Last week I talked a bit about Holmes Basic in regards to another game TSR put out in 1977, Warlocks & Warriors. This led to a few more discussions online and some more reflection on my part. It got me thinking about how much gamers of a certain age keep going back to Holmes.
I mean I get it, really. There is a simplicity with Holmes that has appeal. This is not the strange mix that is OD&D or the complex rules for everything as AD&D. It sits neatly in the middle and has a rule book that might be one of the clearest that 70s D&D has to offer. It paved the way for Moldvay and Mentzer Basics, but it stands pretty well on it's own.
Holmes Basic and the Monster Manual
Once upon a time in the years between the Bicentennial and the dawn of the 80s was a time when the only Star Wars was "Star Wars" and home computers were just getting started there was D&D variant that I personally think a lot of people played.
For me that year was 1979. The D&D was Holmes Basic and the Advanced D&D Monster Manual. I, like many others, didn't care that "D&D" and "AD&D" were supposed to be different games. In fact I don't think I even knew until I got my Expert Set much later. I mean yeah there were articles in Dragon about it, but I never saw those till much, much later. Even then I don't think I cared.
But none of that mattered really. Holmes Basic was likely set up as the gateway to AD&D and not really it's own line yet. As has been discussed by others, most notably Zenopus Archives ("The Monster Manual is a Holmes Supplement." go read it), that the Monster Manual draws on Holmes for quite a lot of detail. In particular it uses the "5" point alignment system of Holmes rather than the "9" point one of AD&D. For example there are no Neutral Good, Neutral Evil, Lawful Neutral, or Chaotic Neutral monsters in it. Those all don't appear until the adventures (GDQ series for example) and the Fiend Folio and Monster Manual II.
It also doesn't hurt that there are artistic similarities between these two books, not just their respective covers.
This was the central core of what was "D&D" for me.
Looking over at the publication dates of various publications from TSR prior to 1982 you see there is a world's worth of playing here. Again, h/t to Zenopus Archives for this. Even prior to 1980 is full of great material.
Holmes Basic, the Monster Manual, and Eldritch Witchery give me so much potential.
Warlocks & Warriors & Witches
Something dawned on me while reading some of the replies to my Warlocks & Warrior post. What if the eponymous Warlock and Warrior were none other than Zelligar the Unknown and Rogahn the Fearless from adventure B1 In Search of the Unknown respectively. It fits with the covers to be sure.
So if the Warlock is Zelligar and the Warrior is Rogahn, who is the Princess? Well, if you spend any time here at all then you know who she is. She is Marissia (yes I am sticking with the wrong spelling).
In my running of B1 Marissia is the daughter of Zelligar and one of the first witches in my games. While there is a Melissa described in the adventure, I was really set on the name Marissia.
From Melissa's room (key XXIV Mistress' Chamber)
So how about this. "Warlocks & Warriors" is a game played in my D&D worlds that is an homage to the time when the King offered the famed adventures Zelligar and Rogahn the hand of his beautiful young daughter to whoever rescues her first. It doesn't matter who won because the daughter Marissia was having none of that. She decides to go with the much older Zelligar who adopts her as his own daughter and trains her to be a witch. She then also becomes the lover of Rogahn. Sometime later the former allies Zelligar and Rogahn turn on each other. That is the cover of the W&W game and why "Melissa/Marissia" is looking on in cool detachment. Their falling out with each other is what leads to their stronghold, the Caverns of Quasqueton, to lie in ruins. Again, turning to Zenopus Archives, there is a good place to put B1 on the W&W wilderness map.
This slight revision still fits with my original idea that Marissia/Melissa is Zelligar's daughter and Rogahn's lover. While in 1977 having a blonde on your cover was no great stretch, she does have a similarity to all the versions of Marissia I have done or thought of over the years.
It works since "Milissa Wilcox" premiered on Scooby-Doo with a Leviathan Cross in 1978. The ghost had green hair, but the person behind it was blonde. That episode and Scooby-Doo, The Phantom of the Country Music Hall would have certainly been on my mind in 1979. This is the strange alchemy that fueled my earliest D&D adventures and is still called a "Scooby-Doo Adventure" by my wife.
Yeah, a load of coincidence, and my former Advanced Regression Prof is likely shaking his head at me now. But it works for this.
The point is there is a lot packed into all of Holmes' Basic set and I know we didn't know what treasure we had back then.
4 comments:
Perhaps they're fighting simply because Zelligar doesn't like the idea of his daughter hanging out with an adventurer of questionable moral fiber?
Great post for today - it's Holmes Day 2021! The 91st anniversary of his birth in 1930.
ZA, Your Monster Manual post is what gave me the idea.
JB, Would you let your friend date your daughter? ;)
Exactly.
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