darkseraphim wrote in Hawk & Moor: A new D&D book and request for beta readers:
I should also note here (as I alluded to in Book I) that Jon's research should be regarded as authoritative on the majority of subjects where he and I differ in statements of purported fact, mainly because I cannot match his access to primary sources.

This is the biggest issue for scholarship in this area and for majority of 20th century historic research.  It is unfortunately an issue that will not be going away any time soon. We are largely stuck unless something drastic happens to US copyright law in the near future or libraries and archives, at least the few that hold the unique materials, become less risk averse when it comes to putting things out in the wild.

Hi guys, here is a rough draft preview of a new mini-essay which I am adding to the next edition of Hawk & Moor, which discusses one of the earliest "dungeon adventures" in Swords & Sorcery literature:  H. P. Lovecraft's The Rats in the Walls, which influenced Howard to make contact with Lovecraft, and indirectly led to the conceptualization of Cimmeria and Conan the Barbarian.  

The Rats in the Walls … of Greyhawk?

Before we consider Gary's Castle Greyhawk as being directly influenced by his own first November 1972 play experience (deep in the dungeons under Castle Blackmoor), there is another intriguing source of potential inspiration which should be considered rather carefully:  The Rats in the Walls, an outstanding weird horror story penned by Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

At its very simplest, Rats can be distilled and considered (unfairly) as a mere haunted castle yarn.  Haunted castle stories were by no means uncommon by Lovecraft's time, having already grown in many directions through Gothic tales such as Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764) and Stoker's Dracula (1897).  Also noteworthy in this sub-genre is "The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was," as collected from Germanic folklore by the Brothers Grimm (c. 1807-1810).  Arguably, even Bluebeard's castle from Charles Perrault's Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé (1659) can be regarded as a significant influence on many later haunted castle interpretations.  There are many much earlier tales dating to the medieval period as well.  But even though all of these stories feature monsters — and the Brothers Grimm story especially focuses on attacks by devils and the undead — Lovecraft's own tale is unique in featuring nearly-indescribable monsters dwelling beneath a ruin, within the "sub-cellar" and "grinning caverns" of a dungeon setting.

The Rats in the Walls was written in August and September of the year 1923.  It was inspired by the grim famine legend of Bishop Hatto and the "Mouse Tower" of Bingen, as well as The Fall of the House of Usher written by Lovecraft's idol, Edgar Allan Poe.  It appears further that the story was developed following a brief idea which Lovecraft scribbled down in his commonplace book near to the end of 1919, which read as follows:  "Horrible secret in crypt of ancient castle — discovered by dweller." [1]  Sounds like the perfect seed for dungeon adventuring, does it not?  By extension, we could arguably date the earliest dungeon adventure idea to 1919, almost two decades before Tolkien's now-legendary Goblin Town and Erebor featured in The Hobbit (1937, 1938).

Some of the details in Rats are strangely similar to elements in Castle Blackmoor and its dungeons, while others share parallels with the Greyhawk dungeons and other Gygaxian underworld environments.  As one example, the sample dungeon featured in Gary's Dungeon Masters Guide (1979) includes encounters with giant rats, ghouls, evil cultic priests, and the horribly altered remains of the man who headed the monastery above before it fell to ruin. [2]  All of these interrelated ideas appeared earlier in Lovecraft's story.

The Rats in the Walls first appeared in print in the March 1924 issue of Weird Tales (Volume 3, Number 3).  It was reprinted in the June 1930 issue (Volume 15, Number 6).  Notably, an impressionable and creative young man named Robert E. Howard enjoyed the story very much.  After reading it he corresponded indirectly with Lovecraft beginning in August of 1930.  Howard wrote that he was deeply impressed by several historical elements within the story, and Farnsworth Wright (editor of Weird Tales at the time) passed the admiring letter on to Lovecraft.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Despite some philosophical differences in temperament, Howard and Lovecraft got along famously by letter, and so Howard would soon begin weaving many more weird fiction elements into his proto-Swords & Sorcery tales.  The two men also debated the merits of barbarism vs. civilization (no points for guessing which man argued for what), and Howard later conceptualized the mythic barbarian realm of Cimmeria — soon to be the homeland of Conan — in 1932.  The most Lovecraftian "dungeon tale" which I know of, The Tower of The Elephant (1933), would soon feature not only Conan, but also a giant spider, an evil sorcerer, and a trans-dimensional entity imbued with Cthulhu-like cosmic powers.

