In Search Of Canon

WOTC's November 19, 2013 release of the re-mastered Original Dungeons and Dragons white box has been on my mind of late. 

Two books, which some consider so-called OD&D canon, were casualties in that release, having never made the final cut: Chainmail and Swords & Spells.  Tis a shame, since Chainmail germinated, and provided the original mass and heroic combat rules to, Dungeons and Dragons, and Swords & Spells was the progeny of Chainmail, filling the same role in OD&D, in updated fashion.

It may be that Chainmail's omission from the re-mastered release resulted from lingering doubts over copyright ownership.  But that rejection hardly seems plausible in the case of Swords & Spells, coming after the original LBB's and first four supplements, and undeniably a property of Gygax and TSR. 

Few would argue S&S is as useful as Chainmail, or, for that matter, the other supplements that were included in the re-master and release.  Still, the omission of both Chainmail and S&S reminds me of the scene from The Da Vinci Code, where, at the Council Of Nicea, the Christians debate and resolve which of the theological positions and gospels will be included in the Bible.  S&S should have been included, despite its lesser popularity and questionable rules-heft, if, for nothing else, historical value.

I'm no slave to so-called canon, of course.  I consider most any publication released during that initial blossoming of role-playing creativity a worthy addition to the game, just as I see modern attempts to graft to and restyle the original and reimagined rule-sets laudable. 

But there is, you must admit, something particularly charming and magical about the earliest D&D-esque publications, unstructured and divergent and un-self conscious.  Publications like the Arduin Grimoires.  Or the Little Soldier Games booklets. 

LSG's 1977 The Book Of Sorcery, authored by Dan Bress and Ed Konstant, was one of several non-canon OD&D sources that were whole-heartedly adopted as canon, at least among the role-players with whom I was acquainted. 

In the modern nomenclature, The BOS would be styled as fluff, rather than crunch, since BOS was rules-light, but flavour and idea-heavy.  There were rules, like the one below, enumerating the consequences of mis-cast spells, but much of The BOS was like the passage above, providing interesting flavour to the dangerous art of spell casting.

The early days of D&D were punctuated by the promotion of all manner of magical items and role-playing approaches.  The BOS pitched its own brand of magic item creation, as evidenced by the following passages, for communing instruments, rings of invisibility and enchanted swords.

I liked The BOS, Arduin Grimoires, and other non-canon D&D books as much for the art as the text.  Even now, I find the art in The BOS particularly creepy, and because it was by artists other than those in the TSR stable, the art brought a different esthetic to our game.

The BOS, and it's sister book, the Book Of Demons, contained quite a few images of demons and undead in unlikely situations and poses.  That art fostered a rather grim mood and lent itself to gritty, horror-filled D&D games.

 

 

One of the features of those old, non-canon D&D books was their similar shape and binding to that of the TSR publications.  The Arduin Grimoires and Little Soldier Games books were the same size as the TSR books, and fit conveniently within the White Box.  All the more reason to use all of them in your D&D games.

 

It's encouraging to see WOTC's issuance of re-mastered copies of the original D&D books, despite the regrettable absence of Chainmail and S&S.  And doubly encouraging is the recent, parallel re-publication of some of the non-canon third-party materials.  Hopefully modern and nostalgic gamers will discover those third-party materials and incorporate them into their re-discovery of Original D&D.

Absolutely Enchanting

Sometimes the artwork attached to an ADnD spell description is just ever so slightly incongruous.  The Dave Trampier illustration attached to the spell, Enchant An Item, is one of those situations. 

While it's true that the illustration shows an item being crafted -- one of several steps involved in making a magic item -- it would make more sense for the illustration to show the spellcaster interacting with the item, and somehow imbuing the item with the desired dweomer, rather than a weaponsmith busy with his more mundane tasks.

The last two paragraphs of this spell description fall on the next-following page in the ADnD Players Handbook, and I think it is easy to forget that the process of enchanting items came with some unpleasant risks, chief among them the chance of losing a point of constitution while casting Permanency on an enchanted item.

Does the same circumstance threaten magic-users in 3E and 4E?  I suspect, like many other game design features inherent in early versions of DnD, all of the advantages have been transferred into subsequent rule sets, while the risks have been discarded as "not fun" for the players.

Arduinian Resource Cards And Descriptions

There's but one word that springs to mind when I think of the remaining artwork of The Arduin Adventure: gratuitious. 

I mentioned earlier that The Arduin Adventure is 16 pages thicker than its' Holmesian equivalent.  A great many of those additional 16 pages are devoted to illustrations and descriptions of various weapons, armor and magical items appearing in the Arduin setting.

