Recaps & Roundups part 50: Judges Guild Installment L (Tegel Manor)

I didn't have anything big planned for hitting a nice round number 50 in this series, but by happenstance it features a famous module, Judges Guild's Tegel Manor. It came as part of Installment K, the fourth sent out to JG subscribers, cover dated April/May 1977. A full list of what was included is as follows:

• JG22 Journal L
• JG23 Tegel Manor and Area Judge's Map (17" x 22")
• JG24 Tegel Manor and Area Player's Map (11" x 17")
• JG25 Booklet L
• JG29 Character Checklist
• JG30 Tegel Manor and Area Judge's Map (11" x 17")

JG22 Journal L

I actually have access to a copy of this journal for a change. It kicks off with an apology, as the last Ready Ref Sheet (Wizard's Guide and Construction Costs) was accidentally left out of the last installment. It actually first shipped with this installment, even though it was supposed to be in Installment K. After that there's a bit about the new format of the newsletter, and then some short articles.

• "Shrewd Slants from the Sagacious Sage" notes that the climate around the City State is much milder than that of northern Europe. It also has a note from Gary Gygax explaining that the "% in Lair" stat for monsters serves as a guideline to determine if a wilderness encounter has happened in the monster's lair.
• "Setting Up a D&D Campaign" by Tom Holsinger gives some advice about that topic, with particular focus on having a unifying theme, and the necessity of having a prior civilisation that has fallen, in order to explain the various ruins and treasure scattered about.  He follows it up with a lot of talk about demographics, food growth, and how that can affect military matters. I've never gone into that sort of stuff in anything more than the barest detail, but it's a basic necessity if you want a campaign to make a lick of sense. I won't get into any of Holsinger's specifics, but I will keep this article in mind if I ever need to address the topic. The one thign I will note is that he creates two new cleric spells: green thumb to double crop production, and its evil reverse, crop blight. Holsinger does bring up one intriguing idea, though: using the psychic potential stat from Empire of the Petal Throne to determine who can cast spells and operate magic items. It's a decent way to explain the difference between adventurers and regular folks, if you want one, and also to place a limit on the prevalence of magic in a campaign.

The rest of the newsletter is just Judges Guild shilling their own stuff, with a focus on Tegel Manor and the new Judges Shield, which I just discovered you need to tape together yourself!

JG29 Character Checklist

This product is a single sheet of paper in the installment, but was sold separately as bundles of six. It appears to be both a character sheet for multiple characters and a method of determining and tracking alignment for PCs and NPCs. Alignment is diced for on the charts on the upper left using 1d20, once for the Law/Chaos axis and once for the Good/Evil axis.  The combination of the two results gives the character's alignment, and a numerical value that can be modified based on the character's actions.  I've never been a fan of alignment tracking systems, and am generally pretty lax on alignment concerns except for clerics and paladins, so I doubt I'll apply this at all.

JG23 Tegel Manor and Area Judge's Map (17" x 22")
JG24 Tegel Manor and Area Player's Map (11" x 17")
JG30 Tegel Manor and Area Judge's Map (11" x 17")

These three maps are all double-sided, with one side showing a map of Tegel Manor and the other side showing the wilderness surrounding the manor.  The Judge's Map has all of the details, whereas the Player's Map gives basic outlines with very little filled in.  I don't think there's a difference between the two Judge's Maps except for size; I assume the smaller one is provided because it would be a little bit easier to handle at the table.

Tegel Manor

Surroundings, with the manor in the bottom right and the village in
the upper left

JG25 Booklet L

This booklet is pretty much entirely given over to a description of Tegel Manor. Unlike the previous three booklets, which were more about the campaign setting, this is an adventure module. It's possible that it's the largest one made for D&D to this point, and it's certainly one of the very first to be sold as a commercial product; I think the only other one I've covered so far that was sold in shops on its own is Palace of the Vampire Queen from Wee Warriors.

I'm not actually working from the original booklet.  In addition to being included in Installment L, Tegel Manor was sold in shops as product JG 27.  I'm working from a pdf of the third printing, and I'm not sure if there are any difference s between that and the original.

Tegel Manor and Tegel Village are located along the seacoast in Campaign Map 1, in hex 4416. (I covered that map in this previous post if you'd like a look.)  The manor is said to be left over from ancient days, and protected by a charm that shields it from age (and fire, just in case the PCs have the bright idea to burn the place down).  It's hereditary owners are the Rump family, although they've been lax in their duties and it's said that their eccentricities have led to the manor's corruption.

The current owner of the manor is Sir Runic the Rump, a dim-witted coward who is also somehow a paladin. Distraught at the corruption of his ancestors and living relatives, he's desperate to get rid of the place, and will try to sell it cheap.

The only other living Rumps mentioned are Roughneck Rump the Rotund, a feared highwayman, and Ruang the Ripper, an assassin. Both can be encountered roaming the countryside, along with other dangerous monsters and NPCs.

The manor itself is... well, it's wild. In some places it reads like a haunted house, with ghosts, undead, creepy paintings, unexplained noises, and other such trappings.  In others, it's like a monster zoo, with owlbears and rust monsters and even a purple worm.  Other areas just have weird magical effects going on, or bizarre scenes that play out. I don't know if I've ever read a module as baffling as this one.

It also looks pretty difficult to run without a lot of prep.  The room descriptions are sparse, mostly focused on the inhabitants, treasure, or weird magical happenings; this is fine, I'm quite happy for a module to stick to the relevant stuff. There's a lot of info covered on the map though: labels for what type of room it is (bedroom, kitchen, etc.), traps, magic statues, weird noises, teleportation squares, paintings of the Rump family that bestow magical effects when they are looked at... It's a lot to keep track of, and none of it's covered in the room descriptions.  Here's a description of room A2:

"A2  150'x110'x40' H  Two long tables with 12 skeletons 1 HD, 5-3-4-4-1-2-3-5-6-7-1-2 HTK, AC 7, sword armed.  30 Silver goblets 120 SP @ and gigantic halbard hanging on wall."

The map has it labelled as the Great Hall, and shows six pillars.  There are eight statues around the walls, two of which are magical. There are two fireplaces, one of which has a secret door in it.  The east wall is covered by a curtain, and has a couple of secret doors behind it as well. The west wall has a teleport square that leads to DL1B (which I assume means dungeon level 1, room B). There's a fake door on the south wall. And there are two squares that have an unspecified trap.  That's one of the more complex rooms, but it's very busy. I'd need to consolidate all of that info to ever have a hope of running it.

The magic statues are determined randomly as to their effects; some will raise or lower stats, some will cast a spell, some may ask a riddle or answer a question, or give a map, and some will perform a service if a missing part is recovered. 

There are also a number of portraits of the Rump family around the mansion, 100 in total. Most of them appear as some sort of undead creature, and do something magical when looked at. For example, Riven the Refected appears as a Spectre, and cries a potion of ESP. Rudlong the Revenger forewarns the party of their next encounter. Some have more mundane effects, like laughter or following the PCs with their eyes, and other do nothing. Probably my favourite is Radded Rufus, whose effect is "PROB 30% of ripped sack". Ouch!

A lot of the rooms seem to have scenes that play out over and over again, such as ghosts that go through their motions, or an Invisible Stalker that is continuously walking through a secret door from one side of the room to the other. The inhabitants of the manor may be cursed, but it's never specified exactly what's going on in this place.  I'd struggle to run this adventure, I think. It has a level of goofiness and an anything-goes defiance of logic that don't really fit my sensibilities, or those of my players.

That said, I'll say this for it: the place is memorable.  It kind of reminds me of the later D&D module Castle Amber in that regard. In almost every room there's something insane going on, or some new wild thing that could happen to your character.  I could see all sorts of great stories coming out of Tegel Manor, and now that I think of it it'd work great as a one-off party adventure, as long as you're in the right mood for it. I will certainly have the manor as a location in my version of the Wilderlands, but I may never actually point my players towards it, or require them to go inside.

