The table of contents (again, called an index) of Vol. 2 lists Monster and (sic) Table, Monster Descriptions, Magic/Map Determination Table, Explanation of Magic Items, Magical Items’ Saving Throws, and Treasure.
The “Monster Reference Table” lists monster type (56 entries), number appearing (skews high for wilderness encounters), armor class, move in inches, hit dice (these last three are explained in Vol. 1), % in liar (“lair” misspelled), and type or amount of treasure (which ties into whether the monster is at home guarding its lair or on the hoof). Of the 56 entries, dragons have the longest entry (and the most rules specific to them), followed by men, elementals, orcs, giants, lycanthropes, and horses in descending order, with everything else receiving only one long paragraph or two short ones. Curious to this edition is a short list of suggested monsters (including robots and androids!) with short descriptions, but no stats.
Moreso than later editions of D&D, this one is the most responsible in citing its sources. Tolkein is mentioned by name in the entries for orcs, wights, spectres, and rocs (though he is not cited for goblins, stone giants, balrogs, dwarves, nor elves). Lord Sunsany (“Dunsany” misspelled) is cited as the source for gnolls (though spelled “gnoles” in Dunsany’s The Book of Wonder). Three Barsoomian monsters from Edgar Rice Burroughs (with due credit) are amongst the monsters named without stats. Poul Anderson’s trolls return from Chainmail, but unlike in Chainmail he is not mentioned by name here. There are eight specific references to the Chainmail miniature rules amongst the entries and care seems to have been taken in not contradicting any monster descriptions from that source.
The Treasure Types table outlines the economy of D&D, with the “denominations” being copper, silver, gold, gems and jewelry, and magic and maps in ascending order. Because there are nine different treasure types (named A through I), not all monsters will have the same percentage chance of having each type or even the same range of numbers. The number of coins will rank in the thousands for any lair regardless of range (1,000-6,000; 1,000-8,000; etc.). There is no gray area between the haves and have-nots in monsterdom. To see the exchange rate between denominations, one must flip ahead a whole 17 pages in the book -- 18 to see how much gems and jewerly are worth. The description of maps is four pages ahead. Most of the remaining pages deal instead with magic items. All magic items are described generically, with arms and armor usually having no more detail than what game mechanic bonus they offer (most often a +1 bonus to hit and damage, but sometimes up to +3 with some special bonus). Potions, scrolls, rings, wands and staves, and miscellaneous magic items offer more variety, including many special powers that cannot be duplicated with spells magic-users or clerics are able to cast (not a difficult claim, given the short spell lists in Vol. 1). These categories include such items as potions of heroism, scrolls of protection from magic, rings of many wishes (up to 24!), staves of wizardy, and mirrors of life trapping, but the mean result from these tables produces a potion of clairvoyance.
Following the descriptions of magic items is a short section on magical items’ saving throws. This section makes clear that magic items are not indestrucible. Indeed, most will be destroyed if the person wearing/carrying them is killed. There are saving throws for specific items that will allow them to escape this fate, but it curiously does not extend to all magic items.
Lastly, there is a short section on “super-powerful” magic items, known as artifacts. Like the suggested monsters section earlier, this section lists some extremely generic names (like Teleportation Machine) and some examples of artifact powers (like instant death).
Like vol. 1, the artwork in vol. 2 is atrocious. Organization is haphazard. New rules are bizarrely specific (dragons can be subdued, but orcs can’t?). Unlike vol. 1, this volume cannot stand alone; you need vol. 1 to use vol. 2. However, playing with Men & Magic alone would be limited to a low fantasy, magic-poor campaign. Monsters & Treasure opens the possibility of a high fantasy, magic-rich campaign. Furthermore, the generic statistics and information for both monsters and treasure allow for individual customization and quick placement when running a session on the fly.
