🎲🐉 D&D's First Official Adventure: Hill Giants!!!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ส.ค. 2024
- TSR let four years go by between publishing Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 and their first stand-alone adventure, Steading of the Hill Giant Chief in 1978. I discuss this this happened, the other publishers will filled in the adventure gap in those four years, then discuss the Giant series of modules (G1-2-3) including the artists and their debut at Origins IV in 1978.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Introduction
1:15 Topics
2:07 Why TSR Didn't Want to Publish Adventures
7:20 Judges Guild
13:47 Wee Warriors
14:45 Jennell Jaquays & The Dungeoneer
16:22 TSR Tournament Adventures
21:00 The Giants Series
36:56 Wrap-Up
39:18 Bonus Content
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Gawd. I am so old. I remember when this came out. We learned so much by playing it and then reading it.
I didn't discover them until the "Against the Giants" G1-3 collected version, but that was still in 1981, more than 40 years ago!
Thanks for watching, commenting, and supporting the channel!
Same here, I bought G1 before buying the game but reading the module fired up my imagination and I bought the Monster Manual a week or two later. Then the Players Handbook and DM Guide were published. I have fond memories but wish I could relive those years, I would buy more stuff !!! The games being published from that time to the late 1980s was phenomenal. SPI, Avalon Hill, TSR, Steve Jackson Games, Chaosium, Iron Crown Enterprises, Judges Guild, even games like Aces of Aces -- people were pushing boundaries, inventing new ways of playing all the time.
Even the magazines were captivating: Dragon, White Dwarf, Dungeon, The General, Nexus, Strategy & Tactics, ... I am missing some for sure. Also miniatures, at first they were for historical wargaming but fantasy and sci-fi miniatures started to appear. Ral Partha, Grenadier, Citadel; then some were made for specific games.
I’d love to see a video on Gamma World or even better yet, Boot Hill!
I remember playing a few Top Secret sessions back then too. That would be another fun one to see
@@PaulWaak yes!! That too
RPG Drive Thru has in both print and PDF. The 'Dungeons of Dread' which contains modules S1: Tomb of Horrors, S2: White Plume Mountain, S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, S4: Lost Caverns of Tscojcanth.
Great video, always appreciate how much knowledge you have to share.
We're running G1 right now for a 5e game, I modded it quite a bit which is the sure sign of an AD&D module. The players are enjoying it quite a bit.
I ran G1 in a single night (Christmas Eve 1980). G2 took a coupla days. G3, about a week... The D series, as well as Q1, took MONTHS of steady play to wrap up! =^[.]^=
One of my first adventures, steading of the Hill Giant Chief. Brings back memories of figuring out how to bounce lightning bolts in the big room filled with a giant drunken party.
Bouncing lightning bolts is such a trope of early D&D! I'm surprised we don't see more memes of it.
I really appreciate you helping the algorithm by commenting only a few minutes after the video debuted! That helps a lot!
Another good stroll down memory lane. I also like the extra bits at the end.
Yes to Gamma World videos! Another great video! Don’t forget to turn the AF off on your camera - your hands get really close the the lens this one and the camera refocusing is distracting.
Are the links to your other videos missing? You keeps saying that there will be a link at top, but I’m not seeing them and they’re not in the notes.
He's referring to them being in the top corner of the video screen. You can touch/click on it and add it to your que.
I always thought that it was Gygax's opinion that DMs should be writing their own adventures, that was part of his main idea. I assumed he just couldn't imagine a different type of DM that liked running the game but didn't want to write original content.
Yes, that's broadly very true and it impacted how TSR as a company felt about the idea of publishing adventures: "nobody would buy that stuff" because (in Gary's mind) the creative type of people who were drawn to the game would want to create the dungeons/adventures themselves. That's why you get things like the Monster & Treasure Assortment and Dungeon Geomorphs: they're toolkits to assist DMs in creating and stocking their own dungeons.
