Share your D&D OA 4 4

[cstojano]

On 7/8/2023 at 2:40 PM, Bronty said:

I only played D&D exactly twice with the one friend I had who played, but 100-300 still seems reasonable to me.    

Yeah I am one of the guys paying this because to me its still so cheap for sealed 80s product with out of this world cover art.

[comix4fun]

On 7/8/2023 at 6:40 AM, Bronty said:

I only played D&D exactly twice with the one friend I had who played, but 100-300 still seems reasonable to me.    

It’s certainly more reasonable than a lot of our other hobbies but I should have prefaced my range  a little better. That was mostly for dragon lance modules and in that era, which was 1984, as it’s seen as the second era of D&D. Things get a lot more easy to find after 1983. So it was a shorthand on my part. 
The pre 83 and especially pre79 modules in shrink or even just in nice shape are potentially multiples of that range. 
That orange module on my shelf picture is a special case, even in middling condition that one is about 5k. 

[cstojano]

On 7/8/2023 at 4:14 PM, comix4fun said:

It’s certainly more reasonable than a lot of our other hobbies but I should have prefaced my range  a little better. That was mostly for dragon lance modules and in that era, which was 1984, as it’s seen as the second era of D&D. Things get a lot more easy to find after 1983. So it was a shorthand on my part. 
The pre 83 and especially pre79 modules in shrink or even just in nice shape are potentially multiples of that range. 
That orange module on my shelf picture is a special case, even in middling condition that one is about 5k. 

A mid grade but sealed was on eBay a few weeks back for just under 20k, no takers as I recall. That seller has an endless supply of stuff it seems, reps old employees, etc.

[comix4fun]

On 7/8/2023 at 8:23 AM, cstojano said:

A mid grade but sealed was on eBay a few weeks back for just under 20k, no takers as I recall. That seller has an endless supply of stuff it seems, reps old employees, etc.

Yes, that was the result of a VF copy, not in shrink, selling for $13k on eBay in May. So, it actually made sense for a sealed copy to have an ask like that. The problem was the $13k was a record, so it might take buyer a beat to absorb, accept, and pay up for something bigger. 

My copy was Frank Mentzer's original copy. 

[comix4fun]

I suppose this belongs here. Should be arriving by UPS today. 
The final pre-paint drawing for "Checkmate" Den Beauvais cover to Dragon Magazine #83. 
I usually don't go in for preliminary pieces but this one is really faithful in how it was translated to the final painting.

30"x40" and as Den described it 

 

He made a gif showing the prelim transforming to the final painting and back again. 

[Mickey7]

On 7/7/2023 at 10:47 PM, tth2 said:

Did most people here play with modules from TSR?  My friends and I never played with modules.  Quite frankly, they were all inferior to the games we would come up with ourselves.  

Yes!  We almost never used modules ourselves. I loved spending hours creating maps on grid paper and writing up an adventure my friends could go on.  So, I basically bought the Basic Set & a couple Monster Manuals and used those.  I did think the modules were cool though.  I still have most of the maps/adventures/player profile papers I had from the early 80s and it's fun to look back on them now.

[Randall Dowling]

On 7/8/2023 at 10:41 AM, comix4fun said:

I suppose this belongs here. Should be arriving by UPS today. 
The final pre-paint drawing for "Checkmate" Den Beauvais cover to Dragon Magazine #83. 
I usually don't go in for preliminary pieces but this one is really faithful in how it was translated to the final painting.

30"x40" and as Den described it 

 

He made a gif showing the prelim transforming to the final painting and back again. 

Always loved this cover!  Congratulations!! 

[comix4fun]

Almost forgot I got this recently, I needed to get a copy of the module this was used in.

It's a little later than the normal nostalgia zone I collect in (1989) but it's from a Forgotten Realms Solo Adventure Module that's kind of harder to find these days. 
Knight of the Living Dead was the title and this was called "Seedy Inn-Tavern" interior illustration by George Barr. 
A little larger than most of the module art I've found with an image area of 9"x12"
Loved the Zombies and the textures and stippling on it. Haven't had a chance to give it a proper clear scan to see the tiny details yet. 

 

[Randall Dowling]

On 7/8/2023 at 3:52 AM, tth2 said:

I did not know you guys knew each other from when you were kids!  Very cool! 

Yeah, he's managed to put up with me all these years.  Before and after I lived over seas, we went to the same middle school and high school together. 

[bc]

On 7/7/2023 at 11:47 PM, tth2 said:

Did most people here play with modules from TSR?  My friends and I never played with modules.  Quite frankly, they were all inferior to the games we would come up with ourselves.  

We never used the modules, but we did adopt the World of Grayhawk scenario as a portion of our world.

The modules didn’t seem realistic to us.