The map is also great. It has tons of info packed in, and manages to include the upper floor as well as all the levels of several towers. Judges Guild have always made great maps, and this is another one.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that there's a whole dungeon underneath the manor, with four levels. It's kind of banal in comparison to what's going on up above. The first level is a series of giant rat warrens that can be accessed via holes in the manor walls. Dungeon level 2 has the living quarters of Ranorek Rump, a missing link caveman who I forgot to mention under living relatives above. Level 3 is a lot of undead and vermin, and Level 4 is undead and monsters (harpies, a basilisk).

The booklet ends with some optional rules for resurrection, which determine whether a character returns maimed or scarred. I tend to think that resurrection magic implies healing as well, and prefer that characters come back hale and hearty, so I won't be using this. Although perhaps resurrection is different in the Wilderlands, and less effective?  Perhaps.

Recaps & Roundups part 49: JG2 Dungeon Tac Cards & JG28 Judges' Shield

I'm tackling two Judges Guild products this time around, because neither of them should take up too much time. I don't have a copy of either, but I should be able to scrounge up enough info on them for a short post.

The first of these is product JG2, the Dungeon Tac Cards. I covered these previously, when they were sent out to Judges Guild members as part of their first subscription installment in late 1976. The first edition of this product consisted of 135 cards, each representing an action that a player might take, the idea being that players would have these cards face up in front of their character sheet to indicate what their character was doing or what they had in their hands.

In approximately April of 1977, the second edition of these cards was released as a product for sale in stores. This set had 140 cards, five more than the previous edition, but there are no new cards added: the old cards were simply given in different numbers. I listed the card amounts in my previous post on this product, so I'll do the same for this set. The cards are double-sided, with a different action on each side.

• 5 Move/Charge Move cards
• 5 Parry/Get Up cards
• 5 Punch/Grapple cards
• 5 Heavy Crossbow cards
• 5 Dagger cards
• 5 Horsebow cards
• 5 Sword (longer) cards
• 5 Sword (shorter) cards
• 5 Shortbow cards
• 5 Hand Axe cards
• 5 Shield cards
• 5 Mounted Lance/Pike cards
• 5 Equipment (misc.) cards
• 5 Morning Star cards
• 5 Flail cards
• 5 Torch cards
• 5 Two-Handed-Sword cards
• 5 Battle Axe cards
• 5 Mace cards
• 5 Halberd cards
• 5 Composite Bow cards
• 5 Spear cards
• 5 Light Crossbow cards
• 5 Pole Arm cards
• 5 War Hammer cards
• 5 Staff/Wand cards
• 5 Longbow cards
• 5 cards with Men Attacking and Saving Throw charts

The cards were given in varying numbers in the old set, but here they all come in sets of 5. It should also be noted that the cards featuring the Monster Attack and Damage charts, as well as the ones with the Man-to-Man rules from Chainmail, are no longer included. I can see leaving out the monster rules, because only the DM needs those. As for Man-to-Man combat, I suspect that very few groups were using those rules, so the JG folks left those cards out.

The second product I'm looking at today is JG 28, the Judges' Shield. I'm sure most of you know what this is: a multi-panelled cardboard shield with various charts printed on it, that can be used for reference during the game as well as to block the DM's notes from the prying eyes of the players. This particular shield has some historical significance, though, because it's the first one ever. I know of very few DMs who operate without one, so they've become something of an indispensable tool, and Judges Guild were the ones who came up with the idea.

I found scans of both sides of the Shield which I'll provide below.

Side facing players

Side facing DM

There's nothing too out of the ordinary on here, except maybe the section on the spell phantasmal forces; it must have caused more than a few headaches during gameplay for the JG crew to have thought it worthy of inclusion. The DM's side has a pretty comprehensive list of monster stats, including those from the first three supplements, as well as The Strategic Review and The Dragon. I was surprised to see that the Denebian Slime Devil and the Death Angel made the cut, as they won't be included in the Monster Manual by TSR. The Death Angel was only just in the last issue of The Dragon that I covered, so Judges Guild must have tried really hard to make this product up-to-date.

Recaps & Roundups part 48: The Dragon #6

Cover art by Morno

Issue #6 of The Dragon was published 1977, cover dated April. Editor Tim Kask noted in his Dragon Rumbles editorial that readership has increased fourfold over the last year, so obviously the magazine is doing well. He also notes that they plan to expand coverage to a wider variety of games, but we'll see how long that lasts; I suspect it'll be mostly D&D before the end of the year.

I covered this issue previously, back in 2010, so I'll be skimming it a bit in this post. The relevant articles are below; the only article I'm ignoring is a short story called "The Forest of Flame" which was written by Morno (real name Bradley Schenck).

"An Alternate Beginning Sequence for Metamorphosis Alpha" by Guy W. McLimore Jr.: Instead of starting PCs off as tribesmen aboard the Starship Warden, this article gives suggestions for running a game where the players are clones of the original crew. I doubt I'll use this article as intended, but such clones might come into play should any D&D characters end up on the Warden.

"Sea Trade in D&D Campaigns" by Ronald C. Spencer Jr.: Some simple rules for determining the success of any sea trading ventures that the PCs may wish to get involved with. It uses a chart, with the number of ports visited determining how much gold is made. More ports equals more gold, but also increases the chance of running into some kind of hazard. I'll keep this article in mind if I ever get around to developing rules for trade.

"Legions of the Petal Throne Painting Guide" by M.A.R. Barker: An article detailing the colours of various troop types and monsters in the world of Tekumel, including clothing, armour, and even flesh tones. That Professor Barker is thorough. Various Tsolyani troops are included, as is the priest of Vimuhla, Yan Koryani troops, the priest of Hry'y, and the following non-human creatures: Shen, Ssu, Hlaka, Ahoggya, and Sro. I'll try to keep this info in mind should I ever have players stray into Tekumel.

"Further Rules, Modifications and Clarifications for Metamorphosis Alpha" by James M. Ward: Clarifications on some of the vaguer mutation rules, some new rules to make being poisoned multiple times deadlier, and some changes to missile and vibro weapons. Again, this is all stuff I'll keep in mind for games on board the Warden.

"From the Fantasy Forge": The first official D&D miniatures have been released by Minifig. I'll probably do a post on them in the near future, so I won't cover them here.

"The Gnome Cache Chapter 6" by Gary Gygax: Dunstan joins up with a merchant caravan, but ends up fleeing for his life when it's attacked by bandits. Here are the setting tidbits I gleaned:

• After a week's journey, the merchant caravan crosses the Aarn River and enters the walled town of Rheyton.
• The men of the distant western plains are small and wiry.
• The land that Dunstan hails from is known as Thalland, and the people that live there are called Thallites.
• Northerners from Nehron or Kimbry are broad, burly and dark-haired.
• The merchant is a Thallite known as Evan. The leader of his mercenary band is called Rufus, and Baldwin is his lieutenant. One of the Kimbry in the band is known as Vardabothet. All of them probably die at the end of this chapter.
• The Kimbry live in the Kimbry Vale, beyond which are mountains.
• After many days travel they reach the border keep of Blackmoor, which also has a village and a guardian castle. The Nehron peasants seem unhappy with their noble lord.
• An evergreen forest begins a few leagues north of Blackmoor.
• The bandits mention a Nehron uprising against Blackmoor, but this could be a ruse on their part.

"D&D Option: Determination of Psionic Abilities" by David W. Miller: Alternate rules for determining whether a PC has psionic powers, that allow a PC to test for them regardless of their ability scores. It also opens the psionic powers to all character types, rather than restricting them by class. Probably the most relevant thing for me is that it allows half-human PCs to test for psionics as well.

"Morale in D&D" by Jim Hayes & Bill Gilbert: An alternate morale system that assigns a Bravery score to NPCs and PCs alike. I originally dismissed these rules for taking agency away from the PCs - I don't like any rules that make PCs do things against their will, unless it's a magical effect of some sort.

The authors talk about their home setting of Fantorgn, where humans are predominant and demi-humans rare and mustrusted. I considered using this setting as a proto-Ravenloft, with a magical aura of dread to explain why the PCs are more fearful than usual. Sample PCs in this setting are: Klabath Durhn (6th level fighter, 14 bravery) and Maygreth the Fierce (7th level fighter, 15 Charisma). Their entourage consists of another 6th level fighter, three 4th level fighters, a 5th level magic-user, his three 2nd level assistants, three village priests from the local temple, a half-elf guide and two elf hirelings. In the example of play they are attacked by six ogres.

