Sunday, July 21, 2024

The Making of Original D&D: 1970-1977

 

Dungeons & Dragons: The  Making of  Original Dungeons & Dragons came out in 2024 and was written by Jon Peterson. It is a massive tome with high quality production. I finally picked up a copy. 

The book contains the following:
  • The complete original version of OD&D including Tolkien's terms such as Hobbit and Balrog
  • The complete text from OD&D supplement 1, 2 and 3.
  • Parts of Chainmail and Strategic Review
  • Extracts from Corner of the Table (Dave Arneson's newsletter
  • Extracts from the Domesday Book (the C&C Society newsletter)
  • Letters exchanged between Dave and Gary
  • The complete text of an early draft of the OD&D rules
  • Commentaries by Jon Peterson

 

As a friend of mine pointed out, much of this material has already been circulating on the web in addition to the books that many hard core fans will have, but it is still nice to have everything in one place. The commentaries by Jon Peterson are insightful as and useful as always. 


D.H Boggs has good review on his blog where he points out that some documents that are mentioned in the book but not included could have been very useful, especially if one wants to explore the often overlooked Dave Arneson side of the story.



-Havard

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