How wrong he was huh. If this idea clicked for him he’d have not bothered going to Hollywood, written loads to modules, made a mint and saved his job and company. And completed Q properly, maybe..
One thing that Gary didn't take into account was that many DM's just wouldn't have the time to create all these adventures for their group. He seemed to assume that they, like him, had plenty of time on their hands to create a dungeon and game world.
me finding this video is an example of the algorithm knowing what i was going to search for next before i even started typing.
Great video. I really appreciate the history coverage. It feels more authentic than what I hear/read elsewhere. There are YT channels that review many of the old TSR modules but little is said about the background, themes, behind-the-scenes stuff. I think I'd heard about the dig at Dave Arneson before, but to actually see it in print is something else. I'm interested in Gamma World and other games. I'd also like to hear more about conventions because I never went to one that featured a scored D&D event. Any background on the old modules, the artists and the other authors is greatly appreciated. Sure, I could try and look it up myself, but I don't know enough to separate fact from fiction.
Thank you for this! Really enjoy your channel!
I'm so glad! Thank you for watching, and for commenting to let me know!
I'm sure this one's going to be a great one, given their early philosophy on the dm making the adventure!
Yes, I talk all about that and include some quotes at the time from various sources to corroborate that kind of thinking.
I hope you enjoy it, and as always, thanks for your support!
I'd love to see Village of Hommlet as the first official town adventure area and why it took so long for the Temple of Elemental Evil follow on and how that final version of Temple was different than what Gary was planning. I have heard snippets but you seem well versed. Thank you.
I love your videos. I was around ten (79/80/81) when I started playing first ed AD&D. It was difficult to find a group that was dedicated to playing on a weekly basis but I found some kids in middle school so I played consistently from 82-85 but there is just so much stuff (modules, magic items, character classes) that I never got around to exploring. I kept my subscription to Dragon for years after I stopped playing. I love to hear about all of this stuff. You and Page 121 are my AD&D people. Thank you.
I appreciate that so much! Thank you for taking the time to write this comment. It really means a lot. Looks like you and I are around the same age (I started playing Moldvay Basic D&D in Fall 1981 but quickly incorporated/switched to AD&D).
@@daddyrolleda1Moldvay Basic in '81 here too! Lots of nostalgia for that red book. 😎
I latched on early to the DIY style of DMing, so I was never heavily invested in modules. My genesis in the hobby was 1e and my DM ran two sessions of Village of Hommlet. When I eventually collected all the core 1e books, but before I ran my first session as a DM I bought the only two modules I could find at my LGS at the time. Tomb of the Lizard King and the Lost island of Castanamir. I ran TotLK by just inserting it into my home brew world and waiting for the players to take the bait. I ran my second group halfway through LIoC before we decided it was too much. To be fair, that one was a competition module I believe.
Didn’t realize you were doing modules as well. You definitely pack a thorough history in everything you post. Would love something on Castle Amber or Saltmarsh
Thank you so much! I've only done one module video so far, but more will be coming!
I'm running U1: Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh for the campaign I run for my daughter and her friends right now (they went to Saltmarsh after finishing going through the Keep on the Borderlands). If you're interested, those discussions are found in my "DM Advice" playlist: th-cam.com/play/PLX6jue56rzl2-VzZH19Ke2NU4r0IaJ7be.html&si=WsmshsfYvzTGO3xa
Another great video!
Oh yay! I was going to suggest a detailed walkthrough of classic modules as a content idea because it would be really fun and suits your style! So glad to see you're doing these!
I'm so glad to hear that! Great minds think alike!
(And so do ours...)
Old joke!
Thanks again for watching and commenting!
@@daddyrolleda1 Finishef the video! I really enjoyed it, but I had hoped that there would be a spoiler section that talked about the adventure itself with your trademark level of detail and sense of history. Maybe in another vid? Keep up your great work!
Just barge right into the great hall and start swinging, see how that goes 😂
It is definitely not conducive to a "hack-and-slash" group! Thanks for watching and commenting!
Pretty much how we coped with the G series. God only knows how we managed to get to the Vault, but when we did we blew it within minutes lol.