Like Hargrave, I intend to be equally gratuitous, and show you some of the illustrations and accompanying text of those items.

Of course, it is not only within the pages of The Arduin Adventure that those items appear.  Hargrave also published Arduinian treasure cards, like the two card sheets displayed below. 

On the front side, illustrations of the items.  On the back, descriptions of the items, along with space to customize the items to your game.

Several different sets of Arduinian treasure cards were published.  I have several more sets, which accompanied the dungeon adventures published by Hargrave.  If there is any interest, i'm happy to reproduce them here on my blog, for review and educational purposes.

Without futher ado then, here is a visual retrospective and representative sampling of the items and descriptions appearing in The Arduin Adventure.

Talisman Of The Inner Chamber

He realized he still gripped something in his left hand, and lifted it to the flickering light of a nearby fire.  It was a length of gold chain, one of its massy links twisted and broken.  From it depended a curious plaque of beaten gold, somewhat larger than a silver dollar, but oval rather than round.  There was no ornament, only a boldly carven inscription which O'Donnell, with all his easterly lore, could not decipher.

"Your pardon, Lord! She clasped her hands. "I did not know that you carried the token!"

"You babble as bees hum!" He scowled, dangling the pendant before her eyes.  "You know not the meaning of this thing."

"Nay, but I do!" she protested. "It is the symbol of the Guardian of the Treasure!"

-- Robert E. Howard, The Swords Of Shahrazar

The bold, even reckless pursuit of treasure is a regular feature of swords and sorcery tales.  That is no less true of those stories contained in Robert E. Howard's Swords Of Shahrazar collection.  Kirby O'Donnell, the false Kurd, and hero of these tales, invades the Shining Palace of forbidden Shahrazar, intent upon looting the fabled treasure of Khuwarezm.

How O'Donnell comes into the possession of a talisman of the Inner Chamber, and his resulting suberfuge in eluding the guardians of the treasure, is best revealed through your own reading of this tale.

The inspiration derived from these old sword and sorcery tales can take you in all sorts of directions.  For example, 13 Talismans of the Inner Chamber exist, one hidden on each dungeon level beneath the Shining Palace.  The players may mistakenly sell the first couple of talismans, considering them to be mere jewelry to be cashed in, until they discover the secret of the talismans: they permit access to the fabled treasure-room of Khuwarezm, and safe passage past the guardians of the treasure.  How the talismans accomplish that, and who or what the guardians are, is up to you.

I leave you with a brief glimpse of the treasure of Khuwarezm.

O'Donnell pulled open the door -- a wide block of marble revolving on a pivot -- and halted short, a low cry escaping his lips.  He had come upon the treasure of Khuwarezm, and the sight stunned him!

Upon a round slab of pure jade gleamed tokens of wealth beyond the dreams of madness.  Blocks of virgin gold, and rising in a pinnacle of blazing splendor, ingots of silver, ornaments of golden enamel, wedges of jade, pearls of incredible perfection, inlaid ivory, diamonds that dazzled the sight, rubies like clotted blood, emeralds like drops of green fire, pulsing sapphires -- O'Donnell's senses refused to accept the wonder of what he saw.

Magical Boots

There are five boots treasures scattered throughout Avalon Hill's Magic Realm, to be found in the monsters' treasure hoards and natives' possessions.

Like the gloves treasures (providing their owners with fatigue-free attacks and other benefits), magical boots treasures provide their users with fatigue-free movement.

That is of particular value during combat, as combat is where fatigue is usually suffered.


The first set of boots is the Elven Slippers. When equipped, they provide the wearer with the equivalent of a light move chit with a speed of 2 (remembering that a move speed of 1 is fastest).

Many of the light characters, like the Elf, Woodsgirl or the Swordsman, already have an L2 move chit. However, that move chit may be played only with some effort. That additional effort is denoted by the existence of "effort stars" on that character's move chit.

For example, those three characters may have an L2* or L2** move chit. The single star means the move is somewhat fatiguing, while the double star means the move is very fatiguing. The possession and donning of the Elven Slippers, then, allows those characters to avoid fatigue when performing that speedy move.

Others, like the Druid, Magician and Witch, have no L2 move chit at all. The Elven Slippers are of enormous benefit to them.

The Elven Slippers are only good for light characters, carrying only light equipment. The Elven Slippers cannot be employed if the character is a medium character, or if the light character is carrying medium or heavier equipment or treasure.


When worn, the Shoes of Stealth provide the wearer with a light move with a speed of 3. Though not as fast as the Elven Slippers, the Shoes of Stealth provide the wearer with another benefit: allowing the player to roll one die, instead of 2, when attempting to hide.