The Rats in the Walls is very interesting from a Dungeons & Dragons history perspective, because it shares many peculiar traits with the early dungeons that were conceived by both Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax.  Rob Kuntz has noted, [3] and Gary himself once wrote, [4] that Rats was indeed one of Gary's favorite Lovecraft stories.  The influences of Rats upon D&D environments are perhaps not direct, but nevertheless there are numerous and remarkable similarities which are worthy of consideration.

Near to the village of Anchester, the ruined castle at the heart of Lovecraft's story is also a priory, which is (specifically) a monastery which is headed by a religious prior who ranks below an abbot.  We are reminded again of Gary's sample dungeon:  "There is a rumor in the village that something strange and terrible lurks in the abandoned monastery not far from the place." [5]  The horrific tale in Rats is told by a narrator surnamed Delapore, who is descended by blood directly from the mysterious (un)holy residents of Exham Priory proper.  These ancestors were whispered of in fireside tales as belonging to "a race of hereditary daemons beside whom … the Marquis de Sade would seem the veriest tyro [novice]" by way of comparison.  "The worst characters, apparently," Lovecraft continues in his telling, "were the barons and their direct heirs."

These unsavory noble cultists seem to bear a resemblance to the nameless progenitor-Lords of Blackmoor Castle:  "At various times in the history of Blackmoor," Arneson wrote, "a sadistic [emphasis mine] Duke or Baron would make cruel use of the Castle's dungeons and torture chambers for their own amusement and purposes.  As a result, the dungeon area of the Castle is supposedly abound in wandering spirits of the poor wretches that succumbed within those confines." [6]

There are several other lesser near-allusions which are also curiously echoed in early D&D.  Exham Priory is also rumored to have been built upon the ruins of a Druidic temple "contemporary with Stonehenge," much as Gary's Temple of Elemental Evil was built over an ancient subterranean fane.  In its pre-medieval incarnation, Exham housed "a strange and powerful monastic order," which dimly mirrors Arneson's Temple of the Frog and the monk character class as well.  The superstitious villagers who dwell in Anchester believe that the Priory is "nothing less than a haunt of fiends and werewolves," and of course demons and lycanthropes are found in both the Blackmoor and Greyhawk dungeons.

When Delapore comes "home" to the ruined castle, it is described as "a jumble of tottering mediaeval ruins covered with lichens and honeycombed with rooks' nests, perched perilously upon a precipice," which later could serve as a fair description of Gary's own Castle Greyhawk.  After several atmospheric interludes in which Delapore sleeps within the castle and believes that he hears strange things tunneling inside the walls, he decides to explore the black reaches and cellars beneath the ground.  The descent into the castle's dungeons is guarded by giant rats.  Lovecraft describes the "ravenous, gigantic rats" which haunt the ruins in a masterful, disturbingly evocative manner as only he can:  "The scampering army of obscene vermin which had burst forth from the castle three months after the tragedy that doomed it to desertion — the lean, filthy, ravenous army which had swept all before it and devoured fowl, cats, dogs, hogs, sheep, and even two hapless human beings before its fury was spent."

In dungeon module B2, The Keep on the Borderlands, Gary describes giant rats that "swarm chitteringly from their burrows — a wave of lice-ridden hunger seeking to overrun the adventurers with sheer numbers." [7]  More tellingly, the stairs which lead from the moathouse ruin to the dungeons below in T1, The Village of Hommlet, are protected by "a hungry horde of thirteen giant rats" that are "hungry and will attack without fear." [8]  There are several player tales of giant rats being encountered in the ruins and dungeons of Castle Greyhawk as well.

The story continues once the rats are discovered in their descent.  In the sub-cellar beneath Exham, Delapore unearths ancient inscriptions which seem to warn of a fearsome unholy queen, "whose dark worship was once vainly forbidden to Roman citizens."  (A tentative parallel can be drawn to Zuggtmoy and her forbidden temple, near to the villages of Nulb and Hommlet.)  Below the sub-cellar of Exham lie the familial crypts, and many secret tunnels between the two subterranean areas exist as burrows dug by the giant rats which plague the place.  Ghoul-like degenerates also dwell within the deeper Priory crypts, feasting on corpses just as the rats do.  Similarly, in the dungeons beneath Gary's moathouse ruin (again T1), there is a burial crypt which serves as a lair for predatory ghouls. [9]  These horrors compete with the giant rats who have created a nasty labyrinth of tunnels, stealing the ghouls' charnel delicacies whenever they can.  Giant rats apparently do this quite frequently in Gary's dungeons!  "Their burrows honeycomb many graveyards," Gary wrote in the Monster Manual (1977), "where they seek to cheat ghouls of their prizes by tunneling to newly interred corpses." [10]

