OSR Adventure Legacy Thoughts With The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition Dungeon Master's Guide & The From The Ashes Campaign Box Set Mixed With Castles & Cruades

 Thanks for all of the well wishes & birthday surprises on social media. Tonight an old friend of mine fell into my hands once again. That friend? The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition Dungeon Master's Guide opened with both old age & familiarity. The more that I  lean into the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide first edition the more I realize that there's more to learn then simply the 'rules'. The underlying rpg gaming philosphy of the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide seems to me to take a lifetime to learn. The underpinnings of  the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide seems to encapsulate the essence of Gary Gygax's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons optional systems. As 'Simple Man' has said on Rpgnet; "One of the best toolkit/houserule books ever, if put together in a random fashion. Not really a book to teach dungeonmastering, but a set of tools for a dungeonmaster to use or not use in his games, and one of the best ever." 

Put together in a random fashion? Yes and no. The AD&D first edition Dungeon Master's Guide is random but it reads like one might find within the head space of a dungeon master & in this case it's one of the father's of Dungeons & Dragons Gary Gygax himself. According to the Dungeon Master's Guide wiki; "The original Dungeon Masters Guide was reviewed by Don Turnbull in issue #16 of the magazine White Dwarf (December 1979/January 1980). Turnbull commented mostly on the size of the book, "I would say that only the most severe critic could point at a minor omission, let alone a serious one." 
And yet, the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide has been lamb basted over the years. But the AD&D first edition Dungeon Master's Guide is one of the best tool boxes for creating or generating adventures, encounters, & even whole cloth campaigns; "A feature of the first edition Dungeon Masters Guide was the random dungeon generator. The generator allowed the Dungeon Master, by the rolling of dice, to generate a dungeon adventure "on the fly". A dungeon complete with passageways, rooms, treasure, monsters, and other encounters could easily and randomly be constructed as the player progressed. It could be used with several people or a single player. The generator was not included in subsequent editions of the Dungeon Master's Guide but made a re-appearance in the fifth edition Dungeon Master's Guide." The random dungeon generator is perfect for creating a dungeon or adventure location that the player's won't be expecting. 
And this feeds directly into the burning lump of what was Greyhawk in the 'From The Ashes' Greyhawk box set according to the Wiki entry ; ""Book One, Atlas of the Flanaess", presents a broad overview of the eastern portion of Oerik, Oerth's major continent and the primary locale for Greyhawk campaigns. It starts with a lengthy historical summary, tracing 10 centuries of events from the early assaults of the Oeridian tribes through the aftermath of the great Greyhawk Wars. The cyclopedia entries follow the history lesson and take up the bulk of the text.^[1] "Book Two, the Campaign Book" focuses on the areas in and around the Free City of Greyhawk. As a consequence of the great war, much of the Old City was incinerated. Destitute property owners who can't afford to pay for restoration watch helplessly as their neighborhoods are overrun with beggars and street urchins. In the River Quarter, authorities fish out bodies with daggers in their backs. Refugees crowd the poorer districts, trade continues to decline, and Iuz, the fiendish ruler of a vast territory in the north central Flanaess, remains a constant threat." 

The 'From The Ashes' box set events are the perfect excuse to uncover otherwise never found dungeons, ruins, & adventure locations that the fog of war picks up & presents to the PC's this is especially good if the DM is using another system to run such a campaign. 
The random dungeon generator gives the perfect excuse for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edtion  Dungeon Master's Guide to get a work out. The fires, heat of battle, turf wars, etc. have uncovered the hidden temples of Vecna, Orcus & Luz. 

The DMG is the perfect tool box to bring such ruins to life and to add into a legacy 'From The Ashes' Greyhawk campaign. Hidden dungeons, and ruins are the perfect mid tier adventure add on to bring into such a campaign to keep players on their toes. They'll never expect a set of ruins with the influence of Orcus or Luz hanging over them. 

Some Random Thoughts & Praise Tonight For the The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide By Gary Gygax & Mike Carr

The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide By Gary Gygax & Mike Carr has some very iconic parts to it but the book itself is a classic. The book is a snap shot in time when Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ruled the table.  But what makes the The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide stand out even today to me is the utility of the book. Everything for the AD&D dungeon master is here from how to host a good game to how to do house rules fast as well as on the fly.





The wiki entry has a small thumb nail review of the AD&D DMG; "The original Dungeon Masters Guide was reviewed by Don Turnbull in issue #16 of the magazine White Dwarf (December 1979/January 1980). Turnbull commented mostly on the size of the book, "I would say that only the most severe critic could point at a minor omission, let alone a serious one."  What I love about the original AD&D Dungeon master's Guide is the random dungeon generator; "A feature of the first edition Dungeon Masters Guide was the random dungeon generator. The generator allowed the Dungeon Master, by the rolling of dice, to generate a dungeon adventure "on the fly". A dungeon complete with passageways, rooms, treasure, monsters, and other encounters could easily and randomly be constructed as the player progressed. It could be used with several people or a single player. The generator was not included in subsequent editions of the Dungeon Master's Guide but made a re-appearance in the fifth edition Dungeon Master's Guide." 
I'm trying to think about how many campaign nights I've used this book with?! I've used the DMG with Boot Hill & Gamma World even when running OSR games such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
Because of the conversion guidelines from the Dungeon Master's Guide I has successful Gamma World games. Boot Hill it was the same thing especially using the Random Strumpet table as a stand in for those Western Brothels.


