Congrats on the 90th video Martin. Love these overviews of Dragon magazine. I never subscribed, but I would go to the library to check them out and then xerox copies of certain articles at the drug store. Later I subscribed to Dungeon magazine and still have almost 100 copies. Did you ever check out Dungeon back in the day?
10k! That’s awesome. Congratulations Daddy Rolled a 1 !! The best part of a Dragon magazine is the mid-section module every 2-4 volumes. Dragon Magazine games, like File 13, or modules, like The Assassins Run, would be great to see as a deeper dive into AD&D.
I guess a topic I’d like to learn a bit more about that I haven’t been able to find out much on my own is the various lead-miniature-figurine companies that were around at the time of D&D getting popular in the 70s and 80s. I have a bunch of the official Grenadier ones, as well as some Ral Partha, Heritage, and some branded TSR as well. Probably a few odds and ends from other companies that I’ve forgotten about. I imagine that would be a pretty big topic, and might even take more than a single video. But I really don’t know much about the people behind those companies… and for a while, collecting lead figures was almost as important to my group as getting the books and modules. The Grenadier sets also often had some fabulous artwork. (Though the Ral Partha figures were often the superior castings looking back on them now. But Grenadier was officially licensed… and at the time, a blessing from TSR was super important to me.) And then, I guess I’d like to know more about a few of the third party companies like Judges Guild and Role Aids who did manage to get an official license to make D&D and AD&D products for a while. I never bought any of these at the time… but I’ve seen a bunch online since, and wish I had grabbed them back in the day.
I read Quag Keep in high school in the early 80's. A couple decades ago, I was reminded of that book and I ended up buying 2 copies on EBay and rereading it. Fascinating stuff. I am told the later book Return to Quag Keep is not nearly as good, but I've never read it.
I've heard the same thing about the "Return..." book. Andre Norton unfortunately passed away while it was still being written, but I don't know how much that impacted what the end story was. Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
Yes, it's not as good. You can tell it was sorta pieced together. But still much better than a lot of D&D-type fantasy written today. More TSR-era style fantasy fiction vs today. 🤓
Havent watched the video yet, but have read both books, To me, they were both just ok, but the first book was better then the second, but thats often the case with lots of literature and movies, like may you liked the first Rocky Movie, but the second one was not as good. Think it was about 25 years ago when I read the first book and maybe 2 or 3 years ago I re read the first book and then read the second. I think initially I liked it better but mostly because of the yearning to read a book set in the Greyhawk world. Not sure if you have read the Novels written by Gygax, and then Rose Estes. Some of them were ok, but all of them fell a little short, because maybe I was wanting something other then what they were.
@@nobody342 I started to read the first novel that Gygax wrote about a thief character (can’t remember his name) but his writing was so poor that I gave up and never went back to it.
I really appreciate (amongst many things) how you've covered the history of the hobby via magazine analysis. I'm now curious how the hobby looked from the pov of other contemporary 'zines. Great content per usual!!
Thanks for the video! Gary was very defensive in those days regarding the D&D IP but he wasn't wrong to be. the wargaming and publishing industry, below the level of high production value boxed games, seemed very much like the Wild West with folks regularly grabbing ideas from one another and expanding on them. The expansion of the Dragon staff certainly upped their game. Many of the articles were inventive but seemed scattershot in that period, but still interesting to read. Cultural appropriation was not avoided in that time but it should be said it also wasn't meant to be insulting, not that it wasn't to those from whom culture was lifted. At the very least, it was insensitive but judging the past by modern sensibilities will always show the past as less than stellar, even as recent as a year ago. Check out some of the Gresham College videos featuring Ronald Hutton on Paganism and early Britain (or even read some of his books) to learn some of what we've gotten wrong over the years and why. I never did read Quag Keep though I have heard both good and bad regarding how it holds up today. Still, seems like something I should make time to read someday. Doctoring up your drinks, eh? Clever!
Great video! I finished Quag Keep maybe about two months ago. I must say that I was lured by the concept of what Gygax would inspire Norton to portray in the book. Something modern gamers overlook is that traveling is an adventure in its own. I feel like this book really brings a good point that the voyage & the atmosphere is just as deadly or even more than the common dungeon. Also every character is fundamental in all its differences. Quag Keep is truly a right of passage. Club Quag Keep!
I hope you like it! I quite like the article and it's quite different from what we got in Deities & Demigods! Thanks so much for your support, as always! I truly appreciate it. Cheers!
I have a player who has a gnome fighter/ illusionist… so thanks for pointing out the TD#12 article on Illusionists. 5 years ago I purchased an early/ mid 80s Dragon issue that has a very helpful table on % Chance your opponent believes in the illusion cast by the PC… we use it constantly. Thanks again!!
