Header Ads Widget

Ticker

6/recent/ticker-posts

Open Friday: Dungeon Masters Adventure Log

In its never-ending quest to publish more products to sell to its customers, TSR released a number of peculiar items; the Dungeon Masters Adventure Log was one of them. Appearing in 1980, it was basically a collection of blank forms for the referee to keep track of important information during play. Exactly why anyone thought this was necessary, I don't know, but, seeing as I owned a copy of this book, I suppose I shouldn't point fingers.

Anyway, the Adventure Log is noteworthy in a single respect in my opinion and that's the page I've reproduced below. It's an example of how to use the forms and there's some really great stuff in there, including the first appearances of characters like Black Dougal, Morgan Ironwolf, and Sister Rebecca.

If you haven't looked at this sample page in a while, do yourself a favor and click on the image to do so. I think there's a lot to be gleaned by examining what's written here, even if, as is likely, it's entirely fictitious and bears no relationship whatsoever to an adventure played by the TSR notables whose names appear on it.

So, my question for today: what single detail on this page do you find most interesting and why? I'm not necessarily expecting profundity here -- though I certainly don't object to it -- but I am curious to hear what others notice about the sample entry and what it might tell them about D&D as played in 1980 or thereabouts.

(What most immediately strikes me is that the highest level character in the party, Morgan Ironwolf, who's an 8th-level fighter, has only 43 hit points, which is almost exactly average for a member of her class and level, assuming no Constitution bonuses. I have a hard time imagining a sample character of comparable power nowadays being so "weak.")

Yorum Gönder

0 Yorumlar