panel of three buttons, all coloured red. All of them close the doors and work the trap! (Nasty, Huh?)"

Name: P'Teth Tower
Date: 1978.9
Author: Brian Asbury
Publisher: Trollcrusher #13
Notes on date: No date given. #12 says "copy date ~mid August"
Notes: Andy Ravenscroft writes - "Brian Asbury was a prolific contributor to UK fanzines at this time, and had a regular sub-zine in Trollcrusher. P’Teth Tower is a solo dungeon in the “choose your own adventure” style where the player makes a decision and is told which paragraph to read next. There is no map for the scenario." Brian Asbury also contributed to White Dwarf (The Asbury XP system, and two classes - The Barbarian and The Houri). Further, after his two P'Teth tower solo adventures in Trollcrusher he penned a third, Kandroc Keep, published by the editor of Trollcrusher, which is proving elusive. I plan to play through all these 70s solo adventures and contrast/compare them at the end.

Name: The Tomb of Klorvetus
Date: 1978.9
Author: Stephen Foster
Publisher: Trollcrusher #13
Notes on date: see above
Notes: Andy writes "A self-described ‘mini-dungeon’ with no backstory and simple graphics. This is more in the style of material that was being published a year or two earlier and it’s worth contrasting with the more detailed and better illustrated work that was coming out at the same time from writers such as Paul Blackwell and Brian Asbury" Bryce Lynch would love it, with such room descriptions as "The room is now empty, but there are signs that fittings have been ripped off the walls.".

Name: Chronicles of Keldorn - part the third - The Tomb of Karia
Date: 1978.9
Author: Paul Blackwell
Publisher: Trollcrusher #13
Notes on date: see above
Notes: "Paul Blackwell continues his build out of the world of Keldorn with this short scenario. It has less detail than his other work but ties back in to the world described in his first Chronicle, and has the same high quality map as well as a side elevation drawing of the tomb." I've included both the map and the elevation, which is great as an image to show the players as they approach the tomb. Up until this point even very few professional products have done this. This more than makes up for the simplistic "monster in a room" that accounts for much of the key.

Name: Descent Into the Depths of the Earth
Date: 1978.10
Author: Gary Gygax
Publisher: TSR (D1)
Notes on date: I've put this at the publication date as it was not used at the tournament.
Notes: The troglodyte lair is a bit of a regression (not a particularly interesting map, and the room with a random Lich in it is infamous). I suspect this is due to the adventure being a late addition to the series, as it was not used in the tournament whereas D2 and D3 were. Where it does shine is in the presentation of the huge underworld. Note though that the innovative mapping style appears to be taken wholesale from that most unlikely of places - Bunnies and Burrows!

Name: The Lichway
Date: 1978.10
Author: Albie Fiore
Publisher: White Dwarf #9 (Games Workshop)
Notes on date: On the cover
Notes: Overshadowed by his later, much more famous, adventure The Halls of Tizun Thane, it is very easy not to spot how revolutionary The Lichway is, until you place it in publication order. It is clearly influenced by The Dungeoneer style (the map is a direct crib of that style - squares outside the rooms). Although the module is published in the same issue as Don Turnbull's gushing review of G1-3 I don't believe that can have been published early enough to have influenced this. Compared to what has come before the key is like it's arrived from another planet - the dungeon is thematic, the descriptions engaging and full of the correct amount of detail. If you were going to write a scenario - today - start by emulating this one. Get this.

Name: The Dragon Crown
Date: 1978.9 / 1978.12
Author: Michael Mayeau
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG76)
Type: Tournament (1978 Pacific Encounters Convention).
Notes on Date: Tournament details printed on module, for Date see OSR Grimoire. Published as Installment U by JG – which was 2 months late.

Notes: Judges Guild were doing a useful job in publishing Tournament modules which would have otherwise vanished into obscurity, and by printing them unchanged you can see what was actually run at the tournament (unlike TSR who re-wrote everything). However this was no doubt a bad move in the long run for them, as some of these tournaments are not the best and harmed their reputation. In this 16 page module there is 1 page which is a map, and just over 1 page which is a key - so even if they had been excellent, value for money it is not. The map is near symmetrical, an attempt to ensure that each party gets a similar experience whichever way they go, but this just makes it (effectively) an illusion of choice (which no players like - it's worse than being linear). The key is little more than monster + treasure + how the monster will attack (they all do).