Love seeing your videos whenever they pop up in my feed. Did you ever explore the Spelljammer stuff? I saw there's a convention close-ish to me where Zeb Cook is going to be there, so I may see if he'll sign one of my spelljammer novels that he wrote. But there's a lot of great names associated with that line of novels, Elaine Cunningham, Roger E Moore. I enjoyed the 5th edition of the setting, but have not had a chance to play the older editions of it (though I have read much of it.)
41:27 One major factor in the large number of space games that feature in this batch of Dragon issues is Star Wars was released in the theaters in May 1977.
Ah, yes, of course! I should have mentioned that! Totally makes sense. Thanks for watching and commenting - I really enjoy making these retrospectives of old Dragon Magazines but they tend to perform a lot less than my other videos.
@@daddyrolleda1 I find these reviews of old Dragon's nostalgic so I enjoy them. I was just playing D&D (and later AD&D) during this time and into the early 80s.
Re: stats of deities still worshipped today. This always reminds me of the Hardcover TTRPG book Fantasy wargaming (by Bruce Galloway), where he had HPs and abilities for "God." Even at 14 or 15 it seemed like a terrible choice to me.
Thank you! I hoe you enjoy it! I forgot to change the title (I re-used details from a previous video when posting) so if you were looking for my 5 Favorite TTRPG Mechanics, check out last week's video here: ua-cam.com/video/xrCzPjMHev4/v-deo.htmlsi=BXYunYSpHZ5vDedN Cheers, and thanks for watching and commenting!
Cool video, did you ever think of doing a history of D&D in video games? I know I was a huge Wizardry fan in the early 80’s on my Apple IIc. I also had my D&D game for Intellivision in 1982
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I can certainly add it to the list of potential future topics, but true by told, I've never played a D&D video game and I'm not really a video game player by nature so I don't really have the background for it!
Great video!! Thanks for digging deep into the Dragon Magazines. The oldest one I own is #18. The holiday art of the TSR employees, I believe, is still in Tim Kask's personal collection.
You have really motivated me to try AD&D with that said could you please do a chapter by chapter review or read of the basic books and do you advise on a place to buy the books you need to play, the oldest TTRPG that I have played is GURPS 4e
I love Finieous. I wish I still had my complete FF that TSR published. I was sad when J.D. stopped the series. I was drinking Larceny Barrel Proof while was watching😊
Forgive me if I've missed it, but I'd love a video on Gangbusters. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying this and every other video you r fine. PS what level is are the characters in the campaign your are running for your daughter and friends? I believe they did Keep on the Borderlands and were investigating N1 last time you mentioned it, would love an update
I find the "so-and-so fighting" rules is fun but I'm probably never going to use it in an actual game at most, i'd find the staff fighting rules as a little minigame for a duel
@@rttakezo2000 Thanks for watching and commenting! I really appreciate it, as it helps the algorithm. I joined the community just a few years later, in 1981, and nobody I played with ever raoes about this game. Maybe 4 years makes a a difference.
Yeah, Tim Kask said that he thought printing all of the cool pieces of fantasy fiction would be good imagination-fuel for DMs. Gamers were more eager for material specifically of rules for the game, though.
Back in the day, I was sadly more focused on game mechanics than on inspirations and fiction, but I've learned that was very short-sighted! I now find inspiration anywhere I can!
Do you have a copy or Dungeon Master's Index, or have you at least read it? Do you think it was actually an inferior product or do you think it failed for other reasons, perhaps including Gygax successfully poisoning the well against Arneson's work on the game?
The attempts to gamify religious practices should not be an offense. This was the first introduction to many of these cultures to Midwest America, and opens the door for better cultural understanding. It is not the responsibility of a game designer to understand a culture they are not part of. it is the responsibility of those in that culture to help others understand their culture. It is not cultural appropriation.
You're probably my most favorite UA-camr right now.
Congrats on the 10K subscribers.
Congrats on the 90th video Martin. Love these overviews of Dragon magazine. I never subscribed, but I would go to the library to check them out and then xerox copies of certain articles at the drug store. Later I subscribed to Dungeon magazine and still have almost 100 copies. Did you ever check out Dungeon back in the day?
10k! That’s awesome. Congratulations Daddy Rolled a 1 !!
The best part of a Dragon magazine is the mid-section module every 2-4 volumes. Dragon Magazine games, like File 13, or modules, like The Assassins Run, would be great to see as a deeper dive into AD&D.
I guess a topic I’d like to learn a bit more about that I haven’t been able to find out much on my own is the various lead-miniature-figurine companies that were around at the time of D&D getting popular in the 70s and 80s.
I have a bunch of the official Grenadier ones, as well as some Ral Partha, Heritage, and some branded TSR as well. Probably a few odds and ends from other companies that I’ve forgotten about.
I imagine that would be a pretty big topic, and might even take more than a single video.
