D&D: 1976-77

This post is the second in a series of chronological reviews illustrating my "wave and transition" approach to Dungeons & Dragon's development. I would again emphasize that these posts are cursory at best; additional details will be presented as I begin focused analyses of individual creators, products, etc. in the months to come.

Pt. 1 - D&D: 1970-76

Transitional Period B (1976-77)

The first production-level hints of D&D's growing market and marketing success appear in late 1975. Chainmail 3e gains a slick silver cover. The original D&D (OD&D) boxed set gains new cover art and goes all white. Timothy Kask becomes TSR's first outside editorial hire, taking over, among a slew of other duties, as editor of Strategic Review with issue 5 (Dec 1975). But by 1976-77 the company's growth and branding changes are impossible to ignore.

On the creative side, Dave Arneson, Mike Carr, [1] and David Sutherland are brought into the official TSR stable during the spring of 1976 -- though Arneson, continually more frustrated, is already gone by the end of that year. James Ward solidifies his position within the company, coauthoring Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes (Jul 1976) with Robert Kuntz and designing Metamorphosis Alpha (late 1976). [2] Tom Wham joins the crew as a staff artist and board-game designer in May 1977.

By mid-1976, Kask has overseen the transition of house-organ Strategic Review from newsletter to magazine before further transforming it into a bonafide gaming publication (The Dragon) with outside content. [3] Articles in both reveal a continuing emphasis on retrofitting and otherwise tinkering with the 1974 OD&D rules.

Generic materials like hex sheets and polyhedral dice had been early additions to the TSR catalog, but its first branded D&D accessories are released in 1977 in the form of Character Record Sheets and Dungeon Geomorphs, Set 1 -- the latter is an idea teased as early as Strategic Review #5 (Dec 1975, p. 7). If nothing else, those products suggest that TSR sees play aids as a supplemental revenue stream, with game content (especially adventure and setting details) being something customers could and would create for themselves.

OD&D's final two supplements as well as its miniatures rules have slick two-tone or color covers -- in contrast to Greyhawk and Blackmoor's rough tan card stock.

And the cardstock gaming booklets of 1974-76 soon become the monochrome and color rulebooks of 1976-77.

The company's stylized GK (Gygax-Kaye) monogram is replaced by a D&D-style lizard man in Sep 1975. [4] Thus, even the smallest details make it clear that TSR sees itself as an increasingly important player in the gaming market, one whose brand is as important as its content.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Notes

[1] Carr's popular Fight in the Skies (AKA Dawn Patrol) was acquired from Guidon Games, with the fifth edition appearing under TSR's imprint in 1975. Carr would go on, among other things, to author the first Basic D&D adventure module B1: In Search of the Unknown (Nov 1978), which was eventually bundled with J. Eric Holmes' D&D rules revision (Jul 1977) in later printings of the "Basic Set" box.

[2] Gary Gygax and Brian Blume's Warriors of Mars predates Metamorphosis Alpha by two-plus years, but given the former's emphasis on miniatures, most commentators consider the latter the first true science-fiction roleplaying game.

[3] Strategic Review had a seven-issue run between Spr 1975 and Apr 1976, the last three issues being clear (i.e. magazine-format) precursors to The Dragon, the first issue of which is cover dated Jun 1976.

[4]  The lizard-man logo was itself replaced in late 1978 by a wand-wielding wizard. "Wizard" was the title for an 11th-level OD&D Magic-User and, later, incorporated into TSR's catchphrase "The Game Wizards."

D&D: 1970-76

I'll be posting a rough timeline soon, providing an easy way to visualize the chronological skeleton this blog will flesh out over coming months. That post will grow as additional details, hyperlinks, etc. are added and eventually serve (I hope) as an extended outline/overview of my work here. For now, though, I want simply to illustrate my reasoning for grouping events as I have.

Narrative histories, chronologies, and timelines assume a specific logic or theory of how and why events unfold in a certain way. "Bias" of that sort is an inevitable part of re/presenting history and is only an issue when we fail to foreground it as clearly as possible. The key is to validate the operative (i.e. informing) principle in such a way that others can accept its utility, even if they themselves would re/present and, therefore, explain events differently.