After stumbling into the “lost temple” we find that one room is a group of orcs, the next room had an owlbear and the third room had a gelatinous cube – why didn’t the cube absorb the owlbear and orcs long before we got there? Where’s the food and water supplies come from for all the different critters in the dungeon? How do one off monsters sustain a population in the dungeon over time? Everything seemed too random just to promote the brand potential.

We were all sci-fi/fantasy freaks before D&D hit. We all had read the LoTR series along with Conan, Elric, Fafhrd & The Grey Mouser/Sanctuary, Lovecraft and others before we stumbled on D&D back in 1979/1980.

By the time AD&D came out, our regular DM, Daiv, had already created a capital city that was insanely detailed. Every building had a purpose, occupants and contents fully detailed down to the pattern on floor rug or paintings on the walls. The NPCs had accents and colloquialisms and unique clothing. It evolved over time, but served as our characters base of operations. Our higher level characters had dwellings in the city that we could decorate and customize (and pay taxes on ☹). My Magic user eventually earned a seat on the city council.

Some nights, we just messed around in town or dealt with the wererats who controlled the sewers and lower docks. He also had plenty of “work” for our characters as far as escort/delivery/pickup kind of adventures. But it all had a purpose. Because everything was so detailed, we had the chance to do more role playing/character development than just hack-n-slash all night.

Daiv wasn’t keen on magic items, don’t think we got our first +1’s until we would be around 4^th or 5^th level. You had to earn it and they were rare. There was no “Magic Shop” where you could go buy a +2 Vorpal Short Sword or a Wand of Lightning or +3 Chain Mail. But because it was rare, we cherished each item and it kept the game balanced.

Don’t get me started talking about how cheap Daiv was as far as treasure. He used every possible trick in the book to keep our characters “hungry” – tolls, taxes, fees, repairs, bribes, transport. By the time you dragged the treasure back home, you were lucky to have anything left. But again, like with the magic items, because it was consistent, it really didn’t matter in the game.

Daiv was also into model ships. We also accumulated 1,000s of lead figures thru dubious means (I’ll leave it at that). During a war campaign, we placed the lead figures on ships and would do marine combat down to the individual. It was a blast. My little halfling fighter/thief would man the crows nest raining down death from above with his short bow, my buddy’s Cleric was mashing skulls on deck and Bob’s illusionist created havoc everywhere.  Some battles lasted multiple nights, the Jolt Cola flowed freely.

It was truly good times 

-bc

[Bronty]

On 7/8/2023 at 9:14 AM, comix4fun said:

It’s certainly more reasonable than a lot of our other hobbies but I should have prefaced my range  a little better. That was mostly for dragon lance modules and in that era, which was 1984, as it’s seen as the second era of D&D. Things get a lot more easy to find after 1983. So it was a shorthand on my part. 
The pre 83 and especially pre79 modules in shrink or even just in nice shape are potentially multiples of that range. 
That orange module on my shelf picture is a special case, even in middling condition that one is about 5k. 

Yeah I figured we weren’t talking about cream of the crop modules for 200.   Still seems reasonable to me.

Edited July 8, 2023 by Bronty

[comix4fun]

On 7/8/2023 at 5:44 PM, Bronty said:

Yeah I figured we weren’t talking about cream of the crop modules for 200.   Still seems reasonable to me.

It's all perspective and you're right, it is reasonable. If I was coming into the hobby now and seeing 200 (after seeing what that got me in comics, video games, and artwork) I'd be thinking "SCORE!" but having so many modules I bought from 2010-2018 for $5-10-20 going for these multiples it kind of hurts your head when you're looking to complete missing ones from your collection. I guess I should be thankful I was buying when no one else cared. 

[Bronty]

On 7/8/2023 at 7:57 PM, comix4fun said:

It's all perspective and you're right, it is reasonable. If I was coming into the hobby now and seeing 200 (after seeing what that got me in comics, video games, and artwork) I'd be thinking "SCORE!" but having so many modules I bought from 2010-2018 for $5-10-20 going for these multiples it kind of hurts your head when you're looking to complete missing ones from your collection. I guess I should be thankful I was buying when no one else cared. 

Sure.   That benchmarking to when we first started buying thing Tim rightly brought up years ago.   I do it myself. 
 

 

Edited July 9, 2023 by Bronty

[tth2]

On 7/9/2023 at 5:50 AM, bc said:

The modules didn’t seem realistic to us.

After stumbling into the “lost temple” we find that one room is a group of orcs, the next room had an owlbear and the third room had a gelatinous cube – why didn’t the cube absorb the owlbear and orcs long before we got there? Where’s the food and water supplies come from for all the different critters in the dungeon? How do one off monsters sustain a population in the dungeon over time? Everything seemed too random just to promote the brand potential.

THIS!!!

