The Manual of Aurania is a 24-page supplement for fantasy role-playing games self-published in 1976 and sold at Aero Hobbies, a games store in Santa Monica, California owned by Gary Switzer. A 34-page 2nd edition revision of the book was later published by International Gamers Association with numerous added illustrations in 1977.
The Manual of Aurania is an unlicensed Dungeons & Dragons supplement containing more than 50 new monsters, nine dragons, new character classes, and tables to randomly determine the results of reincarnation. [1]
The new character classes included:
The new monsters included seven new types of giants, five trolls, nine types of undead, eight dragons, six demons, and 22 miscellaneous creatures.
In 1974, when TSR published Dungeons & Dragons , one of the earliest adopters was Aero Hobbies. A large D&D group quickly formed and played regularly, developing a world called "Aurania", and several new variant rules and monsters. Someone in the group came up with the idea for a new character class based on lock-picking skills. One of the players, Daniel Wagner, later recalled, "One group had a dwarf who wanted to try picking locks with his dagger, so I had the idea for a Burglar class, which we drew up like a Magic user but with skills (like Lock picking) instead of spells. The consensus was to call the class 'Thief'." Wanting to share this news, store owner Switzer called Gary Gygax at TSR and described the thief class. Gygax subsequently developed the fourth official character class for D&D called the "thief", and published an early version in the independent games zine Great Plains Game Players Newsletter , crediting "Gary Schweitzer" of "sunny California" for the idea. [2]
Back at Aero Hobbies, news of the article did not travel as far as Santa Monica, and Switzer did not tell the group he had shared the group's idea with Gygax, so when the new Thief class appeared in the first D&D supplement, Greyhawk , the group assumed Gygax had stolen their idea. Their response was to write The Manual of Aurania, a collection of all of the new rules and monsters their group had developed. In the introduction, the authors claimed that several of their original concepts had been "stolen outright", and the purpose of the book was "to prevent this from happening again".
Manual of Aurania was written by Hugh K. Singh, D. Daniel Wagner, and Larry E. Stehle. The Aero Hobbies group printed 200 copies of the 30-page book in 1976. This edition was advertised as being available from Aero Hobbies and at Westercon 29 in Alarums and Excursions #11 in May 1976. [3] A second printing of 1,000 copies, with typos corrected and artwork by Troy Hughes and Aimee Karklyn, was published by International Gamers Association [1] and was announced for sale by mail order in September 1977. [4]
The original developer of the Thief class, Darrold Daniel Wagner, [ citation needed ] later related that when he met Gary Gygax at a convention, Gygax contended that the unlicensed Manual of Aurania was intellectual property theft, and threatened to sue. When Wagner reminded him of the origin of the Thief class, Gygax relented, saying, "One good steal deserves another." [ citation needed ]
Shannon Appelcline noted how the International Gamers Association had a close connection with Grimoire Games and through this short-lived partnership the IGA handled distribution for Grimoire out of Long Beach, and that "Through this connection, Grimoire ended up associated with two other Californian "generic FRP" supplements that were also being distributed by IGA: The Manual of Aurania (1977, 1978) and Wizard's Aide (1977)." [5] : 324
The Aero Hobbies group finished a second book, Libram of Aurania, but it was never published.
In the December 1978–January 1979 edition of White Dwarf (Issue #10), Don Turnbull was not taken with the new character classes, saying, "it seems to me that most, if not all these new creations are stronger than they should be, with no corresponding increase in weak points." Likewise he was not enthusiastic about the variant reincarnation rules, pointing out that dead characters had the same chance of returning as either a powerful gold dragon or as a lowly gnome. But he was impressed by the sixty new monsters presented, commenting, "It is in this section that I think most readers will find their main interest lies." He concluded "On the whole, it's not a bad booklet and a reasonable buy for the money" and gave the book a rating of 4 out of 10. [6]
Alarums and Excursions (A&E) is an amateur press association (APA) started in June 1975 by Lee Gold; publication continues to the present day. It was one of the first publications to focus solely on role-playing games.
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). It has been published by Wizards of the Coast, later a subsidiary of Hasbro, since 1997. The game was derived from miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game Chainmail serving as the initial rule system. D&D's publication is commonly recognized as the beginning of modern role-playing games and the role-playing game industry, and also deeply influenced video games, especially the role-playing video game genre.
TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Gygax had been unable to find a publisher for D&D, a new type of game he and Dave Arneson were co-developing, so he founded the new company with Kaye to self-publish their products. Needing financing to bring their new game to market, Gygax and Kaye brought in Brian Blume in December as an equal partner. Dungeons & Dragons is generally considered the first tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), and established the genre. When Kaye died suddenly in 1975, the Tactical Studies Rules partnership restructured into TSR Hobbies, Inc. and accepted investment from Blume's father Melvin. With the popular D&D as its main product, TSR Hobbies became a major force in the games industry by the late 1970s. Melvin Blume eventually transferred his shares to his other son Kevin, making the two Blume brothers the largest shareholders in TSR Hobbies.
