ZENOPUS ARCHIVES: Roslof

Showing posts with label Roslof. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Art & Arcana on sale again - get the original Tomb of Horrors

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:

Art & Arcana Special Edition

One thing I forgot to mention last time that is of interest to readers of this blog is that the book includes a drawing by Chris Holmes of a displacer beast from the 70s, drawn for the Basic rulebook manuscript (which appears courtesy of Billy Galaxy).

Update: I was asked about the content of the posters in this set. I took a look at my set and found:

AD&D Player's Handbook cover (1978) by Dave Trampier (16 x 10")
DM Screen cover (1979) by Dave Trampier (18 x 14")
Keep on the Borderlands cover (1980) by Jim Roslof (8 x 10")
AD&D Fiend Folio cover (1981) by Emmanuel (16 x 10")
World of Greyhawk box cover (1983) by Jeff Easley (8 x 10")
Swords of Deceit module cover (1986) by Keith Parkinson (8 x 10")
AD&D 2E PHB interior (PCs with slain tiny dragon)(1989) by Larry Elmore (8 x10")
Forge of Fury module cover (2000) by Todd Lockwood (16 x 10")
"Promotional painting for D&D 30th Anniversary (2004) by Todd Lockwood (16 x 10")
Storm King's Thunder interior painting (2016) by Chris Rahn (24 x 16")

Earlier post (from April):

The Special Edition of the D&D artbook Art & Arcana is currently selling for $69.99 on Amazon, plus when I look at the page I'm also seeing a coupon for $23.33, making the total only $46.66. If you can get it for this, it's a great deal for a set that has a list price of $125.

The real hidden gem of the set is a reprint of the original OD&D tournament version of Tomb of Horrors, in a digest format resembling the LBBs. FWIW, the page says only 10 copies are left in stock.

Art & Arcana Special Edition

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Dragon Dice Bag cross stitch kit (1982)

The above image, taken from a recent Ebay auction, shows the packaging for a 1982 DRAGON DICE BAG, a "Counted Cross Stitch Kit" from TSR subsidiary Greenfield Needlewomen, which includes some interesting hand-drawn line art showing the bag front and back, along with a set of polyhedral dice. The bag front includes a dragon and "D&D games", and the back says "May you always make your saving throw". Another image from the auction shows the pattern for stitching the dragon, which is green-colored, with a yellow-green belly:

I've seen other Greenfield D&D-tie-in cross stitch products before - for examples, see this post on Cyclopeatron - but I don't recall seeing this particular one, which has more rudimentary packaging than the others. Per Frank Mentzer on FB, this is because:

This was very early after our acquisition. We retooled their packaging; later ones all have a distinctive green theme. This has their art, not ours. (No it's not a Sutherland dragon. ;> )

This one is also interesting because it uses the "DRAGON DICE" trademark and logo (i.e., the same font) also featured on TSR's 1981 Dragon Dice, the packaging artwork for which was designed by Jim Roslof and can be seen in this post.

Advertisement for TSR's DRAGON DICE
(this was the first set of dice that I owned, in the same blue color)

You can read more about TSR's purchase of Greenfield Needlewomen in Jon Peterson's book Game Wizards, which briefly covers it in the chapters titled, "1982: Extravagance" and "1983: Splitting the Party". Based on quotes from Gary Gygax in TSR's in-house newsletter Random Events, TSR had designs on growing their business by entering the adjacent craft field; which isn't unreasonable because, as pointed out by T. Foster in the first comment in this post on Grognardia, at the time D&D was often sold in hobby shops alongside craft products. However, this particular company, based in Greenfield, Indiana, was purchased seemingly because it was owned by relatives of the Brian and Kevin Blume, and ended up being shuttered by TSR in 1983 after losing a large sum of money for the company.

A thank you to a post on the TSR Old School Gamers FB group for making me aware of this.

