The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977

 

Dungeons & Dragons: The  Making of  Original Dungeons & Dragons came out in 2024 and was written by Jon Peterson. It is a massive tome with high quality production. I finally picked up a copy. 

The book contains the following:

• The complete original version of OD&D including Tolkien's terms such as Hobbit and Balrog
• The complete text from OD&D supplement 1, 2 and 3.
• Parts of Chainmail and Strategic Review
• Extracts from Corner of the Table (Dave Arneson's newsletter
• Extracts from the Domesday Book (the C&C Society newsletter)
• Letters exchanged between Dave and Gary
• The complete text of an early draft of the OD&D rules
• Commentaries by Jon Peterson

 

As a friend of mine pointed out, much of this material has already been circulating on the web in addition to the books that many hard core fans will have, but it is still nice to have everything in one place. The commentaries by Jon Peterson are insightful as and useful as always. 

D.H Boggs has good review on his blog where he points out that some documents that are mentioned in the book but not included could have been very useful, especially if one wants to explore the often overlooked Dave Arneson side of the story.

-Havard

How the Paynim became the Afridhi

I have previously looked at how Dave Arneson picked up the bare bones setting presented by Gary Gygax in the Domesday Book fanzine and turned it into a full roleplaying world for his Blackmoor Campaign. Over at the Comeback Inn we have been discussing whether some of the antagonists of Dave Arneson's Campaign could have had their roots in the C&C Setting as well?

The main enemies of Blackmoor were the Egg of Coot and the Temple of the Frog, creations of Arneson and his players alone. But there was another group that could go back to the Domesday Book. Domesday Book #9 establishes an enemy of the Great Kingdom called the Paynim Kingdom. Few details are given on the Paynim Kingdom except that they have a strength of 150% of any of the other kings of the Great Kingdom. Paynim, apparently is a term used in medieval literature to describe Islamic antagonists during the Crusades.

Originally, I thought that references to the Paynim could also include the Peshwa, but I now suspect this is not the case. Greyhawk still has its Plains of the Paymin, but in Blackmoor I suspect that the Paynim evolved into the Afridhi. The FFC mentions The Treasure of the Paynim Princess*. I now believe that the Paynim Princess could be no other than Toska Rusa.

 *=Actually the text in the FFC says "Treasure of the Payme Princess" which could be either a typo or a pun.

How I imagine Toska Rusa, Queen of Afridhi, Mistress of Zugzul.

I have previously discussed how the Afridhi as they became known were further fleshed out when one of MAR Barker's friends took on the role as the Afridhi Queen. This could have been the time when Dave Arneson invented the God Zugzul, patron of the Afridhi. These nomadic invaders were even further fleshed out in DA4 where they are the main antagonists of the adventure, seeking the mysterious Well of Souls. David Ritchie's wife is attributed to providing more detail on Afridhi culture. So even though alot was changed over the years, the Afridhi could have seen their first little spark in the Domesday Book.



Image Source: Nomad Warrior, by N*Deed
Image Source: Barbarian Chick, by Maciej Kuciara

-Havard

Arneson turns C&C Map into RPG World

The Great Kingdom was an attempt by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz to create a "mythical world" for their Castles & Crusades Society. New details of this appear in Jon Peterson's new book, Playing the World. The first mention of the Great Kingdom appeared in the Domesday Book #6 and the map appeared in Domesday Book #9. In this fanzine, Rob Kuntz is referred to as King and Gary Gygax and other members are given other titles.  However, what does this mean in the context of the C&C Society being mainly an organization for Medieval Miniature War Gamers?

For Dave Arneson, however the nature of the map and other details about the society grew to get a deeper meaning. With the Blackmoor Game, the focus shifted from skirmish units and the vague war gaming notion of "Generals" to real flesh and blood characters. The setting Arneson created for these player controlled characters was called Blackmoor of course, but what of the lands beyond the Castle and town?



In the introduction to the original Dungeons & Dragons game, Gary Gygax writes:

'From the map of the "land" of the "Great Kingdom" and environs -- the territory of the C&C Society -- Dave located a nice bog wherein to nest the weird enclave of "Blackmoor," a spot between the "Great Kingdom" and the fearsome "Egg of Coot."'

On his blog, Zenopus examines the exact location of Blackmoor on the map that became the basis for Arneson's campaign and later also the basis for the World of Greyhawk Setting.  In an RPG-like context, the world of the Great Kingdom also gained a new depth. "King" Rob Kuntz was no longer just the leader of the was gaming association, but a character living in this imagined world, controlling the Kingdom. In Arneson's game, the King would sometimes send troops to aid Blackmoor against its many enemies.

Rob Kuntz himself may not have known about this, had it not been for the article Facts About Black Moor by Dave Arneson published in Domesday Book #13. I imagine the editors must have been thrilled to see someone taking their "world" so seriously!

Img Source

More discussion of this article here.

-Havard

C&C Society Setting

In a blog entry from the 20th of Novemer this year, James Maliszewski writes that:

"Both Blackmoor and Greyhawk have at least part of their origins in the Domesday Book map of the Castle & Crusade Society of the International Federation of Wargamers. Issue #13 of that periodical included an early version of Blackmoor, well before OD&D was ever published."

The Castle & Crusade Society was a chapter of the International Federation of Wargamers and was formed in 1968 by Gary Gygax. In the First Fantasy Campaign, Arneson writes that he reserved a remote spot on the IFW's Castle & Crusade map of the Great Kingdom. The Great Kingdom is ofcourse the basis of Greyhawk's Great Kingdom and also the Great Kingdom of Blackmoor, which Dave Ritchie turned into the Empire of Thonmia in the DA series and beyond.

What is known about the original C&C World? At the Acaeum, Rob Kuntz describes how he was listed as King of the Great Kingdom. This is reflected in the Blackmoor timeline even today, as it is stated that Blackmoor was founded by King Robert I of Geneva.

Maliszewski further describes how the C&CS World can still be seen in both Greyhawk and Blackmoor:

"Echoes of this reality can be seen in the existence of a northern realm of Blackmoor within the World of Greyhawk and of a "Great Kingdom" in each -- a formerly good and noble realm that fell to evil and despotism and against which several nations rebelled. Likewise, there's also a Duchy of Ten(h) in each setting, whose name, legend has it, derives from its existence in section 10 of the C&C map, which was parceled into "land grants" to be given to C&C members to develop on their own."

The C&CS World map was roughly based on North America. More information about this setting can probably be learned from the Domesday Book, the C&CS Newsletter. Issue #13 has the first known printed information about Blackmoor.

 

An original map of the town of Blackmoor from #13 of the Domesday Book can be viewed here. A revised version of this map appears in the FFC.





Illustrations: Top: Reworked illustration of the Domesday Book Cover by Kevin Mayle. Bottom: Original Domesday Book #13 cover.



-Havard