Vol. 3, The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures, covers a lot of ground in brief, general terms. I will only highlight notable sections from the following index/table of contents: The Underworld; Distribution of Monsters and Treasure; The Move Turn in the Underworld; Underworld Monsters; Monster Determination and Level of Monster Matrix; Avoiding Monsters; The Wilderness; Castles; Movement; Wilderness Monsters; Wilderness Wandering Monsters; Evading in the Wilderness; Construction of Castles and Strongholds; Specialists; Men-at-Arms; Rumors, Information, and Legends; Player/Character Support and Upkeep; Baronies; Land Combat; Aerial Combat; Naval Combat; Special Suggestions for Monsters in Naval Adventure; Healing Wounds; Time; and an Afterward (sic).
The Underworld section was, for many of D&D’s earlier players, their first glimpse of what a dungeon should look like. Judging by the maps, dungeons should be deep, multi-leveled affairs with random layouts. The sample map has eight encounter areas described, making it (kinda, sorta) the first published D&D scenario. The sample dungeon, typical of its day, has random monsters lumped together without any visible means of feeding themselves. The monsters are incidental anyways, as the encounter areas are focused more on tricks to “frustrate those setting out to map a level.”
Distribution of Monsters and Treasure takes a different tact from vol. 2, providing an alternative, random method of treasure allotment based on dungeon level instead of monster type.
The discussion of time in game play is confusing. In it, rounds and segments are used interchangeably. Turns are equal to ten rounds or two moves. At this point (1974), the breaking down of rounds into ten segments is still two years away. Moves are a holdover from wargaming that disappear after this edition.
The concepts of levels as a class-based structure and for magic spell progression were introduced in vol. 1, but this volume introduces additional uses for the term. Dungeons are divided into levels, both physically and in the sense of being progressively more challenging. Monsters have levels, but only in terms of dungeon level placement. There are random tables for assigning monsters to dungeon levels, with the mean encounter on level one being a conjurer or gnoll, as opposed to a chimera or vampire on level eight.
There is an example of game play that glosses over a combat to focus on the language the referee (DM) and party caller (the most talkative player) use while mapping the dungeon. Also of note is that the referee tells the players the value of the jewels they find instead of describing the jewels and that the players never speak in-character. The only time the caller even gets excited is when the referee hints he may have found a magic item. It is clear that early D&D sessions focused on meta-gaming with little or no immersion in character.
The Wilderness section mostly discusses how to adapt Avalon Hill’s Outdoor Survival game to D&D play. There are movement rules, tables of wandering encounters, ways of randomly designating the inhabitants of any castles encountered, and lengthier evasion rules than found in the Underworld section. The highlight here is the Construction of Castles and Strongholds section, which is illustrated (later editions will assume the players know the difference between a gatehouse and a barbican, but this booklet shows you). The following sections highlight some of the deficiencies of D&D’s economic system. A man-at-arms, of the light foot variety, works for two gold pieces per month. Buying a round of drinks in a tavern (the recommended method of hearing rumors) costs 10-60 gold pieces.
There is a rule, missing from future editions, under Player/Character Support and Upkeep, that says gold pieces equal to 1% of all experience points earned must be spent on support and upkeep until a stronghold is built (and, ultimately, the characters become barons with expansive territories). This is certainly one novel way to part characters from the thousands of gold pieces they are likely to find in most dungeons.
Another curious rule is the Angry Villager Rule. It basically states that, if the player characters act unruly (read, against the referee’s wishes) in any community of village size or larger, the local militia/watch can automatically beat the characters, trumping the normal combat mechanics. Not surprisingly, this rule would never see print in later editions.
There are three pages of aerial combat rules, apparently inspired by Mike Carr’s “Battle in the Skies” wargame. This section includes some combat mechanics that are completely different from the regular D&D rules, including hit locations for attacks and a critical hit table (both concepts would return to D&D at various times over the years). Following that are a whopping seven pages (over one-sixth of the booklet!) on naval combat that is more correctly a supplement to Chainmail than part of D&D.
