Original Scenarios Resurrected II: The Complete Barbarian (1977-79, Brian K. Asbury)

Welcome to the second in the series Original Scenarios Resurrected, wherein D&D scenarios from the 70s are republished with the permission of the authors, usually together with extra contemporaneous material. Today we look to The Barbarian by Brian K. Asbury. For part I see here.

Brian K. Asbury was a prolific writer in the early days of the UK D&D scene. He wrote numerous articles for White Dwarf and other early fanzines and magazines. He devised the Xill (from the Fiend Folio) but is probably best known as the author of "The Asbury System" for awarding XP based upon succesfully using thief skills or casting spells etc (from White Dwarf #5-9) and  - the focus of today's post - the first Barbarian character class.

The Barbarian, which appeared in White Dwarf issue 4 December 1977, was written for OD&D. It was many years before the "official" AD&D Barbarian was published, and Brian's class was very popular (being reprinted in The Best of White Dwarf Articles Volume 1, and even translated into Italian as part  of "The Blue Book"). It is a very atmospheric class, with great abilities including Fearlessness (Fear instead makes them go beserk) and Sensing Danger, whereas the Unearthed Arcana version is rather bland.

But furthermore Brian's Barbarian also had something which the official AD&D version never had - it's own dedicated scenario.

At the time of it's publication, there had just started a popular series of scenarios in the UK fanzine Underworld Oracle called The Halls of Testing. Each Hall was a solo adventure (just one PC with a DM) for a particular class, with the idea being that at the end of the adventure the character should either be dead, or have made it to second level. Halls of Testing for Fighting Men and Magicians had appeared in the second and third issues of Underworld Oracle, so it was only natural that Brian should pen his own Halls of Testing for Barbarians to make it a fully fledged class. This scenario appeared in Underworld Oracle #4 in January '78, just after the class had appeared in White Dwarf.

Brian contributed the Xill to Fiend Folio, so unsurprisingly his Halls of Testing included three new monsters, two illustrated by Brian. The Eagle-Ape in particular has a great ability to Clap its wings together and stun opponents. 

In addition, as was quite common at the time for UK fanzines, the scenario included a Play Test report. I'm unsure how popular these were at the time since, in general, play reports seemed to be frowned upon in fanzines and were soon discontinued. However, for modern readers they provide invaluable insights into how the game was actually played at the time.

In 1978 the AD&D Players Handbook was released, and The Barbarian was suddenly under-powered. An update seemed in order - and one was published in April '79 in White Dwarf #12. In reality the only concession to AD&D was to increase the size of hit dice (in line with most other classes) - but this give the opportunity to clarify some of the Barbarian's abilities and to add a new ability (Hiding in Shadows).

Today I'm glad to say Brian has agreed to let me share The Complete Barbarian, comprising the material from both articles originally published in White Dwarf, together with The Halls of Testing for Barbarians. All material is copyright Brian K. Asbury.

Note: if you have the original Halls of Testing you may notice that two monsters have been removed - this is because they weren't by Brian and had been added in by the editors just to fill up blank space in the article.

Also thanks to Andy Ravenscroft and Guy Fullerton for their assistance.

Bibiliography

'77 - '83 - Trollcrusher #6-#26: Aryxia (a sub-zine), issues I to XVII. Includes the scenario P'teth Tower in two parts.

Dec '77 - White Dwarf #4: The Barbarian - a new Character Class for OD&D

Jan '78 - Underworld Oracle #4: The Halls of Testing for Barbarians

Feb - Aug '78 - White Dwarf #5, #6, #7, #8: The Asbury System - new system for rewarding players XP

Jan? '79 - Demonsblood #1: Psionic Ladybird #1 (a sub-zine)

Feb '79 - White Dwarf #11: Fire-Arms: 3000AD: Weapons additions (for Traveller)

April '79 - White Dwarf #12: The Barbarian - some minor modifications - updating The Barbarian to AD&D

June '79 - White Dwarf #13: The Houri - a new character class for AD&D 

July '79 - Kandroc Keep (Games Publications) - a solitaire adventure

Sept '79 - Chimera #56: The Silly Race Game - rules for a PBM game (played for a few rounds in subsequent issues)

Nov '79 - Demonsblood #5: Psionic Ladybird #2

Jan '80 - Demonsblood #6: Character File (NPC write ups)

Feb '80 - Chimera #61: Review of Becket, a very obscure short RPG from '76/77 by John Withers.

Autumn '80 - The Best of White Dwarf Articles I: reprints of both The Barbarian and The Houri

May '81 - Chimera #64: The Green Flames - a short story

May '81 - Chimera #75: The Scarlet Scarab - a short story

Aug '81 - Fiend Folio: The Xill - a monster Brian complained was changed greatly from his original submission

Dec '83 - Imagine #9: The Purple Parrot - a short story (4 sequels were published in Xenos, collected with an additional story and self-published as "Purple Parables" in 1994 as "Purple Parables". Expanded version published in 2012 on Amazon with 2 more stories and a poem)

'86 - Zut Alors!: A text-adventure game for the ZX-Spectrum, together with a sequel Zut Alors II.

Dragon Isle and Robot Nim for the ZX Spectrum - cover image here