A Complete Timeline of Early D&D Scenarios VI: 1979 Jan-April

We're in 1979 so it should be the final stretch now.. except that 40% of all scenarios published in the 70s were published in the last year!

The fact that there is now a "second generation" of more mature scenarios is nicely illustrated by Paul Blackwell's lighthearted dig at "old fashioned" scenarios of yesteryear which appeared in Trollcrusher #16 (in the middle of the scenario Quivia):

The revolution had not entirely swept away the old guard overnight, and one or two stragglers remain, as we shall see.

Name: Morkendaine
Date: 1979.1
Author: Jennell Jaquays
Publisher: The Dungeoneer #9 (Judges Guild)
Type: Dungeon beneath Manor
Notes on date: On the cover
Notes: It is thirteen months since the last Jaquays scenario, and this is more sophisticated, but it still has many silly elements - such as the Vorpal Bunny from Monty Python's Holy Grail.. The cross fertilisation with UK fanzines is clear as this references Underworld Oracle #5. There is an illustration drawn for this adventure in The Dungeoneer #11, which was first seen as the cover for Under the Storm Giant’s Castle (despite it not being at all relevant to that adventure).

Name: The Sanctuary of the Setians
Date: 1979.1
Author: Bill Roberts
Publisher: The Apprentice #3
Type: Tomb
Notes on date: The cover says "Winter 1979", meaning the first season of 79, but p2 says copyright 78. Hence I'm assuming it was the very start of the year.
Notes: David Berman has now given over the scenario to other authors, resulting in a major swing in style away from funhouse. This is another attempt at the now standard tomb, and it is very much in the old vein with not one or two but three death-with-no-save opportunities (and a further save or die) and monsters that seem impossible to kill. Not advisable to run this if you want your players to carry on speaking to you! 

Name: Wilderlands of the Magic Realm
Date: 1979.2-1979.4
Author: Mark Holmer
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG92)
Type: Wilderness
Notes on date: Instalments V & W
Notes: Another four maps of the Wilderland, in a very similar style to the previous year's Fantastic Wilderlands Beyonde. The maps are still great, but the entries are shorter and less game-able. The production values seem higher, but oddly some of the island descriptions for #12 are identical to those in #4. In JGJ W it gives an in-game explanation and alternate descriptions of these islands (this was included in future printings which really confused me at the time).

Name: John Pugh's Dungeon
Date: 1979.2
Author: John Pugh
Publisher: Judges Guild Journal V
Type: Competition - levels 1-6 (no prizes, except 3rd for lvl 6)
Notes on date: On the cover
Notes: This competition entry was printed in a different issue to the others - not enough space in the last journal, or perhaps not enough content in this one. After the first level, where each room is described but there is nothing gameable (and Guys/Dolls toilet caves) it switches to each level key being simply a table showing the monster, trap, and treasure for each room. This is the most minimal key you're ever likely to see. The only exception to this are the seven rival dungeon parties scattered through the dungeon, which are so powerful they'd wipe you out if you fought them.

Name: Quiva
Date: 1979.2 - 1979.6
Author: Graham Cole
Publisher: Trollcrusher #16, #17
Type: City
Notes on date: There is no date in the mag. The last issue said copy date was 16th Dec, but it's a new editor who promises to keep it regular, so Feb is my best guess.
Notes: Andy Ravenscroft writes: "At this point Trollcrusher had again changed ownership and was being edited by Laurence Miller who implemented a policy of retyping every article for consistency. This helped raise the visual appeal of the scenarios published in the magazine. Miller also committed in his editorial to 'publish in each issue a mini-dungeon and/or a city unit since these items appear to be popular.'

The City of Quivia is a two part scenario. It has no theme or backstory but is simply presented ‘as is’ for DM’s to incorporate into their own campaign. It follows many of the precedents established by Paul Blackwell’s Keldorn series previously published in Trollcrusher, including some light character background for NPC’s and a nice map, although it doesn’t provide much in the way of atmospheric description. The second part includes the rest of the key to the maps published previously, a map of the area around the city (Greater Quivia), and a family tree for significant NPC’s."