"Featured Creature: Death Angel" by John Sullivan: Grim reaper types that either act as oracles, warning of death, or as representatives of death itself to kill a specific creature. They are said to be "fingers of fate", and work for powerful entities such as gods, demi-gods, some liches and a few Evil High Priests of 20th level or higher. I plan on using these beings sparingly, pretty much as described.

Recaps & Roundups part 47: Dungeoneer #4

Issue #4 of the Dungeoneer fanzine was published in March 1977.

"The Arcane Elders Chapter IV" by Mark Hendricks: The story switches back to Lute the Bard and Ralph the Hobbit, who spend the chapter escaping from their barbarian captors. Pretty basic stuff, not much to glean here.

"Monster Matrix": Nine new monsters are introduced here. As usual, I'll be confining these to the Judges Guild setting, and probably making them quite rare where possible.

• "Zappers" by Mark Norton: These creatures are sentient lightning bolts that are attracted to metal, and will try to destroy it. Regular items are destroyed automatically, while magic items get a saving throw. Any creature they strike takes damage based on the Zapper's Hit Dice, ranging from 1d8 to 6d8. Oh, and they have a movement rate of 100", so good luck escaping from them.
• "Arora Energy Monster" by Jim Ward: In its natural state this monster looks like a cloud, but it has the power to assume the shape of the last creature that attacked it. It also has the power to reflect any damage done to it back on the attacker. This seems to include all forms of attack: spells, sword thrusts, arrows, etc. There's some obvious fun to be had by the DM with these abilities, but the monster is mindless, which prevents them from becoming too deadly.
• "Bomb Monster" by Jim Ward: A winged bowling ball that explodes for 10d8 damage when touched. I'm not sure why it has wings, because it's never said that it can fly, but it does have a movement rate of 21 so maybe it can. After the explosion it will reform into a ball, and it can only be killed if 25% or more of its body is prevented from reuniting with the main body.
• "Vorpal Bunnies" by Paul Jaquays: I suppose it had to happen eventually. As in Monty Python and the Holy Grail they appear as cute bunnies but are in actual fact very deadly. In D&D terms, their bite acts just like a vorpal blade. This is the kind of monster that's so ingrained into nerd culture that tricking PCs with one would be next to impossible, although we might be getting back to a point where there are players who aren't that familiar with Monty Python? Is such a thing possible?
• "The Mirror Men" by Paul Jaquays: Chaotic humanoids that are made out of mirrors. They reflect light to blind their opponents, and if exposed to light for long enough can fire a heat ball that does 1d8 damage per round. If exposed to direct sunlight or other intense light, they will explode. They attack with sharp claws, and if struck for enough damage they might shatter and die instantly.
• "The Agarrett" by Tom Siterlet: This creature is a winged mutant, about 10'-12' tall, with four arms and a horn in its forehead. They're said to be a distant relative of goblins, not that there's much of any resemblance. They reproduce through their saliva, and anyone struck by their tongue must save or become a zombie-like "incubator" for their young. After 3.5 months the victim must save or be charmed and eaten by the hatching young Agarrett.
• "Ondoculi" by Cecil & Kaj Nurse: A subterranean race that has two heads, three legs and four multi-jointed arms. Some of them are clerics, and can be distracted by philosophical discussion. Some wield swords, and any Ondoculan sword has the ability to turn a creature struck by it to stone. If one of these swords is taken from an Ondoculan the magic fades after one month.
• "Golcoduli" by Cecil & Kaj Nurse: Vicious dog-like creatures with lots of teeth and the ability to breathe a short cone of flaming acid. They are kept as pets by the Ondoculi. Some of them are intelligent, and can walk upright and speak the language of their masters.
• "Dust Golem" by Tom Johnson: Dust Golem were apparently created when an "Ugly" (a kind of hunch-backed servant from earlier issues of this mag) forgot to clean out a Wax Golem Mold for a decade while it was in storage. The irate wizard turned said Ugly into a candle as punishment, but was later pleased to discover that the Dust Golem was powerfully strong, and immune to such things as charm, fireball, lightning, petrification and polymorph. A cold spell reduced the golem's AC to 3 for some reason. There's an oddity with this creature's Hit Dice, which is given as 1½d8. Does that mean 1d4? 1.5 times a d8? I'm really not sure, though I'm inclined to go with 1d4 given the Number Appearing is 2-300.

"The Room of Crocked Magic" by Paul Jaquays: This room (location unspecified) is the home of a bunch of gnomes who are happy to sell magic items. None of these items quite work correctly, and there are 20 examples given: a potion of growth that turns the drinker into a giant with an IQ of 3; leather armour +1 that weighs as much as plate mail; a potion of longevity that reduces the drinkers lifespan by 10 years; and so on. The gnomes have a wall-mounted death ray that they use as protection (which of course functions exactly as it should...). I suspect that this room is supposed to be found in a dungeon somewhere, but it would probably get more play if located in the PCs home town or city.

"Comments on Those Lovely Ladies" by Judith Preissle Goetz: In issue #2 Paul Jaquay wrote up some rules regarding female adventurers, and this article makes some objections and suggestions. The observation is made that if women have a higher Charisma where men are concerned, the opposite should also be true. Also, the author objects to the idea that women with a high Strength should have a lower Charisma. More suggestions are made regarding the relative Strength and Dexterity of men and women, as well as suggesting that women should get +1 Constitution due to having greater resistance to environmental stresses. I'm likely to ignore all of this, and just have men and women rolling the same stats.

"Metamorphosis Alpha" by Jim Ward: Jim spends a few paragraphs describing Metamorphosis Alpha and how much fun it is, which is hardly an unbiased review considering he wrote it.

"Magic, Tomes, Scrolls" by Paul Jaquays: Jaquays gives some interpretations on various rules to do with magic, including such things as scrolls, spell book, and how many spells a wizard may know. The most interesting tidbit here is that we finally learn what the Arcane Elders (which have been mentioned in a bunch of Dungeoneer articles) are: a group of nine demi-gods who distribute magic as they see fit to those who contact them through an arcane crystal.

"Tricks & Traps": This is a selection of 31 tricks and traps, as the title says, most of the being fairly whimsical. Some examples include a room that eats the intelligence of magic swords, or a mounted elephant head that shoots peanuts as missiles. Some are bafflingly pointless: a library which contain only fictional material? Another that requires a library card? I mean, why? The less said about the one that has R2-D2 and C-3PO joining the party the better. (Although it means that the cover date must be a fair bit behind the actual publication, as Star Wars was released in May)

"The Goodies Bag": Two new magic items.

• "Necklace of Warriors" by Tom Filmore: A rope with 1d10 beads attached, each of which can be thrown to summon an obedient warrior. If attacked or betrayed by their master they will seek revenge, and the DM is encouraged to play them as annoyingly over-literal when following orders.
• "Discs of Severen" by Jim Ward: The index I'm looking at says this is supposed to be in here, but there's no sign of it in the compendium of issues #1-6 that I have.

"The Pharaoh's Tomb" by Jim Ward: This is a pretty bonkers dungeon with some hefty treasure along with some very deadly dangers. There are pressure plate spear traps, rooms that fill with poison gas, rooms that fill with sand (a lot of those) and even an entire room that's full of sulfuric acid that floods out when you open the door.

I mentioned rooms that fill with sand, and that happens in every single one of the shaded rooms on the map above; I could see progress becoming painfully slow in this dungeon, to the point where it just becomes no fun to play.

As for monsters, there are plenty: mummies, displacer beasts, a rust monster, invisible stalkers, among others. If you do manage to make it to the tomb, it releases four 10th level fighters and a 30th level lich. Oh, and then there's the 25% chance of Anubis himself showing up to kill you on the way in, and a 50% chance on the way out. On the whole I think this dungeon might be deadlier than the much-vaunted Tomb of Horrors, but it's nowhere near as clever. Say what you want about the Tomb, but at least it plays fair and rewards caution.

