I'm not going to jump right back into the Ultimate Sandbox though. I figured that, with such a lengthy break, it would be a good time to quickly recap what I've covered so far, hit up some semi-official products that I've missed, and consolidate the various campaign details as they would stand as of the release of the Players Handbook (the last product I covered). And so, onward, with a look at the 1st edition of Chainmail.
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| Cover by Don Lowry |
All of this brought Gygax to the attention of Guidon Games, and they hired him to develop a medieval miniatures wargame for publication in March 1971. During the process of rewriting the rules as Chainmail, Gygax added the Fantasy Supplement as an addendum, and Dungeons & Dragons was partway conceived.
At this point I'm going to run through the various fantasy elements that Chainmail introduces that were brought forward into D&D. It should be noted here that I don't have any access to a copy of the 1st edition; I'm working purely on knowledge gleaned through research, so if anything here is incorrect or misleading, please let me know.
New Monsters and Races
- Hobbits (although it's noted that they have little place in a wargame)
- Sprites
- Pixies (identical to sprites)
- Dwarves
- Gnomes (equated with dwarves, although they have a special hatred for kobolds rather than goblins)
- Goblins
- Kobolds (equated with goblins, but with a hatred for gnomes rather than dwarves)
- Elves
- Fairies (equated with elves)
- Orcs
- Wraiths (Nazgul are included as a specific example)
- Werebears
- Werewolves
- Trolls
- Ogres
- Balrogs
- Giants
- Ents
- Dragons (red dragons are covered in detail, while white, black, blue and green are all mentioned as possibilities)
- Purple Worms (mentioned in passing as purple or mottled dragons, but the description fits the purple worm exactly)
- Rocs (said to be equal to the eagles of Tolkien)
- Wyverns (equated to Rocs)
- Griffons (equated to Rocs)
- Elementals (Air, Earth, Fire and Water)
- Djinn (equated to air elementals)
- Efreet (equated to fire elementals)
- Basilisks
- Cockatrices (equated to Basilisks; both creatures are recommended only under specific circumstances)
- Chimerea (not the specific monster, but a catch-all for similar types such as griffons, wyverns, hippogriffs, etc.)
- Hippogriffs (mentioned in passing under Chimerea)
- Giant Spiders and Insects
- Wights
- Ghouls (equated to wights)
New Character Types
- Heroes and Anti-Heroes (presented here as being equal to "four figures" in battle)
- Super Heroes (twice as powerful as heroes)
- Wizards
- Combination hero-wizards are mentioned as a possibility, with Elric of Melnibone given as an example.
New Spells
- Invisibility (extrapolated from the wizard's special ability to become invisible)
- Infravision (extrapolated from the wizard's ability to see in the dark)
- Protection from Normal Missiles (extrapolated from the wizard's immunity to non-magical missile fire)
- Dispel Magic (extrapolated from the wizard's counter-spell ability; it's not a perfect fit, bit it's the best option from early D&D)
- Fire Ball
- Lightning Bolt
- Phantasmal Forces
- Darkness
- Wizard Light (probably becomes Light, but at this point it only dispells darkness)
- Detection (a mash-up of Detect Invisibility and Detect Magic)
- Concealment
- Conjuration of an Elemental
New Magic Items
- Magic Swords
- Enchanted Arrows
- Magic Armor
Other Rule Elements
- The Law-Neutral-Chaos alignment axis is established, though only as a guide for which creature types fight for which side
Rules that could fill gaps in D&D
- Turn sequence/initiative
- Terrain effects on movement
- Movement in different types of armour
- Fatigue
- Missile fire rules
- Catapults
- Morale
- Weather
- Mass combat in general
- Sieges
- Jousting
- Parrying
- Multiple attacks when fighting with a much faster weapon than your opponent
Details and conjecture relevant to the Ultimate Sandbox
- Mass combat as a whole implies that there are wars being fought, and that PCs might get involved in them.
- The list of monsters and troop types are those most commonly found on D&D battlefields (though hobbits, basilisks and cockatrices are called out as being unusual).
- Wizards can use magic weapons (with swords and arrows given as the only examples), and their spell-casting doesn't line up exactly with D&D magic-users, so I've posited the existence of specialist battle-mages to cover those differences.
- Dwarves and goblins have a mutual hatred.
- Gnomes and kobolds have a mutual hatred.
- Elves have an invisibility power and are said to be armed with magic swords, so I'm going to say that elven hosts arrayed for war will always be wearing elven cloaks and wielding magic swords.
- Orcs are said to be over-grown goblins, so there's some relation there.
- Five clans of orcs are given here: Orcs of the Red Eye, Orcs of Mordor, Orcs of the Mountains, Orcs of the White Hand, and Isengarders. These all have enmity with each other. This is all very Tolkien, and I'm extrapolating from that to say that Middle Earth was in the distant past, and those were the five ancient clans that all orcs sprang from.
- Wraiths and wights paralyze rather than level drain, so I'm saying that they're a little weaker on battlefields than in dungeons and other places of evil power.
- The red dragon is classified in Latin as Draco Conflagratio or Draco Horribilis, so I'm positing the existence of a similar language of antiquity that was used to classify monsters.
- Dragons in Chainmail can refresh their breath weapons more often than their D&D counterparts, so they are probably more vital than their dungeon-dwelling, treasure-hoarding brethren.
- Purple worms being classified as dragons could be chalked up to a sage's error, or it could be the result of a dragon who has no treasure to sleep on.
- Werewolves and werebears generally don't fight alongside animals of their were-type in D&D, but it could be that the Chainmail variety are of a more ancient and powerful breed, or that it's due to the environment. It's only possible in Chainmail when there are woods present, after all.
- Odin's spear and Thor's hammer are mentioned under magic weapons, pointing to the existence of at least the Norse pantheon
- Excalibur is also mentioned, which is perhaps trickier to incorporate.
- Magic weapons are listed as exclusive to the side of Law, which suggests that they're only available in large quantities to that side, probably via the elves.
I thought that post would be shorter, to be honest, but once I get going it's hard to stop me. I'll be back shortly with another Recap & Roundup, this time for Chainmail 2nd edition.
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