Friday, April 19, 2019

Recaps & Roundups part 7: The Strategic Review #1


In early 1975, TSR launched its first magazine, The Strategic Review. It was intended not only to support Dungeons & Dragons and TSR's other game lines, but also to cover the wargaming hobby in general. The first issue is only six pages in length, so it shouldn't take too long to cover. I'll tackle it article by article, ignoring those that have no relevance to D&D.

TSR News: It's noted that TSR has just acquired the rights to Don't Give Up the Ship, Tractics and (most importantly to this blog) Chainmail. A third edition of Chainmail is said to be arriving soon.

Supplements for D&D are also said to be a high priority, and the first will be arriving some time before GenCon (held in August). Supplement I: Greyhawk is believed to have been first printed in March, so they made the date handily.

Creature Feature: The Mind Flayer makes its first appearance.

Castle & Crusade by Gary Gygax: Gary defends to ineffectiveness of the spear in Chainmail with some historical context. He also promises a more detailed breakdown of polearms.

Solo Dungeon Adventures by Gary Gygax (with special thanks to George Lord): This is a series of random tables for creating solo dungeon adventures. I may use this in the Ultimate Sandbox as a dungeon that is always random, or perhaps a cursed demi-plane that is one huge, ever-shifting labyrinth.

No comments:

Post a Comment