In Magic Realm, every dice-roll is made with two six-sided dice, with the higher of the two numbers used to determine success. Since lower numbers are better, only rolling one die on in-game attempts improves your chances. In this case, since a 1 through 5 means you successfully hide, and a 6 means you fail, the Shoes of Stealth improve your chances of hiding, on a single attempt, from 70% to 84%.

Again, only light characters, carrying light equipment, can wear the Shoes of Stealth. However, they are the ones who most need an improved chance of hiding, since they generally rely on hiding and fleeing from, rather than battling, the monsters of the Magic Realm.


The Quick Boots are useful for light and medium characters alike.

With a medium move and a speed of 3, light characters will appreciate the additional carrying capacity this set of boots affords, while the medium characters will find the speed of 3, with no fatigue, of great benefit.

Most medium characters, like the Amazon, Captain, Pilgrim and Wizard, can all benefit from wearing the Quick Boots. Both the Amazon and Captain have M3 move chits, but the Amazon has one effort star on her chit, while the Captain has two, so they normally suffer some fatigue when performing that action. And neither the Pilgrim nor the Wizard have the ability to make a medium move with a speed of 3, so these boots are a real boon to them.

Even the Black Knight, if he trades his heavy armor for a medium breastplate and helmet, can take advantage of these boots.

The Quick Boots are also the only set of boots that provide fame if possessed. These boots of of no use to the heavy characters, other than the fame and notoriety they provide, or the gold that can be collected from their sale.


The Power Boots provide a heavy move with a speed of 4. They are of benefit to all characters (the light and medium characters for the additional carrying capacity, the heavy characters for the relatively fast move time that avoids fatigue).

The medium and heavy characters will appreciate wearing these boots, since a H4 move chit is normally accompanied by two effort stars.

The Dwarf, in particular, benefits from wearing the Power Boots, as he has no H4 move chit, and must usually rely on his duck move, which is sufficient for battling the monsters and natives, but is a fatal weakness when facing off against other characters.


Our last set of boots is the Seven League Boots. In addition to providing a tremendous move with a speed of 5, the Seven League Boots also allow the character to record an extra move every game day.

Those extra moves add up. Normally, each character has 4 actions per day. An additional move per day provides up to a 25% increase in the number of actions the character can perform.

The Seven League Boots can be worn by any character, and like any magic item that provides extra actions, should be equipped immediately.

While the speed of 5 may be slow, for a light and medium character, that is a reasonably fast move speed for a heavy character, and, again, avoids those heavy characters having to suffer fatigue.

Great Treasures

Although Avalon Hill's Magic Realm is a competitive multi-player game, victory is not achieved through the defeat of other players.

Instead, victory depends on how much fame, notoriety and gold you collect, how many spells you discover, and how many Great Treasures you control.

In Magic Realm, each player pre-selects their victory conditions. They can choose any combination of victory conditions, from five categories: Great Treasures, Spells, Fame, Notoriety, and Gold.

At the end of the game, each player's performance is measured against their pre-selected victory conditions. If they meet or exceed their pre-selected victory conditions, they win.

Players can select Great Treasures as one of their victory conditions. However, while there are roughly 80 magic items in the Magic Realm, only seventeen of those are "Great Treasures". Great Treasures have a large red spot on them, to denote their Great Treasure status.

Let's have a look at the some of those Great Treasures.

The Cloven Hoof is coveted by the Witch and Witch King (Warlock), as the Cloven Hoof acts as a continuous supply of Black magic. It is worth 40 notoriety points if kept, and subtracts 20 fame points from your final game score.

The Cloven Hoof is a boon for the Witch and Warlock, but for the rest of the characters, its in-game effect (of adding one to die-rolls) is a bad thing ... the equivalent of walking under a ladder, crossing paths with a black cat, or breaking a mirror. That's because lower numbers are usually better than higher numbers in Magic Realm. Since the Cloven Hoof adds one to your dice rolls, you'll never roll a 1, and will more often roll a 6.

And once you have discovered the Cloven Hoof, you can't turn off it's in-game effect: you are saddled with back luck for the rest of the game. So unless you are playing the Witch or Warlock, the best thing to do with the Cloven Hoof is trade this to the Witch or Warlock, or travel to one of the safe valley clearings (no dwellings and not in the valley with the ghosts) and discard it.

You may think that selling the Cloven Hoof to the natives and collecting 4 Gold is preferable to discarding it. The problem is, you (and every other character) must add 1 to your dice rolls when subsequently interacting with that native group, so selling this is really not worth it, unless you intend never to visit those natives again, or wish to impede the other characters' interactions with them.

