dndhistory

[dndhistory]

573. Various Authors - Dragon #126 (October 1987)

So we come to the month of October 1987, and with it we reach one of the most iconic of Dragon magazine covers, this time by Daniel Horne and it is a fitting cover for a special issue on the undead! As usual Dragon has special Halloween issues and this year is no exception, with a bunch of horror themed content. 

This theme includes some pretty cool art to illustrate articles, some of which I'm sharing here and some which will come on the next post, under the heading The Dead of Night we get three large articles on Vampires, weapons suitable for the undead and a smattering of monsters for your gaming pleasure.

However, the horror content is not confined to the special feature, the Ecology article covers another frightening being with The Ecology of the Shade and the rest of the magazine keeps up with the theme, with even the articles on the Marvel RPG covering Marvel Vampires and monsters. A fun issue with a truly iconic cover!

[dndhistory]

572.1 Short stories in Gary Gygax - Night Arrant (1987)

[dndhistory]

572. Gary Gygax - Night Arrant (1987)

Sorry I've been taking so long in updating this project, but I did get a bit stuck reading through Night Arrant, something which might happen as I hit some duller or harder going novel as we progress through the history of D&D. 

Written by Gygax and set in the Gord the Rogue sequence of novels, mostly in and around the city of Greyhawk, this is a collection of nine short stories. I've always had kind of a hard time reading Gygax's writing and this is no exception, he has a very deliberate flow that clearly owes a lot to some of his writing and thematic influences, foremost among them being Fritz Leiber and Robert E. Howard. As you read through the stories it is in fact very easy to see how these sword and sorcery pioneers were the biggest influence on Gygax, rather than Tolkien or other high fantasists. 

As is usual with these kinds of collections the stories are hit and miss, but all of them are pretty good at fleshing out the world of Greyhawk with my favourite being Twistbuck's Game, a true encyclopedia of names and symbols for inns and taverns in the city with a quite humorous twist to it. All in all worth reading if you are into Greyhawk. 

[dndhistory]

Let's Play: Secret of the Silver Blades (1990) - Part 5

We fight through the Black Circle inner sanctum and eliminate the order from Old Verdigris! Then we find out that our quest continues at the Temple of Tyr, so we start descending the mines to the location of our next episode!

The musical score in this episode was gently provided by Forgotten Ghost taken with their permission from the album  "Winter Solace".

Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp:

https://forgottenghost.bandcamp.com

Opening Music "Life" by MORSCHT, taken with their permission from the album "a sacrifice of myself unto myself".

 Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp:

https://morscht.bandcamp.com

Secret of the Silver Blades is the third game in the Forgotten Realms series of Gold Box roleplaying games by SSI.

https://www.instagram.com/historyofdnd

https://twitter.com/thehistoryofdnd

https://bsky.app/profile/dndhistory.bsky.social

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/dndhistory

https://dndhistory.org/

Title Card created by Raquel studio: 

https://www.instagram.com/raquelg_studio/

[dndhistory]

Let's Play: Secret of the Silver Blades (1990) - Part 4

This episode we start making our way through the outer circle of the Black Circle HQ, getting to fight plenty of guards and meeting up with a familiar character that comes all the way back from Pool of Radiance! 

The musical score in this episode was gently provided by Gorgons Alter taken with their permission from the album  "Duneland Usurper".

Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp:

https://gorgonsalter.bandcamp.com

Opening Music "Life" by MORSCHT, taken with their permission from the album "a sacrifice of myself unto myself".

 Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp:

https://morscht.bandcamp.com

Secret of the Silver Blades is the third game in the Forgotten Realms series of Gold Box roleplaying games by SSI.

https://www.instagram.com/historyofdnd

https://twitter.com/thehistoryofdnd

https://bsky.app/profile/dndhistory.bsky.social

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/dndhistory

https://dndhistory.org/

Title Card created by Raquel studio: 

https://www.instagram.com/raquelg_studio/

[dndhistory]

571.1. Articles in Polyhedron #37 (September 1987)

[dndhistory]

571. Various Authors - Polyhedron #37 (September 1987)

As usual, every two months, we get the RPGA magazine, Polyhedron, aimed at the competitive side of TTRPGs, but with some good extra articles on rules and sundry game optimizations.

This issue is, unusually, not very focused on (A)D&D, with a central module for another game which I actually am having trouble figuring out if it's a pre-existing game or something completely new created for this module... it's pretty weird, that's for sure.

Otherwise there are the usual articles covering a variety of TSR games and some reviews of games outside the company. Not the best issue if you are looking for D&D content, but always worth leafing through. 

[dndhistory]

Let's Play: Secret of the Silver Blades (1990) - Part 3

This episode we further explore the ruins of Old Verdigris and retrieve some treasures to help up take on the Black Circle, in the meanwhile we pick up the Amulet of Eldamar on our way to Circle HQ. 

The musical score in this episode was gently provided by Hodslate taken with their permission from the album  "Journey Through the Unlight".

Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp:

https://hodslate.bandcamp.com

Opening Music "Life" by MORSCHT, taken with their permission from the album "a sacrifice of myself unto myself".

 Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp:

https://morscht.bandcamp.com

Secret of the Silver Blades is the third game in the Forgotten Realms series of Gold Box roleplaying games by SSI.

https://www.instagram.com/historyofdnd

https://twitter.com/thehistoryofdnd

https://bsky.app/profile/dndhistory.bsky.social

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/dndhistory

https://dndhistory.org/

Title Card created by Raquel studio: 

https://www.instagram.com/raquelg_studio/

[dndhistory]

570.1. Stephen Fabian and Bruce Heard - Sample Illustrated pages in GAZ 3: The Principalities of Glantri (1987)

[dndhistory]

570. Bruce Heard - GAZ 3: The Principalities of Glantri (1987)

Further fleshing out the world of Mystara (before it even had that name) the third Gazetteer in the series brings us the magocracy of Glantri. A collection of principalities ruled by aristocratic mages with a hint of Venice and a lot of Gothic horror tropes thrown in for good measure.