Lastly, there’s a short paragraph on Healing Wounds. This item of essential reading is buried at the bottom of page 35, nowhere near any discussion of combat where it would be useful to see.
Vol. 3 is so-so at citing its sources. Chainmail and Outdoor Survival are mentioned and mentioned often. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoomian monsters appear frequently in the wandering encounter tables with no explanation. It is not clear to what extent the aerial combat rules are borrowed from Fight in the Skies (especially since I don’t have access to that game), but its author is at least cited for credit.
The real value of vol. 3 is that it is the first published source of information about the original Blackmoor and Greyhawk campaigns. There is only a short reference to Blackmoor being the name of village (inaccurately described as a “one-horse” village) in its campaign, whereas the Greyhawk campaign is named after a city. Further, there is a short list of things found in the dungeons of Greyhawk Castle, most notably the giant bowling alley.
The artwork, dismal in all three volumes, is excrutiatingly bad in parts of vol. 3. Worst of the lot is a sword-wielding fighter on the last page that looks like a trace-job of Jim Steranko’s Nick Fury with minor alterations (the “artist” even kept the trigger finger extended on the sword handle where a gun had been)!
Last year, I had the opportunity to run a short (four-month), messageboard-based mini-campaign using just the original D&D (OD&D) rules. “Castle Whitewood” was run on a relatively new gaming Web site called titangaming.com. Said Web site has, in the last month, vanished forever with no trace of our archives, so I cannot cite specific examples from it as I had originally planned to do for this review. However, I can still make some general comments.
Character creation is faster for OD&D than any of the subsequent editions. Of course, the reason for this is fewer game mechanics. There are essentially seven possible combinations of class and race one can play, so it was not unexpected that we had duplication in our party of six players. Still, any role-players worth their salt can make distinctly unique characters out of any set of game mechanics. Amongst them we had a dwarven fighter who longed for the sea, an insulting elven fighter, a magic-user who couldn’t be parted from his mule, and another magic-user who was cartoonishly evil. Of all the classes published later, only the thief has skills (open locks and find/remove traps) that seem essential for dungeoneering and were missed by our group. There seems to be no provision in these rules for circumventing a locked door other than the 2nd-level spell, Knock (though I allowed fighters to chop down such doors by assigning them hp).
Many game systems (possibly starting with Avalon Hill’s James Bond game) have claimed that their quick and lethal combat systems deter hack n’ slash gaming. OD&D has them all beat with the opposite tact. Combats are so painfully slow to resolve by this system that, after awhile, players will surely grow bored and try nonviolent resolutions. It isn’t even a matter of complexity -- the issue is simply how hard it is to hit something and kill it. Because there are so few modifiers to the combat system, a combatant is likely to be rolling straight against the attack matrix unless armed with a magic weapon. The attack matrix is harsh -- a fighter up through third level still only has a 50% change of hitting a target with no armor or shield over the course of one minute of trying. Slap some decent armor on that target (platemail armor, or AC 3) and the chance to hit plunges to 25%. Since the damage of a weapon is always 1d6 and the average opponents hit die is 1d6, when there is a hit there is a 50% chance of an instant kill. If the monster has more hit dice (purple worms -- the “mottled dragons” in Chainmail -- have the most at 15 HD) then combat becomes an issue of slowly whittling away the large foe. The length of time between hits is usually even longer for the monsters vs. fighters because good armor is so cheap (roughly the cost of a round of drinks at an inn) for them.
Once PCs do begin taking injuries, they will be alive or dead, but never just unconscious. Natural healing of hit points is a very slow process. Since first-level clerics cannot yet cast healing spells, a party of novice adventurers will likely need to leave the dungeon and rest for up to one game week between every major battle!
For today’s gamers looking for nostalgic gaming, OD&D is about as far back as one can go. Yet, even one game session will show that this edition screamed out for revisions. Luckily, such revisions came quickly in the supplements that followed and the periodical, Strategic Review (later known as Dragon).
