#j eric holmes

[oldschoolfrp]

"Were-shark" by Eric Holmes and his son Chris, in Alarums & Excursions 13, July 15, 1976. Eric and Chris wrote up a number of stories from their D&D adventures for A&E, often illustrated by Chris. The following year saw the publication of the first Basic D&D set edited by Holmes, with his sample dungeon below Zenopus' tower and Portown also containing a sea cave with a beach, 2 boats, and a monster in the water.

[tychay]

My first dice were the wrong color

At work, I mentioned my first dice I ever had were the “wrong color” because the Basic D&D set I had, had a chit card, instead of dice. I cut up the card and put them in Silo cups labeled with the die roll. This got me down a rabbit hole on why they were they were called Holmes dice, why they were the wrong color, and the deal with chits. I found out that it was called Holmes because J Eric…

[vintagerpg]

This week is a little bit of a “How to be like Vintage RPG” crash course, revealing some of the books that have filled my head with history of the games I rattle on about. Let’s start with the oldest of them, Fantasy Role Playing Games (1981), by J. Eric Holmes, the same Holmes who shepherded the original Basic Set Dungeons & Dragons into existence.

In the early 80s, a bunch of books came out  that were sort of introductions to the idea of RPGs, mixed with brief how-tos and overviews of the market. You saw one in yesterday’s revised reprint. This is another and it is probably my favorite of the ones I have read. The first third or so of the book is an overview of the key concepts of how to play, complete with transcripts of game sessions and a sort of read-along dungeon. Holmes shines, though, when he gets to the history of Dungeons & Dragons, in which he was a firsthand eye witness for a time the immediacy of his account is engrossing even if he is an unabashed Gygax cheerleader.

He follows this with a look at other games on the market (including big ones like RuneQuest and Traveller as well as odd ones like Bunnies & Burrows and Superhero 44), miniatures and the magazines (both the semi-pro stuff like Dragon and the zines like Alarums & Excursions). The brief chapter on computer games is a hoot and rightly spends a chunk of time on Zork.

I particularly like the penultimate chapter, which discusses the supposed perils of roleplaying, makes a spirited defense of the hobby and also muses on the sorts of people who are attracted to it. It is one of the earliest acknowledgments of the hobby’s gender disparity and Holmes has some thoughtful ideas on why that is. It is his hope, back in 1981, that parity will be attained when RPGs are more popular and socially accepted. Nearly 40 years later, I like to think it is moving in that direction.  

[zenopusarchives]

On the Zenopus Archives blog: "The Sea-Changed", a write-up of a new monster for your ODnD or Holmes Basic campaign set in Portown, Saltmarsh or other coastal setting. See my profile for the link.

[oldschoolfrp]

Holmes’ sample dungeon below Zenopus’ tower:  Room S -- Spiral Staircase is straight out of every other Conan cover painting (from the first Basic D&D rulebook by J Eric Holmes, 1977)

[oldschoolfrp]

This Parade article about D&D from early 1980 is a good explanation of the game, despite the unnecessary misleading costume pictures and goofy headline, both of which probably were added by an editor.  This would have been many US readers’ first positive introduction to D&D in a nationally syndicated newspaper insert.  (Open each image in a new tab if having trouble enlarging.)

It gets the important facts right enough, quotes a number of players and Dr Holmes, the author of the first basic set, and it notes the possible benefits to players’ math and social skills.  It only briefly glosses over the notion of being “obsessed” with the game.

By late ‘79 other reporters were starting to push the first conspiracy theories about D&D while repeating false rumors about the Egbert disappearance case and the urban legend of playing D&D in steam tunnels.  The photos above might have inadvertently contributed to that hysteria by suggesting D&D often was acted out in a real life space.

[oldschoolfrp]

The sample dungeon from Holmes’ 1977 D&D basic rules, often known as Zenopus’ Dungeon -- available as a free PDF on WotC’s official D&D website.

It can be run as a simple room-by-room dungeon crawl, but there are a number of good design ideas for inspiration like one entrance leading to multiple hidden exits.  It includes many potential hooks for new adventures, which makes it a great first session to start a sandbox campaign if the party follows one or more of those leads.

Who are the NPCs who were turned to stone?  Who built the previous ancient city with some enormous dungeon rooms, and are there more hidden levels below?  Who are the pirates and what else are they up to?  The pirates have abducted at least one person from town, so I’ve had them be part of the slavers network from the A1-4 series of modules.

I also use this dungeon as a benchmark for trying new editions of the game, comparing how the rules handle different types of encounters.  The thaumaturgist can die quickly in 5th ed if he faces a party alone, but a handful of goblins might be a problem if they outnumber the party.

The PDF also starts with the archaic example of play in which a designated “caller” speaks for the party, which reflects the way some DMs handled large groups in early campaigns.

[oldschoolfrp]

Happy Gary Gygax Day, July 27.  Every year on his birthday I roll up a new character from a past edition.  This year I return to the 1977 Holmes Basic, where I started, which is an edited version of the original 1974 booklets by Gygax and Arneson.  A small index card is all I need for a character sheet.

Rolling 3d6 in order I initially get:

STR  6

INT  12

WIS  9

CON  11

DEX  12

CHA  8

Fairly average, with Int and Dex the highest stats.  I consider thief then make him a magic-user with a traditionally awkward name, Phyzzbyn.  Holmes lets magic-users trade 3 STR points for 1 INT, so those become:

STR  3

INT  13

which is just enough INT for a 5% experience point bonus.  Who cares about STR when there are others around to do the heavy lifting.  Rolling 1d4 gives him 2 hp.  I’ve seen worse.

INT 13 also gives him a 65% chance to have any given spell in his spellbook.  I pick the ones I want most and dice for those first -- he knows Charm Person, Shield, Sleep, Magic Missile, Read Magic (necessary for discovering new spells and reading scrolls), Light, Protection from Evil, and Tenser’s Floating Disc.  During his apprenticeship he tried but failed to gain access to Read Languages, Detect Magic, Hold Portal, and Ventriloquism.

He picks Charm Person as his single spell to memorize.  His first priority in the dungeon will be to charm a strong orc to be his bodyguard.  Charm effects can last for weeks in this edition, so on later days he can switch to the Shield spell and hide behind some magical protection while the bodyguard does the dangerous stuff.

INT 13 gives him 3 extra languages besides Common and the alignment language of Chaotic Good, so he picks Goblin and Orcish (to command his charmed minions), and Elvish (so he can talk with those fighter/magic-users and trade spells for his spellbook when he levels up).

Finally 3d6 x10 gives him 130 gp to buy equipment.  He can’t use armor or weapons other than a dagger, so he’ll pick 6 daggers in case he wants to throw some, a pack full of empty sacks so his charmed minions can carry treasure, and a selection of standard gear like the 10′ pole and iron spikes that the other party members might not be able to afford.  With the leftover coins he might try finding some hirelings to lead a pack mule to the dungeon entrance.  He doesn’t mind if someone else does the talking to make that deal, as long as he gets reimbursed for his expenses before the treasure is split.