The Character Archaic Print Sequence
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Post Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 6:02 pm 
 

Only once; the El Segundo and Long Beach locations were both from when everyone was more or less around Long Beach; the Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo addresses, from when the Kerestans moved to Morro Bay.  The shop itself was in San Luis Obispo, about fifteen miles from there.


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Post Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:16 pm 
 

Howdy All,


Just sat down and looked through this whole thread and my own copies of the CA. From what I've gathered this is the relative print sequence (ignoring page counts) from copies owned by fellow collectors:

1st; Sep. 1975; red smooth cover; no TSR dist.; Cosmic Frog ad; Long Beach
1st; Feb. 1976; red textured cover; TSR dist.; Morro Bay
1st; ???. 1976; red textured cover; TSR dist.; Morro Bay; blacked out DM Kit line
1st; ???. 1977; red textured cover; no TSR dist.; Morro Bay; blacked out DM Kit line
2nd; Apr. 1977; cream textured cover; no TSR distribution; San Luis Obispo

or

1st; Sep. 1975; red smooth cover; no TSR dist.; Cosmic Frog ad; Long Beach
2nd; Feb. 1976; red textured cover; TSR dist.; Morro Bay
2nd+; ???. 1976; red textured cover; TSR dist.; Morro Bay; blacked out DM Kit line
3rd; ???. 1977; red textured cover; no TSR dist.; Morro Bay; blacked out DM Kit line
4th; Apr. 1977; cream textured cover; no TSR dist.; San Luis Obispo

Confirmed copies:

a2jeff
1st; Sep. 1975; red smooth cover; no TSR dist.; Cosmic Frog ad; Long Beach

stormber
2nd; Feb. 1976; red textured cover; TSR dist.; Morro Bay

sleuth2000
2nd+; ???. 1976; red textured cover; TSR dist.; Morro Bay; blacked out DM Kit

bclarkie
3rd; ???. 1977; red textured cover; no TSR dist.; Morro Bay; blacked out DM Kit

dbartman
4th; Apr. 1977; cream textured cover; no TSR dist.; San Luis Obispo


Futures Bright,

Paul


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Post Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 1:36 pm 
 

sleuth2000 wrote:My copy has the textured covers as per the Acaeum picture.

It contains:
  • Cover. The top hole digs into the spearhead on the outside cover. Exact same wording as the prepub version of the inside cover.
  • Character Roll Call
  • 25 character sheets: 6 blue (2 * female wizard with wand, 2 * dwarf wizard with spiky staff, 1 wanderer wizard with walking staff, 1 black & white wizard with rod pointing at the reader), 3 light yellow (3 * half-human priest with holy cross and food), 16 goldenrod (2 * halfling with sword & sling, 2 * dwarf with shield & spear, 2 * elf with bow & arrow, 2 * halfling with walking stick, 2 * defending thief with eye patch & sword, 2 * female elf with long spear & shield, 2 * middle east fighter with twisted sword, 2 * defending fighter with short sword & shield) -- descriptions are far from perfect, but they should allow for comparison between sets
  • Blank page
  • Combat Matrix Reference
  • Wizard's Tomb map
  • Creature Encounters: this is just an empty table, like the Character Roll Call.
  • Blank page
  • Back cover. Lines of text are slightly wider than in the prepub version. The last sentence from the DM Kit description has been blackened out. Prices are not printed and a $1 stamp was added next to the "character sheets" entry. There is Pete's address in Morro Bay where you would send check or money to order Character Sheets ONLY -- maybe the rest was exclusively TSR, -- and the "Distributed exclusivly by TSR Hobbies, Inc." (sic) at the bottom.
I'm missing the metal fasteners


This is more or less similar to what my copy looks like except missing a couple of the sheets - some I only have 1 copy of.

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Post Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:09 pm 
 

Mars wrote:
This is more or less similar to what my copy looks like except missing a couple of the sheets - some I only have 1 copy of.


I seem to recall that there was quite a lot of variability in the quantities of the different sheets, I think from a discussion on the acaeum.  I will sere if I can find it - will also dig out my copy to count the sheets and report back.


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Post Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:34 pm 
 

I am just thinking that it seems logical that a "standard" would have been 2 copies of each sheet and 3 of the yellow one.

Although I am sure there was variation.  Their other games have variations in sheets as well.

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