ZENOPUS ARCHIVES: Ruined Tower of Zenopus Goes Mithral!
Find it here| zenopusarchives.blogspot.com
Over the past five years, The MIT Press has curated an impressive series of Game Studies books, including several of great interest to myself and readers of this blog: Appendix N: the Eldritch Roots of Dungeons & Dragons (published by Strange Attractions and distributed by MIT Press), and several by Jon Peterson: The Elusive Shift, Game Wizards, and the forthcoming second edition of Playing at the World. The full list of books in their series can be viewed here.| zenopusarchives.blogspot.com
Gary Con XVII illustration by Chet Minton| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
J. Eric Holmes at his chalkboard game table, contemplating miniatures and notes.| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
Gary Con XVII illustration by Chet Minton| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
Cover of Mirkwood Tales, 1977, by Eric S. Roberts| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
In the comments to "Zenopus Built a Tower", Part 46 of the Holmes Manuscript series on this blog, reader Tony Stroppa wrote in about his adaptation of Holmes' Tower of Zenopus dungeon for the Mazes & Minotaurs RPG, a reimagining of OD&D as if it was inspired only by Greek mythology, and which can be found for free on DriveThruRPG. With Tony's permission, I'm sharing his comments here:| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
"The Tower" card from the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
The Making of Orginal D&D is currently on sale for $49.99 on Amazon, which is 50% off the cover price ($99). This is the lowest price I've seen for the book so far, which came out back in July. It says "Limited Time Deal", but there's no date indicated, so I don't when it ends. If you've been on the fence due to the price here's your chance. Find the table of contents below.| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
Cover of the 2024 DMG featuring Warduke, Skylla and Venger| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
"Behold Greyhawk" by Bruce Brenneise for the new DMG| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
If you haven't picked up the Making of Orginal D&D, it's available at Game Nerdz for $70.47 plus shipping (if you get your order up to $75 you'll get free shipping). This is almost $20 cheaper than the current Amazon price of $89.35. The page says there are currently 26 copies in stock. I've ordered from Game Nerdz a few times before without problem. | ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
FYI, right now Amazon is offering the Making of Orginal D&D book for $71.49, as a "Prime Big Deal" for Prime Member which is almost $30 off the cover price $99.99, and almost $20 off the "regular" sale price ($89.36). Unfortunately I just noticed this sale and it appears it ends in about 5 hours (the Big Deal Days are Oct 8-9).| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
Blackmoor Week is the week leading up to the anniversary of Dave Arneson's birthday on October 1st, which is designated Dave Arneson Game Day. Thanks to Havard at Havard's Blackmoor Blog, who is making a whole series of posts this week, for reminding me of this.| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
Today I notice that the Art & Arcana Special Edition - which includes a reprint of the original version of Tomb of Horrors resembling an OD&D supplement - is back in stock and on sale and at an even lower listed price than before, $61.61 (albeit there's no extra coupon). That's lower than the pre-order price I paid when it came out ($63.50). Find it here:| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
FYI: Out on the 17th, just prior to Hobbit Day (Sep 22nd, Bilbo/Frodo's birthday), is The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, a hefty 3-volume (!) set collecting much, but not all (!), of Tolkien's poetry:| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
The first volume of the revised second edition has dropped to $23.33 on Amazon: | ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
Image from the product page| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
Cover of the 1973 draft, previously posted on Playing at the World,| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
The long dormant OSR zine Fight On! has returned from the crypt with a new issue, #15, dedicated to none other than J. Eric Holmes...! | ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
As a reminder, in just two days (July 30th), the first volume of the revised edition of Jon Peterson's Playing at the World, subtitled The Invention of Dungeons & Dragons, arrives from MIT Press with an amazing cover by legendary TSR artist Erol Otus. Per the publisher info, this volume "distills the story of how the wargaming clubs and fanzines circulating around the upper Midwest in the 1970s culminated in Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson’s seminal role-playing game, D&D". | ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
FYI, Amazon is now offering the Making of OD&D book for $89.41, which is just over $10 less than the pre-order price of $99.99. Find it here: | ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
Promo ad showing pages from the Greyhawk Supplement (1975)| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
Cover of the standard edition| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
Letter from Gygax to an fan (1989)| ZENOPUS ARCHIVES
Here are the features I couldn't see on the version in the "12 Treasures" video:| zenopusarchives.blogspot.com
Gygax on Armor (page 46)| zenopusarchives.blogspot.com
Above is a screenshot of the Table of Contents for the forthcoming book, The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons: 1970-1977, which I've written about previously. This was shown at a 50th Anniversary Panel at Gary Con in March, and later shared on D&D Beyond, and now can be seen on the Amazon order page, where the book is available for pre-order for $99, and with a price-drop guarantee:| zenopusarchives.blogspot.com
Over the past five years, The MIT Press has curated an impressive series of Game Studies books, including several of great interest to myself and readers of this blog: Appendix N: the Eldritch Roots of Dungeons & Dragons (published by Strange Attractions and distributed by MIT Press), and several by Jon Peterson: The Elusive Shift, Game Wizards, and the forthcoming second edition of Playing at the World. The full list of books in their series can be viewed here.| zenopusarchives.blogspot.com
Cover by Erol Otus...!| zenopusarchives.blogspot.com
One of Nicholson's full-page illustrations from the Fiend Folio, | zenopusarchives.blogspot.com