The Sacred Grail is sought after by both the White Knight (Magic Realm's version of the Paladin) and the Pilgrim (the equivalent of D&D's Cleric). For those two characters, the continuous supply of White Magic provides a way to activate their otherwise moribund spell-casting abilities.

The Sacred Grail is also a Large Treasure. This has no in-game effect: Large Treasures are simply the treasures that, during game set-up, are placed at the bottom of the treasure hoards, and are therefore more difficult to obtain.

For characters other than the White Knight and the Pilgrim, there is no reason to hold on to this Great Treasure, unless you need it for your Great Treasure victory conditions. Selling the Sacred Grail to the Order provides you 12 Gold and 50 Fame, while keeping it, instead, actually costs you 25 Notoriety.

Whenever I think of the Golden Icon, I think of the image from the front of the AD&D Players Handbook, or the primitive but valuable statues described in any number of Conan and other pulp fantasy tales.

The Golden Icon is a Tremendous weight treasure. Unless a character has tremendous strength, or a horse that can carry tremendous weight, she cannot move nor take possession of this Great Treasure.

That will be doubly frustrating for those weaker characters, as this is also the most valuable treasure in the game, worth 100 Gold if sold to any of the native groups.

The Druid, the Magician, and the Wizard would all benefit from the Golden Icon's continuous supply of Grey (Nature) magic, but none of those characters have tremendous move chits to carry the Golden Icon with them.

This is where cooperation in the Magic Realm becomes important: when cooperating with the Dwarf, Berserker, and perhaps even the White Knight, all of whom can carry the Golden Icon, the magic-using characters gain access to Grey Magic, while the fighters benefit from having a potent spell-caster at their side.

Because the Golden Icon represents a more primitive religious sensibility, you gain notoriety but lose fame in the possessing.

Let's call the Dragon Essence, "Cloven Hoof Junior".

Like the Cloven Hoof, the Dragon Essence has a baleful effect: it acts as a SMOKE chit, thus attracting dragons to your location. That is not entirely bad, for those few characters that can defeat Dragons; nor for the Sorceror, Witch and Warlock, all of whom have the ability to possess the Dragon so arriving.

As the Dragon Essence supplies continuous Purple (Elemental) magic, it is much sought after by the Sorceror, who can thereafter more easily rain down fire and lightning, storms and hurricanes, disappear, transform himself into monstrous creatures, and provide underground lighting to assist him and his compatriots.

Another notorious Great Treasure, Dragon Essence reduces your Fame by 10 points, while simultaneously increasing your Notoriety by 20 points.

This last treasure, the Flowers of Rest, is really not a Great Treasure at all, as you can see by the absence of a red "Great Treasures" spot.

However, in the interest of completeness, I wanted to include all of the five treasures that supply magic. In this case, the Flowers of Rest supply continuous Gold (Faerie) magic, of considerable value to the Elf and the Woodsgirl.

For the rest of the Magic Realm characters, the Flowers of Rest are more annoying than useful. The Flowers are annoying because they cause any fatigued character in the same clearing as the Flowers to fall asleep at the beginning of their turn, and wake up, fully rested, the next day.

That would be convenient if your character was seriously fatigued. But when the character has only minor fatigue, and the player loses her entire planned turn to the unavoidable effects of this magic item, it can cause some frustration.

Well, there you have it. Four of the Great Treasures, plus one. Many of the above Great Treasures are of specific benefit to one or more characters. We will look at the rest of the Great Treasures, in subsequent posts.

If The Glove Fits You Must Acquit Yourself

Most characters in Magic Realm will eventually be required to acquit themselves well in combat. As much as you try to avoid it, you will eventually be forced to face-off with some monster, or a group of natives with chips on their shoulders.

This is where a set of magical gloves come in handy. There are four sets of magical gloves scattered throughout the Magic Realm: the Deft Gloves, Handy Gloves, Power Gauntlets and Gloves Of Strength. Each set of gloves provides unique advantages to its owner.

The Deft Gloves are so named because not only do they provide the equivalent of a light fight chit with a speed of 2, useful for the nimble, swashbuckling characters, but they also allow the wearer to roll one die when looting a treasure site.

Since the wearer would otherwise roll two dice, and use the higher of the two rolls when looting, employment of these gloves significantly increases the wearer's chances of obtaining rarer treasures, since those treasures are usually only discovered with low die rolls.

The Deft Gloves are the most valuable of all gloves, worth 10 gold pieces to any of the native groups. In addition, if sold to the Order, you obtain 5 fame points towards your victory conditions.

