Howdy -



I picked up a bunch of old wargaming mags recently. Not particularly cheap, but I was happy enough to get hold of them. I was wondering if anyone can tell me any info about them? Two titles, Deck of Many Things and Midwest Wargaming Review, both from the seventies.



A couple of sample auctions:



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cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt ... T&rd=1



Managed to pick up about 10 mags in total. I figured being in the Midwest in the 70's, they would have a large Gygax or MDG influence. If anyone has any info, that would great.



Also... I picked up a few other mags from another source that arrived a few days ago. Called Supernova, it was created by Lew Pulsipher as a SF fanzine. Around issue 26 it was bought by Rick Loomis from Flying Buffalo, and from the next issue editorship passed to Ken St Andre who used it as a SF and fantasy zine, with mixed content. There is a rather large bias evident against D&D and TSR though. One article that was pretty funny was a review of Lost Caverns of Tsojconth:



The Lost Caverns of Tsojconth, designed by Gary Gygax, 3 dollars. 14 pages, ziplock bag. Copyright 1977.  



Here I am, trying to lay aside by prejudices and review some D&D material.  I think one of the fairest things I can do is let the product speak for itself, so I am going to quote directly from the back cover and then move on to other comments.  



"This is the dungeon designed especially for the MDG Wintercon 5 Gamefest Dungeons and Dragons Tournament.  It was designed by Gary Gygax and playtested by the TSR staff.  Use this dungeon for your own tournament or for a new exciting dungeon for one dungeonmaster and six players (six players aren't necessary but all characters should be used).  



The dungeon contains two levels (the lesser caverns and the greater caverns) each with the necessary maps, room descriptions, character sheets, monster chracteristic tables, character versus monster hit/damage matrices, a monster description sheet, referee notes, and guidelines for the selection of the best player.  Each level takes about 3-4 hours to play."



And then they tell you a little about the six characters they want you to use in this dungeon.  



In one sense, Lost Caverns is a real achievement- a fairly complex dungeon especially for tournament play, it can be used impartially by any number of dungeonmasters without greatly affecting the outcome.  Gygax has remembered to include everything you need to operate the Lost Caverns just as is promised above.  It is a typical dungeon- a seemingly endless series of caves with a different and more outrageous monster every time you turn around.  There is plenty of treasure to be found but you must look in the really stinking places to find it.  (D&D Axiom?  If it smells bad, can treasure be far away?)



This would be an excellent dungeon to buy if 1. You wanted to run your own little D&D tournament without really preparing; or 2. You'd rather pay 3 bucks for a mediocre dungeon than make up your own.  



The only real faults I can find with it are:  1. At least one dollar of the three dollar price is for the ziplock bag (totally unnecessary because all you get is paper- no moving parts or counters to lose); 2. Most of the important text is in printing smaller than the supernovae print and it is very crowded even at that; 3. Gary Gygax did most (perhaps all?) of the illustrations himself.  Like me, the man is no artist.  Unlike me he insists on publishing his childish little sketches which are all flat, poorly proportioned, and singularly lacking in interest.  4. Lost Caverns has a really ugly dungeon map which looks like it is a xerox copy of a xerox copy.  



Overall, I recommend LSOT for avid D&D fans.  It should be tremendous egoboost because you will look at it and know that your own dungeons are much better.  Non-avid fantasy roleplayers can save their money.  



I wonder how many gamers chose not to buy a copy, based on that review? Supernova had a circulation of 350-400, according to Ken.



Regards



Mike

My god, that's a hilarious review.  Who wrote it?  Think they've still got their copy?

Cute Tsoj review, Mike. thx.

mdr003 wrote:Also... I picked up a few other mags from another source that arrived a few days ago. Called Supernova, it was created by Lew Pulsipher as a SF fanzine. Around issue 26 it was bought by Rick Loomis from Flying Buffalo, and from the next issue editorship passed to Ken St Andre who used it as a SF and fantasy zine, with mixed content. There is a rather large bias evident against D&D and TSR though.

Lew always seemed to be somewhat opinionated, if given half a chance (as was carried through to his White Dwarf contributions).



Wasn't just a bias against D&D though (presuming the Tsoj review is his, too).

