News — AD&D Modules

Other than perhaps the various AD&D core books (yellow/orange spine) I find little that can inspire me more than the art of the classic AD&D module series from TSR.  Today I'm going to give you my favorite 10 images from those heady days.  Enjoy! How beautiful is this classic Erol Otus drow priestess?  Sublime! When I think of giants in D&D, this is what always comes to mind. Thank you Bill Willingham, and also thanks for showing me that my tanks don't need pants! Classic good vs. evil by Jeff Dee!  Did he ever do a Kickstarter for this one?...

Inspiring, tight, and filled with adventure... This is what Jeff Dee always brought to the AD&D universe, and here are my Top 5 module covers he ever produced. Slave Pits! Loved is so much, I had artist Brian 'Glad' Thomas do a version of it in Folio #3! Hommlet... Dee does The Walking Dead before the Walking Dead was cool.  Nuff said! Natives, Dinos, and Albino Elves... yeah, you had me at Natives. Again, had to have Brian 'Glad' Thomas do a version of this for a Folio, this time #2.  Just incredible movement! Tomb of Horrors, and my gaming...

I’m not sure how many words have been written concerning artist Jeff Dee and his influence on the early days of D&D, but I know it is a lot. Heck, I’ve written two articles myself on the subject and both did very well among my OSR gaming audience. Still, that doesn’t mean it isn’t always a good thing to talk even more about his art.Today I’m looking at just his black & white illustrations from TSR, and feeling that once again this ‘Young Turk’ had something to prove when he finally got the call from the burgeoning TSR. I mean,...

I must admit I've always been intrigued by GW6 because it was a Gary Gygax written adventure I own but have never played.  I can only assume this is that case because of the level requirement, 18+, which in 1st Edition D&D is very hard to come by.  I remember speaking with E. Gary Gygax once and he indicated his archmage Tenser was only 17th level, if that puts things into perspective, so Isle of the Ape is something that kind of stays on the shelf to be looked at but not participated in. Artistically, the cover was done by...

I’m not really sure when I played my first module, although I think it was at my first D&D Club meeting in 8th Grade. My only clear memory of actual adventure, while I sat in that library on Wednesday evenings after school, was trying, and failing, to enter the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. So, I might assume that G1,2,3 [well, at least G1] was my first ever module, and I think that is interesting because it places my induction into gaming modules at the epicenter of what campaign modules should be. Having spent the past two and a...