An owlbear is a fictional creature originally created for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. An owlbear is depicted as a cross between a bear and an owl, which "hugs" like a bear and attacks with its beak. Inspired by a plastic toy made in Hong Kong, Gary Gygax created the owlbear and introduced the creature to the game in the 1975 Greyhawk supplement; the creature has since appeared in every subsequent edition of the game. Owlbears, or similar beasts, also appear in several other fantasy role-playing games, video games and other media.
Several different editions of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game have been produced since 1974. The current publisher of D&D, Wizards of the Coast, produces new materials only for the most current edition of the game. However, many D&D fans continue to play older versions of the game and some third-party companies continue to publish materials compatible with these older editions.
A dwarf, in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game, is a humanoid race, one of the primary races available for player characters. The idea for the D&D dwarf comes from the dwarves of European mythologies and J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955), and has been used in D&D and its predecessor Chainmail since the early 1970s. Variations from the standard dwarf archetype of a short and stout demihuman are commonly called subraces, of which there are more than a dozen across many different rule sets and campaign settings.
The rogue or thief is one of the standard playable character classes in most editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. A rogue is a versatile character, capable of sneaky combat and nimble tricks. The rogue is stealthy and dexterous, and in early editions was the only official base class from the Player's Handbook capable of finding and disarming traps and picking locks. The rogue also has the ability to "sneak attack" enemies who are caught off-guard or taken by surprise, inflicting extra damage.
Kobolds are a fictional race of humanoid creatures featured in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game and other fantasy media. They are often depicted as small reptilian humanoids with long tails, distantly related to dragons.
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, goblins are a common and fairly weak race of evil humanoid monsters. Goblins are non-human monsters that low-level player characters often face in combat.
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, giants are a collection of very large humanoid creatures based on giants of legend, or in third edition, a "creature type".
The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It was written by Gary Gygax and published by TSR in 1982 for the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) rules. The 64-page adventure bears the code "S4" and is set in the Greyhawk campaign setting. It is divided into two parts, a 32-page adventure, and a 32-page booklet of monsters and magic items. The plot involves the player characters investigating rumors of lost treasure. After traversing a wilderness and two levels of dungeons, the players face Drelnza, the vampiric daughter of long-deceased archmage Iggwilv.
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a vampire is an undead creature. A humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature can become a vampire, and looks as it did in life, with pale skin, haunting red eyes, and a feral cast to its features. A new vampire is created when another vampire drains the life out of a living creature. Its depiction is related to those in the 1930s and 1940s Hollywood Dracula and monster movies. In writing vampires into the game, as with other creatures arising in folklore, the authors had to consider what elements arising in more recent popular culture should be incorporated into their description and characteristics.
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The original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson was published by TSR, Inc. in 1974. It included the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Its product designation was TSR 2002.
Greyhawk is a supplementary rulebook written by Gary Gygax and Robert J. Kuntz for the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. It has been called "the first and most important supplement" to the original D&D rules. Although the name of the book was taken from the home campaign supervised by Gygax and Kuntz based on Gygax's imagined Castle Greyhawk and the lands surrounding it, Greyhawk did not give any details of the castle or the campaign world; instead, it explained the rules that Gygax and Kuntz used in their home campaign, and introduced a number of character classes, spells, concepts and monsters used in all subsequent editions of D&D.
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The Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set is a set of rulebooks for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. First published in 1977, it saw a handful of revisions and reprintings. The first edition was written by J. Eric Holmes based on Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson's original work. Later editions were edited by Tom Moldvay, Frank Mentzer, Troy Denning, and Doug Stewart.
Stephen R. "Steve" Marsh is an American game designer and lawyer best known for his contributions to early editions of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG). Some of the creatures he created for the original edition of D&D in 1975 have been included in every subsequent edition of the game.
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, gnomes are one of the core races available for play as player characters. Some speculate that they are closely related to dwarves; however, gnomes are smaller and more tolerant of other races, nature, and magic. Depending on the setting and subrace, they are often skilled with illusion magic or engineering. Gnomes are small humanoids, standing 3–3.5 feet (91–107 cm) tall.
In the May 1974 issue of a fanzine called the Great Plains Games Players Newsletter, Gary Gygax presented the thief class. In his introduction, Gary tells how the class was suggested by a gamer named Gary Schweitzer (probably Santa Monica gamer Gary Switzer). "He mentioned that his group was developing a new class of character—thieves. Gary gave me a few details of how they were considering this character type, and from these I have constructed tentative rules for the class."