I thought that Tim's comments about editing
Blackmoor were very interesting. I wanted even more details.
I have edited things for people before that involved me essentially writing the work for them. That sounds very much like what Tim did.
I thought Tim's ire over Dave Arneson's sarcastic editing comments ("donuts") was funny. It sounds like Arneson had the social skills typical of a number of gamers from back in the day.
A part of the wonderful flavor of the early D&D publications was their delightfully amateur content. There was a fresh and interesting feeling about those early supplements. Even the Holmes basic set, edited with few spelling and grammatical errors, still had that feel to it that this was a secret shared between good friends. The amateur artwork and the stylings of guys like Erol Otus only added to the fun.
I don't think it's just nostalgia on my part. There was a kind of magic about the early publications that cannot be reproduced by slick standards and professional art.
Part of it was the new language found in the early D&D books. Even today, it is difficult to get a spell checker to check words like "eldritch," "dweomer," or "sorcerous." Fun stuff.
I think it must have been very interesting for Tim to come back to the role playing world a year or so ago and realize that he was still a minor celebrity and that people wanted to hear about his memories.
Mark
