This move has been really painful. I'm so glad to be in a permanent home now, but the amount of stuff we have is so overwhelming. I need to do some serious culling for my own sanity.
I have a big stack of early #Dragon #Magazine from my late dad. It's sentimental, but they all seem to be on archive.org. They should go to a good home. I can send more details if interested.
#Boost for all the nerds in the fedi
Review 2500: The Adventures of Indiana Jones Role-Playing Game
A review of the infamous roleplaying game published by TSR, Inc. in 1984.
https://rlyehreviews.blogspot.com/2024/08/review-2500-adventures-of-indiana-jones.html
Was searching around to confirm that a lot of Dragonlance and 2e era artwork used reference models.
Here is a Dragonlance art piece, with some of the reference photographs.
https://larryelmore.com/store/DLCL/dragonlance--companions-of-the-lance
Gary Gygax wrote in Dragon Magazone that AD&D was going to fix the inconsistencies of D&D and provide just one set of rules that every campaign everywhere can use as the core rules for a degree of compatibility.
I find it strange, then, that he wrote up 4 different methods to generate character's ability scores. (See Image 1).
Then, (I suspect to address how hard it is to become a paladin), he provided another method in the Unearthed Arcana (See Image 2).
@leece @dgar Also worth noting, even though the game never attracted me, is that it was so enormously successful that it, arguably, saved the #TTRPG market. In essence it gave the publishers, Wizards of the Coast, enough money to buy out #TSR, the makers of #DND when they were going under, and financed a revitalisation OF #DND. A revitalisation that, again arguably, flowed through to the rest of the #TTRPG market.
So the next step to all the D&D versions I played is not from D&D, but from one of the first electronic board game crossovers. The Dark Tower. I lived in a very rural area but my parents bought me this game. Eventually, I figured out how to play the game solo and without even using the map. I played it a lot. One summer, a friend came to visit. He was older than me. He wanted to play the game. I said this game is very complicated and I do not want to explain it. He asked, "Is it more complicated than Dungeons & Dragons?" I did not know. I did not even recall the brief Holmes game I played. So, I spent time explaining the Dark Tower to him. He scoffed, "That is not more complicated than Dungeons & Dragons." Of course, he did not have D&D. And he would not explain it. But I was hooked. I needed to get a copy of this D&D thing and figure it out.
Ok, the cover is repaired as best I could and put it into a polyurethane magazine bag. Flipped through the module and some kid had made notes on a few pages long ago. I both love and hate that on used RPGs!
Took a flyer and stopped at HPB quick while running errands. Found this Gamma World adventure module from 1983. It’s beat to hell, which is why it was relatively cheap!
Sadly, I do not have a shelf of rpg books. Many years ago I put my rpg items into boxes and tucked them away in the attic. I should go get them down and make sure they have not turned to dust.
I admit, I'm genuinely awful at choosing good gifts for anyone, let alone for girlfriends. It's hurt relationships in my past. But just once, in that time and that place, the stars aligned and I had the perfect gift for a pretty girl.
That's right, readers. I gave her a vintage #TSR six-sided die.
I got to interview the following creative individuals. Eventually, I put them all into a pdf you can download for free.
Steve Winter, Frank Mentzer, Bruce Heard, Clyde Caldwell, Jennell Jacquays, James M Ward, Rick Krebs, Jeff Grubb, Skip Williams, David "Zeb" Cook, David "Diesel" LaForce, Douglas Niles, Sean K Reynolds, Coleman Charlton, Phil Gallagher, Graeme Davis, Steve Perrin, Richard Garriott
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/227268/Random-Wizard-Interviews
I had a "if you were to wish for something to find" find at a local comic shop today!! I am so very excited! It all came in one box!
If you are looking for something to read while traveling over the holidays. Here is a free pdf of interviews with 18 designers of the RPG industry of the 70s, 80s, 90s. Most of the interviews are with TSR employees, but a few big names from other endeavours as well.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/227268/Random-Wizard-Interviews
@chaoticneutral I wouldn't call a $10 hardcover book "ephemera," but here's a promotional newsletter #TSR was distributing around the same time. It's been hiding in my game magazine collection for 30 years.
Found on a floppy disk for Amiga computers: Dragonlance art by Clyde Caldwell, 1987, that was used in a TSR Dragonlance calendar that year. (I also have that calendar, which is pinned to my wall.)
ILBM format, invented by Electronic Arts.
I found these relics whilst cleaning recently. I’m struggling to recall how I acquired them, as I’m certainly not the original owner ( I was 4 in 1980).
GM Zeppelin 
