The official tournament at Michicon VIII was Escape from Astigar's Lair, released later by Judges Guild as JG124, correct?  I believe this con was mentioned in The Dragon #22, but I don't have it handy right now to confirm that.

Well, I'm glad that helped.


I know of a few other Judges Guild releases (you might want to do some more research to confirm the details, though).

GenCon X, 1977:  Of Skulls and Scrapfaggot Green (JG80)

Pacific Encounters, 1978:  The Dragon Crown (JG76)

Pacificon, 1979:  Operation Ogre (JG109)

Wintercon VIII, 1979:  The Maltese Clue (JG114)

Winter War IV, 1979?:  Tower of Ulission (Round 1, JG119), Sword of Hope (Round 2, JG118)

No, Operation Ogre is not a great adventure.  (Many of the JG releases are in fact crap.)  But hey!  At least it's not Under the Storm Giant's Castle.


To be fair, there are some outstanding JG products:  City State of the Invincible Overlord is one of the finest urban settings ever created, even when placed against the products of today; the cross-threading, adventure hooks, and detail are impressive, and were revolutionary at the time.  I remember crossing City State with my own maps of Greyhawk City cobbled together from the Gord books; the result was a fascinating campaign city that was so intriguing that I had trouble getting them to go out into the dungeons.

The Paul Jaquays stuff is pretty good sometimes, too; some of the Bob Blake is OK.

Please don't remind me. Did not buy for probably some stupid reason like short on cash (I was only 14 at the time).

My first convention was Wintercon '78. I actually worked on the staff (basic registration and security). I did manage to buy some the stuff during the subsequent cons - mono C2, etc. I stayed with MDG (guys who ran the cons) and was actually Con manager in the early 80s and at Origins Detroit.

Now my real point is that I saved all those programs and the ones from Gen Con '82 and Origins and up. Now comes the stupid part. I think I pitched almost all of them when my wife and I built our new house last year...damn it. Of course we saved the one billion proschool toys and crap my kids won't even look at anymore...

I saved those stupid things for years, even sold a few doubles on ebay. Just in case, I'm gonna go through some boxes I have not cleared out since the move to see if I did save some. About the only stuff I know I have are a bunch of old Deck of Many Things magazines from the early to mid 80s.  MDG put those out for years and I took over for a few years, so I have some. They probably contain convention information and maybe even tournament stuff...but it is a longshot. Who knew

It really is funny how huge a connection there was between MDG and TSR back in the day. It should have continued and grown but the MDG guys just did not want to put in the time, which would have been considerable.

I made a cursory search last, in between LoTR crushing the hollywood liberal elite. Unfortunately, it does not look good. I will keep looking; no Monday Night Foodball so there nothing else to do after the kids are out for the night.

Ancient thread revival inspired by Jeff's auctions, specifically the Michicon VIII program.

burntwire brothers wrote in Michicon VIII program (and other stuff):Here is some info from the Michicon VIII program(June 1-3, 1979).
 Dungeons & Dragons-MDG's Russ Stambaugh has designed a new tournament Dungeon for teams of 2 players.

I actually have a copy of this! It's titled The Tomb of the Waning Moon and it does, in fact, feature Athelfrog, the character from Quest for the Fazzlewood, though now his name only has one "g." This is presumably "the return of Athelfrogg" featured on the cover of the program though I suppose someone who owns a copy could actually fact check that.

Athelfrog has leveled up since his previous adventure and has now teamed up with Balthazar the fighter. It's 50 numbered loose pages along with a few stray unnumbered pages, maps, etc. It's done in a similar style with the overhead view maps. A few pics:

Fantastic!
Any chance of a few more pages?

blackdougal wrote in Michicon VIII program (and other stuff):
Sure! Anything in particular you want to see? I mean, there's not a whole lot there visually... maybe some of the maps?

Any chance of a photo of part of the key to go with the map? (For my attempt at a complete listing of 70s scenarios)

burntwire brothers wrote in Michicon VIII program (and other stuff):Here is some info from the Michicon VIII program(June 1-3, 1979).

-Here is the only info on the D&D tournaments:

Is there no mention of "You Bet Your Life" being played? According to Tome of Treasures :: View topic - You Bet Your Life (1979) it "sold out as a tournament" at Michicon VIII.