From my post in the Classifieds:

I just started this Ebay auction:

TSR 1980 Module Submission Guidelines

I've had these for about 20 years or so. I found them around 1985 in the bottom of a Moldvay Basic Set (which I still have) - the only good D&D find I've ever had at a Goodwill. I've never seen them mentioned here. I did a quick search on the Acaeum and Dragonsfoot and the only hit I got was for Rob Kuntz's auctions last May.

I've always thought they were neat because they have the TSR Face Logo on them & a few years ago I took them out and put them in sheet protectors. I started the auction (7-day) at $0.99 because I have no idea how common they are, or whether anybody would want them.

There are five single-sided sheets for the guidelines, plus one extra double-sided sheet that's a contest quesionnaire you could send in to TSR. This may have actually come with the Moldvay Basic set originally.

My first poll. Just curious how common these are, and what other variations exist. I have some Dragon and Dungeon guidelines from the late 80s, but they are not nearly as neat as the 1980 ones.

I got nuthin'

But I might have some in 6 days, 23 hours ....  

bclarkie wrote

To quote and awesome movie:

"Have you found anything yet?"

"Oh, we aint found sh*t"

umm.........'Spaceballs' - THE Classic

The ones that I am auctioning have a crease in the middle, so they may have been mailed at one time. I found them in a used Moldvay Basic Set, so the previous owner may have just put them in there.

It's fun to imagine someone with just a Moldvay Basic Set considering submitting a module to TSR.  

With all the interested in the module guidelines I am surprised no one else jumped on the Trampier Letters.



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 8796447842



The reserve was higher than I wanted but still a nice piece for mdr!

I feel like I ought to have one around here somewhere - but I would have to start digging into boxes to be sure....

But I do have an early TSR Periodicals (The Dragon) Guidelines for Writers and a later Dungeon Magazine Module Guidelines.  To be honest, I never thought of these as having much value, but I guess you never know.....

The TSR Periodicals Guidelines is, unfortunately, not dated.  But it seems to be pretty early (it assumes that computer printouts - unacceptable of course - will be all in caps).  It also refers to "The Dragon", which is a name that was not used after July 1980.  


So - do people actually collect items such as this as well?  (I also have a West End Games Designer's Guidelines).

Carl

bbarsh wrote:I had this stuff somewhere, but have this feeling it all got pitched. I had rpga, tsr and dungeon mag submission stuff. Never got around to doing much of anything with it though. Although Skip Williams accepted a short adventure for rpga, but he got promoted up and out and the thing got lost. I still have the acceptance letter with a copy of the adventure.  

I can see an ebay sale of an unpublished D&D module coming soon  

bbarsh wrote:Williams sent me back a hard copy (it was submitted on disk) with a couple notes...$1,000 reserve sounds about right

you know what we should all do. write up a module and then collate them all together and stick them on one CD for everyone to have and call it AD&D 1E: The Lost Modules - Acaeum Special Edition

Al

For posterity sake, I'm going to post my auction description here since the Ebay page will eventually disappear. The final auction price was US$52.99.

TSR 1980 module submission guidelines
On paper with TSR letterhead and TSR FACE LOGO

These are the guidelines for module submission that TSR sent out circa 1980 (modules for Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) or Advanced Dungeons and Dragons). This lot includes the following six sheets:

The first five sheets are nice quality letter paper and are printed on one side only (single-sided). These sheets are labeled NPS-1, NPS-2, NPS-3, COS-1 and COS-2 (this label is at the bottom of the page). Each sheet (except COS-2) has the following, in red ink: TSR Face Logo and TSR address at the top, a border around the edges of the sheet, and two more logos at the bottom of the sheet (Hobby Industry and Toy Manufacturers of America). COS-2 does not have the logo or any other components of the letterhead (it has black ink type in only). The sheets have the following contents in black ink (typed):

NPS-1: "Dear Potential Submitter:"

NPS-2: "IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST SUBMISSION TO TSR…"

NPS-3: "TSR MODULE SUMISSION GUIDELINES"

COS-1: "CONDITIONS OF SUMISSION NEW PRODUCT RELEASE FORM"

COS-2: "CONDITIONS OF SUBMISSION Page 2"

Condition: In general these are in Excellent condition. COS-1 and 2 each have a small very light stain at the top of the page. The pages are slightly wavy due to handling (presumably in the mail). Each sheet was folded once in the past, probably during mailing but has been flat for at least 20 years (when I originally found them around 1985 in a Moldvay Basic Set they were flat). There is some wear to the text around the area where it was folded (about 3-4 lines are faded, but still readable; NPS-3 has the most wear in this spot but these lines are still readable). Some of the text in other parts of the pages has some light wear.

The Conditions of Submission form has blanks for "Name", "Brief Description", etc, but there is no writing on this form, or any of the other pages.

The sixth sheet does not appear to be part of the actual submission guidelines, but I found it with the submission guidelines. It is double-sided on grayish paper. It is an unused TSR mail-in questionnaire. The first side has two parts: The bottom says "YOU CAN BE A WINNER OF A TSR GIFT CERTIFICATE -- SIMPLY BY FILLING OUT THIS FORM" and has some instructions. The middle of the sheet is separated by a dotted line that says "Fold Here, Tape or Staple to Seal" (The sheet has NOT been folded, however). The top half is a "BUSINESS REPLY MAIL" with the TSR address in Lake Geneva. The other side of the sheet has a questionnaire with 18 questions. The bottom of this side has the TSR FACE LOGO with a 1980 copyright. There is no writing or marks on either side of this sheet.

Condition: Excellent. No noticeable wear. This page does not appear to have been folded, so it probably didn't come with the above sheets originally.

I also sold:
1989 Dungeon Magazine Module Guidelines (2 double-sided pages): $7
(This one included a letter from the Editor that I hadn't signed the disclosure form)
1987 Dragon Magazine Guidelines (2 single-sided pages): $7
1988 Dragon Magazine Guidelines (1 double-sided page) + bonus photocopy of 1988 Dungeon Module Guidelines: $1.50

I never submitted an actual adventure to Dungeon, just two proposals (one of which was rejected, one of which was returned with the above letter). My only claim to TSR publishing fame is a letter in Dragon Magazine.