On 7/9/2023 at 5:50 AM, bc said:

Daiv wasn’t keen on magic items, don’t think we got our first +1’s until we would be around 4^th or 5^th level. You had to earn it and they were rare. There was no “Magic Shop” where you could go buy a +2 Vorpal Short Sword or a Wand of Lightning or +3 Chain Mail. But because it was rare, we cherished each item and it kept the game balanced.

This too.  I remember my shock when I went to college and played with another group and everyone seemed to have super-powerful magical weapons and armor out the wazoo.  

I used to make players suffer for their magical items.  An entire quest would be built around rumors of just one magical weapon, and it wouldn't even be a really powerful one. 

I did once introduce a relic, the Hand of Vecna, to a campaign when the players were pretty high level, but the catch was that they found it in a big chest with a bunch of identical (but non-magical) hands.  So all the players who wanted it had to cut off their hand to see if the hand they had picked from the pile was the real one, and gamble that they would find the real one before one of their teammates (who had also cut off their hand).  That was hilarious (for me as the DM)! 

The result was that the next quest was a band of one-handed adventurers and one super-powered adventurer in search of potions and objects that would regrow their missing hands, but meanwhile they had to fight (and do everything) one-handed.  I was way ahead of George RR Martin! 

On 7/9/2023 at 5:50 AM, bc said:

Don’t get me started talking about how cheap Daiv was as far as treasure. He used every possible trick in the book to keep our characters “hungry” – tolls, taxes, fees, repairs, bribes, transport. By the time you dragged the treasure back home, you were lucky to have anything left.

You guys should've just attacked the toll/tax collectors! 

[batman_fan]

On 7/8/2023 at 10:11 PM, tth2 said:

THIS!!!

This too.  I remember my shock when I went to college and played with another group and everyone seemed to have super-powerful magical weapons and armor out the wazoo.  

I used to make players suffer for their magical items.  An entire quest would be built around rumors of just one magical weapon, and it wouldn't even be a really powerful one. 

I did once introduce a relic, the Hand of Vecna, to a campaign when the players were pretty high level, but the catch was that they found it in a big chest with a bunch of identical (but non-magical) hands.  So all the players who wanted it had to cut off their hand to see if the hand they had picked from the pile was the real one, and gamble that they would find the real one before one of their teammates (who had also cut off their hand).  That was hilarious (for me as the DM)! 

The result was that the next quest was a band of one-handed adventurers and one super-powered adventurer in search of potions and objects that would regrow their missing hands, but meanwhile they had to fight (and do everything) one-handed.  I was way ahead of George RR Martin! 

You guys should've just attacked the toll/tax collectors! 

There was one group that played where all the characters had low levels and low constitutions because they kept dying and needed to be resurrected.  There was one guy that DMd that always ran the Caverns of Theresha (sp).  Through multiple campaigns no one every even made it into the dungeon.  Always died trying to get in the dungeon.

[tth2]

On 7/10/2023 at 1:01 AM, batman_fan said:

There was one group that played where all the characters had low levels and low constitutions because they kept dying and needed to be resurrected.  There was one guy that DMd that always ran the Caverns of Theresha (sp).  Through multiple campaigns no one every even made it into the dungeon.  Always died trying to get in the dungeon.

That's not good DM-ing.  A good DM has to walk the fine line between a campaign being challenging and impossible.  Anyone can create/run a brutal dungeon that kills off every player ("Your second level players run into a Balrog, *rolls dice*, you're all dead!").  That just drives away players (and/or causes them to replace the DM).   

[delekkerste]

On 7/8/2023 at 7:36 AM, Bronty said:

Pretty great that you still have that. 

I made it in early 1983 - it's 40 years old! 

[batman_fan]

On 7/9/2023 at 10:20 PM, tth2 said:

That's not good DM-ing.  A good DM has to walk the fine line between a campaign being challenging and impossible.  Anyone can create/run a brutal dungeon that kills off every player ("Your second level players run into a Balrog, *rolls dice*, you're all dead!").  That just drives away players (and/or causes them to replace the DM).   

My experience as well.  Real quick people stop playing.  The campaign that all had the low constitution played for well over a year.  Never understood it.  My brother would kill your character all the time.

[MyNameIsLegion]

[tth2]

On 7/10/2023 at 8:55 PM, batman_fan said:

On 7/10/2023 at 12:20 PM, tth2 said:

That's not good DM-ing.  A good DM has to walk the fine line between a campaign being challenging and impossible.  Anyone can create/run a brutal dungeon that kills off every player ("Your second level players run into a Balrog, *rolls dice*, you're all dead!").  That just drives away players (and/or causes them to replace the DM).   

My experience as well.  Real quick people stop playing.  The campaign that all had the low constitution played for well over a year.  Never understood it.  My brother would kill your character all the time.

Was there a lot of pot or beer on offer at the games?