What we're (going to be) playing

Original Dungeons & Dragons, aka OD&D, aka the LBBs (Little Brown Booklets), aka White Box D&D, aka 0e. The original rules for "Fantastic Medieval Wargame Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures" by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, copyright 1974. My copy (not actually the scan above, maybe I'll scan mine and replace it) is the white box, "Original Collector's Edition" (or OCC) set, the game's sixth printing circa 1977-1979. I paid about $100 for it on eBay a couple years ago, fortunately before the passing of Gygax and more recently Arneson helped drive the price up considerably...

We might or might not use additional rules (the thief class, for instance - we'll discuss) from the original D&D supplements. I have Greyhawk and Blackmoor, but not Eldritch Wizardry. I also might bring in some rules (or not) from the Arduin Grimoire, of which I possess the original trilogy. In addition, it may prove useful to use the retro-clone game Swords & Wizardry as a rules reference as well, when the OD&D is (particularly) ambiguous or confusing. It'll certainly be a source for ideas for all the house-ruling that I'm sure we'll have to do.

First session date (tentative)

Nick (player #1) and I were thinking of having our initial session of the campaign on Tuesday night, September 8th, at my place. Characters could get rolled up, and hopefully we could also get the first adventure underway that night too.

Getting started

I've created this blog as the "online presence" of our nascent D&D campaign, as Dungeon Master I'll be able to post about house rules, make notes on each adventuring session (with comments from the players) and also provide info on the game-world, important NPCs, etc. To get started, I'm just going to post a bunch of images that I find inspirational for the sort of D&D I'd like to play, to help establish the mood I'm going for with this, I guess. Mostly taken from old school gaming materials, in particular artwork by (of course) the genius Erol Otus and his modern-day simulacra, Pete Mullen (a drawing, "The Entrance", by whom I stole for the blog header above, and who did the two color pieces below - click on them for the full images).

By the way, I named the blog Dungeon Trippers but that's not necessarily the name of the campaign, I figured we'd come up with that later as a group if we want. Or we'll just name it after the campaign locale once I decide on that. Actually Dungeon Trippers is really the name I came up with for the retro-clone of The Fantasy Trip that I hope someone will do. (With Starship Trippers as the sci-fi version). Plus even if this campaign doesn't work out I could still keep blogging here about FRP using that name I suppose...