A Complete Timeline of Early D&D Scenarios IX: 1979 September-October

We're rounding the final corner now with this penultimate set of scenarios. This is an unusual set as it's two-thirds fanzines and one-third Judges Guild with just one other entry - a tournament that was published many years later by TSR. There are no small press publications, but this is no doubt because the small press items are very difficult to date, and there are several '79 scenarios which I have no month for so they are listed at the end of the year. 

This is the ninth installment of my series listing all of the D&D scenarios published in the 1970s. I hope by collecting them all in order it will allow developments, trends and influences to be identified- at the end I will write posts covering these various aspects. 

Since two-thirds of this selection of scenarios come from fanzines, here's another piece of Paul Blackwell's amazing fanzine art to put us in the mood (his work really deserves to be collected together and republished), this time from Demonsblood #4:

Note that if you click on any image it will be shown larger in a pop up, and you can quickly scroll through all the images in the post with cursor keys.

Name: Deep Dwarven Delve
Date: 1979.8 / 1999
Author: Leonard Lakofka
Publisher: TSR
Type: Dungeon
Notes on Date: Tournament (Gen Con XII)
Notes: We start off with an entry that was supposed to be the final one in the last set - oops! Len's comments at Dragonsfoot indicate that DDD came from his campaign, but it is 80% the same as his original draft for TSR (which got dropped in the early 80s), which is not necessarily the same as the tournament version. (Ironically he wanted to publish a rewrite, which would be non-authentic and of less interest, but this was lost). Dwarven Delve was supposedly played at Gen Con XII - but I can't find any original sources for this (I'd be grateful if anyone could provide info). When asked by James in an interview at Grognardia Len said he didn't keep any of his tournament scenarios, so what was played, and how much this matched the published scenario is very unclear.

When it was published, it was part of the 25th Anniversary Box, so that makes originals extremely expensive - but reprints/pdfs are for sale unlike some other collectibles.
So what about the scenario itself? It is extremely linear in nature, which fits in with it being a tournament adventure (and at this point in time the only linear scenarios have been tournaments). The keys are mostly monster+treasure and/or trap with a thin veneer of flavour text (and this likely much expanded from the original). There is a kill-the-party trap at the end, so it definitely has a *lot* in common with other scenarios from this period so is likely authentic, but sadly not of great interest as it is neither truly authentic, nor a great adventure.

Name: Operation Ogre
Date: 1979.9 / 1979.10
Author: Michael Mayeau
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG109)
Type: Tournament (1979 Pacificon), Dungeon
Notes on Date: It says the tournament on the cover. The publication date is inferred from it being available in JGJ Z
Notes: See Judges Guild Journal 18 for the Tournament results. I bought this module in the early 80s and was so disappointed I sold it. Once again JG gave it a cover which has nothing to do with the scenario (it is not an Ice Ogre on the cover) which is a recurring issue for Judges Guild. I was then very disappointed that only a third of the module is the scenario - there is a *lot* of filler including 3 pages of random art. If you can get past these issues, then the dungeon is less linear than Dwarven Deep Delve and the key is a lot more interesting than Michael's previous entry (The Dragon Crown).

Name: Micro Dungeon
Date: 1979.9
Author: Uncredited
Publisher: The Beholder #6
Type: Dungeon, mini-scenario
Notes on Date: The Beholder was published monthly, this is "the September issue", but it is expected to be available at Dragonmeet II which was 25th August so perhaps the dates should be moved back a month.
Notes: Billed as "Bidding for the coveted 'smallest mini-dungeon of the year' award" (which I think was won by last month's The Bath-House of the Pharaoh), this is a one-page dungeon. Bet ya didn't know the one-page-dungeon contest had such a long pedigree! This is a kobold lair where the kobolds are out to win. Andy Ravenscroft notes "It’s a basic but playable little piece, a bit old school, and the map is a simple sketch. Uncredited, it doesn’t seem like the work of either of the two editors who often published their own scenarios in Beholder."

Name: Of Brae-land and Wold
Date: 1979.9
Author: Mike Stoner and Guy Duke
Publisher: The Beholder #6
Type: Wilderness and Towns
Notes on Date: See above
Notes: This is very obviously Tolkien with the names changed - but plausible deniability is lost when the intro gives the game away "A rather obvious analogy can be made between this scenario and JRR Tolkein’s description of Bree-land, Midgewater and Weathertop. However I have had to alter the relevant names as suitable permission has not been received at the time of going to press to make use of Tolkien’s ideals.".