Recaps & Roundups part 46: The Dragon #5

The Dragon #5 was published in March of 1977. I originally covered it back in 2009 if you feel like reading that again; I'll cover it here again but in a bit less detail. The Dragon Rumbles editorial mentions that the magazine is expanding to eight issues a year. Out on a Limb has a number of letters, including one that bemoans the plethora of new rules and sub-classes (I'm laughing at this guy from 2020). Beyond the Wizard Fog by Gardner Fox is another Niall of the Far Travels story/Conan knockoff. And then there's Gandalf Was Only a Fifth Level Magic-User, in which Bill Seligman tries to argue that Gandalf doesn't use much magic by D&D standards. He's right.

"Witchcraft Supplement for Dungeons & Dragons" by an unknown author: Witches are introduced here as an ancient order that's divided by alignment: 35% are Lawful, while the rest are Chaotic. The author seems to be working from the original alignment system, so it's possible that by AD&D standards the divide could be Good/Evil. Chaotic Witches are further split into Low Order, High Order and the forbidden Secret Order who never mix with other types of witches.

The history of the witch orders is given as follows:

"In forgotten ages past, in kingdoms unheralded and dead centuries of untold history, a fiery confrontation emerged between witch covens world-wide. The myriad witches of the woodlands and the fields formed an alliance which dominated all other covens. This group forcibly directed the studies of other witches, and great emphasis was placed on the magic of plants and animals, that they might grow stronger still in their respective domains. But there were those who sought darker and more Godly enchantments, pursuing powers of devastation and the very elements. They promised to teach what they learned, to enslave the world of men, and to shape raw power to the ends of witches everywhere. This the alliance would not permit, for power inspires fear, fear of those that have it. Those who allied with the new Secret Coven were cast out, and in time only the mountains offered refuge to the members of this radical coven."

Witch magic is its own thing, and it's said that Djinn, Efreet and clerics are all immune to it. Each type of witch gets its own spell list drawing from existing D&D spells, as well as a number of new ones introduced here. Particularly ancient Lawful witches (known as priestesses) can cast from the following list of mega-powerful abilities:

• Youth: remove 40 years from a creature's age
• Influence: Turn a creature Lawful
• Banish Any One Creature: Instantly send one creature to Hell with no save
• Enchantment: Create any magic ring, potion or weapon in one day, with no expense
• Seek: Visualise the surroundings of any creature, object or place.

Chaotic witches have their own spell list, with High Order witches being more powerful than Low Order (as you'd expect). The following spells are new:

• Pit: Opens a 15' deep hole.
• Fire Box: Creates a cube of flame around a target
• Diminish Plant/Animal/Men: Shrinks all the creatures within the target area
• Plant Entrapment: Causes plants to entangle creatures in the area

There are Major Spells that are only available to High Order Witches.

• Paralyzing Pit: Like Pit above, but all within the pit must save or be paralyzed.
• Undead Control: Gives the caster control over 1-6 undead creatures.
• Aging: Ages the target by 20 years.
• Circle of Blindness: Creates a circle that prevents all within from seeing and hearing, as well as using magical detection spells.
• Curse: A vague spell that can inflict pretty much any negative effect short of death.
• Poison Touch: Coats an object in poison, or can be used as a save or die touch attack.
• Curtain Wall: Creates an extradimensional room that the witch can use as a secret lair.

Secret Order Witches also have their own spell selection. Group A consists of spells from other lists, but Group B are all new, highly powerful special abilities:

• Intensify: Greatly increases the power of any natural weather phenomenon.
• Wither: Causes every living thing in the area to rapidly age and die.
• Weight Concentration/Dilution: Controls the weight of any creature or object.
• Quake: Causes earthquakes
• Vaporise: Transmutes stone into fog
• Solidify: Turns fog into stone, which can be used to entomb creatures in the area.
• Volcanic Circle: Creates an expanding ring of lava that deals 10d6 damage
• Reflections: Bounces spells cast at the witch back on the caster

The Secret Order Witches also have their own set of new magic items. A cleric who tries to wield on of these will die instantly; otherwise, only a witch priestess, High Order Chaotic Witch, or a magic-user of level 13+ can safely wield them.

• Skull of Death: A dragon skull helmet that can command undead and cast finger of death.
• Mountain Seeds: Become the size of a castle when thrown
• Leech Dust: Forms a cloud that sucks the blood from those within.
• Assassin's Eyes: Invisible eyes that can fly, cast charm person and shoot death rays.
• Witch Wands: Can be used to cast a number of witch spells per day.
• Serpent Belt: Said to be a more powerful form of snake belt, which is detailed below.
• Seed Satchel: Contains seeds that can transform into things like a wall of thorns or a wyvern.
• Hornet Cape: The wearer can fly, command other flying creatures, and fire stingers.
• Potion Cauldron: Allows the user to create any potion in just one day.

There are also magic items that can be used by all kinds of witches, and could appear in any regular treasure hoard.

• Snake Belt: Transforms into a snake strong enough to strangle a wyvern (how very specific).
• Ivy Bracelets: Control and communicate with plants. They are very fragile.
• Dart Rings: Fire poisonous thorns.
• Locket of Satan: Only used by evil witches, grants command of any three Chaotic creatures within range.
• Love Locket: Only used by good witches, makes any male humanoid within range smitten and under their sway
• Thorn Twine: A 40 foot thorny vine that can be used to entangle or keep foes at bay.
• Guardian Egg: Can be transformed into a Hill Giant, a Roc or a Dragon Turtle.
• Hill Seeds: Expand in size when thrown, acting like cannonballs.
• Luck Charms: Grant bonuses in combat, as well as wishes and greater luck when finding treasure.
• Mirror-Crystal: Protects against charm person, sleep, paralyzation, curses, and other mind-affecting magic.
• Amulets of Power: The caster can memorise more spells, and increase the power of their spells by 50%.

I'll include these witches as secretive orders in my campaign, keeping in mind that the Secret Order is said in the article to have only resurfaced recently. It should also be noted that Satan is referred to in this article, who I'll happily use as an Arch-Devil on par with Asmodeus and the like.

"Some Ideas Missed in Metamorphosis Alpha" by James M. Ward: Ward includes here a number of rules that missed the cut for his recently-released game. These include: chemical radiation neutralizers (gel that can nullify radioactive material); chemical flammable retardants (or fire extinguishers); radioactive material in containment; sensory intensifiers (a pendant that increases the senses of the wearer). It's also noted that the poison charts in the game are really deadly, but there are a bunch of ways to counteract that poison: shamans, antidotes, mutations, etc.

"Tribal Society and Hierarchy On Board the Starship Warden" by James M. Ward: A quick article that gives some details about how the tribes live and interact in Metamorphosis Alpha. Each tribe has a leader and a shaman, who pretty much exists as a healer and quest-giver (a tool for the DM to prod PCs in the right direction, in other words). It's mentioned that the two dominant life-forms aboard the Warden are Androids and Wolfoids. The Androids have infiltrated human society as shamans, and use the humans to fight the mutated intelligences on the ship. Not much is said about the Wolfoids, except that they know less about technology but more about mutation. It's also mentioned that a group of players recently killed four important android scouts, robbed them of duralloy shields and color bands, and discovered that their shaman is not human. I'll make sure to include this group as NPCs should I ever have players find themselves aboard the Warden.

"Featured Creature: The Anhkheg" by Gary Gygax (I assume): The Anhkheg makes its first appearance here, with a great illustration from Erol Otus.

"How Green Was My Mutant: The Appearance of Humanoids in Metamorphosis Alpha" by Gary Gygax: Gary provide some random charts to determine the appearance of mutants on board the Starship Warden. Doing some random rolling just now, I came up with a guy who has pocked skin that is striped grey, a very thick neck, a thin body, no nose, wide hands and feet, and webbed fingers and toes. The table results are a little bland by Gary's standards, to be honest.