For the unfortunate Delapore in Lovecraft's tale, the "dungeon" adventure begins with a fateful discovery:  he and a servant detect a secret trapdoor by carefully observing the effects of a draft of air upon the flickering flame of a candle.  Delapore is far too afraid to lift the floor-slab during that initial exploration, deciding rather to slumber again in safety above ground.  But he suffers nightmares which seem to force upon him the secrets which he refused to steal away for himself.  The dream-envisioned monsters beneath Exham include a horde of "fungous, flabby beasts whose appearance filled me with unutterable loathing."  These horrors, "wallowing in filth," are actually the troll-like ghouls (thouls?) who are the subterranean descendants of Delapore's own ancestors.

The "fungous" hint is especially interesting.  Did Gary note and appreciate this detail?  Could the slimes which lair in the dungeon-prisons with Zuggtmoy perhaps represent that last remains of corrupted worshippers of the demon queen?  Delapore also dreams of a "white-bearded daemon swineherd" who dwells "with his unmentionable fungous beasts" in "the twilight grotto."  In dungeon module T1-4, the ally of the "Lady of Fungi" — Zuggtmoy — is known as Iuz the Old.  Iuz is rumored to be a half-demon, and of course the dungeons of Zuggtmoy which he frequents are filled with thrall-swarms of monsters such as giant rats, ghouls, trolls, slimes, degenerate humanoids and fungi.

Later in Rats, when Lovecraft's narrator has steeled himself and assembled a party of cellar-delving specialists to accompany him, the secret trapdoor under Exham is finally opened.  Beneath the slab looms a well-worn staircase littered with rat-gnawed bones.  Some of the bones are human, others humanoid.  Down the stairs and within secret caverns hidden far beneath the sub-cellar, an even more horrific discovery is made:

"It was a twilit grotto of enormous height, stretching away farther than any eye could see; a subterraneous world of limitless mystery and horrible suggestion.  There were buildings and other architectural remains — in one terrified glance I saw a weird pattern of tumuli, a savage circle of monoliths, a low-domed Roman ruin, a sprawling Saxon pile, and an early English edifice of wood — but all these were dwarfed by the ghoulish spectacle presented by the general surface of the ground.  For yards about the steps extended an insane tangle of human bones, or bones at least as human as those on the steps.  Like a foamy sea they stretched, some fallen apart, but others wholly or partly articulated as skeletons; these latter invariably in postures of daemoniac frenzy, either fighting off some menace or clutching other forms with cannibal intent."

Eerie scenes such as these are found throughout Gary's published dungeons and underworlds, but there are two especially striking examples of similar locales which bear special mention.  The troll warrens beneath the Hall of the Fire Giant King (dungeon module G3) are filled with troll nests, each comprising a "heap of sticks, bones, hide and skin scraps, and other nauseous material." [11]  Similar troll lairs found in D1, Descent into the Depths of the Earth, are "filled with a noisome mess of rotting carcasses, bones, sticks, excrement, pelts, etc." [12]  Near to the D1 troll warrens, there is a vast fungal garden where troglodytic dwellers tend creeping and edible fungi:  "The fungi are fed with the refuse and offal," Gary writes. [13]

When Delapore's party members behold these unspeakable horrors, they do not dare to venture very deep.  "We shall never know what sightless Stygian worlds yawn beyond the little distance we went," the narrator insists, "for it was decided that such secrets are not good for mankind."  But we may catch in Rats an early glimpse of one of Gary's inspirations for the later Elder Elemental God, or perhaps Tharizdun himself:  Delapore says that his guardian familiar — a cat — was "determined to lead me on even unto those grinning caverns of earth's centre where Nyarlathotep, the mad faceless god, howls blindly to the piping of two amorphous idiot flute-players."

Thus led to his doom, Delapore suffers the ultimate revelation:  his ancestors were cannibalistic cultists who dwelled in a vast subterranean complex and worshipped evil demon-gods beneath the earth.  This may have been one of the inspirations for the many deities and demon lords found within the early Greyhawk dungeons, including "The Nine," Fraz'urb-luu, and perhaps even Gary's own neutral-yet-insane alter ego, Zagyg the Mad Archmage.

