10. Tomb of Horrors

9. Assault on the Aerie of the Slavelords

8. Midnight on Dagger Alley

7. Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan

6. Queen of the Demonweb Pits

5. Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

4. Master of the Desert Nomads

3. Against the Cult of the Reptile God

2. Dwellers of the Forbidden City

1. In Search of the Unknown

And just for the hell of it, the 5 worst one:

5. Up the Garden Path (Look out- moles!)

4. Beyond the Crystal Cave (Hello lawsuit from the Mary Stewart estate…)

3. Palace of the Silver Princess (Sounds like a My Little Pony episode.)

2. The War Rafts of Kron (War rafts?!?)

1. Quagmire! (Why the exclamation mark? Is it a musical about the Vietnam war?)

Click here to check out the fund raising site. (I will confess a certain disappointment in 8th grade when the teacher named James Ward at my middle school turned out to be just some schmuck and not the guy behind the dreaded Obb…)

As a child of the 70s/80s, I had a fondness for Apocalyptic films and books.  Hurray Cold War, no?  I’d watch Mad Max (hell I watched Mad Mad Beyond Thunder Dome)  and Thundarr the Barbarian or read Damnation Alley and think to myself- the post-war wasteland won’t be too bad; at least I get a cool dune buggy and befriend some mutants!  When I started gaming I immediately gravitated to Gamma World’s goofy blend of campy sci-fi, collapsed world beauty, and real sense of wonder.  It wasn’t until a couple of years later, reading the rules for the Morrow Project and, in reviewing their list of bomb targets, that I realized I’d be so much lightly toasted ash after the 25 megaton bomb leveled my home town and its inconvenient ball-bearing factory.

So, as part of the horde recently returned to me by my parents are what is left of my Gamma World collection- 2nd and 3rd edition rules, a couple modules (of which my favorite is still Famine in Far-Go with its ludicrous yet somehow wonderful villainous mutant chickens, the Gallus Gallus 5/13), and the GM screen.  Gotta love that Jim Holloway cover art… wonder if any of it is for sale…

Perhaps it is pure nostalgia and I am sure that modern gamer would complain endlessly about game balance, mechanical issues, and the like, but what Gamma World had in spades was a sense of fun.  You could do battle with laser-armed mutant rabbits while wearing armor made out of old car parts.  You could riddle with sentient robots and try to figure out how to use a toaster.  You could ride around on a poinsettia and barter with desert nomads from the Empire of Lazvekuz… you could frankly do all sorts of crazy, half-baked things that were much more fun than they were logical.  It was great.

If I had a gaming group I’d be tempted to crack the rule book open and have a bit of fun… but since I don’t, I’m posting this here.

So, to Jim Ward et al, thanks.

Aside from a load of old AD&D stuff, I found an old issue of Polyhedron, autographed by Frank Metzner, Penny Petticord, and Tom Moldvay. That makes me very happy.

Here is a list of all the old modules in the boxes:

• The Emirates of Ylaruam (D&D, no cover)
• B2 – Keep on the Borderlands (cover only)\
• B4 – The Lost City (the first D&D book I bought for myself, lucky me)
• B5 – Horror on the Hill (cover only)
• CM2 – Death Ride (cover only)
• X1 – the Isle of Dread (no cover)
• A3 – Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords (intact)
• A4 – in the Dungeons of the Slave Lords (no cover)
• C1 – The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (2nd Ed., illustration book only, taped together)
• C1- The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan (4th Ed or later, one page of illustration book only)
• D1 – Descent into the Depths of the Earth (intact)
• D2 – Shrine of the Kuo-Toa (intact)
• D1-2 – Descent into the Depths of the Earth (missing interior maps)
• I1 – Dwellers of the Forbidden City (intact but heavily marked up including a scrawled pencil note: “Modify Heavily!” on front.  Weird.)
• I2 – The Tomb of the Lizard King (intact! though maps loose)
• N1 – Against the Cult of the Reptile God (missing dungeon map; oops!)
• N5 – Under Illefarn
• S1 – The Tomb of Horrors illustration book
• U2 – Danger at Dunwater (intact)
• U3 – The Final Enemy (intact)
• WG6 – Isle of the Ape (intact)
• Player Character records sheet (cover only)

Clearly my D&D books fared far worse than AD&D since almost none of those survived the horrors of my adolescent room- I recall having a fuller run of the X  and B series modules…

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/

You read that correctly- D&D with porn stars.  Interesting discussion of D&D’s monsters (especially as they appeared in the Monster Manual) right now (but I disagree at certain points- the ankheg rocks!).  For example, on Asmodeus-

Now here is a man of wealth and taste.  A man of wealth and taste from the ’70s.  The sideburns, medallion, and Op Art dickey pretty much tell you all you need to know about this creature’s preferred tactics.  Here is Satan as Tempter, as opposed to Orcus’ Satan as ‘Metallest Possible Guy’.

As the name implies, there is nudity.  The guy seems to actually work in the industry and isn’t just some weirdo who keeps his copy of the Fiend Folio next to “Fame is a Whore on Butt Row II” (a real title, I’ve been told).

Eventually my nostalgia trip will resume, when I’ve got some time.

Man, who knew scimitars were so popular?

This page, aside from the remains of Gygax’s defense of the concept of “saves” (about four paragraphs), solely covering the minutia of saving throws.  AND THAT IS ALL.  Perhaps I’m just being a crab.

And what can impact a save?

DM Stipulation- AKA, it is a game.

Rule Stipulation- AKA, if the book says the roll is modified.

Circumstantial Stipulation- “quite similar to DM stipulations”; if you get hit by a lightning bolt and are standing in water* is the example given

(*holding aloft a sword, wearing steel gauntlets,  and the lightning is a blue dragon’s breath weapon.)

Certain failures- Home of the popular 1 is always a fail, 20 is always a success.  AKA the 5% chance to get away with (or fail) something no matter how idiotic.

Next discussed are saves for items (“pretty self-explanatory”) and artifacts, which seems pointless because in the discussion on artifacts much detail is given to how they can only be destroyed in very  special circumstances…

This followed by a note on why poisons are boolean; i.e. why you either suffer no effects or die instantly.  Having read more than a little about venom from project A, this doesn’t really match real world poisons at all.  Additionally, Gygax provides all sorts of justifications why monsters aren’t effected by poisons… suggesting that being poisonous would not be a useful (and therefore common) trait in any AD&D ecology, something that is clearly not the case.

Finally, we are given more  notes on magic armor and saves;  apparently wearing magic armor should help with certain saves- acid (non-immersion), disintegration, falling damage (really?), fires, and spells that cause physical damage.  Sadly no one in any game I played in had this little benefit… sorry Trunblorn, you pile of smoldering dwarf ashes…

New words: Fetters, stipulation

Art: A lovely cartoon by Will Mclean:

Always loved this one, perhaps because I rarely played fighters…