"Wizard Research Rules" by Charles Preston Goforth, Jr.: These rules are additions to those found in D&D Vol. 1: Men & Magic and The Dragon #2, and are consistent with what has gone before. A bunch of new possibilities that can be researched, which I'll outline below:

• Spells that can permanently increase one ability score (but only once per stat per character). The spell increase begins at 1 point, increasing to an absurd 1d12 points when cast at higher levels.
• Weapons of +1 enchantment can be made with a simple expenditure of gold and time, but anything stronger that that requires a roll on a chart to determine the resultant magic bonuses (or curses).
• A caster can "embed" a spell in an object (though it's not exactly clear what this is for).
• Rules are given for creating "true rings", which can enslave lesser rings and function much like Tolkien's One Ring.
• There are also rules for "Wizard blades", which are special magic swords that can be wielded by a magic-user.
• The ability is given for wizards and patriarchs to spontaneously create magic items under duress, by speaking a Power Word of Distress. Such creation permanently drains the caster of 1d8 hit points, which is a fair bit by OD&D standards.
• Magic items can be sacrificed as a way of seeking aid from the gods, although the gods aren't guaranteed to answer.

I'll introduce all of these options into the campaign, but probably as forbidden knowledge; only those PCs who find such knowledge will be able to use these abilities.

"The Gnome Cache" by Garrison Ernst aka Gary Gygax: In this chapter Dunstan and Mellerd join a merchant caravan heading north. Some relevant details:

• The Upplands north of Crosshill Road are wild and desolate. Rabbits live there.
• It takes a week by foot to travel from Huddlefoot to Deepwell.
• Dolph is the liveryman in Deepwell. He can't read very well.
• Evan the Trader is a dealer is rich furs from Nehron-land.
• The town of Rheyton lies north of Deepwell, and further north are the forests of Nehron.
• Not too far from Deepwell live the wild Kimbry, who are known to brand their horses.
• Some coin types are named: plumbs, and gold scruples (or scrups).

Whether these details match up with later Greyhawk lore I have no idea. They might fit better with the world as it was before being published as a TSR product.

Recaps & Roundups part 45: Judges Guild Installment K

In February of 1977, Judges Guild sent out the third of its installments to their subscribers. This was Installment K, and contained the following items:

• JG18 Campaign Map One: Judges
• JG19 Campaign Map One: Players
• JG20 Booklet K (providing details for the maps above)
• JG21 Journal K
• Ready Ref Chart: Wizard's Guide/Construction Costs

The maps both cover the same area, with the Judges Map filling in a lot more details. They show a pretty expansive area around the City State, far more than any Judges Guild product has done so far. Booklet K gives an overview of what can be found at many of the places on the map.

Before I dig into those, though, I'll quickly cover Journal K, for which I only have a snippet of the first page. I'm not having much trouble tracking down the other JG products, but those Journals are hard to find. What I have of this one concerns some of the rules for forging and enchanting weapons that were given in Installment J, mostly to note that the mithril and adamantite weapons shown for purchase aren't magical, and aren't of a high enough grade to be enchanted to +4 or +5. It then goes on to advise that such weapons should be difficult to find, and not available for purchase just because a PC has the money. Hard to argue! The rest is logistical JG stuff about late installments and con appearances, nothing that I'm particularly interested in.

And now, the maps. I purchased some full colour recreations, but those aren't exactly accurate to those that were sent out back in '77. These are the best images I could find of the originals:

Players Map

Judges Map

The City State is pretty much dead centre, just to the west of the big forest in the middle (the Dearthwood). Thunderhold, from Installment J, is about 90 miles directly north of that, not too far removed from the north coast. It's all pleasingly consistent with the rough map that was provided in Booklet J. The maps use a hex grid, with four-digit coordinates that can be used to find a specific hex. Hex 0701, for instance, will be seven across in the top row. Hex 1211 is twelve across and eleven down.

Booklet K features a lot of miscellaneous rules and guidelines crammed in, as is the JG style, but I'll focus first on the parts that are relevant to the maps above. The first of these sections is "Idyllic Isles", which gives a brief description of what can be found on all of the small islands on the map. They're short but evocative, and good adventure springboards. Here are some examples:

• 1101: Isle of the Halflings - 27 shipwrecked Hobbits evading a Cyclops
• 4611: Isle of Slumber - The ruins of an ancient city overrun by apes hide a wishing well.
• 5116: Isle of Tombs - 1420 tombs full of undead and demons.

The book then goes on to highlight the small castle and village of Haghill, found in hex 2321 (not far from the City State). Haghill has been ruled by Huberic for the last 14 years, a portly fellow with large appetites and a delight in cruelty to animals. He lives in the former "Tower of Torpid Terror", which the locals believe sits atop the sleeping place of a terrible creature from the Elder Days. Huberic laughs of these superstitions in public, but has still had the dungeons below sealed.

Haghill is then described in much the same fashion as the City State, with the most prominent NPCs detailed, some legends and rumors suggested, and a map provided. To be honest, it's all a little too similar to the City State for my liking. I'm not sure why this place was chosen to be highlighted, because there's not really a lot going on. (Although there is a smith whose name is Stretchy Vagin, which is definitely a name that stopped me in my tracks.)

A map of Haghill

Two pages are then given over to detailing every settlement on the map: location, name, population, race of inhabitants, level of civilization, alignment, ruler, and their main resources. Somehow, all of this fits in a single line. Here are the first five villages:

That is compact: there are close to 100 settlements outlined in two pages here. The usual PC races are represented, but there are also a few goblin, orc and gnoll villages scattered about. The City State has its own line, with its population listed as 20,000. Its ruler is said to be a 16th level fighter named Balarnega; is this the overlord himself? Thunderhold is also listed, and said to be ruled by someone named Boralin. Booklet J had the ruler as Nordre Ironhelm, so I'm not sure what's going on there.

Close to 80 castles and citadels are scattered across the map, but those get much less detail than the villages: only the ruler and the number of men are shown.

The "Lurid Lairs" section is similarly sparse: there are over 100 lairs on the map, with all that's listed here being the type and number of monster found therein. Every monster in these lairs comes from TSR D&D.

That covers the bulk of the booklet, but there are a lot of other things in here which I'll go over in brief below:

• Tables for determining the actions of NPCs based on their morale.
• Tables for determining whether NPCs (presumably those allied to the PCs) get into altercations with other NPCs, including the reason why the altercation started.
• Tables for negotiating, with modifiers for alignment and Charisma.
• Some paragraphs to determine what exactly is a hireling (apparently any NPC controlled by a PC, excluding charmed creatures, insects, golems, and plants). There are also some rules here about polymorphing creatures, and whether a polymorphed creature can then become a hireling.
• Civilization and technology levels, which are given on a scale from 0 to 10: anarchy, democracy, tribal, agrarian, religious, tributary, oligarchy, republic, aristocracy, feudal, dictatorship. These numbers are used in the village section above.
• Rules for population density, with different land requirements for hunters and farmers. In general a hunting village needs 1 square mile per member, while one square mile of farmland can support 320 members. Are these numbers accurate? Buggered if I know.
• Rules for how much land a player needs to clear out for their barony, as well as how to calculate income, and the safe levels of tax that can be levied before the peasants start getting angry.
• A little bit about what it takes to shift the alignment of a settlement or area (police forces, temples, that sort of thing).
• This installment's Malevolent Character Module is about Count Kaledric, who is a supposed weakling and social bore, but is secretly the Co-ordinator, the much-feared personal avenger of the City State's Overlord. He has five trusted retainers, and access to a lot of weapons to give him god-like powers and demon-strength. (None of these are outlined though.)
• Some rules for determining how much can be made in trade based on a settlements population and the product on offer (including prices for some exotic monsters like balrogs).
• Rules for randomly determining the various factors involved in a geas or quest spell.
• Rules outlining what can be done with a wish and a limited wish, and the difference between the two (which seems mostly to be that limited wish can't create anything, but can change outcomes for up to a week in the past). Wishes are graded based on how greedy they are, and assigned a likelihood of success and a likelihood of some kind of curse or repercussion.

Finally, there's the Ready Ref Sheet. One side of it has guidelines for Wizards, and the other features the rules and construction times and costs for building a stronghold. The construction rules and prices given are consistent with those from D&D Vol. 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventure, but far more detail is given; the JG rules are much easier to understand and implement. There are also prices here for building Hobbit smials (burrows), and elven "tlan" (treehouses), as well as rules for using fantastic creatures in the building process.

The Wizard's Guide side has rules for creating magic items, and is very concrete about the time and money requirements. Featured are the prices for creating a decent selection of weapons, wands, staves, rods, rings and potions.