I’m not sure if the DM did this deliberately but the succubus with the vampire, she gated in Orcus. By some unreal luck (double 20 decapitation - that was our rule) we did him over and was rewarded with his wand. One player gave up on the game, which was nearly 12 months in at that point, and the wand - the DM decided - vanished at the same time.
I have run Against the Giants so many times and it remains one of my favorite adventures. Excellent video. I never made the connection between Arneson and Nosnra.
Thank you so much for watching and leaving this comment. I had a feeling the Arneson / Nosnra connection might be new to some folks. Gary certainly liked to "eviscerate people in fiction," to paraphrase Geoffrey Chaucer.
I do hope at one point that I'll be able to run my daughter's group through this series, but I'm having trouble just scheduling the next session!
I left my gold pouch at Wee Warriors.
Thanks for getting that!
Cheers, and thanks for watching and commenting.
recent subscriber, loving the work you do, taking a while to get through the back catalogue but getting there
Yes, continue please!
I will add it to the list of potential future topics. Thanks!
I'm glad you corrected the Tramp G2 cover statement. I was totally about to Comic Book Guy "Um, actually . . . " you on that. (I've spent years and years trying to assemble (digitally) every piece of DAT are I could. That guy just blows my mind. So gifted.)
Yeah, that was a frustrating mistake. As you can tell, I don't write scripts, so I'm just talking off he cuff and sometimes have some bullet points but much of it is from memory. But as soon as I was editing, I looked at the art and was like, "What a second!" but sadly I just don't have the capacity to re-record an entire video at that point.
I'm always happy to be corrected as long as it's an actual factual correction and not an opinion (of course, please *share* your opinion, though - I'm just not a fan of being told I'm "wrong" based on an opinion)!
What a fun project that sounds like (collecting DAT art)! I loved his style and the 1st Edition Player's Handbook cover by him is my favorite AD&D cover because, unlike later editions of D&D (including the revised 1st Edition covers), DAT shows a *party* and what actually happens during a game. The Easley cover, while great from an artistic standpoint, focuses on the "solo hero" aspect (as does Elmore's Basic Red Box cover, although interestingly for that one, it *originally* showed an entire party but Gygax asked for it to be edited to focus just on the fighter).
I also really liked "Wormy" by Tramp back in the day, and of course Emirikol the Chaotic... there's just so much great art!
Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@daddyrolleda1 I think you're doing a wonderful job explaining this whole tangled history D&D--who wrote what, what artist did whatever, etc. I'm a teacher constantly giving presentations so I'm always correcting my mistakes on the fly. I'm 100% on your side.
I never played Gamma World so I never knew how much are DAT contributed to those books until I started tracking down his work. And I can't even begin to address his illustration for the DM screen. What a cinematic vision. He kinda did a storyboard that would have been appropriate for the LOTR series.
I still have my "yellow spine" reissues from 1st Ed. Easley is superb but I agree--I love the sense of a party reaching a place of safety after a long and fraught adventure. Treasure gets divided, wounds get healed, MUs regain their spells, guard shifts are broken up in a way that everyone eats and gets some sleep. It was a very pragmatic but satisfying part of the game. There was a sense of unity amongst the characters.
Judges guild always did such great maps
Looking forward to the D series.
The Blue Label is expensive because, though blended, it's a 30yr old. Yours seems to be a limited bottling for the monkey and no doubt attracts collectors. I'm a single malt guy, but do enjoy the Green Label. That contains two of my favorite single malts; Talker and Craggenmore. If you are a fan of The Glenlivet, you'd probably like Craggenmore. They have many of the same notes. My favorite is Highland Park (the 18yr is outstanding and much better for the price than say Macallan's that is over-priced due to popularity). Your finales are a breath of fresh air when you include such things as what you drink, or the records you listen to. The style of your delivery is less important to me than the substance of what you say. Thanks for your efforts to celebrate D & D.
