In Quest of the Hand of Vecna?
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Post Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:29 pm 
 

Long time lurker but finally got something I'm not sure on and thought I would go to the experts:

I recently received a module called In Quest of the Hand of Vecna! by Carl D. Perkins and I can't find anything about it. I found it listed on one website but it was just for the copyright notice. Just wondering if anyone has heard of this or not and if so, any ideas on what its worth?

It is in a zip lock bag similar to the ones I've seen for Tamoachan. The insides looks like they were printed on a dot matrix printer, but it has a full wrap around cover (white) with name of the module, the creator (Carl D. Perkins), the company name (High Level Adventures) on the bottom right, and a graphic of what I can only assume is the Hand of Vecna. The back of the cover has a copyright notice and an address in Toledo, Ohio.

I'll try to get some pictures of it up in the next few days but just wanted to see if anyone knew about it. Thanks in advance,

GreyM

  

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Post Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:45 pm 
 

Printing date? Picture?


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Post Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:53 pm 
 

Carl Perkins also wrote the nonTSR D&D item called Serpent of Me'tal.  I don't recall his name related to TSR in anyway though.

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Post Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 8:59 pm 
 

I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow for this. If I remember correctly, it has a 1984 date on it, but I may be wrong. I left it at work where I was going to take some pictures of it. Thanks for the quick responses,

GreyM

  

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Post Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:42 pm 
 

sounds good GreyM not seen :) :)
any background on that??

  


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Post Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:05 pm 
 

Rings no bells to me, definitely interested in details, especially if there are any ties to Greyhawk :D


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Post Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:09 am 
 

I put some pictures up on photobucket...if any other sites are preferred, please let me know and I'll upload them there

I have resized these to 800x600 but I have the higher quality jpegs on my computer if anyone wants them.

Thanks again for any information you can provide

GreyM


http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm136/GreyM_photos/

Image
Image
Image


Last edited by GreyM on Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:57 am, edited 2 times in total.
  

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Post Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:40 am 
 

Looks like a standard homebrew, Grey.


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Post Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:03 am 
 

Thats what I was initially thinking when I saw the interior pages, but back in the day, we (my friends and I) never went through all the trouble of putting a wraparound cover and/or copyrighting one of our modules.

I guess thats why I'm a little confused. The cover was not printed with a dot matrix like the interior is. Back in 1984 (the copyright date), I don't think the laserjet family of printers were introduced yet so it wouldn't have been a home user printing out the wrap cover. That combined with the copyright notice and it (the copyright) actually showing up on the Internet 20+ years later is why I brought it up here.

I guess someone could have put the wrap on at a later date now that I think about it but I guess I probably never will know for sure. Thanks for the insight,

GreyM

  

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Post Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:47 am 
 

Hmmmm... now that is interesting.  In flipping through my copy of Serpent of Me'Tal, I can find all of the text pages except the one mentioning the hand.  Also, I don't have those map sheets.

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Post Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:50 am 
 

cover more like set by hand for uneven author details and clean stars. laser ok for 1984 or 1985 if printed after copyright but laser for then low resolution + expense for business or university. borrowed using latter here ;) ;)
front cover logo roughed as are maps. gives genuine appearance + better than homebrew with details but not finished test or limited distrib would have liked pricetag + more even on cover wear against internal even if serpent of me'tal not much advanced in presentation from this. would buy as such if seen
thank you for details + scans :) :)

  

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Post Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:52 am 
 

+1 or more if connection of details noted from mars. must type more fast ^^
should have bid $10 more on that :lol: :lol:

  

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Post Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:08 am 
 

quite a cool item though. i love stuff like this.

Al


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Post Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:20 am 
 

In my opinion they are too close to be coincidence so I am wondering if it was originally created as Vecna, then TSR found out (or it was submitted to TSR?) and put a stop to it.  It was then reworked a bit into Serpent?  This is complete conspiracy though - Serpent may have been reworked into Vecna for all I really know.

The cover of Vecna does seem familiar though.

As far as production quality goes, there are 2 versions of Serpent that I have seen - one is more of a manuscript version that is a bunch of loose pages - the cover page of this does appear to have been printed using something better than a dot matrix printer.  The interior pages are some reproduction of a dot matrix copy though.

The other version of Serpent seems to have higher production values: better art (at least on the cover) and multiple colours too:

Image

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Post Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:38 am 
 

oops should have searched me'tal on http://bulk.resource.org/copyright/hids ... 729899.txt ;>

Code:
||||||||||||||||||||     aTXu000163104 /d1984-06-112usco    aTXu000163104   a(DLC-CO)TXu000163104   aDLC-COcDLC-CO   k1984 04aThe Serpent of Me'Tal.   cCarl Perkins, John Barnes & Robert McCarren   c1984   cmost text: Carl Deloine Perkins;cediting, revisions, and additions: John Phillip Barnes;cediting, revisions & final statement: Robert Kenneth McCarren.   aSheets.   aNew Matter: additions.   aPreexisting material: In quest of the hand of Vecna. 1 aPerkins, Carl Deloine,d1964-eauthoreclaimant 1 aBarnes, John Phillip,d1964-eauthoreclaimant 1 aMcCarren, Robert Kenneth,d1964-eauthoreclaimant 0 aIn quest of the hand of Vecna   aTXu000163104bB Non-dramatic literary workcTXe1mBpUNPrN    aDAH   aDCSUe8404038  00673nam  2200229zi 4500001000900000005001700009008004100026017003800067027001700105035002500122040001900147046000900166245004800175249002300223269000900246300001000255700005000265709003600315917006600351953000800417991001800425 16729638 20070614043142.0 070614e19840611xx...


good work mars :) :)

  


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Post Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:40 am 
 

Mars,

    If you would like, I will take pictures of each of the pages so you can compare them to your copy of The Serpent so we can narrow this down more.

Rakeesh,

    Can you translate that page for me into "common"?  :P  That is the only page I can find that has the In Quest Of the Hand of Vecna on it.


Everyone,

    I can say that 90+% of the pages in this are the fanfold type paper as I can see/feel the perforations on the top/bottom. A few of the pages (one is the picture that ends with garud the Hand.) including the maps are what appear to be xerox's.

  Just let me know and thanks for all the help,

GreyM

  

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Post Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:43 am 
 

GreyM wrote:Just wondering if anyone has heard of this or not and if so, any ideas on what its worth?

might as well answer ;) ;)
from price lost on last serpent of me'tal auction would guess $75-100 + probably top end as would be bidding again to read if listed
imo if have something like this better to keep + not sell if enjoy having + reading as will be unlikely to replace. great find GreyM + thank you vm for sharing :) :)

  

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Post Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:49 am 
 

GreyM wrote:Rakeesh,

    Can you translate that page for me into "common"?  :P  That is the only page I can find that has the In Quest Of the Hand of Vecna on it.

would have to find new oclc access but bombadil or anyone academic side could do so easily. a bit garbled by whatever process but says serpent of me'tal based on in quest of the hand of vecna
no need for more scans in public imo as is copyright material ^^
@mars i like your conspiracy :) :)

  
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