OSR Commentary On Warriors of Mars: The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature, Gygax & Blume, TSR, 1974.

 "Worlds of heroic fantasy are many, but perhaps the best known of them all is the Barsoom of Edgar Rice Burroughs; where John Carter, Tars Tarkas, Dejah Thoris etol adventure endlessly in eternal youth. These rules are an attempt to expand your curious enjoyment of this Martian world. While there are but eleven books in the entire series there is a limitless new realm of possibility awaiting herein. The essence of Barsoom -- the fearless warriors, the men, the monstrous animals, the geography of Burroughs' Mars, the social customs, the the weaponry -- has been formalized into rules which permit the creation of whole new sagas. The tale can be as simple as a minor sk irm ish between two swordsmen, or it can be as complex as the interactions which arise between several of the Barsoomian city-empires. It can be the lone adventur.es of a hero pitted against the harsh realities of Martian wilderness, or it can be the epic tale of a voyage of discovery aboard small flier. Of course there is a slight hitch .." 

So because of running a post apocalpytic solar systrm campaign we've been looking into various resources. One of those is the original 'Warrriors of Mars The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature' by Gygax & Blume created in 1974 by TSR. TSR didn't have the permissions to publishing the game or the wargame rules. And as such yanked 'Warriors of Mars from their shelves. The game has become exceedingly rare with booklets going for hundreds of dollars on the collector's market. 

'Warrriors of Mars The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature' isn't a role playing game in any respect & is a sixty one page wargame for miniature. It simulates many of the major engagments between the various factions of Barsoom. There are copies of 'Warrriors of Mars The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature'  in pdf in various outlets on the internet. Reading through 'Warrriors of Mars The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature'  is like a trip down memory lane for me. Yes back in the Seventies we played this game along with my uncle. 'Warrriors of Mars The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature'  was meant to be played with Heritage miniatures Barsoom line. 

Warrriors of Mars The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature' has far more in common with original Chainmail then it does original Dungeons & Dragons even though there is some cross compatibility. There are pseudo rpg elements with character models being able to advance up to twelveth level as a campaign progresses. 
There are elements of 'Warrriors of Mars The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature'  that feel so fundamental to wargaming aspects of original Dungeons & Dragon. The artwork reeks of typewriters, copy machines, and other basement publishing aspects of the original TSR. 'Warrriors of Mars The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature' feels like a slice of gaming history that needs to be preserved in my opinion because this war game is a sort backdoor into the basis of what would become original Dungeons & Dragons. 
There are so many Barsoom battle  options that could be played with this game if the players wanted to run a miniature wargaming campaign. Warrriors of Mars The Warfare of Barsoom in Miniature'  reads like a piece of wargaming history. Becaus that's exactly what is is. And personally this aspect appeals to the grognard within me. 

Gangs, Tramps, & Thieves - Rogue To Rogue - The Use of The Rogues Gallery By Brian Blume, Dave Cook, & Jean Wells In Old School & OSR Campaigns

"No longer will you the Dungeon Master need to spend precious time laboring over the task of generating non-player characters.
This valuable booklet contains hundreds of pre-rolled non-player characters of all classes and types, complete with alignments, sex, personalities and much more.

The Rogues Gallery is specially designed to be compatible with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It will save you time in creating your non-player characters, thus allowing you to pursue the other interesting aspects of your campaign."


Alright let's talk about the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition 'The Rogues Gallery' by  Brian Blume, Dave Cook, & Jean Wells for a moment. The low down on the  'The Rogues Gallery''s publication history goes something like this according to the Wiki entry on the booket; "The Rogues Gallery was written by Brian Blume with Dave Cook and Jean Wells, with a cover by Erol Otus and interior illustrations by Jeff Dee and Otus, and was published by TSR in 1980 as a 48-page book.^[1] TSR Stock # 9031. ISBN 0-935696-18-0."