Andy writes - "The setup is interesting, as the players are given a task to gather and destroy three evil forces which have brought the area to an evolutionary standstill. Featuring as it does Black Riders (wraiths), treants, hobgoblins and giant eagles - but curiously no orcs - Tolkien fans will enjoy the theme and the substituted names such as the Hopping Hare Inn and the travel worn wanderer known as Wayfarer (a Ranger, naturally). There are a lot of descriptive elements in the scenario, and some thought has been put into the escalating appearances of the forces of darkness which will make the players' task more difficult the longer they take to accomplish it."

Name: Halls of Testing (Tumblers)
Date: 1979.9
Author: Uncredited but probably Lou Nisbet
Publisher: Underworld Oracle #7
Type: Halls of Testing, Dungeon
Notes on Date: It only says "Sept" on the cover. It says they have had problems getting a magazine out for over a year, so it must be late '79 (this fits in with comments in The Beholder #8 Oct '79)
Notes: The seventh (and final) issue of Underworld Oracle came out after a delay of over a year. It changed format to A4 and had a colour cover, clearly aiming to become more professional (such as offering better terms for contributors) but it was the last issue.

Hence this is the last Underworld Oracle Halls of Testing, but it was not the last Halls of Testing. The map is moderately sophisticated (and not purely linear like the earliest HOT), and the scenario is full of Tumbler-themed trials, but it belongs to an earlier period, with many monster + treasure rooms, some killer traps, and a puzzle aimed at the players (not the characters). 

Andy writes - "On the inside back page of the zine there’s a thumbnail image of a zine cover and a blurb that says “As illustrated, the Oracle has brought out a special, collected edition of the complete Halls of Testing. This contains new Trolls adventures, new monsters as well as all the Halls laid out in an easy reference format for the D/M. Interspaced with blank sheets for note-taking to allow the changes that most D/M’s prefer to make to personalise the games to fit into their own campaigns.” I’ve never seen a copy of the Collected Halls of Testing, there’s nothing to be found referencing it online, and I wonder if it was ever distributed."

Name: Halls of Testing (Clerics)
Date: 1979.9
Author: David Flin
Publisher: Demonsblood #4
Type: Halls of Testing, Dungeon
Notes on Date: The previous issue had the copy date for this as 1st Sept.
Notes: In all but one respect this Halls of Testing is stylistic a copy of the earliest Halls of Testing - except that it includes a side-view of a trap (including this in a scenario was a very recent innovation). Andy writes - "This issue of Demonsblood featured a Hall of Testing for Clerics, rounding out the Halls that had featured in Underworld Oracle with the last remaining ‘standard’ character class. UO was defunct by this time, and it’s not clear if this was originally intended for publication in that magazine. The Clerics hall is thin on description and has a simple map, but the same principles as the previous halls apply - only one character is permitted to enter and must be level 1."

Name: Village of Loutha
Date: 1979.9
Author: Brian Dolton
Publisher: Demonsblood #4
Type: Village
Notes on Date: See above
Notes: The first half of the article is a description of how Brian (the editor) runs his Wilderness campaign (large Dungeons are verboten), with the scenario more as an example to illustrate. It is of note that Brian does print two dungeons by other authors in the same issue. Andy writes - "Brian Dolton was the editor and publisher of Demonsblood as well as a contributor to other UK fanzines such as Trollcrusher. His contributions to his own magazine included discussion of his campaign of Lwym-an-Esh and this issue included the village of Loutha from that campaign. It’s a small village with a few buildings of the type you’d expect - Carpentry, Smithy, Butcher, for example - and the scenario includes detail on the inhabitants as well as a short description of the history of the village."

Name: Clearwater Caverns
Date: 1979.9
Author: Andy Ravenscroft
Publisher: Demonsblood #4
Type: Dungeon
Notes on Date: See above
Notes: Andy Ravenscroft - who has provided photos and commentary for many of the fanzines in this list - started contributing to fanzines in the late 70's, and of his three published scenarios, this (his first) was published early enough to make it into the list itself. It's in a naturalistic style, with a map that emulates a real network of caves, and it is populated with appropriate monsters (wolves, vampire bats, troglodytes, giant eel etc). The scenario says it connects to a much larger set of caves called The Endless Cavern, but that was never published.