The Handy Gloves and Power Gauntlets are very similar. The Handy Gloves provide the equivalent of a medium fight chit with a speed of 3, while the Power Gauntlets provide the equivalent of a heavy fight chit with a speed of 4. Both sets of gloves are attractive, as most characters must exert significant effort to achieve those fight speeds, and where effort is expended, fatigue is suffered. Thus, the medium and heavy characters can avoid fatigue by utilizing these gloves.

Like the Deft Gloves, the Gloves Of Strength are coveted by the Order, who will award you with 5 fame points if you sell those gloves to them.

However, these gloves are far more useful in combat: they allow you to dish out significant damage, when employed with the right weapons, and can also be used to open the Crypt of the Knight and the Vault, two rich treasure sites, since you need tremendous strength to open either.

The Gloves Of Strength, like the Handy Gloves and Power Gauntlets, also eliminate the fatigue that usually accompanies playing tremendous fight chits of this speed.

Intelligent Swords

"Among magic weaponry, SWORDS ALONE possess certain human (and superhuman) attributes. Swords have alignment (lawful, neutral or chaotic), an intelligence factor, and an egoism rating (as well as an optional determination of their origin/purpose). These determinations are made as follows:" - Original Dungeons and Dragons, Book 2, Monsters & Treasure, page 27-28

Another feature of old-school Dungeons and Dragons that has been lost along the way: Intelligent Swords.

The possession of an intelligent sword was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you had a powerful sword, with extra abilities that benefitted yourself and your party. On the other hand, there was the possibility of a battle of wills between the sword's possessor and the sword itself.

In ODnD, swords with an intelligence of 7 or greater also had an egoism factor. The egoism factor was the will of the sword. Swords with high intelligence and high egoism had a chance of dominating the possessor, thereby subverting the will of the player to pursue his own objectives. For example, a dominating sword might demand that the possessor encrust it with rare gems and beautiful filigree, fight certain monsters, surrender itself to another more worthy fighter, or mount a quest in keeping with the sword's purpose.

Considering the potential battle of wills between the player and the magic sword, some may wonder whether the advantages outweighed the drawbacks. It should be understood that an ODnD magical sword, possessing the same bonus, was more powerful than those of later editions. See my earlier post on magic swords for a further explanation. Because the advantages of magic swords were considerable, and because many players relished the challenge of owning an intelligent and willful sword, I don't recall an instances where intelligent swords were not retained by the player.

Fantastic Treasures

Fantastic Treasures is a two volume catalogue of magical and mythological items from folklore and legend, printed in 1984 by Mayfair Games, under its Role Aids line of gaming supplements. Role Aids is an uneven line of supplements, with adventures like Evil Ruins and Lich Lords (both are decent) interspersed with less stellar fare.

The Fantastic Treasures catalogue includes several hundred magical items, each one paired to a black and white illustration. Even though Fantastic Treasures is, by definition, derivative, since it uses myth and folklore for its inspiration, it is the presentation of this catalogue that I find appealing. And i'm not just talking about the Boris Vallejo art that graces its two covers.

Paging through the AD&D Monster Manual, you will find most D&D monster descriptions accompanied by an illustration. That is never the case for magic items in the Dungeon Masters Guide. I can recall poring over the 1979 DMG, bewildered by such unfamiliar items as censers, periapts, phylacteries, and scarabs. Without an illustration, and therefore a mental image to draw upon, I found it difficult to describe those magical items to the players.

In contrast, each of the magical items described in Fantastic Treasures is accompanied by an illustration. Admittedly, unlike the mysterious periapts or a phylacteries, I don't need illustrations of thimbles, horseshoes, or boots, to visualize or describe those items. But there is something immediate and meaningful about seeing an artist's depiction of an item, even if you don't end up describing it as illustrated.

While some of you will be familiar with a broad cross-section of myth and folklore, you are bound to find several items in the Fantastic Treasures catalogue that are new to you. The usual suspects are included of course, like cloaks of invisibility, magical pendants and gems, musical instruments and the like, from Greek, Norse, Chinese legends. But some interesting and obscure African, Indian and frontier American items are also included: Paul Bunyon's Axe, anyone?

Perhaps I am drawn to this catalogue due to my own interest in the development of generic item and treasure cards. I appreciate these economical magical item descriptions, paired with perfectly serviceable illustrations. If only they came in card form!

Fantastic Treasures is a one of those gaming supplements that does something just a little bit different. While i've seen other magical item gaming supplements that claim to provide fresh magic items, few of their entries are accompanied by illustrations, and few items are truly campaign-ready, unlike the tried-and-true vanilla items from myth and folklore.

Collecting such a wide range of magical item tropes, and pairing each with an illustration, makes this supplement 'game-night ready'.