But I really don’t know much about the people behind those companies… and for a while, collecting lead figures was almost as important to my group as getting the books and modules.
The Grenadier sets also often had some fabulous artwork. (Though the Ral Partha figures were often the superior castings looking back on them now. But Grenadier was officially licensed… and at the time, a blessing from TSR was super important to me.)
And then, I guess I’d like to know more about a few of the third party companies like Judges Guild and Role Aids who did manage to get an official license to make D&D and AD&D products for a while.
I never bought any of these at the time… but I’ve seen a bunch online since, and wish I had grabbed them back in the day.
I read Quag Keep in high school in the early 80's. A couple decades ago, I was reminded of that book and I ended up buying 2 copies on EBay and rereading it. Fascinating stuff. I am told the later book Return to Quag Keep is not nearly as good, but I've never read it.
I've heard the same thing about the "Return..." book. Andre Norton unfortunately passed away while it was still being written, but I don't know how much that impacted what the end story was.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
Yes, it's not as good. You can tell it was sorta pieced together. But still much better than a lot of D&D-type fantasy written today. More TSR-era style fantasy fiction vs today. 🤓
Havent watched the video yet, but have read both books, To me, they were both just ok, but the first book was better then the second, but thats often the case with lots of literature and movies, like may you liked the first Rocky Movie, but the second one was not as good. Think it was about 25 years ago when I read the first book and maybe 2 or 3 years ago I re read the first book and then read the second. I think initially I liked it better but mostly because of the yearning to read a book set in the Greyhawk world. Not sure if you have read the Novels written by Gygax, and then Rose Estes. Some of them were ok, but all of them fell a little short, because maybe I was wanting something other then what they were.
@@nobody342 I started to read the first novel that Gygax wrote about a thief character (can’t remember his name) but his writing was so poor that I gave up and never went back to it.
I really appreciate (amongst many things) how you've covered the history of the hobby via magazine analysis. I'm now curious how the hobby looked from the pov of other contemporary 'zines.
Great content per usual!!
Thanks for the video! Gary was very defensive in those days regarding the D&D IP but he wasn't wrong to be. the wargaming and publishing industry, below the level of high production value boxed games, seemed very much like the Wild West with folks regularly grabbing ideas from one another and expanding on them. The expansion of the Dragon staff certainly upped their game. Many of the articles were inventive but seemed scattershot in that period, but still interesting to read. Cultural appropriation was not avoided in that time but it should be said it also wasn't meant to be insulting, not that it wasn't to those from whom culture was lifted. At the very least, it was insensitive but judging the past by modern sensibilities will always show the past as less than stellar, even as recent as a year ago. Check out some of the Gresham College videos featuring Ronald Hutton on Paganism and early Britain (or even read some of his books) to learn some of what we've gotten wrong over the years and why. I never did read Quag Keep though I have heard both good and bad regarding how it holds up today. Still, seems like something I should make time to read someday. Doctoring up your drinks, eh? Clever!
i think it would also be interesting for you to interview people who knew things about other games and have them talk about it.
I can certainly add that to the list of potential future topics. Thanks! I appreciate it. And, thanks for watching and commenting.
yeh
Great video! I finished Quag Keep maybe about two months ago. I must say that I was lured by the concept of what Gygax would inspire Norton to portray in the book. Something modern gamers overlook is that traveling is an adventure in its own. I feel like this book really brings a good point that the voyage & the atmosphere is just as deadly or even more than the common dungeon. Also every character is fundamental in all its differences. Quag Keep is truly a right of passage. Club Quag Keep!
Lovecraft + D&D? I’m in! Can’t wait to watch this one!!
I hope you like it! I quite like the article and it's quite different from what we got in Deities & Demigods!
Thanks so much for your support, as always! I truly appreciate it. Cheers!
I have a player who has a gnome fighter/ illusionist… so thanks for pointing out the TD#12 article on Illusionists. 5 years ago I purchased an early/ mid 80s Dragon issue that has a very helpful table on % Chance your opponent believes in the illusion cast by the PC… we use it constantly. Thanks again!!
Congratulations on 10k subs!
Thank you so much! Your ongoing support means so much to me. Cheers!
Love seeing your videos whenever they pop up in my feed. Did you ever explore the Spelljammer stuff? I saw there's a convention close-ish to me where Zeb Cook is going to be there, so I may see if he'll sign one of my spelljammer novels that he wrote. But there's a lot of great names associated with that line of novels, Elaine Cunningham, Roger E Moore. I enjoyed the 5th edition of the setting, but have not had a chance to play the older editions of it (though I have read much of it.)
All caught up! Now I have to go back and catch up on the last 3 weeks of Mythkeeper.
That's a huge accomplishment to have watched all 90 videos so far. Thanks for doing that!