Lew Pulsipher in Supernova #26 1/2 wrote:Rick (Loomis) will probably want to shoot me for saying this, especially after he sent me a copy for review, but I cannot recommend T&T to anyone who is satisfied with D&D. The collectors and fanatics will want to get it, of course. If you have to choose between T&T and Greyhawk, by all means by Greyhawk. If you're dissatisfied with D&D and you don't think Greyhawk will rectify the problems, T&T is your only alternative.

...



Lew's review comments, etc., are often useful for printing history information and suchlike, too. (e.g. that Blackmoor was actually not released until mid-December rather than the stated September 1975, owing to printing problems.



Noted his copy of Greyhawk was a T1st, too...

The review was written by Ken (sorry, I should have mentioned).



As well as that article, there are several others that show distinct lack of respect for TSR/D&D. There is a discussion of the legal action being threatened by TSR against all and sundry at the time:



"Tim Kask of TSR recently made some remarks (at Origins 77) to te effect that TSR intends to use lawsuits to clear the market of all cheap imitators of Dungeons & Dragons. Among the targets he specifically mentioned were Tunnels & Trolls and Arduin Grimoire."



He goes on to talk about getting legal advice, which was to the effect that the suits (if brought to court) would have no substance. He finishes with:



"....Legally, I would think TSR will have their hands full with Heritage. There is a fellow named Arneson now working for Heritage who also has certain rights to D&D and with plans to be the official British producer and distributer."



It's no wonder he writes with bias against TSR, if he was being subject to constant threat of legal action.



You're right about Lew, he did seem to have strong opinions about things. He wrote well though, so his articles are always interesting. There's another article in one of the issues where he reviews White Dwarf #1, and compares it to The Dragon - and finds in WD's favour.



Regards



Mike

404 Not Found



He's a nice guy, still owns the rights to all of his articles from Dragon, WD, etc, and will hopefully be publishing some of those with DWP in the future

grodog wrote:404 Not Found



He's a nice guy, still owns the rights to all of his articles from Dragon, WD, etc, and will hopefully be publishing some of those with DWP in the future

    He might own his articles from White Dwarf, but the odds that he owns his Dragon articles are quite long.



    It was TSR's policy that all work published by them in their magazines be considered work for hire, and bought outright.  That way they could control the AD&D game as it grew.



    It is possible that Pulpisher might have sold some of his earlier articles under a different contract.  

I had two stints as editor of the Deck - one in the mid 80s and the other in the 90s. MDG pretty much disolved and the Deck disappeared at that point.

It was mainly an info mag for local and some nonlocal gamers. MDG is Metro Detroit Gamers.

It was never very polished as a magazine, and done on the cheap. Did the entire thing on an Apple IIc and cut and pasted for publication at local printers. Distribution was also fairly low - several 100 to probably close to 700-1000 at its best. We were down to around 250 subscribers in the later 90s. But again, it was never meant as anything but a local publication to inform about Wintercon and Michicon as well as other local events. Mostly locals did the articles, but we had big names do stuff from time to time.

I would say there are not too darn many issues pre-100 around. And they are very hard to come by.

Good catch.

grodog wrote:That's cool Mike---perhaps you'll be able to ID the long-missing title of the WinterCon 6/7/whatever tourney

Mike or bbarsh---any chance you you guys can provide illumination on the WinterCon 1-4, 6, and 9+ tourneys?



Tsojconth = WinterCon 5

Fazzlewood = WinterCon 7

Ghost Tower = WinterCon 8

grodog wrote:

grodog wrote:That's cool Mike---perhaps you'll be able to ID the long-missing title of the WinterCon 6/7/whatever tourney

Mike or bbarsh---any chance you you guys can provide illumination on the WinterCon 1-4, 6, and 9+ tourneys?



Tsojconth = WinterCon 5

Fazzlewood = WinterCon 7

Ghost Tower = WinterCon 8

I'll do what I can, but unfortunately, I tossed most of my older back issues in a blind purge about 10 years ago - along with all my programs from Gencon and Origins. I only have limited numbers left and I am afraid I don't have anything prior to around 1984-5.