 With NPC with names like Prince von Drachenfels you can kind of tell into what kind of universe we are stepping into here. The Gazetteer itself is extremely useful, stretching over some 80 pages with good illustrations and a lot of good information and maps, it's all a DM would need to set some adventures in this appealing place.

These Gazetteers continue to be some of the highest quality products being put out by TSR at this point in time and definitely the best products for the D&D line, which was often overshadowed by the AD&D products. Really worth leafing through.

#adnd #dnd #ttrpg #tabletop #tabletopgaming #dungeonsanddragons #rpg #roleplaying 

[dndhistory]

Let's Play: Secret of the Silver Blades (1990) - Part 2

This time we clear out the Black Circle influence of New Verdigris and start our adventure into Old Verdigris by clearing out a Dragon from the ruins as we get ready to retrieve a precious amulet and destroy the Black Circle HQ!

The musical score in this episode was gently provided by Forgotten Ghost taken with their permission from the album  "Cave Cathedral".

Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp:

https://forgottenghost.bandcamp.com

Opening Music "Life" by MORSCHT, taken with their permission from the album "a sacrifice of myself unto myself".

 Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp:

https://morscht.bandcamp.com

Secret of the Silver Blades is the third game in the Forgotten Realms series of Gold Box roleplaying games by SSI.

https://www.instagram.com/historyofdnd

https://twitter.com/thehistoryofdnd

https://bsky.app/profile/dndhistory.bsky.social

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/dndhistory

https://dndhistory.org/

Title Card created by Raquel studio: 

https://www.instagram.com/raquelg_studio/

[dndhistory]

569.1. Various Artists- Maps and Illustrations from C6: The Official RPGA Tournament Handbook (1987)

[dndhistory]

569. Various Authors - C6: The Official RPGA Tournament Handbook (1987)

Looking for all intents and purposes like an adventure module, C6: The Official RPGA Tournament Handbook is actually a bit more than that. Firstly it has not one, but two adventures, written by Daniel Kramarsky and Jean & Bruce Rabe, respectively. Secondly, this is mainly a book that teaches players interested in the competitive side of the hobby how to organize their own Tournaments.

Competitive AD&D was a much bigger part of the hobby in the 70s, 80s and 90s that it has since become, having by now nearly disappeared from discussions of the game as played in 2025, this is also signaled by the fact that WotC gives very little to no support for competitive play, which is both a sign of this form of playing's decline, but which might have contributed to it.

However, even if this is no longer a popular way to play the game, there were indeed charms to it and this book can still be used as the basis if any DMs out there want to try their hands at it. With two adventures tailored from competitive play and instructions on how to be a jury and set up those competitions it was and is invaluable for those into the competitive side of a game that is now famous for not being about competition.

[dndhistory]

Let's Play: Secret of the Silver Blades (1990) - Part 1 

We come to the third game in the Gold Box series that started out with Pool of Radiance and continued with Curse of the Azure Bonds! In this episode we import our familiar characters and start off naked and afraid although we are soon ready to clean out the Well of Knowledge… and that we do!

The musical score in this episode was gently provided by Forgotten Ghost taken with their permission from the album  "Fallen Kingdom".

Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp:

https://fallenkingdom.bandcamp.com

Opening Music "Life" by MORSCHT, taken with their permission from the album "a sacrifice of myself unto myself".

 Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp:

https://morscht.bandcamp.com

Secret of the Silver Blades is the third game in the Forgotten Realms series of Gold Box roleplaying games by SSI.

https://www.instagram.com/historyofdnd

https://twitter.com/thehistoryofdnd

https://bsky.app/profile/dndhistory.bsky.social

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/dndhistory

https://dndhistory.org/

Title Card created by Raquel studio: 

https://www.instagram.com/raquelg_studio/

[dndhistory]

568.1. Various Authors - Adventures in Dungeon #7 (September/October 1987)

[dndhistory]

568. Various Authors - Dungeon #7 (September/October 1987)

We reach the second year of Dungeon Magazine and this time we get some more variety than usual in terms of adventures that come packaged in the issue.

In the first year the magazine was heavily biased towards AD&D adventure modules, in this issue the same happens, but the main event is the continuation of the Tortles of the Purple Sage adventure, for D&D, and we also get a module for use with Oriental Adventures (OA) AD&D.

The level spread is also varied, with two adventures for novice characters from levels 1-3, two other for middle-low levels, the Tortles adventure being for levels 4-10 and the OA adventure for levels 3-5 and one high level adventure for characters level 10 and up. As always a resource worth having and leafing through. 

[dndhistory]

Let's Play: DragonStrike (1990) - Part 1

We start off something new in the realm of D&D games, this time we have a Flight Simulator, with Dragons! Before we fly over Krynn defeating the armies of Takhisis, we also listen to a short story by James M. Ward, and then go through the first three missions of the game. If you want to skip the short story go straight to the 10:39 mark!

Opening Music "Life" by MORSCHT, taken with their permission from the album "a sacrifice of myself unto myself".

 Support independent artists and get it at Bandcamp:

DragonStrike is a Flight Simulator set in the Dragonlance world of Krynn, developed by Westwood Studios.

https://www.instagram.com/historyofdnd

https://twitter.com/thehistoryofdnd

https://bsky.app/profile/dndhistory.bsky.social

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/dndhistory

https://dndhistory.org/

Title Card created by Raquel studio: 

https://www.instagram.com/raquelg_studio/