When Delapore finally encounters one of the degenerate netherworlders spawned by his own ancient bloodline, he is driven mad.  It could be said (in D&D terms) that he falls prey to demonic possession, and in that compelled state he is forced to eat the corpse of one of his hapless fellows.  To his eternal detriment he survives, and he is dragged to an insane asylum.  There, long after the terrors suffered during his underworld misadventure, he offloads the entire tale on some unfortunate visitor (the reader).  "They must know that I did not do it [devour the flesh of the unfortunate companion]," he pleads.  "They must know it was the rats; the slithering, scurrying rats whose scampering will never let me sleep; the daemon rats that race behind the padding in this room and beckon me down to greater horrors than I have ever known; the rats they can never hear; the rats, the rats in the walls."

That is the end of Lovecraft's tale.  And, for Gary and his own inspirations in planning the beginnings of Castle Greyhawk, perhaps it was a beginning.  Lovecraft's imagined dungeon — hollowed beneath the castle ruins, filled with ghouls, hints of demonic entities, mad gods and other nameless horrors — became an inspirational touchstone for Robert E. Howard.  It is well known that Arneson was inspired by Conan novels in creating Blackmoor, and Gary too wrote that "The most immediate influences upon AD&D were probably de Camp & Pratt, R[obert] E[rvin] H[oward], Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, H[oward] P[hillips] L[ovecraft] and A. Merritt." [14]

It all began with the rats, daring the unwary questers for forgotten lore to detect a secret doorway down into the dungeons deep.  And now, more than likely, you will never gaze upon the mere giant rat in the Monster Manual as a harmless beastie, possessing half a hit die, ever again.

Footnotes

[1] The intriguing plot leads which Lovecraft scribbled down in his commonplace book throughout the years are freely available as a general text in many locations online; for example:
H. P. Lovecraft's Commonplace Book | Beyond the Beyond | WIRED
[2] Dungeon Masters Guide, pp. 94-96.
[3] Lord of the Green Dragons: Mood in the Original Campaign:  An Essay Into the Mind and Imagination of E. Gary Gygax
[4] Q&A with Gary Gygax Pt. 3 - Page 20
[5] Dungeon Masters Guide, pg. 96.
[6] The First Fantasy Campaign, pg. 21.
[7] Dungeon Module B2, pg. 3.
[8] Dungeon Module T1, pg. 14.
[9] Dungeon Module T1, pg. 15.
[10] Monster Manual, pg. 81.
[11] Dungeon Module G3, pg. 12.
[12, 13] Dungeon Module D1, pg. 10.
[14] Dungeon Masters Guide, pg. 224.

Hi Sauro, that's a good point.  However I think you're taking a broader interpretation of underworld exploration than I intended for this essay.  I'll add some sentences to the introductory paragraphs in the final draft which further specify that I'm primarily focused on the Gothic tale (c. 1763) by way of medieval castle tales being one of the chief predecessors of weird fiction, which is where swords & sorcery drew a lot of inspiration from.  Arguably I should include Lord Dunsany too (as Lovecraft's weird fiction mentor of a kind) if I make the essay longer.

Anything prior to the age of castles, including valid attributions to world mythology and underworld legendry, isn't part of this focus because (a) D&D is based on swords & sorcery much more so than on mythology (going by the early ads and mentions), (b) the medieval period is a primary campaign focus in early D&D (going by the cover of Chainmail as Rules for Medieval Miniatures, and the cover of OD&D specifying Fantastic Medieval Wargames) and (c) the Blackmoor and Greyhawk campaigns despite their outdoor trappings are focused on ruined castles with artificial environments underground as centerpieces.  That's why I cited the Brothers Grimm tale and Bluebeard as having some relevance to the haunted castle sub-genre.  I allude to this with "haunted castle yarn," "haunted castle stories," The Castle of Otranto, Dracula's Castle, "haunted castle interpretations" and "monsters dwelling beneath a ruin," all of which point in the direction of the "Dungeons" in "Dungeons & Dragons."  By this definition I'm probably avoiding Burroughs and Wells outside of castle fiction.  Dictionary.com for example is defining "dungeon" atm as "a strong, dark prison or cell, usually underground, as in a medieval castle," implying that the castle setting is a given for dungeons.  Dave and Gary went beyond that with ruined temples and caverns, but that's the starting point -- the understructure of the medieval fortress with fantasy and horror elements.

The uniqueness I attribute to Lovecraft is "Lovecraft's own tale is unique in featuring nearly-indescribable monsters dwelling beneath a ruin"; in other words, castle sub-levels as environments featuring invented monsters such as fungal creatures, the fluting ones and Nyarlathotep, which go beyond the tenets of mythology.  Also Rats is where these elements feature in a castle and dungeon setting.

