No one yet has pointed out that the only guaranteed method of preserving a document, for as long as we can percieve as being the future, is to digitize it and publish it free on the internet. That is the only near cast iron guarantee that the document will survive everything the future holds. Many hands, many copies, and all that.

Not something I can condone or justify in any way, but from a purely academic point of view the internet is an ever present, ever growing, self-sustaining, self-renewing reposetory of information.

That is the other side of this arguement. Public Domain is the safest way to preserve anything except a secret.

All issues of the Domesday Book (including issue #1) have been located.  I have not been sent the details (or cover scans), other than what is already on the website here.  That's up to the collectors who have those issues, to decide whether they wish to share that info.

I guess the good news is that no issues have been lost to time.

Foul

I wasn't aware there was serious doubt about the continuing existence of these.

If people have questions about any of the Domesday Books, I'd be happy to answer them...?

I'll just list off the contents without much editorializing. I see that Paul already covered #4.

I'm surprised that you don't mention the interesting article in Ge'ez in your summary of DB#5.

I'd also remark that there is some pretty good evidence that the contents of a theoretical #14 would differ from those listed.

As an aside, in reference to the Messenger speculation here, there were articles about the proposed Medieval Society in a couple of the IFW's periodicals of the era, including the Messenger and the Supplement. AFAIK these were more or less directly in the few weeks leading up to DB#1 - there's nothing from 1969. The important one by Rob Kuntz is the March 1970 IFW Supplement. The Messenger notes are from Gygax, and do have some minor historical interest in detailing how Rob ended up the first King instead of Gary.

Domesday Book #1 (March 15, 1970)

One-page, no attribution (presumably all by Gygax). All are short blurbs, 1 paragraph or so.

"Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Hear Ye!"
"King: Robert (Kuntz) I"
"Program of Activities"
"Fattening Ye Exchecquer"
"Entering the Lists"

Domesday Book #2 (April 1, 1970)

One-page, no attribution (presumably all by Gygax). All are short blurbs, 1 paragraph or so.

"Muster of Arms Goes Apace"
"DB Contest #I"
"What is the Medieval Period?"
"King Creates First Peer of the Realm"
"Armorial Bearings"
"Join this Society!!!"
"DB Contest #II"

Domesday Book #3 (April 15, 1970)

Four pages, plus a joke. Mostly unattributed, presumably by Gygax.

"What the Heck is This?"
"DB Contest III"
"Attention: Miniatures Enthusiasts"
"DB Contest IV"
"Ranks of Liegemen [sic] Swell!"
"Wanted by the King!"
"Divisions of the Medieval Period" (Perren)
"The Battle of Webster's Gully" (early LGTSA miniatures battle report, the bulk of the issue)
"Forsooth! Scribings of Ye Editor!"
"Plug Time Again!"
"Who is the Varlet Responsible for This?!"
... joke page

Domesday Book #9 (undated)

Twenty-one pages. Unlike the issues described above, this one has a Table of Contents - pretty fancy. Printed by Schleicher.

"The Varangian Guard" (unattributed)
"Futile" (Dave Arneson)
"Evolution of Naval Warfare" (Dave Arneson)
"The Great Kingdom" (Gary Gygax)
"Precedence by Title or Office" (unattributed)
"The Mongols in Europe" (Rick Crane)
"Manzikert" (Gary Gygax)

i'm working off memory (because i haven't looked inside it in a bit), but the description of issue #14 here on the site is pretty accurate. i brought it with to the North Texas RPG Con for people to see (along with a few other choice rares).

hi increment, no need to apologize, i took no offense at anything you wrote. i understand the logical inference you were making as to its contents. It seems however that the issue was ready to go out as it was, so perhaps his intent at that time was to save the teased part 2 of Blackmoor for a future issue.

by the way, i did go check and the description on the website is accurate as to the contents of DB 14

increment wrote:One of the things I provide in the blog post, incidentally, is a link to a university library that is holding three copies of the Domesday Book. Useful if you want more than cover scans.

Yes, I've been in touch with Bowling Green, and am hoping to get scans from there sometime in the not too distant future

edit:  so, when's your book coming out, Jon?

Diplomacy Zines (and the Hoosier Archives) are something I know a little about.  Diplomacy is one of my other hobbies besides D&D.  I always liked seeing the common names in both; Gygax, Lakofka, Turnbull and St. Andre being the first that spring to mind.  I liked seeing the ads for Walter Buchanan's Diplomacy World in the SR and early Dragon Mags.  The stories of the Hoosier Archives from a Diplomacy Hobbyist perspective are documented here http://www.diplom.org/Zine/F1999R/Hand/about, here http://www.diplomacyworld.net/old/hoosier.htm, and here http://www.diplomacyworld.net/pdf/dw100.pdf.

I was aware that Gary Gygax was credited with several Diplomacy variants in the Diplomacy Variant Bank.  See diplomacyzines.org.uk/VariantBank/VBAlp ... BAlpha.htm.  There you will find a scanned copy of the rules of the Diplomacy Variant Crusadomacy, written by Gary, apparently taken from Panzerfaust.  In it is a variation on a familiar picture, signed Gygax. http://www.diplomacyzines.org.uk/VariantBank/m/mc04.pdf

This is probably old news to the research hounds here, but it might be fun for some of the other newbies.  What other connections between D&D and Diplomacy do you grognards know of?  What troves of research material lay unmined?

LB

I can't recall ever seeing a drawing by Gygax, anywhere. That's cool. It looks like a tracing though.