Anybody got this one? Dwarven mega-dungeon:

Five large mailing tubes, each with 12 large maps (architect drawing paper) @ 22"x34", pro quality art & production. All maps at 25mm scale, so you just put out your miniatures and go...

Five 24-page booklets for the very sketchy Key (blue, green pink, yellow orange).

(c) J.T. Towson 1983

He planned to produce 1000 copies but I've never seen another ('cept for the one he sent to Gary). We were negotiating for it to be an exclusive RPGA product; I got set #1, Gary got #2. But there were a lot of artwork copyright problems (depictions of very detailed statues for Ankheg, Beholder, and many others, all with pro-quality pen & ink drawings) so TSR legal insisted that TSR would have to own it completely and the author wouldn't give up his rights, so it got nixed after I left RPGA to write boxed rule sets.


Front cover of booklet 1:



Page 1 (of booklet 1 but I think it's the same in all 5):

mbassoc2003 wrote:Give me the heads up if you ever want to sell privately or place it on eBay.

NFS but thanx. I really should frame every one of these mapsheets, tho. Everything's mint condition (of course).

Any chance of a photo of some of the maps?

Sure. A friend of mine shot a few bad pix, but that's all I have handy at the moment... All the depicted views are from above; the whole dungeon is drawn that way. And remember that this is all hand-drawn stuff, not CAD or other computer techniques of any sort.

Here is most of ONE of the 60 maps, an area where sculptors are at work. I pulled out a few excerpts from that to show some detail:

Statues and/or stuffed specimens:




Armour, shields, and assorted weaponry (please note the astounding level of detail):




Magic items on a table between two large statues, one seated and one standing:




...and finally, another dragon statue:




I tried real hard to get TSR to publish this. But somebody (not Gary) thought that miniatures gaming was on the way out... :/

Wow.

Just an incredible product.

No wonder the author would not sell all rights...it is literally a work of art.

One consideration must have been cost.  Who could have afforded to buy it?

What was the artist/author's name?  J. T. Towson?

Would be nice to have an original, but surely out of my own price range. I'd be interested in reprints if any were ever made.

Cheers!

ExTSR wrote:He printed 250 copies privately; some must be floating around the pacific northwest. (He was in Beaverton, OR.)

Eagerly, Mark and PM Knight begin The Quest for Towson.  

From the images that have been posted, the product looks great (obviously).  Do the other illustrations and text pages live up to the quality shown so far?

JohnGaunt wrote:Eagerly, Mark and PM Knight begin The Quest for Towson.  

Here are my findings based on some preliminary searches:

There is only an Elisabeth Towson in Beaverton, OR (age 62) no first initial "J" Towson's.
A national search pulled up several male names with a middle initial "T":
Jacob T. Towson in California (DOB: 11/5/40, but unfortunately he died on 10/25/05)
Jay T. Towson in California (unknown age at this point)
Johnny T. Towson in Georgia (year of birth 1965)

ExTSR, do you have any additional information on this person? Do you know his first name, approximate age at the time (even an age range), and that the person was definitely a "he" and not a "she", as there are more females with a first letter "J" than males?

Thanks in Advance,

ExTSR wrote:The name's Frank.

My info from 1982 gives:

Jacob "Jay" Tolley Towson IV
12385 SW Tremont St., Portland, OR 97225
(in 1981, at 585 SW Liberty Bell Drive, Beaverton, OR 97006)

Age unknown, prolly upper 30s or even 40s. Accomplished draftsman, patient, meticulous... reasonably conversant with copyright & trademark law, marketing requirements, business in general, etc.

Frank,

I just spoke with his ex-wife and she was extremely nice and confirmed that I was on the right track. Learned some interesting history and she said that he would probably be thrilled to know that there is an interest in his "product" .

I will continue to reach out to the number I have for him and see if I can make contact.

Hey Paul---

Have you (or Mark, or anyone else) done more research on this front?

Watching this unfold with great interest!!!

Martin