Name: Chronicles of Keldorn IV - part the Fourth - Quest for the Skull
Date: 1978.10
Author: Paul Blackwell
Publisher: Trollcrusher #14
Notes on date: No date given. #13 says "copy date 10th October"
Notes: Andy writes - "An extended scenario set in Blackwell’s world of Keldorn that sends a dungeon party on a quest to recover a religious relic - the Skull of the title. This scenario includes the wilderness map of The Far Isles and the street plans for the town of P’luhra and the village of M’hub. It’s the first part of two, with the second installment (to include player’s maps, a temple featured on the map, and a scroll) to be published later (it would eventually appear in Trollcrusher 17 about six months later)." The town is a pretty good attempt at writing a city along the lines of CSIO (e.g. it has street-specific random encounters, and tavern-specific rumours), and in some ways it is better. It would be great for the complete Chronicles of Keldorn to be re-published, and Paul owns all the copyright.

Name: Notes from the Underworld
Date: 1978.11
Author: Don Turnbull
Publisher: The Phoenix #16
Notes on date: On the cover
Notes: Simple sample map to illustrate two different styles of maps. Don Turnbull did not seem to place much store in maps in his reviews nor in his Greenlands Dungeon articles, and here he seems to be arguing that there's no point spending time on a fancy map as the simple one's just as good.

Name: B1 In Search of the Unknown
Date: 1978.11
Author: Mike Carr
Publisher: TSR
Type: Dungeon with DM needing to place monsters and treasure.

Notes on date: See The Acaeum 
Notes: Along with the final installment of Greenlands dungeon in next month's Dragon (see 1977.12), and the JG competition entries the same month, this 2 level dungeon is really the last hurrah of the megadungeon. It replaced the Geomorphs and M&T assortment in the basic box, but it is not much more sophisticated. The map is still clearly in the Castle Greyhawk mould, and how you populate it with monsters and treasure is as per the instructions in OD&D. It was already out-dated in 1978, but if you want a playable dungeon that is as close to the original intented style for D&D - this is it. Play it and pretend it was written in 1974, and enjoy it for what it is.

Name: The Solo Dungeon
Date: 1977 / 1978.12
Author: Richard Bartle, L.H.Miller, C.J.Walton
Publisher: Games Publications
Notes on date: First self published in (Summer?) 1977. Later published by Games Publications. Advert WD10 also review Gallimaufry #23.
Notes: Available as a download from the author at You Haven't Lived. This is another solo adventure, and by reading it I'd spoil it for myself - I'm going to play them all through at the end and rate them. Each room has a map-segment (ala Tortured Souls! in the 80s) but I've not included one as they aren't very inspiring compared to Chris Holmes' great art! Note that the monster is carrying a teddy bear. I've no idea if this corresponds to anything in the adventure, but I love it (Richard says sadly not). The introduction says "Congratulations on your good taste. You have just bought our first solo dungeon." Little did people know how popular this style of adventure was to become. UPDATE: Adam Thornton has pointed out that from the link above you can see this is none other than that Richard Bartle who co-created the world's first MUD, MUD1, in 1978 - which is yet another connection. Thanks Adam!
Richard gave me some updates - he self-published it in 1977, “originally printing it myself using the stencil-based duplicator I had for my play-by-email zine” (Sauce of the Nile) before it was published by Games Publications in 1978. Richard also wrote a second level “but Games Publications went bust (because of another game) so it was never printed”. There are interesting connections with subsequent solo adventures. There’s a direct connection to Bryan Asbury’s solo adventures (see P’Teth Tower II), but there’s also a connection to the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks: “I invited Steve and Ian to Essex University to show them MUD (their verdict: this is great but we can’t afford 10 million quid for a mainframe), and have kept in touch with them since then” Steve and Ian had phenomenal success with the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks in 1982, and then both moved into Computer Games to further success.