Name: Village Book II
Date: 1979.10
Author: Bryan Hinnen, Mark Holmer, Mitch Johnson
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG104)
Type: Maps
Notes on Date: It “is coming along” in JGJ Y, but available in Z
Notes: It is only 16 months since Village Book I came out, but the world has moved on greatly. The maps in this volume are much improved compared to the first (they are a different set of cartographers), but I still found these difficult to use in practice - in particular they were generally too small to use for the villages given in the Wilderlands. If you had a much larger stock of villages of various types and locales to call on, then this sort of thing could still be very useful today.

Name: Verbosh
Date: 1979.10
Author: Bill Faust, Paul Nevins
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG108)
Type: Campaign Setting
Notes on Date: Available in JGJ Z
Notes: This is a full campaign setting in a book. It starts with the City of Verbosh, its dungeons, an underwater adventure on a ruined wreck, a wilderness, and various other locations, finishing with the tower shown in the map. It's quite an impressive effort, and the maps and keys are better than many of the earlier Judges Guild modules (in particular they are themed), but it's not that sophisticated.

Name: Mines of Custalcon
Date: 1979.10
Author: Bryan Hinnen
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG111)
Type: Campaign setting
Notes on Date: Instalment Z. 
Notes: Accompanying notes to this in JGJ Z - “The Wilderness Project”. This module is the first in a series , each describing in detail a small area of The Wilderlands. Each of the 24 hexes in this region is given a large scale map, such as the one I've selected to show, giving larger scale detail. Bryan Hinnen also worked on Village Book II, published at the same time, and the village map in this product I think is better (and is a more appropriate size). The villages are described in detail (as per the CSIO) and there's a dungeon. This is a very similar product to Verbosh - I think they've both arrived at the same point independently - a mini-campaign setting to place your old-style dungeons.

Name: Book of Treasure Maps
Date: 1979.10
Author: Jennell Jaquays
Publisher: Judges Guild (JG113)
Type: Collection. Dungeon, Tower, Mini-scenario
Notes on Date: Advert back page Instalment Z.
Notes: I've already written here back in 2015 about how much I loved one of the mini-scenarios published in this collection. With the last three Jaquays scenarios the impression given is that bigger is better; that Jennell's earlier mini-scenarios were just an appetiser for the real thing; and I said that the only problem with The Caverns of Thracia was that it wasn't big enough. Well in this module Jaquays takes a side-step and shows that mini-scenarios are a good end in their own right. Each of the mini-scenarios has a treasure map for the players to find as a hook, which makes them extremely easy to drop into an existing campaign. They're each individually great and are flavourful and well thought out. Every DM should own a copy of this! 

Name: The Mythos of Har
Date: 1979.10
Author: Steven Brandt
Publisher: Judges Guild Journal Z
Type: Dungeon
Notes on Date: Competition (1st Place Medium Dungeon)
Notes: In the same issue that the third annual dungeon competition is announced, we have another prize-winner from the 2nd competition.
The Mythos of Har is 21 pages long - twice as long as the actual adventure in Operation Ogre. It is very... unusual. I don't really understand it yet! The dungeon is some sort of mystical underworld, each level having some purpose. The first level contains lots of "Evils" with random tables of nasty consequences should they escape, and from then on it gets stranger. This is extremely odd and unlike anything else - green slime squirting from human skulls, gems that turn into giant ants when placed in your backpack, poison that turns you into a killer in your sleep.

Name: Goblin Complex
Date: 1979.10
Author: Mike Stoner and Guy Duke
Publisher: The Beholder #7
Type: Dungeon
Notes on Date: It's monthly so we infer it's October
Notes: Andy writes - "A return to the ‘straight’ dungeon format (as opposed to the wilderness scenarios in previous issues), this dungeon is intended for a half dozen 3rd level characters and is inhabited by goblins, hobgoblins, ogres and a small dragon. As was often the case with scenarios by these designers there are helpful notes on how DM’s can customize the dungeon for their own player groups and general suggestions on how to be a good DM. 