I do explore a lot of the connections between D&D monsters and beasts of myth, but that's mostly in my CDDG2 Castle Oldskull Bestiary which is a supplement for populating dungeons with monsters.

Thanks for the feedback!

Hi all, this is a placeholder for research I am doing for another set of essays which will appear in future editions of Hawk & Moor Books I and II.  I've been researching the pulp-and-paperback chronology of Swords & Sorcery fiction for late 1971, 1972 and 1973, cross-referencing the available data with the authors of Appendix N and other Gygaxian reading lists.  In doing so I'm hoping to rough out a timeline for works that Gary might have recently read, or have been (re-?)reading, while he was working on the drafts of D&D and the Greyhawk dungeons.  Basically, what might have been on his recently-acquired shelf and near at hand during these years?

This is currently narrow by design … a few hardcovers are included here but not many.  Some of these tales date to earlier time periods (recalling that Gary began dealing extensively with speculative fiction in 1950), but Gary's known affection for the Ace and Lancer books, as well as his known habit of going through the new paperbacks sections looking for new reading material on a frequent basis (which is how he met James Ward), produces a fairly interesting list.

A partial of Nov 1971-Dec 1972 appears here; I'm currently working on 1973 but that's preliminary and not yet ready to codify.  I may also do 1974 if it looks interesting, but it's probably not as historical.  Future project -- Conan in Marvel comic books.

[1] November 1971:  The Lancer Books edition of The Dunwich Horror, a Lovecraft collection.  Includes two of Gary's favorites, Pickman's Model (with lore on ghouls) and The Rats in the Walls (already discussed above).

[2] February 1972:  Fantastic V21N3.  Included the Elric tale The Sleeping Sorceress (The Vanishing Tower) by Michael Moorcock.

[3] April 1972:  A reprint of the Lancer Books Conan the Adventurer.  Includes The People of the Black Circle, The Slithering Shadow, Drums of Tombalku, and The Pool of the Black One.

[4] April 1972:  Lancer Books edition of Conan the Avenger, mostly reprinting The Return of Conan.

[5] April 1972:  Lancer Books edition of Conan of the Isles, by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter.

[6] April 1972:  Spell of the Witch World, a short fiction collection by Andre Norton and released by DAW Books.  The very first DAW Books release.

[7] April 1972:  Dragon Magic, by Andre Norton.  Appears to be a UK hardcover so probably not seen by Gary.

[8] April 1972:  Ace Double edition of Jack Vance's The Dragon Masters and The Last Castle.

[9] May 1972:  Ballantine Adult Fantasy edition of Beyond the Fields We Know, a Lord Dunsany anthology including the Pegana cycle.  Also includes How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art Upon the Gnoles (one of the gnoll race inspirations).

[10] July 1972:  The Castle Keeps by Andrew J. Offutt.  Gary might not have been interested in him yet; he would be acknowledged in Appendix N as the editor of the later Swords Against Darkness III.  Tale seems somewhat similar to The Last Castle, above.

[11] August 1972:  Fantastic V21N6.  Includes the Conan tale The Witch of the Mists with the witch queen Louhi.  Gary once mentioned becoming intrigued with Finnish myth involving Louhi's fortress, and then later reading the Harold Shea tales with Finnish mythology.  Appears that the movie Sampo / The Day the Earth Froze is the movie that led to his interest in Vainomoinen etc., and so indirectly led to the naming of Mordenkainen in January 1973.

[12] August 1972:  Lancer Books edition of Conan the Usurper.

[13] August 1972:  Lancer Books edition of Conan the Conqueror, Gary's original favorite.

[14] August 1972:  The Crystal Gryphon, hardcover by Andre Norton.  Would be released as a DAW paperback in October.  A Witch Word tale about changelings and the Old Ones.

[15] September 1972:  Lancer Books edition of Conan.  Includes The Tower of the Elephant and The Hall of the Dead (giant slug inspiration).

[16] September 1972:  Lancer Books edition of Conan of Cimmeria.  Includes The Frost Giant's Daughter and The Lair of the Ice Worm (remorhaz inspiration, along with Erol Otus's illustration, in 1976).

[17] September 1972:  Lancer Books edition of Conan the Warrior.  Some of Howard's best work, including Red Nails and Beyond the Black River.  Very strong D&D influence of course.