Name: Quest for the Fazzlewood
Date: 1978.12 (revised 1984)
Author: John Van De Graaf & Laurie Van De Graaf
Publisher: Metro Detroit Gamers / TSR
Type: Tournament (Wintercon VII)
Notes: Republished as the second half of O1 The Gem and The Staff. This module is one of the super-expensive collectibles - the price is now stratospheric. This is because it was republished by TSR, and that would lead you to believe that by owning the TSR module you'd effectively own a copy of this adventure. Nope. Although the map and the illustration maps for the player are almost identical, and the rooms are similar, the modules has been completely rewritten and most of the detail and flavour removed. The player maps are a nice innovation - every room has a nicely drawn overhead map to show the players, including detail such as what is on the tables. The adventure has a great player intro, and the key has lots of interesting detail, but this is all removed or made bland in the published version. I don't know, but I guess it is the editors at TSR who butchered it.

"The Great Guildmember Dungeon Design Contest" aka "The World's First and Greatest Dungeon Creation Contest"
The "Great Guildmember Dungeon Design Contest" was announced in Journal R back in April, so these six entries (plus Under the Storm Giant's Castle) must all have been written several months before they were published. They are as close as we can get to a snapshot into people home-dungeons at this time (since most are lost or hidden). The idea, we are told, was for people to publish complete dungeons which could be published as stand-alone modules. This did indeed happen to Under The Storm Giant's Castle, to its author's surprise, but apparently this was lost on most of the entrants, as the prizes were for best 1st level, best 2nd level etc. so the dungeons are sometimes just individual levels. As they predate any TSR module, and most American players would not be aware of the UK fanzine adventures, the style is universally very old-old-school.
This was indeed the first dungeon creation contest - Judges Guild would go on to run more of these, and next year TSR would join in on the act.

Name: Kevin Garbelman's Dungeon
Date: 1978.12
Author: Kevin Garbelman
Publisher: Judges Guild Journal U
Type: Competition – levels 2-3 (1st/tied 1st prize)

Notes on date: At the top of the TOC
Notes: Kevin's entry is only Level 2 and Level 3, you might presume of the same dungeon, but the stairs point in different directions - so perhaps not. This dungeon shows that the expectation is PC vs DM - e.g. the huge lump of silver in a room with no oxygen that cannot be taken and is purely to taunt the players. The keys for level 2 are super minimal except when it's describing traps and magical items, but for level 3 it has some genuinely good rooms (I like the puppet room). It is all odd (monsters include The Black Rabbit from Watership Down, and one room is an English Pub). Its unique feature is that several entries have quotes from an (imaginary?) play through. For example, after describing the unnatainable treasure, it says:
"But we can't!" moaned Haldor. "We can't just ...just leave it there!" (sniff, sniff)

Name: Firedrake's Lair
Date: 1978.12
Author: Henry Veldenz
Publisher: Judges Guild Journal U
Type: Competition – levels 3-6 (tied 1st/2nd/1st/tied 1st prize)

Note: See Journal V for the missing map (!!). "This dungeon starts with the 3rd level because it was designed for higher level characters" Again this strongly adversarial - the corridors on the bottom level have an invisible floor with a 150' drop to a fire below. Of course, in places there is no floor. The key is a fairly simple monster + key affair, with occasional oddities such as people hanging around in rooms, or the room where you save vs change sex - and it's odd that Kevin's entry for level 3 didn't beat Henry's.

Name: Charles Sagui's Dungeon
Date: 1978.12
Author: Charles Sagui
Publisher: Judges Guild Journal U
Type: Competition - levels 1-6 (1st/2nd/3rd/1st/3rd/tied 1st prize)

Notes: Another minimal keyed adversarial dungeon "Sacrifice pit. Transports to another plane. No one comes back", "Boat House. Row boat will carry up to 4000 GP weight, any more, and the boat will sink half way across". Level 4 has nothing more than monster + treasure for every room, yet astonishingly it won first place! When you get to level 6 it has 5 stone giants, 2 balrogs, Demogorgon, and 2 Red Dragons. In spite of all this is has one good thing. Every level has a warning rhyme, and the last of them actually has a clever clue!

