Comments on: Homemade D&D module, 1981

By: yeastbeast

yeastbeast — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:21:00 +0000

The editor wrote “This is disgusting” then decided I shouldn’t see it.

By: corydodt

corydodt — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:57:00 +0000

Lots of win here.

By: Michael M. Hughes

Michael M. Hughes — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:38:00 +0000

Oh, man, I love this thread. Here’s my level one adventure, The Catacombs of He Who Never Sleeps:

http://michaelmhughes.com/wordpress/?p=170

By: Mikey

Mikey — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:43:00 +0000

Thanks! I used to keep yellow construction paper just to make those little banners. :)

By: Mikey

Mikey — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:42:00 +0000

Thanks, Monte!

By: Timothy D Little

Timothy D Little — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:34:00 +0000

That really brought back alot of good memories of playing AD@D all weekend and waiting by the mail box each month for my new issue of Dragon to come in. Truly wonderful days those were.

By: MooseDesign

MooseDesign — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:27:00 +0000

Those are awesome! Love the colors and the cutaways…

By: MooseDesign

MooseDesign — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:24:00 +0000

OK, will do! I’ll probably need to disassemble them since the booklet ones were stapled along the spine (yes, I made spines) in order to scan them without damaging the pages. But this post made me go back and dig them up and have another good laugh… I even included the TSR logo with some ludicrous adventure names like, “Stone Death” and “The Sanctuary of Zeus”.

By: Tim H

Tim H — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:21:00 +0000

That’s fantastic! I’m confused about the White-Out, was that what was disgusting? Please consider scanning your manuscript for the arhive.

By: Tim H

Tim H — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:19:00 +0000

The particular charm in Habitition is that it so clearly apes the style of the modules. The method of delivery is so considered…

By: Tim H

Tim H — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:18:00 +0000

If you come by please be sure introduce yourself, NYC is full of awesome gamer types and I’m always looking to meet more.

By: Tim H

Tim H — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:17:00 +0000

The cruder the better! There is no shame!

By: Tim H

Tim H — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:16:00 +0000

Hi MooseDesign, if these are in imitation of a module I’d love to see them. If you’d like to scan them for inclusion on plagmada.org it’s usually a 300dpi jpg. Email me at the contact, submissions@plagmada.org and we can discuss some other things…

By: Spriggan_Prime

Spriggan_Prime — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:25:00 +0000

If WotC didn’t burn TSR’s old files I’m sure Hasbro torched ‘em when they bought WotC.

By: Ceronomus

Ceronomus — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:45:00 +0000

Please do MooseDesign. Lots of us would LOVE to see them.

By: yeastbeast

yeastbeast — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:59:00 +0000

I, too, would make my own D&D modules and monsters, sending them to Dungeon Magazine and Dragon Magazine, respectively. My proudest creation— the Petroll, a combustible humanoid created by a fire-obsessed archmage for use as a walking siege weapon– came back with rejected with a smudge of White-Out on the manuscript. Underneath the White-Out I made out the words “This is disgusting.” I still have the manuscript.

By: RainyRat

RainyRat — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:52:00 +0000

Ah, fond memories here. I remember turning in a “choose your own adventure” story for standard grade English. And having a cool English teacher.

By: Dicrel Seijin

Dicrel Seijin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:19:00 +0000

This brings a smile to my face.

I’ll have to consider donating my material (if I can find it). Though I think the only material that has survived my various moves are the ones from college (since they’re mixed up with my other papers).

By: monte

monte — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:12:00 +0000

So cool!

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:58:00 +0000

It has another purpose now?

By: mwschmeer

mwschmeer — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:42:00 +0000

I threw the images in a PDF & a CBZ you can grab from here:

http://rendedpress.blogspot.com/2012/01/plagmada-hosts-fan-module-from-1981.html

By: mwschmeer

mwschmeer — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:41:00 +0000

You can grab PDFs of WEBMikey’s two Mini Modules here:

http://rendedpress.blogspot.com/2012/01/even-more-goodness-from-1981.html

By: Avram Grumer

Avram Grumer — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:52:00 +0000

I don’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved that my own crudely typed and illo’d submissions are unlikely to have survived.

By: mat catastrophe

mat catastrophe — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:51:00 +0000

You guys just created your own modules?

I created an entire game and world.

(No, really. I did. Not sure why. I’m pretty sure it was crap.)

By: YamaraTheGod

YamaraTheGod — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:46:00 +0000

Cory, it would be Hasbro who wound up with TSR properties, but it is unlikely that submissions sent to Lake Geneva would have survived.

Back in the early ’90s I remember phone conversations with Dragon magazine editors about the nightmare of independent submissions. In the early years they would very often get identical ideas in the mail, and feel unable to use either, so they stopped accepting them. Unless you sent an SASE with submission paperwork signed, it was likely trashed unopened.

Tim, this is an amazing project. I can say authoritatively that Yamara herself would heartily approve. I will see if I can attend your playtest tomorrow night, it sounds intriguing.

By: MooseDesign

MooseDesign — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:33:00 +0000

I have all the Basic and AD&D dungeons I designed, and created art for as a kid filed neatly away in the filing cabinet… perhaps I should scan? They are pretty hilarious, but I really did go the whole way with them in imitating a proper module with art, loads and loads of maps, and detailed descriptions of each room and creature or secret… Not as much storytelling as I would want now, but still lots of fun to look back over with adult eyes.

By: Stefan Jones

Stefan Jones — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:54:00 +0000

I churned out reams of dungeon levels back in the day. I threw most of the stuff out before moving out of my parents house in the mid 90s.

By the time of AD&D, I was writing stuff professionally, for various magazines and smaller publishers.

By: WaylonWillie

WaylonWillie — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:10:00 +0000

Neat! This makes me wish I had my Zork maps…..

By: kartwaffles

kartwaffles — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:05:00 +0000

In junior high, graph paper had only one true purpose: dungeon maps.

By: Mikey

Mikey — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:04:00 +0000

Thanks so much, Tim!