Name: The Barrow of Guthrun the Great 
Date: 1979.2

Author: Ye Phantom
Publisher: Trollcrusher #16
Type: Tomb (I should be keeping count)
Notes on date: As above
Notes: A very short simple scenario. The good - one door "leads to life" another "to death" - which are a dead (safe) monster and a live monster respectively. The bad - "The party, entering this room, will surprise a fiendish kobold assaulting a beauteous maiden. The kobold will expire at the first hit whereupon the girl will rush to her rescuer, embrace him and (Aaaargh!!) excude Green Slime over him. She will then rot away into a pile of rancide mould." Andy writes "Credited to the pseudonym Ye Phantom, this two-page mini dungeon is a basic plug and play scenario with a dozen rooms and a monster in each room. It’s very much the sort of piece that might have been acceptable a year or so earlier but it’s a scant effort when compared to the developing standards of material published over the previous twelve months."

We have some interesting contemporaneous remarks in Trollcrusher #16 from Brian Asbury of Mini-dungeons versus solo adventures:

Name: Pyramid of Ra-Dok
Date: 1979.3
Author: Patrick Westfall
Publisher: The Dungeoneer #10
Type: Pyramid/Tomb
Notes on date: On the TOC
Notes: A pyramid is really just yet another tomb. Fairly minimal key - some literally monster stats + treasure. Occasional bits which could have been something - "almost dead burglar (ungrateful)". Andy writes: "At this point The Dungeoneer was a Judges Guild production, which makes the quality of this scenario disappointing. The Dungeoneer was by now printed in an 8.5” x 11” format with a glossy colour cover and newsprint style paper. The scenario, although it has adequate maps and an introduction, is little more than a series of rooms with creature stats. If you look back at Judges Guild scenarios like Tegel Manor, though, this is pretty consistent with their approach at this time: nice production values for the period, but much of the scenario is just a list of monsters and magic objects with no regard to creating a consistent theme or atmosphere."

Name: The Legend of Old Jerol
Date: 1979.4
Author: Charlie Krank
Publisher: Different Worlds #2
Type: Sample Adventure. Manor + Dungeon
Notes on date: Date is from assuming it was bimonthly (as it claims in the TOC) and projecting back one issue. Only date in it is artwork dated 1979.2.
Notes: It is system less but it’s got d6 and d20 and it’s got a dungeon so clearly D&D not T&T or Runequest. As it is system-less, in stark contrast to the last scenario, it has no stats and very few monsters. Every room has a description which attempts to be engaging and gameable. Zenopus commented below about cross-influences - "I note some influence of Holmes' Sample Dungeon, both in concept (sample dungeon for beginner's) and details (e.g., mysterious outsider builds a home on a hill outside town)."

Name: Under the Storm Giant’s Castle
Date: 1979.4
Author: Thomas A. McCloud
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG93)
Type: Competition Winner, Dungeon.
Notes on date: “New” in JGJ W. See Dungeoneer #11 for what the cover picture was actually for!
Notes: Infamous for two reasons - it has an extremely misleading cover, and it has some rather silly monsters - Balloon People. What should be remembered, however, is that it is a competition entry from April 1978, and when compared to modules from that period it above average, in addition it is clearly far better than any of the other competition entries, and lastly this module has several innovative ideas. The best aspect to it is the "dungeon in a cloud" aspect, complete with internal weather, themed traps and monsters. Mine it for ideas if nothing else!

Name: Pool of the Standing Stones
Date: 1979.4
Author: Bill Howard
Publisher: White Dwarf #12
Type: Dungeon
Notes on date: On the cover
Notes: The map of the pool itself doubles as a great illustration, so I've shown that in preference to the less interesting dungeon (drawn in the same style as The Lichway). This is a proper adventure in the same style, and is a real stand-out of the year so far. Zenopus points out another connection in a comment - Bill Howard was a player in Don Turnbull's Greenlands Dungeon (1977.12) - see Chimera #48 p34.

Name: The Official AD&D Coloring Album
Date: 1979.4
Author: Gary Gygax
Type: Board Game
Publisher: Troubador Press
Notes on date: According to 2 Warps To Neptune it was released just before the James Dallas Egbert III case which was August 1979. So perhaps EnWorld is correct that it was April
Notes: The album is very strange. Interspersed with the colouring pages it has a story, but at the bottom is rules for a dungeon crawl boardgame. The board is a 3D map, which has a key as well as the monsters being drawn on the map. This is the first appearance of a 3D map, but monsters drawn on the map we saw before with the Dungeon Hobby Shop advert in July 1977. What we also saw in July 1977 was the Holmes Basic introductory adventure - and this is that map redrawn! 

