A very basic dungeon setup, for true beginners. You investigate some ruins. I thnk there is a 3rd level wizard with a pet ape somewhere in there. Wand of paralyzation stuck under the table?

Oh,
It's just the last five pages of the regular blue book. I thought it was something extra. Now I feel like a retard. Thanks for answering anyways.

ifearyeti wrote:Oh,
It's just the last five pages of the regular blue book. I thought it was something extra. Now I feel like a retard. Thanks for answering anyways.

I didn't get it at first, either. I'm sure the half-vacant/half-puzzled look on my face was priceless. Then, finally, one of these ...  :idea: ... went off over my head.

Just for the record, the mage is fourth level. Not to mention lame ...  :wink:

Room S2: "... wand of petrification hidden in a secret compartment in the table ... "

Whoops, too many syllables, it looks like.

Yes, petrifaction. And a 2-hit die, AC 7 ape in a cage.

Not only that, he's so pissed at the mage — probably something to do with the whole cage thing — that he has a 25-percent chance of attacking that dumbass first.

This has been kind of fun. It's probably been 20 years (maybe more) since I read through this adventure.

(moved over from: Random Assorted Collecting Questions )

Yama-Arashi wrote:Does anyone else think that the sample adventure in the back of the basic blue book might be the most perfect adventure ever? Just me then?

Although it's simply titled "Sample Dungeon", I've seen this dungeon referred to as "Tower of Zenopus", "Dungeon of Zenopus" or "Zenopus' Basement".

It's unfortunate that Holmes didn't have a chance to write any full-length modules for the game. But if you are interested in more of his style you might try these books he wrote:
1) Fantasy Role-Playing Games (1981), which contains another Sample Dungeon (The Eye of Arzaz); it's not as good as the Zenopus dungeon, but it's written in a very similar style.
2) The Maze of Peril (1986), which is a short fiction novel based on the adventures of Boinger the Halfling and Zereth the elf, who also appeared in the 4 short stories he wrote for Dragon Magazine. Although it's clearly not the same adventure as the Sample Dungeon, there are certain thematic similarities including a thaumaturgist with a wand of petrification and a giant crab hidden in the sand on edges of an underground sea. Also, the artwork on the cover of this book is in mono blue, as if to evoke the blue basic rulebook cover (although the artwork is not nearly as good).

Here are some other threads related to the Sample Dungeon, Holmes and the blue basic rulebook:

woodgrain sale

Differences among early prints of the Basic Set.

grodog wrote:Holmes also wrote some Boinger and Zereth stories for A&E, back in the day. I don't know the issues offhand, though.

Yes, it mentions that in the back of Maze of Peril, but as there is no index available for A&E, I haven't been able to figure out which issues,
short of buying them all.  :D  And they don't appear on Ebay often.

He also had one or two rejected by The Dragon (!), which are equally good IMO.

Are these the ones Holmes sent you? He didn't give you permission to distribute them, did he?  

Maze of Peril should still be available from Project Pulp (formerly from Time & Space books) at Authentication required!

Yes, I bought it there about two years ago. I believe the copy I ordered from them says First Printing, 1986, so it may be overstock from the original printing, or else a re-print where they didn't bother to change the printing info.

In addition, his excellent "Confessions of a Dungeon Master" from Psychology Today (1980) is well-worth digging up from microfilm.

Yes, I've been meaning to locate that. Also interesting is the Dragon Magazine article where he reviewed the Moldvay basic set when it came out!

MShipley88 wrote:You have to credit that original dungeon for introducing the game. I played in it as PC back when everything we met was terrifying.

  The mystery of the game was what made it a blast...that and the perceived possibility that every monster could be my last. Lord were we ever cautious!

You've put your finger right on it.  We were so young we didn't know what a sarcophagus was, but when the lid starts to come away and skeletons(!) came out -- heck, there was a stampede for the exit led by our brawny fighter!  We'd all seen Jason and the Argonauts -- animated skeletons couldn't be killed!