Saturday, August 28, 2021

Dice Dragon (New Monster)

TSR's Dragon Dice (1981). Art by Jim Roslof.
Detail of photo by Brian Stillman as found here

Dice Dragon

Move: 60 feet/turn, 240 feet/turn flying
Hit Dice: 1+1
Armor Class: 2
Treasure Type: Q

Alignment: neutral (75%)/chaotic good (25%)
Attacks: 1 bite
Damage: 1d6

These winged but legless micro-dragons, purple-and-blue with a yellow underbelly, are even smaller than their distant kin, the pseudo-dragons, but just as intelligent. Typically lairing in inaccessible crags or the tallest trees in the wilderness, dice dragons are occasionally found in association with thieves or gamblers, as they have an innate fondness for games of chance, particularly those involving dice, hence their common name. Indifferent to coins, they more eagerly wager for gems or precious stones, communicating via a raspy hiss and manipulating the dice with their tail, and storing their winnings in a small container, around which they coil while at rest.

Dice dragons defend themselves with their sharp bite or, thrice a day, a small puff of faerie fire, which does no damage but outlines one target in glowing light for 4d4 rounds (giving attackers a +2 to hit the target).

* * * * *

Notes:

This new monster is inspired by the art on the packaging for the first set of polyhedra dice that I found after getting a Holmes Basic set with chits, TSR's Dragon Dice (1981), which was their first set of branded dice. My original set - which I still have some of - was pale blue as shown in the advertisement here in a 2012 retrospective on Grognardia. As can be seen there, the marketing promoted the plastic part of the packaging as a "reusable carrying case", hence the container portion of the write-up.

This art is by Jim Roslof, who also did the cover the B2 Keep on the Borderlands; see here for a "bibliography" of his work on the Zenopus Archives site.

The "neutral/chaotic good" alignment is in accord with Holmes Basic, where some monsters - including all dragons - are written with a dual alignment, and some (like dwarves) are given percentages.

I chose to incorporate a "flame" breath weapon in line with the illustration, but used faerie fire to make it more interesting than just an ordinary flame, and because it seems fitting as it affects the roll of a die. It also helps differentiate it from other old school D&D mini-dragons:

The Pseudo-Dragon from the original Monster Manual, which appears as a miniature red dragon but can change color, and has a poison stinger instead of a breath weapon.
The Faerie Dragon from the Dragon #62 (and then the Monster Manual II), and breathes "euphoria gas".
The Pocket Dragon from the module M2 Maze of the Riddling Minotaur, which resembles a miniature green dragon and has a venomous bite.

All of the above have legs, but I also came across the amphiptere, which as used in heraldry is typically legless, but seems to have been written up in later systems as a miniature wyvern, for example there's a 5e version here.

I also kept in mind Pip the venomous "minidrag", who is winged and legless, from Alan Dean Foster's sci-fi Pip and Flinx series (1972 and on), which I started reading back in high school.

Update:

Based on further reports from adventurers collected by the Portown Sage, it is apparent that the Dice Dragon does not only breath faerie fire; rather, that is just one possible effect. Read more here:Dice Dragon: Breath Weapon further research

Saturday, July 10, 2021

Dragon #46 retrospective on Enworld

Dragon Reflections, by M.T. Black, is a regular column on Enworld that offers retrospectives of Dragon magazine in chronological order. This week they've reached issue #46, which among other content includes Holmes' second published Boinger and Zereth story, "The Sorcerer's Jewel":

Dragon Reflections #46

Black covers the entire magazine, so doesn't say too much about Holmes' story, just that it is "pretty typical D&D-inspired fiction", but the first commenter offers this gem:

I would point the reader to Tales of Peril: The Complete Boinger and Zereth Stories of John Eric Holmes by Black Blade Publishing. Over the span of months, me and my D&D group read the entire collection out-loud together, on nights we weren't up for playing TTRPGs. More than "typical", I say the stories are "archetypal." It was so interesting to see how one of the authors of BD&D interpreted and portrayed how the class and race traits work in a story. The stories are zany and fun. We laughed out loud many a time. I recommend the book. (And I'm not sure, but I believe they're all autographed and numbered too.)

I followed up on this to comment that the Black Blade ordering page:

"hasn't been updated, but from communication with Allan and John (the folks behind Black Blade), I've heard that the first printing of Tales of Peril has sold out, and they are planning a reprint. If anyone who reads this is interested in a copy, if you email them at the address on that page they will add you to a list for notification when it has been reprinted."