THE BEHOLDER

The next scenario appears in the first issue of The Beholder. Andy writes about the zine: "Not only was it the first to be published in what was to become the most regular and longest running UK amateur fanzine, but it was the first competition dungeon to feature in such a zine. The Beholder arrived on the scene at a time when the hobby was growing significantly and the quality level of amateur fanzines was on the rise. Scenarios were more common as a central component of magazines, and The Beholder included at least one scenario in every issue. This commitment to including scenarios, the quality of the material and presentation (the editors would retype and sometimes illustrate most of the submissions sent to them), and the reliable publication schedule, would help make it one of the most successful zines of this period.

With respect to the Competition Dungeon concept, as the editors explained in the introduction to the scenario (click to embiggen):

After Issue 4, The Beholder expanded into more conventional dungeon and wilderness scenarios rather than just the competition format, but the quality of the content remained very high. 

The Beholder also included playtest write-ups of their scenarios from time to time (an approach begun by Underworld Oracle), usually in a subsequent issue rather than the one that the scenario was published in.

One final note: Guy and Mike organized competition dungeons at UK conventions that attendees could sign up to compete in. I was one of the DM’s for a competition they ran at Games Day IV or V IIRC, but I don’t possess a copy of the scenarios, just some notes for DM’s that came with it."

Name: The Pyrus Complex
Date: 1979.4
Author: Michael Stoner & Guy Duke
Publisher: The Beholder #1
Type: Competition Dungeon
Notes on Date: The Grognard Files says they probably appear monthly from about April 79. In Demonsblood #1 it says BH will be monthly "with the first due in April".
Notes: Andy writes: "The Pyrus Complex includes not just a well-drawn map and detailed room descriptions, but also the promised pre-rolled characters, a scoring table for the Competition Points, and, in what may be a first, a diagram of a special trap in a room in the dungeon. Interestingly, this scenario includes the Mite creature from the recently published Fiend Folio, and the Barbarian character class. The editors acknowledge the use of these in a comment in the scenario in Beholder issue 2 “We gratefully acknowledge the inclusion of the Mite and Barbarian character class in Issue 1 of the Beholder from the White Dwarf Fiend Factory.”  This demonstrates an increasing willingness at this time for designers to adopt and use monsters, magical items, and character classes that were not part of what might be considered the mainstream (i.e., not included in the D&D rulebooks). White Dwarf was a popular magazine at the time, but not all gamers who might pick up the Beholder and play this scenario would necessarily have access to the relevant White Dwarf issue." We also saw this cross-referencing of other magazines and fanzines a couple of months earlier in Morkendaine - so there is a trend. The earliest diagram of a trap I have seen is surprisingly late - White Dwarf #10 just a few months earlier in Dec 1978 - and this appears to be the first which is incorporated into an adventure. EDIT: In addition, scenarios in The Beholder offer XP for achieveing tasks instead of getting gold or killing monsters - such as "Gamble with an Elephant in the Mite's treasury" which is worth 150xp. This is the earliest I've seen this concept.

Name: The Domeigns of Bellamy
Date: 1979.4
Author: Marc Tyrrell
Publisher: The Apprentice #4
Type: Dungeon

Notes on date: "Spring 1979" on the cover, so adding 3 months to the last issue.
Notes: The fanzine starts with an editorial complaining about Gary Gygax's comments in The Dragon #22. Update on the stpry from David Berman from his website "So there’s a crazy story that follows on this where said 16-year-old magazine-publishing high school student meets said Dungeons-and-Dragons creator at a gaming con and they debate it out in front of a small mob…" The dungeon map itself is a cross-section again (as per issues #1 and #2). It's not got much in it - it's mostly a monster-fest but only about half the rooms have monsters, and half of them are Oozes and Slimes. It half wants to be a deadly tomb, but with Armchairs and reminder notes to buy lemons(!) it undercuts that vibe.

So that brings us to the end of April - a slightly shorter set as it's not feasible for me to sustain getting through 30 scenarios a week! So I'm cutting back to about 15 per blog entry, like there were at the start. You may think I've missed a couple - but Underworld Oracle #7 wasn't published until September, and whereas Demonsblood #2 is also usually dated to April 1974, issue #1 states that the submission date for #2 is April 28th, so it must have been May.

The prize for the first third of 1979? Controversially perhaps, I'm awarding it to The Legend of Old Jerol by Charlie Krank. I'd never heard of it before I started researching this series, and I would normally dismiss out of hand a short sample adventure in a magazine article. It's a great introductory adventure, in the new style. It's themeatic and atmospheric, and is a good introduction for DMs to write their own. Charlie Krank went on to work for Chaosium for many years, and is most famous as the designer of their card game Mythos.

Thanks again to Andy and Guy for their help.

Link to Part V