Dungeons and Dragons Blog

A lot of people cut their teeth on module B2, The Keep on the Borderlands.  My first D&D sitting was a homebrew adventure called the Orc’s something (can’t remember).  But the first D&D product I ever purchased was the Expert Set, which contained X1, the Isle of Dread.  So while it wasn’t my first, for quite some time it was my only module and it got plenty of play and it’s also the main setting for Dungeon Magazine’s latest campaign path.

In a lot of ways, the Isle of Dread was one of the first open ended adventure.  I know the Keep on the Borderlands is close (you can pick your cave), but the Isle of Dread presented one of the first open AND outside settings.

The first thing I notice about this adventure are all of the maps.  You have an overall map of the Isle of Dread but then you also get several maps that provide much more detail on the appropriate sections.  You also get a map that’s simply called “the continent” because it provides a setting for you to start the party’s sea travel to the Isle of Dread.  The adventure starts when the party discovers an old scroll that details a ship log that talks about the Isle of Dread and after the party does some research, they decide to set sail for adventure.

There’s not a ton of detail on what happens when the party travels to the Isle of Dread.  It discusses the party getting lost or getting lost in a storm, but there’s no overseas encounters.

Then at that point, it’s all about the Isle of Dread.  You get a description of all of the appropriate places worth nothing but there’s no detailed path the party is supposed to take.  You’ve got a ton of dinosaurs, some dragons and even some zombies on the wandering monster table.  There’s a pirates lair and a lizard men lair but the ultimate destination is the the central plateau (which has a gold vein and a small village) along with Taboo Island, who’s temple provides a neat little dungeon crawl.

There’s an appendix that provides some extra goodies and adventure paths and then you get the low down on all of the dinosaurs.  This is definitely a classic though and I thought Dungeon made a great choice for their campaign adventure path when they chose the Isle of Dread.

In June of 1976, Dragon magazine was born.  While it wasn’t the first stab at a magazine that supported Dungeons and Dragons, it’s precursor, called The Strategic Review was launched in 1975 and actually covered an array of gaming.  It was launched by Tactical Studies Rules, or as we know it, TSR.  The Strategic Review had more of a newsletter feel, where as Dragon magazine was TSR’s first attempt at a full blown periodical.

The cover is interesting.  You have a teal dragon with pink wings and a bright pink and orange backgroud.  Let’s just say their art has come a long way.

On page three, we have the publisher’s statement, which talks about the transition to a full blown magazine.  It also talks about how you can submit articles or art.

On page four, there’s a column on the newly created campaign setting of Lankmar.  Page five has some ads, one of which is by a magazine called Diplomacy World, which is on the classic board game Diplomacy.  The ad looks like (and probably was) it was typed on a typewriter.  Page seven has a column on using non-prime requisite character attributes.  1E never included non-weapon proficienies, and this looks like an early stab at coming up with rules related to what have basically become skill checks.

Later in the magazine, there’s a column on the compatibility of magic and science, and then one on the use of languages in the campaign.  There’s an ad for GenCon, which I believe still exists.  There’s a column on mapping out a wilderness setting for a campaign and there’s some new rules on expanding the old Illusionist class, which was basically a wizard who specialized in the illusion school.  The new rules gives Illusionists the use of some of the Magic-User spells and also expands on the experience level table from the Player’s Handbook.

There’s even a column by one of the icon’s of D&D, Gary Gygax.  In it, he talks about the board game Dungeon, which was a pretty fun game.  It basically allowed you to play in a D&D setting without the need for a Dungeon Master.  There’s also two pieces of fiction in the magazine.

In all, the magazine checks in at 30 pages, although one of those is the front cover.  On the back cover, it gives a teaser about the contents of the next issue.

D&D has definitely come a long way.  Now you’ve got full color art through out the magazine with a more “futuristic” layout (i.e. it was done a computer, not a printing press).  It’s definitely fun to go back and check these things out though.