Name: Jay Miller's Dungeon
Date: 1978.12
Author: Jay Miller
Publisher: Judges Guild Journal U
Type: Competition, Lvls 1,5 (2nd/2nd prize)

Notes: Something is awry here. It might make sense in the rules of the competition to submit a level 1 and a level 5, but clearly level 5 is a first level dungeon. Firstly, the monsters are Goblins, Ghouls and Zombies. Secondly the map has stairs which both say "To Level 2". In contrast Level 1 is never a first level of a dungeon - e.g. the entry "6) A Beholder; AC 0/2/7, HTK 50, is holding a Pseudo Dragon; AC 2, HD 2, HTK 16, captive. The Pseudo Dragon will become the companion of whomever strikes the fatal blow on the beholder." When I first read this I wondered how a beholder could be holding anything as it has no hands...
The best room is on the so-called "level 5": "Unlocked oaken chest in center of eastern wall, pile of bones in NW comer. If chest is touched the bones will animate to form 13 skeletons that will attack the party. If bones are crushed or broken before the chest is opened, nothing will happen"

Name: Robert Gallasch's Dungeon
Date: 1978.12
Author: Robert Gallasch
Publisher: Judges Guild Journal U
Type: Competition, Lvls 1-3 (3rd/2nd/3rd prize)
Notes: Minimal key monster + treasure with an occasional trap thrown in. The best bit is that the Auditorium on level 2 has a balcony above on level 1 (with gnomes on both levels). Unfortunately where it puts flavour e.g. "Water is-running down the walls and disappearing into cracks in the floor." it is irrelevant to play (this happens a lot). The usual DM-PC antagonism is present: "The Illusion of 'a lawful/good human cleric hanging from the ceiling--being tortured by 2 ogres' conceals an 18' by 18' by 30' deep pit with 3' wooden spikes on the bottom. The 'clerics' screams echo about the

room and can be heard out in the passage-way."

Name: Rusty Lamont's Dungeon
Date: 1978.12
Author: Rusty Lamont
Publisher: Judges Guild Journal U
Type: Competition, Lvls 1-6 (no prize except 2nd for 6)
Notes: Ah, poor Rusty Lamont and his no prize levels. There are actually a couple of interesting items - magical cages which you can get into but not out of (remember to leave a foot outside!), a laboratory with monsters that come to life 3 turns after you open their cage (so after you've opened a few they'll start to come to life). Surprise, surprise there is the inevitable "Was a store room but has been painted to become a bottomless. pit after entering" - but this one is actually clever. All of the paintings on this floor come to live when touched, so what do you expect if you step on a picture of a pit? Rusty Lamont returns three years later with a more normal dungeon in Pegasus #2.

Name: You Bet Your Life
Date: 1978.12 (1979.6)
Author: Erich and Jim Moir et al
Publisher: Metro Detroit Gamers
Type: Tournament (Wintercon VII)
Notes on date: The tournament is specified on the back of the sequel "You Bet Your Life again". On the cover it says Michicon VIII which is when it was published - see Tome of Treasures.
Notes: Highly unusual scenario. Like the QQG scenarios this contains modern day anachronisms, such as the Health Spa shown on the map - and that's just for starters. It's a gameshow hosted by Groucho Marx, with a studio audience. We have the Miss Orc Beauty Competition, monsters on strike (don't try and cross the picket line), rooms which are under construction. You're supposed to collect clues to guess the solution to a puzzle - if you guess wrong you're vaporised. A sort of Squid Game '78. Hmm. 

The prize for the second half of '78 goes... jointly to Gary Gygax for G1-3, D1-3, and Albie Fiore for The Lichway. Both of these authors raised the bar, independently I believe, and redefined what people expected from an adventure - and further - what people expected from D&D and role playing games in general.

There are many scenarios which suffer from silliness, so honourable mention must go to David Berman for making The Cliffs of Mentadora a truly memorably silly adventure.

Once again, thanks to Andy Ravenscroft for providing commentary and images for many of the fanzines. Also thanks to Guy Fullerton, Adam Thornton, and Jon Peterson for providing images and info. Finally thanks to Richard Bartle for sharing his "The Solo Dungeon" freely on the web.

Link to Part IV