[18] September 1972:  Ballantine Adult Fantasy edition of Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy, including The Wall of Serpents (Harold Shea) by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt.  See [11] above.  So Gary had the Finnish mythos on the mind in the fall of 1972!

[19] October 1972:  Fantastic V22N1.  Not sure if this was influential (a Gardner F. Fox story appears) but it looks like Fritz Leiber reviewed Lin Carter's A Look Behind the Cthulhu Mythos, which may have encouraged Gary to pick up that book.  (Basically it's where Carter gives a core reading list for the Mythos but it's by a narrow definition.)  Tenuous.

[20] October 6, 1972:  The Guns of Avalon, Chronicles of Amber #2 by Roger Zelazny.  Explores gunpowder / lack of gunpowder settings.

[21] Late 1972:  Elric of Melnibone in UK in September; then unauthorized Lancer US version as The Dreaming City late in the year.

[22] December 1972:  Fantastic V22N2.  Including the first part of The Fallible Fiend (Prime Material Plane, extra-planar demons, subterranean city etc.) by L. Sprague de Camp.

[23] December 1972:  Garen the Eternal, hardcover compilation of short stories by Andre Norton.  Including the Witch World tale Legacy from Sorn-Fen and the story One Spell Wizard, maybe influenced how level 1 magic-users only cast one spell … will need to read up.

1973 in process:

Jan -- Conan the Freebooter
Jan -- The Broken Sword
Jan -- Thuvia Maid of Mars / Chessmen of Mars
Feb -- Changeling Earth (Orcus etc.)
Feb -- Charwoman's Shadow
Feb -- Fallible Fiend Pt. 2
Apr -- Flashing Swords
Apr -- Today We Choose Faces
Apr -- Gates to Tomorrow
May -- Conan the Adventurer
May -- Paradox Lost
Jun -- Hiero's Journey
Jul -- Fantastic V22N5 (Conan)
Jul -- The Dancers of Novo
Summer -- Resurrection of Weird Tales, V47N1
Sep -- King of Elfland's Daughter
Sep -- Flashing Swords #2
Sep -- The Halfling and Other Stories
Fall -- Weird Tales V47N2
Nov -- Fantastic V23N1 (Fafhrd Gray Mouser etc.)
Late -- Weird Tales V47N3 (Howard, Derleth, Clark Ashton Smith etc.)
Dec -- The Worlds of Jack Vance
Dec -- The Power of Blackness
TBD -- The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (ghasts, dholes etc.)
TBD -- Worse Things Waiting
TBD -- Come Sing the Moons of Moravenn
TBD -- Dagon and Other Macabre Tales
TBD -- Count Brass
TBD -- The Champion of Garathorm
TBD -- Here Abide Monsters 

Hi, thanks for taking a look.  I know early copyright records are sometimes a mess but I thought the data was interesting enough to share.  In the past week or so I've come to realize that I need to credit Zenopus more with parallel and prior data:  I had just looked at the Basic Set / Holmes entries but it looks like he dug up a lot of the older copyright info too before I did, so another salute is in order.

On Dungeon Geomorphs Set 1, the copyright record is obscured for a silly reason:  when the Dungeon Geomorphs compendium came out (1980-1981, red cover with smiling kid on front, 9048) it was allowed to supersede Dungeon Geomorphs Set 1 (1976-1977, 9004 etc.) as a revised edition.  So the copyright record for Set 1 reads:
Date of Publication:  1981-04-15
Authorship on Application:  compilation of material & cover ill.: T S R Hobbies, Inc., employer for hire.
Basis of Claim:  New Matter: "new cover ill., new and rev. text, and compilation of material."

From various clues (Strategic Review, Dragon, recollections, ads) which are in my Book IV research (1976-1977), I believe they were released as a standalone product in June of 1976.  Their widest distribution would be in the 1977 Holmes set.  There was an ad in March 1977, which I believe was a response to them not selling well.

Monster & Treasure Assortment Set 3 is a little trickier.  The date listed for copyright is May 10, 1978, with the notation:
Basis of Claim:        New Matter: "new text & ill. to assist in game play based on rules & text of Dungeons & Dragons collector's ed. & Greyhawk suppl."
May seems late; I think it's The Dragon #11 pg. 16 that says Set 3 is being prepared (December 1977) so they probably came out in early 1978, but research on that is incomplete as anything beyond 1977 is currently beyond my radar.  Will let you know if I find something more conclusive.

Interestingly though, spring 1978 is when the G modules were being written if I recall correctly so that marks a nice borderland between OD&D and AD&D.  I believe the date for Monster Manual was December 28 1977, with widespread distribution not occurring until January.