The scenario also comes with notes for DM’s on resolving situations not covered in the existing AD&D rules. The time lag between the publication of the AD&D Monster Manual and Players Handbook and then the DM’s Guide caused a fair amount of confusion. The designers note that they “haven’t seen the DM’s Handbook (it isn’t out yet) so it is quite possible that situations covered below are covered 'officially'". 

Name: Smugglers' Lair
Date: 1979.10
Author: Richard A Fox
Publisher: Trollcrusher #19
Type: Dungeon
Notes on Date: It's after games day, so must be at least October. It says it's bimonthly so that would also mean October.
Notes: Richard introduces this dungeon with "As mini-dungeons seem to be the in-thing" - they were indeed. This is only a 2-page dungeon, and despite the lo-fi map it is not just themed but is a reasonably believable smuggler's lair. The design is interesting - for example, the main way in given for players is a back-entrace through an underground pool, or there is the smuggler's entrance (accessible by boats only). Extra interest is given with prisoners, appropriate monsters for the caves, and a small tribe of lizardmen. Not bad!

Name: Gladiatorial School Testing Tunnels (The Sfhirigian Scrolls)
Date: 1979.10
Author: J Bennett
Publisher: Trollcrusher #19
Type: Halls of testing
Notes on Date: See above
Notes: Although not billed as a Halls of Testing, this scenario is very much in that vein - but far more believeable. As far as I know, this is the last Halls of Testing. It is presented as part of a new Gladiator class, and is integral to the class. Anyone wanting to switch classes to be a Gladiator must survive the testing tunnels to be accepted. Andy writes - "The scenario itself doesn’t have much relevance to gladiatorial skills as described in the character class (the use of net and trident), being a pretty straightforward set of rooms with kobolds, orcs, goblins and a couple of fighters." 

Name: The House of Thievery
Date: 1979.10
Author: Philip Mochan
Publisher: Spectre #2
Type: Mansion + Dungeon
Notes on Date: Allan says "presumably Oct-Nov 1979 since it was ~2 months late and was supposed to be out on 31 August 1979"
Notes: This is a reaonably well developed naturalistic ancient ruined house re-occupied by Thieves and Orcs. The rooms are described in some detail, and even the strange D&Disms (a noise under a bed turns out to be a bird demon trapped in a box under a trapdoor) are nicely done.

Name: The Appleland Groves Part 1 (The Dreaming Caverns)
Date: 1979.10
Author: Unknown - possibly the editor, Scott (no last name given)
Publisher: Spectre #2
Type: Comedy dungeon
Notes on Date: As above
Notes: From the name you wouldn't guess that this is a comedy beatles-themed adventure (Apple Records + Pepperland = Appleland). For wandering monsters it boasts Lovely Rita and Blue Meanies, and at the top left of the map you'll find... 
...a yellow submarine. For a comedy dungeon it's a pleasant surprise to find such a nice map, in particular the stairs/slopes up/down are marked in a new and interesting way - tapering.

Name: The Volcanic Vaults of Vahrnok
Date: 1979.10
Author: David Berman?
Publisher: The Apprentice #6
Type: Unknown
Notes on Date: It says "Autumn 1979" on the contents page.
Notes: This is the second (and last) scenario for which I have no map or key - just a cover image. I think that's pretty good going out of 200 scenarios - less than 1%. If anyone who owns a copy of this I'd be very grateful for an image of the map and a page of the key so it can be properly covered in the list. The only thing I have is an image of the contents which gives the name but not the author.

 

And the winner for this selection is...

Well, it won't come as a surprise to regular readers that Jennell Jaquays has it once more, this time for The Book of Treasure Maps. This was the first scenario I ever had of Jaquays', having bought it and fell in love with it back in the early eighties. When I finally ran The Tomb of Aethering the Damned, it more than lived up to my expectations and we all had a very memorable time.

Well, the next installment is the last (don't cry). Amongst others, it's got one very famous module in it (which I've loved since the early 80's) and a couple of extremely strange entries to round off the decade. After that I can finally get round to discussing what we can learn from this list about the development of D&D.

For this selection of scenarios I'd like to thank Andy Ravenscroft, Guy Fullerton, and Allan Grohe for their help in providing photos, info, and observations.

Link to Part VIII