I really appreciate all of your comments! Thank you so much for taking the time to write them. And I especially appreciate that you stick through the "bonus content" to the very end. I get a kick out of making that part of the video, just to add a bit of "personality" to my videos.
I definitely understand why Blue Label, in general, is more expensive than, say, other blended Scotch. I just thought it was interesting that this particular bottle was so outrageously expensive given that it's not a "different" Blue Label blend. As you say, it's probably due to the limited bottling and the marketing/packaging versus the actual contents.
I've been to many whiskey tastings (and even hosted some myself as a fundraiser for my daughter's school)!
RIP Jennell
My understanding was they TSR was having issues just getting the regular books printed. Unable to imagine adding more publishing.
@40:00 - nah, man, it's cool. I like the conversational tone, it suits the material. I did a sf/ & horror vlog in 2020 where I used the same method- lots of notes & then wing it. :) enjoying these a lot, esp. the little tidbits of gossip and infighting that was going on. love the detail about ppl selling modules out of their cars! a simpler time.
Thank you so much for letting me know! I really appreciate you taking the time to stop and make this comment. It means a lot. Cheers, and thank you for watching!
@@daddyrolleda1no prob, man. are you ever going to cover steve jackson? I loved his fighting fantasy & micro games, esp. the ones that allowed for solo play.. kung fu 2100 a.d., ogre, globbo, good times.
Currently reading Jon Peterson's "The Elusive Shift". He references what you were eluding to, in that the early gamers carried over a lot of the philosophy and habits of the old war gaming community into this new and unknown territory of RPG's
Enjoyable video, as usual. G1, the monochrome edition, is a prized part of my vintage D&D collection.
Oh yes... The Elementals is a criminally underrated comic book series. So much better than basically any superhero book of the day.
I have a well adventured/used G123 copy. It was the best module series back in the olden days.
I played this in about 1983. The whole series in fact.
That's roughly around the time I played through these. I have very limited memories of what we actually did, but when I was just flipping through them again I saw a picture of all the trolls and I instantly remembered the DM getting up to go to the bathroom and my stupid 12 or 13 year-old self taking a peak at the module and seeing the trolls and panicking.
@@daddyrolleda1 my circle collected all the earlier paraphernalia and those early module series became legendary
Great job! I never knew the story behind the name of the Hill Giant Chief - or saw any details about the tournament where this module appeared. Keep up the good work. I would love to see you put together a video on the rest of this series - D1-3 and (potentially) Q1. Thank you! 🗡️⚔️🛡️🧙♂️
Thank you so much for watching and for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it! I've had a few people ask for an overview of D1-3 so I will add it to the list of "potential future projects." I just need to figure out an angle so it's not just an overview of the adventure. If I do D1-3, I'd include Q1 as well to cap off the series.
Thank you again for watching and commenting! I really appreciate it.
I played in very few modules. Our DM's mostly ran stuff of their own.
I did play in the Keep on the Borderlands early on. The next one I played in was the Judges Guild module Citadel of Fire. We also started the Descent Into the Depths module but never got past the long journey through the caverns. It was incredibly tough with the group we had so we basically abandoned it.
One that I'm not sure about is the Tomb of Horrors. I'm pretty sure that we did the first part but then ran into the "Fake" lich thinking we had finished. The DM never showed us the module if he was using it so I really can't say. My favorite was the judges guild module Caverns of Thracia which my DM ran me through solo.
G2 was the very first module I ever got back in 1980 or so, along side the Holmes blue-dragon basic rules. They didn't go together at all, but I didn't care! Great video, a lot of detail about the early days that I didn't know.
I really love hearing that I'm adding value for folks who are interested in this kind of thing (when you said, "...a lot of detail about the early days that I didn't know").
Thank you so much for watching and commenting. I really appreciate it.
I had the earliest pronounce acumen as "ACK You men" don't know about anyone else
Love to see one on the single-player adventure that came with the BECMI set (I think?). That was my first D&D adventure.