Recaps & Roundups part 44: The Dungeoneer #3

This is the third issue of Jennell Jaquays' fanzine, The Dungeoneer, with a cover date of Nov/Dec/Jan. As usual with Dungeoneer, I'm working with the Judges Guild compilation of issues #1-6, and an online table of contents.

"The Arcane Elders Chapter III" by Jim Ward: In the last installment, the wizard's apprentice Rohcyl was captured by druids and sacrificed with a lightning bolt that left nothing behind. In this chapter, he inexplicably reappears in a subterranean cave where he's captured and enslaved by dark elves, befriends a barbarian named Theoran, and escapes.

Jim Ward has taken over this serial, which makes for three authors in as many chapters. It's possible that it might come together by the end, but at this point it feels very disjointed. The main thing of note is that this features dark elves, well before they are hinted at in the Monster Manual. This variety is small, brown-skinned and dirty, and any bright light will turn them to stone. Whether I apply these rules to dark elves in Judges Guild products or just write these off as an anomaly remains to be seen.

Monster Matrix: It's a monster extravaganza this issue, with a dozen new creatures introduced.

• "The Ray Gun Robot" by Jim Ward: This war machine was created in the far, far future, where it roams the battlefields killing all living organisms. These future battles often cause dimensional rifts, and occasionally one of these machines is sent back in time to a dungeon or another place where rifts have been created by wizards or gods.  In combat, the robot will keep its distance, firing 3 energy rays per round that do 10d8 damage. With an AC of -2, 20 Hit Dice, a movement of 24 and 95% magic resistance, the Ray Gun Robot looks to me like it would be almost impossible to defeat without some clever tactics.  It's shown on the cover of this issue.
• "The Anaswami" by Glen Taylor: This is an invisible, malevolent spirit that can animate non-magical metallic objects, such as weapons and armor. It's being extends into both the astral and ethereal planes, and some of them are psionic.
• "The DNA Monster" by Mark Norton: As the name implies, this creature is a huge, enlarged DNA molecule.  They are only semi-intelligent, and unable to speak.  About a quarter of them have a poisonous bite.  They possess no regular treasure, but some atoms in their structure will be gems. No origin is given for this weird monster, but it's pretty safe to assume that they're the result of some magical experimentation. References to DNA are a little odd for a fantasy setting, but it fits in with my notion that magical research has resulted in a greater level of scientific knowledge.
• "Smoke Creatures" by Mark Norton: These monsters of living smoke attack by suffocating foes, causing 1d6 damage per turn (I'll assume this means a combat round). Normal weapons will pass through them; they are only hit by magic weapons, which are said to be solid in the same plane that the smoke creatures exist in.  This is consistent with Gary's ideas about how magical weapons function.
• "The Ibem" by Mark Norton:  A hideous octopus-like creature with four eyes, four mouths, and eight tentacles.  They can attack with tentacles up to three times per round from any side of their body, but will only use their bite on a victim that they have ensnared. Their alignment is said to be "hungry", which I'll take to mean Neutral. They're unintelligent, so that fits.
• "Drolls" by Mark Norton: This creature gets no description: all we have to go on are an illustration and some stats (AC 9, MV 8", HD 6, a claw and bite attack, and low intelligence). They have a round hairy body, two legs, two arms, fingers and toes tipped with sharp claws, a fang-filled mouth, and two eyes on stalks. With nothing else to go on, I'm thinking of making this a troll hybrid of some sort. Perhaps a dwarf/troll, to go along with gnolls being gnome/trolls?
• "Snake Turtle" by Mark Norton: Again, this monster gets no description, only stats (AC 2, MV 10", HD 6, bite, tail and claw attacks, unintelligent). It has an image though, showing a creature with the body of a turtle and the head and tail of a snake. I would have expected such a beast to have a poisonous bite, but nothing of the sort is indicated.
• "Mud Creatures" by Mark Norton: These living muck creatures can turn flesh to unliving mud with a touch. They are immune to normal weapons, and magic weapons have a -2 damage. penalty against them. They are susceptible to mud to rock, though, having a penalty on their saving throw. They can appear in pretty high numbers, and with 10 Hit Dice are hard to kill; an encounter with these boys could be lethal.
• "Mobil Dis" by Jim Ward: I only needed to see the number appearing (1-12 billion) to know that this monster was created by Jim Ward, the master of overstatement.  The Mobil Dis is a swarm of billions of voracious insects. They roam deserts and dungeons, eating everything in sight, always clustered together in a 3'x3' cloud. Only three things can harm them: cold, heat, and a special chemical called Mobil Dis Salt. They are said to deal 6d8 damage, so presumably they don't strip a victim to the bones until they've reduced its hit points to zero.
• "Wood Golems" by Glen Taylor: These wooden golems are created by druids, and are made only from wood that has died a natural death. Fire deals them double damage, but they are capable of drinking fire resistance potions, and can also be protected with a spell.  Cold attacks slow them, and lightning either does nothing to them or kills them instantly (20% of the time). There's a decent chance they will flee if fire is used against them.
• "Imps" by Mark Norton: Imps are said here to be a variety of demon. They come in seven varieties, labelled A through G, ranging from 1 Hit Die to 7. Each type has a number of magic powers: Type A can cast sleep and charm person, while Type G can cast fear, ice storm, a 7d8 fireball, protection from normal missiles, and can also conjure up a number of weaker Imps. Rather than being different sub-types, I'm thinking I'll just make these like age categories for dragons, with young Imps being Type A and the oldest Type G.  Imps will eventually appear in official D&D as an entry in the Monster Manual. The MM Imps are devils, not demons, and are generally found as familiars to lawful evil clerics and magic-users. Obviously, these are different creatures to the Imp described here. There's no reason two different monsters can't have been given the same name, but to avoid confusion I'll confine these Dungeoneer Imps to the Judges Guild setting.
• "The Watcher" by David Marbry: This monster gets a full-page entry packed with lore.  It's story begins with Lykor, the Great Black Thunder-Wizard, the only living legend of the Old World, a descendant of the immortal "Elders". (None of the above connects to any established lore, but it's vague enough that I could tie it into just about anything.)  Lykor's only son was Liatris, conceived under the seventh moon of the third summer of the New World. The identity of Liatris' mother remains a mystery, except that she was not around to raise her son. Lykos was also too busy to look after his kid, and so left that job to The Watcher, a being that he created in a magical mishap. It appears as a winged, sickly humanoid figure. Nowadays, with Liatris presumably being dead, it is most often found at the side of a magic-user or other intelligent human, which it protects with extreme loyalty. It attacks by touch, with a grip that is difficult to break; effects of the attack range from 1d8 damage, stunning, insanity, and level drain. If alone, it will roam dungeons and ruins in quest of a suitable ward.  The Watcher seems to be a unique monster, and so will be confined to the Judges Guild setting.

"Borshak's Lair" by Jennell Jaquays: This adventure, apparently at the request of the magazine's readers, is specifically designed for low-level adventurers. I can't be certain, but it very well may be the first such adventure published; every other one that I've covered for this blog has been pretty high level.

It's set in a single-level dungeon that was originally built as a tomb for a fighter named Helmdar, Lord of Hram. Long after Helmdar's burial, a Wizard named Tim the Moonslayer carved out some extra tunnels and used it as his lair. Eventually Tim died, with rumours that he went mad and entered Helmdar's crypt, never to return. The complex filled with monster, but was otherwise uninhabited for about 100 years. Eventually, a band of orcs and goblinoids, fleeing from a war, took up residence, and are there now ruled by Borshak (a 4th level orc fighter) and Grandahg Theork (a 3rd-level orc magic-user).

The western areas of the map are mostly barracks for Borshak and his troops, while the eastern portion is what's left of Tim's laboratories, and contains more magical tricks and traps. Room 30 is Helmdar's tomb, which contains the greatest treasure but is guarded by two Spectres (the spirits of Helmdar and Tim). I'd contend that these guardians preclude this from being a low-level adventure, but I suppose the players don't have to go in their if they don't want.

There are quite a few instances in this adventure of spells being cast via magic mouth. There was nothing to preclude this in OD&D, but in a few months the Players Handbook will be released, and the version of magic mouth in that book specifically says that it can't be used in this way. I suppose that Tim the Moonslayer created his own version of the spell, that allows it to function as it does in this adventure.