Thanks!  That is helpful and I'll credit you with the affirmation of date.     A bit of the tale of Lankhmar and Leiber at Gen Con '76 is in 40 Years of Gen Con pp. 30-31.

The Dragon #30 pp. 16-17 has some details on Lankhmar games, with the design notes in #31 and lots of other notes elsewhere.  Also interesting of course from Harami:
lankmar_leibernote.jpg Photo by harami2000 | Photobucket

Hi, yes TSR was floundering a bit in 1976-1977.  They were riding the tidal wave of D&D popularity but were still coming to grips with their non-wargamer audience and how to please them.  The basic/advanced split began in early 1976, based on Gary's concern that the OD&D set was not a good introduction to the hobby for non-wargamers.  Holmes bailed him out on that one by volunteering to write D&D for Beginners.

On the supplement front, Eldritch Wizardry was quickly written and sold well.  GD&H did a bit less well, with mediocre reviews in some corners based on power scope and limited utility.  Swords & Spells appears to have been written to (a) update Chainmail / miniatures gaming under the D&D banner and (b) as a last gesture to invite wargamers into fantasy role-playing.  It bombed on both fronts, leaving TSR unsure of direction by the late summer of 1976.  Simultaneously, The Dungeoneer #1 (F'Cherlak's Tomb) and Palace of the Vampire Queen were performing really well.

I believe the problem was that by 1976, there were DMs with two+ years of experience out there who knew exactly what novice DMs needed in print to help them get up to speed.  Meanwhile, TSR was filled with veterans from the Greyhawk campaign, Tim from the Carbondale area group, and the Twin Cities gamers (Carr, Megarry, Arneson, Sutherland) who had all gamed with Gary/Dave or their close associates (Barker, Mornard, etc.).  I don't think TSR really had any employees yet who had learned D&D from just the books, as opposed to from the veterans.

I think it's the Grognard Games interview with Rob Kuntz where he says that the response from TSR to seeing the first "dungeon module," Vampire Queen, was "Why would anyone want this?  Why would you want anyone to do your imagining for you?"  This despite the Temple of the Frog setting (not quite a scenario) predating VQ in print, and as a TSR release no less.  Other companies, especially Judges Guild and their initial success, would show the way and show TSR what players and DMs wanted out of accessories.  I think the first pre-fabricated adventures (later termed dungeon modules) were the result of non-LG/TC DMs trying to bridge the gap between D&D and board games, which were easier to understand.  They were building scenarios instead of providing piles of tools to other players.

In retrospect, it's miraculous that D&D was designed the way it was and actually took off.  The Basic Set with the geomorphs and assortment probably felt like an incomplete board game to many.  You had the rule book (cryptic), the game board (geomorphs) and the invisible playing pieces (M&T).  Taking those elements and arriving at anything close to the Dungeon of Zenopus, as an un-mentored kid, would have been a pretty intimidating task I think.  It was probably like being handed a set of blueprints and shown a finished house, with a guy patting you on the back saying "Now build your own!" and leaving you to it.

Once Holmes Basic and the Monster Manual took off and then the dungeon modules in 1978, the commercial future was set for D&D all the way out to 1997 at least, and arguably to the present day.

darkseraphim wrote in Hawk & Moor: A new D&D book and request for beta readers:I believe the problem was that by 1976, there were DMs with two+ years of experience out there who knew exactly what novice DMs needed in print to help them get up to speed.  Meanwhile, TSR was filled with veterans from the Greyhawk campaign, Tim from the Carbondale area group, and the Twin Cities gamers (Carr, Megarry, Arneson, Sutherland) who had all gamed with Gary/Dave or their close associates (Barker, Mornard, etc.).  I don't think TSR really had any employees yet who had learned D&D from just the books, as opposed to from the veterans.

An interesting aside, when I set out to run my own megadungeon for a recent campaign I found the Monster & Treasure assortment to be incredibly useful. More so then the similar tables in the AD&D DMG. Largely because with a 100 entries per level the results were more diverse.

One reason why I think the release of the d20 SRD under the Open Gaming License is create. Because folks can return to older things in try them in different ways and see if they truly were a deadend or had some specific utility. With this stuff being written up by you and Peterson makes people aware of more things they could be looking at to try. Unlike computer technology, game mechanics work as well as they did when they were first released (or not).

Also what you, Peterson, and other are bring light is also important that it sets all these bits of released product in context. Not just factual, who wrote what, released what. But why the games were turning out the way they were.