I can add that to the list of potential future videos! I have BSolo Ghost of Lion Castle and remember playing around with it. I never got a chance to pick up the Expert one.
ok this is a really interesting video. maybe do a follow on the tournament play next
I am glad to hear you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I will add "Tournament Play" to my list of potential future topics.
I am really curious to hear your overview of Traveler one day.
Great video. Thank you! Have you made a video on the book you wrote? If not then you should.
I have not! I showed it briefly in two of my videos:
1) This one, on my 10 favorite D&D products (no, I didn't pick my own book as one of them!!!): th-cam.com/video/2WjYj5xqL6Q/w-d-xo.htmlsi=yEmweJJA06luQYvU&t=2233
(This one just mentions it)
2) Here on Domain Level Play: th-cam.com/video/2JML__H3pjM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=IvAxXSFE6lqJeMCS&t=1641
(This is the more detailed overview of the book)
Thanks for showing your interest!
If you watch those videos, you'll hear me mention in the first video I linked that the publisher was going to publish a book called "The Quintessential Expert." He never finished it, and turned it over to me, and I wrote it but as I was finishing it up, WotC changed to 4th Edition that had a closed gaming license, and the project was shelved. After almost 20 years, I dusted off all my notes and recently finished a book on Expert & Specialist characters for "B/X" (Basic) D&D. My layout person just sent me the latest round of edits so I plan to Kickstart it in a month or two (I'll probably wait until ZineQuest is over so it doesn't get lost in the noise). If you want to be notified when it goes live, send me an email at samothdm AT gmail dot com and I'll put you on the list!
@@daddyrolleda1 Email sent. Please consider doing videos for both your books.
Like your vids. You should do one on the origins of psionics. I recently watched the Six-million dollar man episode "Burning Bright" (1974) with William Shatner. I wonder if that is where they got the psionic blast idea from.
DAT did the art for the frost giant cover. Sutherland did the art for the fire giant cover.
40:21 i like the cassual method. Seems like we are in the room talking about the game.
I really appreciate that. Thank you so much! And thanks for watching and commenting. Cheers!
Shoutout to A Tribe Called Quest!
I left my wallet in El Segundo, too. We're probably about the same age.
Are you familiar with Role Aids by Mayfair games? Particulary "Dwarves". Great work for the time that holds up real well.
It might be better to have a secondary title for the video that says something like: A Primer History on Adventures and “Play Aids”. I feel like describing this as just being about Hill Giants sells it short? I’m biased because I really enjoy your historic scope of TSR products, so I think it would benefit to lean into that marketing. Am I wrong?
The art you show in G1-2-3 was actually the same as in the original modules. I think they just photocopied the original modules, changed the page numbers and stapled them together for that one.
Can you do a review of Alternity? Its a late-90s game. I never played it, but it had good ship layouts, I have one of their ship books that I got just for the ship desk plans.
Probably late for this - but there were some tournaments described in Dragon magazine (Chained to the Wall? Dragon #42). Was that a real tournament? Would love to hear more about such tournaments and how they played out.
It's too bad Gygax was so petty. That in combo with the inflated ego must've held TSR back.
Sorry about your friend...
You should get those staples out before they rust.
I was at a local-ish game store last weekend for a VTES tournament and found a copy of Judges Guild's Pegasus magazine #11 (the penultimate issue, it turns out) for a very reasonable price. I've only flipped through it casually so far, but I did find some very interesting and amusing item descriptions in an article, including a magic sword that "weeps" when it kills something, and its tears turn into valuable gemstones. Do you have any issues of Pegasus?
I wrote the above comment before I actually watched the video and didn't know that JG would wind up figuring into it.
I don't know if you would consider it an early TSR, but in the early to mid-90s they had a space game called Star-something... I actually bought back in the '90s the ship book because I was just into like spaceships and whatnot you know 🙂. Would you consider doing a review on that game? I've never played it, and I only have the one book, so I'd like to get someone else's input on if the game was just D&D in space or was it something else.