 This book is a slice of another era of gaming, seriously this book is stat block after stat block of NPC's but its from an era when the internet didn't exist & many other companies were putting out similar books especially Runequest. The Runequest rpg had several titles in the rpg line that included stat blocks of NPC's & encounters most notably Scorpion Men and Broos (1978). But it was really Trolls and Trollkin (1978) that was the first of the Runequest rpg publications. The whole cloth point
& purpose of the 'Rogue's Gallery' was to give the dungeon master access to hundreds of NPC's. Said it right on the back spalsh page; "The Rogues Gallery was a supplement listing hundreds of pre-generated non-player characters for use by the Dungeon Master, including characters from all the standard first edition AD&D character classes, plus other characters such as sages, caravans, and city guards"



The thing that's really off the chain about 'The Rogues Gallery' is the fact that it contains NPC  stats for Ernie Gygax, Gary Gygax, Tim Jiardini, and Rob Kuntz that originated in the Lake Geneva campaign. And that means that you get stats for all of the big names of  Greyhawk & Kaliburn's  original PC's such as Bigby, Mordenkainen, Riggby, Robilar, and Tenser plus getting a bit a peak behind the curtain of  Rob Kuntz's world of Kalibruhn  & Gary Gygax's world of Greyhawk. Or did we? According to certain folks these famous NPC stats are mere fictions but that doesn't take away from their usefulness. I always used 'The Rogue's Gallery' in conjunction with 'The Dragon' magazine  issue #24 which included a ton of stuff on lost civilizations. If I need an NPC sage with information on a lost city or dungeon the 'Rogue's Gallery' is right there.


But when I need rival big boss NPC's & bad guys well that's when the 'Rogue's Gallery' comes out with  the big names of Greyhawk & Kaliburn's  original PC's such as Bigby, Mordenkainen, Riggby, Robilar, and Tenser taking center stage as the stand in NPC bosses stand ins. The Rogues Gallery is a title that I often use when I'm playing or DMing Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg. Why? Because AS&SH has its own version of the 'Rogues Gallery' called funny enough 'Rogues Gallery II'.



Using both the original AD&D 'Rogues Gallery' & AS&SH's  'Rogues Gallery II' with any OSR game & suddenly the DM can populate a town or adventure location with Sword & Sorcery NPC's in no time flat. A tactic that I've recently used with several locations for my own Cha'alt/Godbound rpg campaign.


The same tactic can be used with other OSR games especially Castles & Crusades. Remember the apple doesn't fall far here. The idea is that NPC's are easily within the offering but its the fact that old school & OSR systems are cross comparable. 



By default the 'Rogues Gallery' is perfectly suited to work with Adventurer, Conqueror, King, rpg system. The stat blocks should work quite well. But why use such a relic of the old school especially first edition AD&D? Because its a relic that's why! The fact is that most modern players even the OSR ones have forgotten all about the Rogues Gallery & it gives the DM ample opportunity to bring another tool from their tool box into play again. Here are ten reasons why the 'Rogue's Gallery' is still useful at the table top level: 

1. An NPC for every situation & especially in the old school Sword & Sorcery vein of AD&D first edition. 
2. On the spot role playing opportunity for the DM to make up some weird or interesting NPC. 
3. An excellent NPC book use to create some important bit of campaign information that you forgot to impart the players with. 
4. Treasure opportunity for the players when a minor NPC appears. 
5. Rival NPC adventurer party  generation book! 
6. The 'Rogues Gallery' used with the Advanced Dungeons & Dragon Dungeon Master's Guide random dungeon generator can create an entire dungeon & its NPC's in no time flat. 
7. Sage NPC's are always handy for really screwing with the player's PC's. Perfect time for a side quest in the campaign. 
8. Rival suitors or girl friends for the PC's to deal with can be converted right outta of the Rogues Gallery. 
9. The Rogues Gallery's famous Lake Geneva NPC  party stats are perfect for replace Slave Lords from A0- A4 Against The Slave Lords 
10. 'The Rogues Gallery' has a number of NPC assassins that are perfect to send after the player's PC's! 

Some OSR Thoughts on The AD&D Rogues Gallery by Brian Blume, Dave Cook, Jean Wells For Your Old School Campaigns

" Hundreds of pre-rolled non-player characters of all classes and types, complete with alignments, sex, personalities and much more."

There are books that I used to pore over for hours on end & then there are Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books that have gained utility as I've grown with this hobby. One of these is the AD&D Rogues Gallery by Brian Blume, Dave Cook, Jean Wells."The Rogues Gallery was written by Brian Blume with Dave Cook and Jean Wells, with a cover by Erol Otus and interior illustrations by Jeff Dee and Otus, and was published by TSR in 1980 as a 48-page book.^[1] TSR Stock # 9031. ISBN 0-935696-18-0." 