The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master Guide book saved my behind more then once when I had players due in fifteen minutes. Some folks see the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide as," The only TRUE version of Advanced Dungeons & Dragon!". I'm nor really that sort of a DM. But I'm more then paying attention this because what it mean in the  20 or thirty minutes of combat,  that you can see coming. The AD&D DMG is also usable because of the tons of random table generators." figuring damage and resolving encounters in a typical adventure, tables and rules for creating characters, and lists of the various abilities of the different classes of characters." This is the heart & soul of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons experience & while I'm waxing on nostalgically. There actually is a point to this blog post & that point is that the triumphant work of the Dungeon Master's Guide.

The DM David Blog has a very good series that goes over the history, background, & complete breakdown of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons experience & books: Part 1: The time Dungeons & Dragons split into two games
Part 2: Dungeons & Dragons’ new audience versus its original rules
Part 3: Dungeon & Dragons goes two directions
Part 4: Dave Arneson takes a job at TSR
Part 5: Was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons a different game?
Part 6: Why Gary Gygax claimed Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was a different game

All in all thumbing through the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide isn't simple nostalgia but rather the measure of a general looking over his troops & then getting advice from beyond the grave from the Dungeon Master himself.

Campaign Catastrophic Curse Or A Deeper Look Into The Realm of the Dungeon Master With The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide & The Castles & Crusades Castle Keeper's Guide

When it comes to campaign & world building sometimes its time to fall back into the fundamental books & guidelines. The powerhouse books often inspire deeper looks into the process of a fictional table top universe. But first let's go over some of the situation with some boots on the ground.

Dungeon master Steve's lot of players can't seem to make a commitment to a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night OSR game at the moment. So I'm fading back to back up plan 'A' which is to concentrate on my own weekend game of OSR /Amazing Adventures! rpg hybrid campaign. To this end I unpacked my copy of the Troll Lord games Castle Keeper's Guide & my copy of the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide. Now at first these two books would seem to be at odds for a dungeon master. But in actuality they both have the bare bones of their respective old school & OSR systems. The Castle & Crusades Castle Keeper's Guide has the bare bones of the Siege Engine & some very solid systems for campaign implication.



But let's face facts this book doesn't have the advise & wisdom of Gary Gygax even though its a perfectly decent book. There's simply something about the DMG that has just a bit more under the hood of it. The Castle Keeper's book is however designed with several subsystems in mind that are perfectly suited to old school Pulp adventure & Sword & Sorcery. Oddly enough Castles & Crusades was designed to work with AD&D which is fine.  The Castle Keeper's Guide contains : player races, variants on the standard character races, different approaches to spells, spellbooks, material components and holy symbols, mana points, vehicles, lodgings, and hirelings. There’s a chapter on world design, including discussion of such elements as climate, geography, weather, calendars, government, a slew  of alternative settings  to the usual high medieval cultural setting such as Greco-Roman, Iron Age, Renaissance, or even Meso-American or Stone Age (and a later section even discusses futuristic and horror settings).

And its these that I'm going to be concentrating on. Now I've talked about using the Amazing Adventures! rpg by Jason Vey for some time. But the thing to remember is that the AA! rpg is completely & utterly cross compatible with the Castles & Crusades system.  Now that being said I'm going to get back to the weekend campaign that I've been working on based on several Appendix N sources. The far future world of HG Wells When The Sleeper Wakes & the year 2100 when the campaign takes place.



The first issue of Amazing Stories Quarterly, dated Winter 1928.
 The cover art is by Frank R. Paul^[1] for H.G. Wells' story When the Sleeper Wakes.Artwork is public domain.

The far future  world of 2100 is a very dangerous place with a lots of influences coming from Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique . All of this dovetails into Wells The Time Machine &  William Hope Hodgson's The Nightland. All of this has to do with the the artificial space-time structure ruins that have already cropped up in several of my games. And what about the demi gods & adventurers etc? Well this is a job for mortal men & women of adventure!


Already several of the Morlock & Abhuman factional blocks have had contact with the PC's. There the minions of several wizard's minions  prowling the New York City mega state & a bunch of artifacts from the Museum of Time & History have gone missing! Now all of this I just randomly rolled up from  the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide &  Troll Lord games Castle Keeper's Guide

The wilderness of the world of 2100 is indeed looking very dangerous! Already there are several crystal eggs that have shown up in my weekend game!  Special thanks to Heretic Werks blog for ruining my player's PC s day!