Wait, it was Alternity I was thinking of, I have a ship book from Alternity. Had to look this one up 😀. Alternity was released in the late-90s. Can you do a review of Alternity?
I believe it was called Star Frontiers.
I am curious who jabbed at who first in print? I understand the other creator used EGG(initials) as a printed jab. I wonder how long it took the community to see the context and read between the lines and realize each was jabbing at the other?
If you want your scotch to age more, add some oak chips to the bottle. It should have an effect on it. It might now help much to an already aged scotch, but it will have a bigger effect on one that is not aged.
19:31 how do you spell that? lost caverns of (what)???
Tsojcanth? =0[.]o=
Gamma world and boot hill i would like to know something about, but would like mavel super heros as i have plsyed that.
Absolutely live the bonus content. Made me go and finish off my single malt (Singleton) and re-read my 1978 edition of the Tomb of Horrors!
I appreciate that so much! So far, I think that roughly 80% of folks don't bother to watch or care about the bonus content. About 15% do, and about 5% really dislike it even though it's easily ignored. It's always nice to hear from someone who watches through to the end. I enjoy putting that part of the video together, and I actually to record them "in real time" and in order (meaning, I don't have a bunch of "bonus content" videos in the queue waiting to tack onto a video) so for me, it's kind of a nice "cool down" after recording the rest of the video.
Cheers!
Yeah paying someone to imagine something for you probably could be forgiven in those early days. Considering the way contemporary players frame questions in say fb groups.. I'd say that whatever they now publish in terms of DMG material is wanting. Not trying to throw shade on new players, but man it's noticeable.
I strongly enjoy your stuff. Watched a bunch of your videos. Great information. I like showing the books and all of your detailed explanations and history. My only criticism is that I don't like seeing your hands most of the time, CONSTANTLY in motion. Sorry, but it is very annoying and distracting. I get the flipping pages and showing books part, but the rest of your hands makes me want to click away. Is there something else you can do to keep things visually vibrant? Maybe more close ups and cuts to different book pages and more montages of art to keep things moving? I'm happy to just see the books and hear you speak, without your fluttering hands popping around the screen trying to express your words. Otherwise, thank you for taking the time to put on good content! Blue Label!!! Cheers.
Thanks for watching and commenting. I'll see what I can do. I always "talk with my hands" when I'm talking - it helps me to focus and keep on track, and I didn't realize it was distracting. But I thank you for watching even though you don't enjoy that part. Cheers!
I had a very interesting experience with the early modules. I ordered the G series mods from the Dungeon Hobby Shop in Wisconsin. I waited and waited and then contacted them to check the status of my order. They expedited my order, shipping me THREE copies of each mod, along with a handwritten note apologizing, and a copy of the S1 module not yet in release! Talk about customer service! My FIRST D&D mod was Judges Guild's Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor, a bandit lair in a mesa with an elevated entrance, accessible only with flying mounts. Ah, the nostalgia. =^[.]^=
0 views, oh wow hahaha
You caught it a minute after it went live!
In another video you said that modules were not a big moneymaker for TSR due to only being purchased by DMs and having a low profit margin. But in this video, you're portraying the reluctance to publish modules as short-sighted. Seems like you have conflicting thoughts on the matter.
I like the new intro!
I also find it funny that you mispronounced a difficult word exactly one time (arquebus) and now you mention "I'm not sure how to say this". English is a silly language. Keep up the good work, great video.
Ah Gary, always the least classy of petty people. Was that really necessary?
With hindsight, I look back on things like that and think it was wholly unnecessary and quite petty. Then I have to remember that many of my early campaign worlds I created were based on doing the old-school tactic of just reversing someone's name, and I would make alliances between nations based on the "politics" I saw happening in middle school. The difference, of course, is that I was 12 or 13 when I did that, and I never published it. 😀
How I wanted City State of the Invincible Overlord ...
Villans and Vigilantes?
Super hero RPG, not TSR
Another Dee classic sign is skin-tight chainmail. That always annoyed me.
Wearing it or looking at it?