Yeah it nice that people think for themselves and come up with stuff out of their own imagination. But I find that to truly to get the most out of a system. You need also understand where the designer was coming from.

Hi, a quick update on the draft of Book IV … I've been working on the Monster Manual draft chapters, in which I try to detail the origins of every non-mundane monster in the book.  A lot of this territory (particularly the mythological) has already been covered, but I thought some people might be interested in my research that has led to some tentative links to the more obscure monsters or references I've not seen around yet.

Ant, Giant:  Greek mythology of India and Them! etc.  But also, Land of Terror (Pellucidar, Burroughs):
http://www.erbzine.com/mag7/jplterro.jpg

Beholder:  Terry Kuntz; see also The Trollenberg Terror (1958 movie):
http://roberthood.net/blog/wp-content/u ... poster.jpg

Blink Dog:  It is widely know that the displacer beast came from the Coeurl race in Vogt's Voyage of the Space Beagle.  The Beagle is named after Darwin's ship, but I found it amusing that the Space Beagle chases and hunts displacer beasts …

Bugbear:  English and Italian folklore.  But also, from a reminiscence by one of the early Greyhawk players, "One of the participants … had a huge fur-covered winter coat.  I was told that he was the inspiration for the bugbear creature that had become part of the game."
Old Days of Wargaming

Carrion Crawler:  The Monster That Challenged the World (1957)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a8l5maZSYhE/U ... secake.jpg
First Men in the Moon (1964)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-plM6Zvr93eo/U ... on_Cow.jpg

Doppleganger:  Germanic and psychological folklore, but also consider:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... ganger.JPG
This Island Earth (1955):
http://media.monstersandcritics.com/art ... ugeyed.jpg

Gas Spores (and Awful Green Things from Outer Space):  The Green Slime (1968) is of course the inspiration for green slime, but also take a look at this:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/r ... 3964_1.jpg

Giant Crab:  Cancerus and Greek mythology.  But also, Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/enterta ... onster.jpg
And Mysterious Island (1961)
http://www.scifinow.co.uk/wp-content/up ... n-crab.jpg

Giant Rat:  The Giant Rat of Sumatra and The Rats in the Walls, but let's not forget The Killer Shrews (1959)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UBeihM7mO6Y/T ... rews+2.jpg
Now that guy is a 4 hit point pack master!

Giant Scorpion:  The Black Scorpion (1957)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lM6N0EKG0zM/T ... rpion4.jpg

Intellect Devourer:  Fiend Without a Face (1958)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-2JBJMTsxCg/T ... A-Face.jpg

Invisible Stalker:  Forbidden Planet (1956)
http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/a-m/f ... hot11l.jpg

Juiblex:  Perhaps shoggoths and other Lovecraftian influences, but consider also Godzilla vs. Hedorah, the Smog Monster (1971):
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2013 ... ONSTER.jpg
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2013 ... r_0036.jpg

Nycadaemon:  It's D3, but compare Suthlerland's illustration in Vault of the Drow to the DAW cover of Changeling Earth:
http://31.media.tumblr.com/1b37e3ed3d16 ... o1_500.jpg
http://www.goodman-games.com/images/App ... rth-72.jpg

Ochre Jelly:  It is said that Dave Arneson created the Black Pudding from The Blob inspiration in 1972; another movie entitled Beware! The Blob came out later in 1972, featuring a red slime.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_F3TPByD_2rY/S ... blob-d.jpg
Blood Pudding, anyone?

Otyugh:  Battle Beyond the Sun, as discussed in Book III:
http://100poursanghorreur.free.fr/local ... -137bc.jpg

Pyrohydra:  Ghidorah?
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2013 ... -14158.jpg

Roper:  I've already discussed Battle Beyond the Sun in Hawk & Moor, but it's too fun not to link:
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/as ... BANNER.jpg

Sahuagin:  A little too easy, but that's okay …
http://www.scenicreflections.com/files/ ... r_JxHy.jpg

Shrieker:  Check out Matango (1963):
http://weirdfictionreview.com/wp-conten ... 1_1280.jpg

Violet Fungi:  Matango again, perhaps?
http://www.thiel-a-vision.com/wp-conten ... ango03.jpg

Xorn:  This is still the hardest one to figure out, but check out It Conquered the World:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5069/5874 ... e694_z.jpg

And as a parting shot, compare Trampier's Wormy ogres to …
http://library.creativecow.net/articles ... yclops.jpg

Enjoy