With the events surrounding Basic-Expert D&D's lifespan (1981-83), my approach is to conceive of a series of waves, with intervening transitional periods, that represent the game's cumulative momentum as it gained traction in both the marketplace and the culture at large. Other models can and do apply to the same history, but I'm confident a brief review of dates and developments will prove my approach workable for present purposes. [1] I'll leave it to readers to determine any wider value it may have.

Transitional Period A (1970-71)

Jeff Perren, Gary Gygax, and others begin presenting various simulation rules (medieval miniatures, jousting, etc.) in the Castle & Crusade Society's Domesday Book -- issues 5-7 are of particular importance. All things being equal, those first articles represent the formal movement from 1960s-style wargaming toward what would become D&D-style roleplaying. The two approaches are not disjunctive, but they're sufficiently different to merit juxtaposition.

1ST Wave (1971-76)

In Aug 1971, Gygax and Perren publish Chainmail Rules for Medieval Miniatures through Don Lowry's Guidon Games. Contrary to some reports, the "Fantasy Supplement" that partly inspires Dave Arneson's Black Moor (later Blackmoor) campaign is present in the first edition.

As the rules circulate, additions and changes appear in Domesday Book and International Wargamer in late 1971 and early 1972. Those modifications are incorporated into the 2e Chainmail Rules in Jul 1972.

That same month, Arneson's "Facts About Black Moor" appears in Domesday Book #13, providing the first published account and map of his home campaign. (Gygax's Greyhawk campaign is also developing.) In late autumn 1972, Gygax and Arneson begin collaboration on what will become the 1974 Dungeons & Dragons set (OD&D) -- first published by Gygax, Don Kaye, and Brian Blume's Tactical Studies Rules (later TSR Hobbies, Inc.). [2]

Reports from Gygax and others indicate that, as news of the game spreads, the first 2,000 copies of D&D sell out in about seventeen months. Kaye suffers a fatal heart attack on Jan 31, 1975, but TSR continues to publish games, including top-selling D&D. [3] The company also launches its Strategic Review newsletter with a cover date of Spr 1975 -- issue 2 (Sum 1975) includes an "in memoriam" for Kaye.

Between Feb 1975 and Jul 1976, four supplements as well as miniatures rules are published for D&D, simultaneously expanding and retrofitting the game system. Additional material is also appearing in Strategic Review. [4]

• Supplement I: Greyhawk (Feb 1975)

• Supplement II: Blackmoor (Sep 1975)

• Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry (Apr 1976)

• Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes (Jul 1976)

• Swords & Spells (Jul 1976)

Chainmail 3e is released by TSR in early 1975 -- the later Jul 1975 printing would sport a slick silver cover and plastic-spiral binding. In Dec 1975, D&D's first product redesign is implemented, with the OD&D box shifting from tan and woodgrain to all white. [5]

TO BE CONTINUED . . .

Notes

[1] I'll present additional details as I move into more granular analyses of specific products, trends, etc. See also, among others, The Acaeum, Tome of Treasures, Jon Peterson's Playing at the World (Unreason P, 2012), and David Ewalt's forthcoming Of Dice and Men (Scribner, 2013).

[2] Original D&D relied, in part, on Avalon Hill's Outdoor Survival (1972) as well as Chainmail. Those dependencies, not to mention the later 1975-76 supplements, illustrate how central tinkering ("homebrewing") was to the game's early evolution.

[3] Other first-wave TSR RPGs include Warriors of Mars (1974), Boot Hill (1e, 1975), and Metamorphosis Alpha (1e, 1976).

[4] Beyond Gygax and Arneson, early designers/editors include Blume, Timothy Kask, Robert Kuntz, Steve Marsh, and James Ward. Among the artists are Greg Bell, Gary Kwapisz, Tracy Lesch, and David Sutherland.

[5] Such changes in trade dress figure as prominent signposts for tracking D&D's continuing development and success and will play a central role in my analyses.