The more I learn about Gygax the more I see why he got kicked out of TSR.
Thanks!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your support. Cheers!
Can't wait to watch!
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it. Cheers and thanks for watching and commenting!
41:27 One major factor in the large number of space games that feature in this batch of Dragon issues is Star Wars was released in the theaters in May 1977.
Ah, yes, of course! I should have mentioned that! Totally makes sense.
Thanks for watching and commenting - I really enjoy making these retrospectives of old Dragon Magazines but they tend to perform a lot less than my other videos.
@@daddyrolleda1 I find these reviews of old Dragon's nostalgic so I enjoy them. I was just playing D&D (and later AD&D) during this time and into the early 80s.
Re: stats of deities still worshipped today. This always reminds me of the Hardcover TTRPG book Fantasy wargaming (by Bruce Galloway), where he had HPs and abilities for "God."
Even at 14 or 15 it seemed like a terrible choice to me.
Thanks for the video!
Thank you! I hoe you enjoy it! I forgot to change the title (I re-used details from a previous video when posting) so if you were looking for my 5 Favorite TTRPG Mechanics, check out last week's video here: ua-cam.com/video/xrCzPjMHev4/v-deo.htmlsi=BXYunYSpHZ5vDedN
Cheers, and thanks for watching and commenting!
Cool video, did you ever think of doing a history of D&D in video games? I know I was a huge Wizardry fan in the early 80’s on my Apple IIc. I also had my D&D game for Intellivision in 1982
Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
I can certainly add it to the list of potential future topics, but true by told, I've never played a D&D video game and I'm not really a video game player by nature so I don't really have the background for it!
Great video!! Thanks for digging deep into the Dragon Magazines. The oldest one I own is #18. The holiday art of the TSR employees, I believe, is still in Tim Kask's personal collection.
You have really motivated me to try AD&D with that said could you please do a chapter by chapter review or read of the basic books and do you advise on a place to buy the books you need to play, the oldest TTRPG that I have played is GURPS 4e
My friend had the LP for the rankin bass hobbit. I liked some of the movie. I have fond memories of the 78 lotr.
Congrats on the the 10K
I LOVED The Hobbit cartoon! I like it more than the Recent Hobbit Trilogy, mainly because no one told them to include Legolas.
I love Finieous. I wish I still had my complete FF that TSR published. I was sad when J.D. stopped the series. I was drinking Larceny Barrel Proof while was watching😊
Forgive me if I've missed it, but I'd love a video on Gangbusters. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying this and every other video you r fine.
PS what level is are the characters in the campaign your are running for your daughter and friends? I believe they did Keep on the Borderlands and were investigating N1 last time you mentioned it, would love an update
I find the "so-and-so fighting" rules is fun but I'm probably never going to use it in an actual game
at most, i'd find the staff fighting rules as a little minigame for a duel
Congrats!
I play Palladium Fantasy and enjoy it a lot but like yourself DnD has been my one to go to more often .
Everyone in the community at the time knew what OGRE was. Nearly all or a friend owned a copy.
@@rttakezo2000 Thanks for watching and commenting! I really appreciate it, as it helps the algorithm.
I joined the community just a few years later, in 1981, and nobody I played with ever raoes about this game. Maybe 4 years makes a a difference.
Quag Keep!
Yeah, Tim Kask said that he thought printing all of the cool pieces of fantasy fiction would be good imagination-fuel for DMs. Gamers were more eager for material specifically of rules for the game, though.
Back in the day, I was sadly more focused on game mechanics than on inspirations and fiction, but I've learned that was very short-sighted! I now find inspiration anywhere I can!
How about lead figures like Grenadier?
How about a show that is a bit more of a break down of how you prep for a new campaign? From idea to gathering information etc.
I really liked Wormy. Itd be nice if someone ??Trampier?? who has the rights could have collected and released it as a book. Maybe for the 50th?
Do you have a copy or Dungeon Master's Index, or have you at least read it? Do you think it was actually an inferior product or do you think it failed for other reasons, perhaps including Gygax successfully poisoning the well against Arneson's work on the game?
Why not use THAC0 and use D2 plus strength bonus for brawling? HP to zero equals unconsciousness
1
The attempts to gamify religious practices should not be an offense. This was the first introduction to many of these cultures to Midwest America, and opens the door for better cultural understanding. It is not the responsibility of a game designer to understand a culture they are not part of. it is the responsibility of those in that culture to help others understand their culture.
It is not cultural appropriation.
Gary Gygax... great creator, but a poor writer... purple or otherwise long-winded prose = poor writing.
Maybe I differ from other people, but even as a kid, I liked Gygax's style of writing, but then again, I later on majored in Physics.
Thanks!
I appreciate this so very much! Thank you for your support!
Thanks!
Thank you so much for your support of my channel. I truly appreciate it!