Its 2019 & I'm still using the Rogue's Gallery for everything from NPC stats to pouring over the bits of history about Gary Gygax's original player's in his home campaign's PC's. But according to the Drivethrurpg entry not all of the PC's stats are true; "  "The Rogues Gallery" includes characters run by Ernie Gygax, Gary Gygax, Tim Jiardini, and Rob Kuntz that originated in the Lake Geneva campaign — some in Rob Kuntz's world of Kalibruhn and some in Gary Gygax's world of Greyhawk. This provides some of the earliest insight into the world of Greyhawk. These characters include Bigby, Mordenkainen, Riggby, Robilar, and Tenser, who would become increasingly important to the Greyhawk setting over the years — though Bigby, Mordenkainen, and Riggby were all Gary Gygax characters that he originally ran in Kalibruhn.

These NPCs also give some insight into how characters were run in the early D&D game. The most shocking revelation is how many of them were evil, including Ernie Gygax's Erac's Cousin, Lawrence Schick's Lanolin, Al Hammack's Lassiviren the Dark, and Rob Kuntz's Robilar.

Though almost all of the characters were human, a few were instead rather unusual races. Jeff Leason's Phoebus was a lizard man, while David Cook's Talbot was a centaur — both as the results of reincarnation. The dearth of dwarves, elves, and halflings among the characters is another reflection of early play styles.

Of course, these character write-ups aren't entirely trustworthy. Gary Gygax later said that at least his character stats were "quite fallacious" because he wasn't willing to give information on characters that he was still playing to Brian Blume. It's one last insight into how different things were in those early days of roleplaying, when characters might actually be secret."  Why would there be a veil of secrey around Gary & company's character stats? Well it not unlike today the many of the gamers in inner workings of TSR didn't entirely trust the competition. These folks were & to a certain extent still are risk takers & many times there were games in play that were used for upcoming projects & convention events.

 
But what's actually in the  AD&D Rogues Gallery? Well here's a fast break down from the wiki entry; "The Rogues Gallery was a supplement listing hundreds of pre-generated non-player characters for use by the Dungeon Master, including characters from all the standard first edition AD&D character classes, plus other characters such as sages, caravans, and city guards.^[1] The book also includes statistics for characters from Gary Gygax's original D&D campaign." If you need NPC stats fast to populate a ruin,town, high way, or just a quick encounter the this is the book for you. And this wasn't the only book of NPC's to hit the shelves; "This was the first of several books of NPCs for D&D. Basic D&D would publish their own, AC1: "The Shady Dragon Inn" (1983), a few years later. Much later, TSR would publish a Rogues' Gallery (1992) for AD&D 2e."  One thing about the AD&D Rogue's Gallery is the fact that there is wealth of humancentric NPC types making the book great for Sword & Sorcery games. The AD&D Rogue's Gallery has become iconic to early Dungeons & Dragons even making it into the first season of Stranger Things. But why was the AD&D Rogue's Gallery so iconic? Even at the time of its release there were other NPC books even from Judge's Guild.


The answer is when it came out in the history of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons & B/EX Dungeons & Dragons. The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Rogue's Gallery takes the NPC efforts a step further by  determining the composition of caravans, city watches, border patrols, pilgrims,  & even rival  dungeon parties. Its a hell of a tool kit for the classic TSR era.

The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Rogue's gallery even fills out some of the details on four of the more deadly AD&D psionic using monsters; "  four psionic- or magic-using monsters: the couatl, ki-rin, lich, and shedu." This was in the days before the internet or easy access to the AD&D rule books or Monster Manual.


 

Is this book still useful today to the OSR dungeon master? In a word? Yes it is because it can enable a DM to populate a city, town, or any encounter with an NPC into a memorable experience. You get the bare bones NPC's  but these are actually usable bare bones NPC's. There's also the fact that you've got actual usable rival NPC adventurer party stat ready to go on the fly. This fact makes the AD&D Rogue's Gallery serviceable for BECMI Dungeons & Dragons.





Many of the NPC's within this book have appeared in numerous games & adventures of mine. The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Rogue's Gallery is a classic for a reason & that reason is utility. No only can this book provide hours of fun reading but it can be used to harry,harass, & goat along other player's PC's.  Many of the same guidelines &  techniques that we see employed in this book for NPC's we would see used again for other OSR products a great example of this is within the Stars Without Number rpg by Kevin Crawford. 
Products such as the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Rogue's Gallery are classics for a reason & this one is no exception.
The AD&D Rogue's Gallery is available right here.