If I have one complaint about this adventure, it's that it has some crazy amounts of treasure for low levels. That said, the major caches are well-guarded, one by spectres and one by a mummy. I very much doubt that low-level adventurers would be able to clear it out, which makes this a dungeon requiring some return visits.

Recaps & Roundups part 43: JG15 Thunderhold/Sunstone Map, JG16 Booklet J, JG17 Dungeon Level Maps J1-4 and Ready Ref Chart J-5

In December of 1976, Judges Guild sent out Installment J, the second of its bi-monthly subscription packages. Included in this packages were the following items:

• JG15 Thunderhold/Sunstone Cavern Map (one for players and one for Judges)
• JG16 Booklet J
• JG17 Dungeon Level Maps J1-4
• JG21 Journal J
• Ready Ref Chart J-5

JG 15 Thunderhold/Sunstone Cavern Map

These maps depict the Castle of Thunderhold and the surrounding wilderness. The judges' map has all of the buildings and features labelled, while the players' version leaves all of these blank. The judges' map also has a dungeon printed on the back, the Sunstone Cavern. More details of these are given below.

JG16 Booklet J

This booklet is the meat of the installment, detailing the dwarven citadel of Thunderhold and the nearby Sunstone Caverns (with some other extraneous bits and bobs thrown in). It's only twelve pages long, but as is customary with Judges Guild products it's absolutely jam-packed with content. I'm not sure how much a JG subscription cost, but I'd be willing to bet that folks were getting their money's worth.

Thunderhold lies to the north of the City State of the Invincible Overlord, as shown on the map below:

The lands north of the City-State (note that north is to the left of this image).

Thunderhold castle had once been the stronghold of a tribe of men called the Moonrakers, who traded with dwarves who lived in the Sunstone caverns nearby. This alliance was broken up by an invasion of gnolls, led by the evil wizard Lychin and his minotaur/priest ally Bragash, who took possession of the caves and the castle.

Another tribe of dwarves lived in the Majestic Mountains, south of Thunderhold, but they were driven from their homeland by the dragon Ancalegorn and its three young. They moved north, led by Nordre Ironhelm, defeated the gnolls and took control of the Sunstone Caverns (rumoured to have a lode of mithril) as well as Thunderhold. Lychin was apparently killed, but the minotaur Bragash escaped deeper into the Sunstone Caverns. Now the dwarven population of Thunderhold is about 2,000, and Ironhelm maintains close ties to the City State, holding a seat in the senate.

It's mentioned in the book that the dwarves worship Goibhnie, blacksmith of the gods, who is a part of the Celtic mythos in Supplement IV: Gods, Demigods & Heroes. Still on the subject of gods, it then goes on to give this quite bizarre passage which I'll write out in full: "It is rumored that a god called Emig XXV died near the Thunderhold two years ago and gave birth to a mortal named 'Defect'. The mortal and a portion of the dead Emig was supposedly sold to the Overlord for a considerable sum. This rumor was probably started to explain the fire which began leaping from the Cryptic Citadel to kill any flying creature venturing over it since the mortal was also supposed to have inherited a magic limb of Emig named 'Autocannon'. The dwarves have always produced superior weapons but legion blades of recent make are attributed to the corpse of Emig." I'm not sure what exactly Emig is supposed to be, but the hints are definitely there for a race of technologically advanced gods or invaders. And if the Overlord has an autocannon on his roof, I'm all for it.

This is followed by a list of some of the prominent NPCs of Thunderhold, and the shops contained within the stronghold. They're given in much the same abbreviated style as those of the City State, but the shops receive much less detail: only the stats of the proprietor are given, with the type of shop only being written on the Judge's Map.

This is the players' version of JG15, the Thunderhold Map. The judges' version
has all of the buildings and other features labelled.

The Sunstone Caverns are marked to the southwest of Thunderhold. They only cover a single level, but it's a big level, split over three pages in my PDF (although the original was printed on the reverse of the judges version of the Thunderhold map). I've stitched them together as best I can.

There are a number of factions and other interesting features in the caves, although they're only described in a very broad fashion. The mithril lode (now depleted) is located in the areas to the northwest. The Bandits of the Man-Ape dwell to the west. Their leader Carpen Gartirn is chaotic good, so I assume that they're Robin Hood types, and they have been fighting with the Chaotic forces in the caves. Who the "man-ape" is is unspecified, but Carpen does have a Charisma of 5, so it might be him. Near the centre dwells a white dragon called Gorgomat, who was trapped inside the caves 120 years ago, and is worshipped by gnolls. The middle southern caves are inhabited by a hill giant called Muakruar the Unblest, as well as his family (and their pet hydra). North of that, still near the centre, is the lair of the Minotaur Bragrash, and his ghoul minions. The spectre Zagrath roams the areas to the north-east, seeking his long-lost dog companion. South of that is the Oracle of Bubastis, a large statue which is believed to be divine, but is actually a scam being run by some magic-users. The areas to the southeast are the old Sunstone Mine, and still have areas that can be mined for gems.

(The dwarves aren't mentioned here, so they obviously don't hold the caverns anymore. It's mentioned that nobody ventures in since the spectre Zagrath was first encountered, so it's possible he drove them away.)

The most intriguing area, though, lies to the southwest: the Tribunal of Chaos. This is kind of a court for chaotic monsters, with judges, guards, and executioners. There are various factions vying for control (orcs, wererats, wereboars, trolls, ogres), with the verdicts usually coming down in favour of whichever is on top at the given time. Lots of potential for role-playing and adventure hooks here, especially if the players find themselves captured while in the caves.

The booklet also has a number of adventure hooks scattered throughout. Some are given as legends and rumours that may be handed out by NPCs (such as the Dungeon Vault, a huge cave complex below the Majestic Fastness; the Night Watchers, a group of spectres riding manticores; or the Sun-Driven Dwarf, a flying dwarf adventurer who departed 140 years ago). Others are given as songs or poems, to be used whenever the PCs listen to some minstrel or tavern bard. Here's an example of one:

After the long and cold retreat

The Witch-Queen deigned to take her seat,

By the ancient Sleeping River clear,

Where harpies singing charm the ear.

They're all similarly vague, and the intent is for the DM to take these snippets and craft his own adventure around them.

A recurring segment is introduced called "Malevolent Character Module", which is intended to introduce an NPC or monster that could be the basis for an adventure or two. This one introduces Lady Kostbera the Sorceress, who is a former beggar who ruthlessly carved her way up the ranks of society to join the Black Lotus, the Overlord's personal spy ring.

The rest of the booklet is crammed with bits and pieces that expand on the rules and setting, as follows:

• Exchange rates for various coins. The standard D&D coins are all used (copper, silver, gold, electrum, platinum), and there are also iron coins, mithril coins and adamantite. The exchange rates are as follows: adamantite = 20gp; mithril = 10gp; platinum = 5 gp; electrum = 2gp; 1gp = 10 silver; 1 gp = 50 copper; an iron coin is worth 3 copper, which irritatingly doesn't fit neatly into a gold piece. One copper is worth about 5 hours of labour.
• Rules are given for armour and weapons made of metals other than iron or steel, including adjustments to effectiveness and price. In general, adamantite grants a +2 bonus, mithril a +1 bonus, and the various previous metals have a penalty of -1, while copper is the least effective at -2.
• Some rules are given for gems, and the values of different varieties that might be found. Prices are given for making certain objects out of gemstones. There's also a chart for special gems, which includes the various magical ones already established along with some new types: glowstone, geas stone, prayer stone, quest stone, selenite (can write moon runes), possession stone (charms at -4), moonstone (raises Int by 1 after a year), warstone (can be made into a +2 handaxe), wish stone.
• Charts are given for gaining information from beggars, some of whom are said to have the ability to predict the future. The Beggar's Guild is also established, which is one of those pulp fantasy staples that has always seemed a little absurd to me; it's an idea that works in Pratchett's Discworld, and not really anywhere else, but apparently the City-State has one.
• A system is given for testing a PC's ability scores, which basically boils down to using the relevant score as a percentage chance for success. A player gets one chance to succeed, unless rolling against their prime requisite, in which case they get to keep trying.
• Three rules are given for allowing PCs to recover from being wounded below 0 hit points. The first allows any player to recover 1-4 hp after a battle, so long as they bandage their wounds immediately; someone with hp of 0 or below can be healed in this manner by another player. With the second method, a player dropped below 0 hp rolls 2d6, and subtracts the number of hp below zero. This is the number of rounds they have until they die. For the third method, the dying PC rolls a d6 for each of their hit die, and the result is the number of rounds they have until they die. I may be mistaken, but I think that these are the first rules in D&D that allow a PC to survive after losing all of their hit points.
• Tables are given for when the PCs are stopped by guards, with random determination for the reason they were stopped and what they guards may want. It could be as simple as asking for imformation, or something worse like suspicion of spying, or even impressing them to dig ditches for a day.
• Rules are given for using insults and witticisms in combat, which usually results in the target being stunned or incapacitated. The Buffoon class is given as a sub-class of Fighter with a low Charisma, who can use a number of these witticisms per day. I've never been a fan of these kind of classes, or of the use of ability score rolls to influence NPCs with conversation. If I use it as an NPC class, the witticisms will definitely have a magical basis rather than just being regular speech.
• Rules are given for alchemists and wizards to research and create poisons. Common poisons such as belladonna, opium and arsenic are easier to find and create, while the rarer sorts (from a wyvern, water naga or purple worm) are more difficult. A chart is given for the various poison types, which no longer kill instantly: instead they deliver a set amount of damage per round on a failed save, while also making ill, paralyzing or putting their victim into a coma.
• A chart is given with reasons as to why an NPC might be attacking the PCs, ranging from mistaken identity to drunkenness to religious hatred.
• Finally there's a table that fleshes out some of the special encounters than can happen in the City-State: fires, epidemics, holidays, jail breaks, and various other events or declarations. Special attention is given to roaming vigilantes for some reason.

JG17 Dungeon Level Maps

In addition to the Sunstone Caverns, there is another cave dungeon to the north-west of Thunderhold. Four levels of this dungeon are provided as maps that came with the installment, labelled as product JG17. No further details are given for these caverns aside from what's printed on the maps themselves (which is mostly smells and sounds). There are paths that lead down to levels 5 and 6 of the dungeon, but no maps are given for these. There's also a cave that leads to the planet Venus. This is the first level:

JG21 Journal J

Alas, I haven't been able to find a complete copy of this journal anywhere. All I have is a snippet of the first page, and a very blurry one at that. From what I can gather, it's an article about regaining balance in a campaign that's gotten out of control, by lowering the levels of the PCs, raising the levels of the monsters, or eliminating certain trouble-making PCs.

Ready Ref Chart J-5

Like the other Ready Ref Charts, this is a single sheet of paper that summarises various rules for ease of reference.

This chart summarises the surprise rules, and I don't believe it adds anything new. It also gives a chart showing how monster will generally react to a party, based on their intelligence and whether or not the party outnumbers them; this is based on a line from OD&D Vol. 3 stating that monsters will generally attack unless they are intelligent enough to avoid an obviously superior force. A chart is also given showing the intelligence levels of monsters, categorising them as Unintelligent, Semi-Intelligent or Intelligent. Most of these could be ascertained from the monster descriptions already given, but there's definitely been some extrapolation done here by the Judges Guild crew. Guidelines are given for how long certain actions might take, with all actions given in rounds; this is all new material. Rules are also given for whether a creature will believe a Phantasmal Force spell, based on level and a roll of 2d6; this is also new material. Finally, a chart is given to determine who goes first in combat based on the weapon, spell or attack they're using, modified by armor worn and Dexterity. Glances, breath weapons, low-level spells and missile fire are quick, weapons go first based on length, and high-level spells and scrolls are the slowest. How this ties into the already established initiative rules (such as they are) is anyone's guess.

Recaps & Roundups part 42: JG10 Guide to the City State

Dropping late in 1976, JG10 Guide to the City State was the follow-up to Booklet I. But whereas that first booklet contained info on the buildings and residents for a handful of streets in the City-State of the Invincible Overlord, JG10 crams its 64 pages with entries for pretty much every important building on the City-State map. Unfortunately it doesn't replicate what was in Booklet I, so a bit of book juggling will still be required to use the full city, but it's so chock-full of content I'm not sure where that stuff would have fit anyway.

I should note at this point that I'm writing this up quite a number of weeks after I finished reading JG10, so my memories of it all are a little hazy. I took some notes, but it's likely I might make mistakes or misremember some things. It's one of the perils of taking a blog hiatus, I suppose.

In addition to detailing the city, this book gives us our first details about the Judges Guild setting, beginning with a couple of maps which I'll reproduce below.

This map's at the end of my PDF of JG10, but I'm not
100% sure it was in the original booklet.

The City-State was apparently founded 1,358 years ago (in the year 3075 BCCC) by a unification of nomad tribes, and has grown so powerful that it only pays tribute to one nation located far in the west (possibly the City-State of the Emperor marked on the map). The barbarian Altanians, who share an ancestry with the people of the City-State, dwell to the south. Thunderhold lies to the north, ruled by Nordre Ironhelm, king of the dwarves.

It's said that over 300 religions are practiced in the City-State. The Overlord allows them all to operate, taxing them all. As in Booklet I, there are actual gods dwelling in the city as well, among them a toad god in the swamp and Balder himself in a wine shop.

The city now runs on an embryonic feudal system, which came into place 456 after the Revolt of Craftsmen, when the craftsmen wrested a measure of freedom from the warrior-dominated ruling faction.

The calendar mentioned above (BCCC) is Balozkinar's Corrected Common Calendar, and was instituted 453 years ago. Balozkinar was a warrior-king, after the discovery and interpretation of an ancient calendar obelisk (I think, the wording is a little vague). The calendar year is split into 18 months of 20 days, with a five or six day celebration at the end of each year.

The obelisk mentioned above, called the Chronology of the Dragon Kings, is shown below:

Given the founding of the city state in 3075 BCCC, these kings all ruled well before its existence. It's mentioned that the founding happened precisely 5,466 years after something called the Uttermost War, and supposedly 11,683 years after "the creation" (according to Ralibarn the Wise, a Patriarch of Odin). It's also mentioned that there's a gap of about 2,500 years in the City-State's history, due to the destruction of records on a nation-wide scale, but I'm not sure how that can be, as it was only founded 1,358 years ago. Perhaps that gap refers to the history of the region as a whole, rather than the city-state itself.

With the history stuff out of the way, the book then gets into detailing the streets and buildings, in exactly the same fashion that it did in Booklet I. As before, it's dense and pretty rough going as a read. It's only 65 pages, but it took me a few weeks to get through. The buildings are grouped by street, with each one giving the stats and personalities of major residents, as well as wares offered and treasures held. There's a lot packed in, and just about every building has some sort of a springboard that could be used to generate an adventure.

Of the various city supplements I've read over the years, this might be one of the most practical and usable. My only real gripe is that buildings are often grouped with those on a street that they are a fair distance away from. For the most part they can be found quickly, but there's the odd one here and there that would be very difficult to find without a lot of flipping through the booklet.

The book finishes up with some more charts, with things such as random boons and duties that the Overlord might ask of a noble, lots of charts for determining the looks and disposition of any women encountered (with the possibilities including ones with golden fur and tail, feathers and wings, and scaly half-mermaids), and rules about law and justice in the city-state (including wills, oath-breaking, and proclamations that might be posted in the plazas and at the gates).

The booklet ends with the following calendar, which has 12 months in contradiction to the 18-month calendar mentioned earlier in the book. It's possible that the one below is used by the common folk, with the other being favored by nobles and officials.

From this we can learn the general temperature at different times of the year (in Fahrenheit, seemingly), as well as the names of several of the gods worshipped in the city-state: Modron, goddess of rivers; Mabon, god of the sun; Harmakis, god of destruction; Teutates, god of war. These deities seem to exist alongside pretty much everything from Supplement IV: Gods, Demigods & Heroes. It's also mentioned that month 5 (the Yellow Moon-Dog) is "pardon month", when the Overlord can be petitioned to pardon any crime. Any petitioner not pardoned is often exiled beyond the city gates.