I also commented that:

"One interesting bit in Holmes' story is a reference to "under Witch's Hill, where the old Suloise city is supposed to be buried". I believe this is only reference to specific setting material from the World of Greyhawk in the Boinger and Zereth stories. Given that the World of Greyhawk folio, which as noted above was also reviewed in this issue, mentions "A lost, ruined city of the Old Suloise is said to be hidden somewhere in the Suss forest" (page 26), and the Sea of Dust has buried Suel cities (also page 26), this suggests that Holmes had a copy of the new WoG folio, or at least had heard about the material from Gygax."

"The Sorcerer's Jewel" versus "The Sorceror's Jewel"

The title of contents spell the title of the story as "The Sorcerer's Jewel", but Kim Mohan's editorial on the same page, and the formal title above Jim Roslof's art on page 8 spell it "The Sorceror's Jewel":

However, given that "sorceror" is a fairly common misspelling, and that the word is correctly spelled "sorcerer" throughout the actual story, I'd suggest "The Sorcerer's Jewel" as the correct spelling. Tales of Peril (2017) titles it as "The Sorcerer's Jewel", except where it reproduces the title as part of Jim Roslof's art.

Furthermore, this wasn't even the original title of story; a few years back I briefly saw a typed manuscript for this story that was instead titled "The Apprentice Treasure Hunter", which appears to reference the character of Tarkan, pictured above between Boinger and Zereth. It's unclear whether Holmes was asked to change the title, or whether Dragon simply changed it themselves. Along these lines, it's also possible the use of Suloise (see above) was also an editorial change or suggestion.

Interestingly, "The Sorcerer's Jewel" is also the title of 1939 story by Robert Bloch. I've read this and it doesn't seem related in any way to Holmes' story.

Saturday, November 17, 2018

Elmore's take on the Sutherland Dragon

This illustration by Larry Elmore is from a fairly obscure product, the manual for the 1982 adaptation of TSR's boardgame DUNGEON! for the Apple II+. It's on the last page, and is the only illustration in the manual other than the cover, which shows a B&W version of the box cover art by Jeff Easley. It may have appeared in another TSR product, but a Google Image search didn't turn anything up.

While much smaller --- perhaps a Sub-adult? --- Easley's dragon clearly shares many details with David Sutherland's Red Dragon on the cover of the Holmes Basic Set (July 1977), particularly the head - triangular, heavy brow, cheek "whiskers". Also note the V-shaped scales down the ventral portion of the neck, the slightly curved spikes down the back, even the shapes of the scales.

Sutherland drew a similar B&W version of this same Red Dragon for the monster entry in the AD&D Monster Manual (Dec 1977) ---

Which was redone in color by Jim Roslof for the AD&D Monster Cards (1981) ---

A Red Dragon does appear as one of the monsters in Dungeon!, so Elmore may have been using one of these as a guide in order keep the look consistent between TSR products.

If you'd like to see the entire game manual, it can be found here at the Museum of Computer Adventure Game History.

You can also watch a 10-minute play-through of the game here --- Dungeon! for the Apple II

It had graphics like this screenshot, showing a Superhero versus a jolly Purple Worm ---

Update: As pointed out by John L in the comments, here is Bill Willingham's take on a similarly styled dragon, from the Moldvay Basic Set rulebook (1981).

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Keep on the Borderlands cover study

This is a study for the famous cover of the module B2 Keep on the Borderlands by the late Jim Roslof (a bibliography of his work here). It just sold on Ebay for almost $10,100 (!). The auction listing (by the Collector's Trove, from the collection of Laura Roslof), states that "This is Jim's original color study that he used to determine how he wanted to paint the final cover art", and is in pencil, ink and watercolor on parchment paper.

The composition is very close to the finished product. Here the humanoids have more elongated snouts (and the one to the left has a pointed ear), perhaps more orc-like than the ones in the final picture, who are clearly hobgoblins with the orange-red faces and blue noses specifically described in the AD&D Monster Manual.

Of note, the apparent caves on the hills in the background are more prominent in this study, particularly the one under the right arm of the elvish archer (who is bald here!). This supports that these holes are actually intended to depict the entrances to several of the Caves of Chaos entrances. For comparison, see this annotated cover image from an earlier blog post: Caves of Chaos Revealed.

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