Greetings everyone!

I am very pleased to announce that I was able to acquire the last remaining inventory of items remaining of Wilmark Dynasty from the Estate of the late John Corradin.

As most of you know, the co-author of Wilmark Dynasty, John Corradin, passed away in 2018 (RIP John). Some of the members of this forum had suspected that John had kept many of his Wilmark Dynasty products stored away in his home, or his store, Days of Knights. This was correct! I was fortunate enough to purchase this last remaining inventory of Wilmark Dynasty products from John’s widow, Micaela Corradin, and am pleased to be able to offer them for wider distribution to this forum, and to the wider RPG collector community as a whole. I am including in this announcement message the letter of provenance kindly provided by Mica Corradin as well as the purchase invoice indicating the number of copies acquired. As per Mica Corradin, in consultation with Lee McCormick, the print run of these items was 1,000 each, however, many were destroyed in a flood in the Corradin basement and were thrown out. The actual number remaining is certainly much less than 1,000 and explains why these items seldom show up for sale.

These products are all listed as very rare (as per Tome of Treasures tomeoftreasures.com/tot_nontsr/wilmark_ ... y_main.htm) and are all in their original shrink wrap from their original publication run in 1981. As most of you know, these products do not come up for sale often, and very rarely still in their original shrink wrap. These self-published indie publications from before corporations took over are a fascinating page of D&D history and deserve a place in every collector’s collection. The tournament modules themselves were a regular fixture on the RPG convention circuit in the US northeast during the early 80’s.

I am currently selling these items on eBay (not sure if it’s ok to post a link in here, but if interested PM me). I am also open to selling the entire Wilmark Dynasty Estate as a whole as well. Again, PM me if interested. Currently, I am selling the the six tournament modules individually, and also as a six-bundle package (6 for the price of 5). The Melanda – Land of Mystery is only sold individually as these are the fewest in quantity available.

Thanks for reading and thanks to John Corradin, Lee McCormick, and Micaela Corradin for lending their creativity and imagination to producing these works in a time when big publishing didn’t control the hobby and people self-published items without word processors or contracted professional artists not to get rich, but for the enjoyment of the D&D/RPG community as a whole.
 
Cheers!

Richard

The following items represents the remaining Wilmark Dynasty Estate inventory:

The Burgundy Pit (2nd Printing) by John M. Corradin

“Killer scenario in which the heroes are sent into a wizard’s lair to retrieve a magical crown. Its author says he doesn’t know of any character who’s ever survived it – how’s that for a recommendation?” From Heroic Worlds by Lawrence Schick, page 160

Chivaly Lives (2nd Printing) by Lee C. McCormick

“Scenario based in part on Cervantes’ Man of La Mancha. The adventurers are tested by creatures of another plane to see if they exhibit values such as patience and kindness.” From Heroic Worlds by Lawrence Schick, page 162

Escape From Shadowland (1st and only Printing) by John M. Corradin

“Scenario for character levels 5-7: the adventurers are tricked into imprisonment in a land of the dead and must find a way to escape.” From Heroic Worlds by Lawrence Schick, page 96

Journey to the Center of the Circle (1st and only Printing) by Micaela X. Corradin

“Tournament scenario that challenges a group of handicapped adventurers with a set of fascinating problems. Character interaction and problem-solving are emphasized.” From Heroic Worlds by Lawrence Schick, page 170

The Lake of Parity (2nd Printing) by John M. Corradin

“Scenario in which the heroes are hired to penetrate a tightly guarded fortress to rescue a kidnapped dwarven diplomat.” From Heroic Worlds by Lawrence Schick, page 170

The Vampyre’s Mirror (1st and only Printing) by Lee C. McCormick

“Scenario: a gothic antivampire adventure in Castle Paradox.” From Heroic Worlds by Lawrence Schick, page 189

Melanda – Land of Mystery (2nd Printing) by John M. Corradin and Lee C. McCormick

“Fantasy system that was several years ahead of its time. Includes rules for character creation, combat, and magic, with descriptions of monsters, equipment, six character races, and the world of Melanda. Ability scores are determined by what skills the character studies as a youth; the combat system is likewise quite original. Perhaps most innovative is the rune-carving magic system, in which a character learns various magic runes that modify and act on each other to create varying effects.” From Heroic Worlds by Lawrence Schick, page 189

Congrats for the finding!
That is one of the dreams every collector has!
Pls add links to your auctions here as well!

dbartman wrote in Wilmark Dynasty Estate Acquisition:Hello Zenonmarfat, Welcome to The Acaeum.

That's great that you were able to acquire these and make them available for purchase to the greater collecting community.

You are more than welcome to post details and links in the Classifieds section of the forums:

Classifieds

Thanks dBartman! I have posted prices and links in the classified section of the forum as suggested.

Thanks for the assistance!

Richard

Here are images of the Wilmark Dynasty tournament modules as well as the Melanda - Land of Mystery Fantasy Setting

Whoa. That's definitely going to flood the market and drive prices down

MegaTherion wrote in Wilmark Dynasty Estate Acquisition:Whoa. That's definitely going to flood the market and drive prices down

You could look at it as driving prices down but when you’re the only supplier in town, there’s really no competition for them and so the price is what it is. I like to look at it as bringing very rare items to the collecting community in general so that it’s not just in the hands of an elite few. I think my prices are very reasonable for original shrinkwrap items from over 40 years ago and that was by design. I’m not looking to get rich here, only to recover my investment. I’m looking to get these into the hands of collectors, or even better, gamers who would open the shrinkwrap and want to play these modules and fantasy setting. This would honour the late John Corradin as well as Lee McCormick and Micaela Corradin.

To me, more supply is great for the hobby. These items were already relatively inexpensive compared to many more common D&D items.

Richard

aia wrote in Wilmark Dynasty Estate Acquisition:Assuming the sales are the complement to what we see in the pic it is surprising how sales went for these books! I thought the best seller was Melanda followed by Burgundy pit... instead it seems it is just the opposite!

You have to remember that Melanda is a much thicker product, so the stack you see there represents only about 40 Melanda’s. The other tournment modules stacks are slightly over 100 in each, with Burgundy Pit representing the most. Based on quantities, I believe that’s why you see so few Burgundy Pit’s hit the market. However, it’s very tough to know what the rarities truly are as Micaela Corradin told me that they had a flood in their basement many years ago and many Wilmark Dynasty items were thrown out. Which products were thrown out the most from the flood is anyone’s guess. However, the one and only print run of 1,000 for each product was certainly greatly reduced and explains why Wilmark Dynasty items seldom hit the market.

So you are correct, Melanda does appear to be their best seller judging by how little (40) copies remains.

Richard

One of the issues I've had with purchasing them in the past is that there is some water damage (or moisture damage) to many of the ones I've had, rusty staples and wavy pages. The flood in the basement you mentioned probably accounts for this. Unfortunately it's hard to tell which ones were water damaged unless you remove them from the shrink. Anyway, glad these will finally see the light of day! Don't even care if it drives collector prices down, these need to be more readily available to the public.

Mike B.

Jason Zavoda was a customer there too.

Allan.