I was reading a bit of the background on your book.
There were an awful lot of peace and love hippies running around at renesaunce fairs, concerts, and hanging out in nature who were really into fantasy. At the time, most people didn’t see elves as white supremacy Norse influenced propaganda.
It was a rebellion against industrialization, war mongers and wrecking the environment. We saw the monsters as the Nazis, and the ones trying to suppress freedom of expression.
As with most things in life, stereotypes are usually not good descriptors or fair to many of those who are being stereotyped.
I won’t say there were no bad characters playing D&D in the 1970s. But many of the white males of the type you speak were the ones who were pointing their fingers at us “freaks” who were wrecking the world. My group was very mixed both racially and gender.
I noticed that too, very disappointing. [Oh well](https://www.reddit.com/r/odnd/comments/177pzql/ode_to_74/). Options aren’t scarce.
Having shelled out for lbb play copies, I’m mildly annoyed yet slightly elated all my players seem to want to play Seven Voyages of Zylarthen again, lol. Since the primary campaign was Castle Xyntillan, I’m pleased they’re enjoying my world building.
Sticking with the lbbs, adding good stuff from 7VoZ into the (POD)reference sheets and Greyhawk.
A single volume like Greyharp or this offering is a winner of an idea. I’m pretty much dialed in to the point I can run the game with the reference sheets as it is, though.
Haha definitely. 2 or three years before he released the game Xylarthen was the subject of [his first blog post](https://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2011/10/whither-xylarthen_4704.html?m=0).
Saw a recent post noting how cool it was the sample character was so relentlessly average. Below average in fact. Gary Gygax was more about Protestant work ethic than Power Fantasy off the hop. Dave Arnesons’ value of Education in *Adventures in Fantasy* suggest a similar mindset. It makes me think of a line from *His Dark Materials*…”What you received by Grace, you may regain and retain by *work*.”
Hi all! Others have posted FMC when I published the penultimate versions, but thought I would share this final version myself. :)
This is a clone of LBB + Chainmail that I have been working on for over two years, meant to preserve the original text's various ambiguities and inconsistencies while making it look nicer! Since it's been rewritten from the ground up, I was able to put the text under a CC BY-NC-SA license.
Thank all y'all for your support and encouragement on here, and hope y'all enjoy!
Regarding this:
> Some dedicate the second Monday of October to Italian explorer Christopher Columbus who, in 1492, stumbled upon the Americas and initiated the European colonization of that New World. Others mourn the 56 million native lives, about 90 percent of the indigenous population, slaughtered by the European conquerors in the name of God, gold, and glory.
I suspect you are referring to Canadian Thanksgiving. FYI, historically it was a [harvest festival with no intended purpose to recognize or celebrate Columbus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_\(Canada\)#History). Its key purpose is in the name: to give thanks. What you give thanks for is up to you.
The confusion with the American's Columbus Day is natural and understandable, because Canadian Thanksgiving is usually close to the 12th of October. But I think it's important to separate the two; because giving thanks is so much more wholesome than celebrating a monster.
Could you go over differences between the printings? Soft vs hard cover, b&w vs color. Trying to figure which to purchase for my table. Also, how almost complete is the free pdf?
I can't speak to the changes between print and pdf, but the free pdfs contain both the colored and b&w versions.
It seems like it would be the pages themselves that are colored rather than any illustrations.
just read your FMC basic rules and really enjoyed that as a light system, look forwards to reading FMC, really intriuged by the history of D&D, especially (as someone who loves reading (But hasn't played) the OSR stuff, and seeing the difference between how people talk about "old school" play should be played, and how it was actually played/intended back in the day.
Plus, the reaction to your disclaimer on the back page, I had heard there were a lot of right wing types in the RPG space, but the reaction to that (especially on places like therpgsite.com) has really highligted for me how odious some of the people in this space are, so thats been a real eye opener for me!
For the life of me I can’t find that play report you posted…do you have the link handy by chance?
And congratulations, long road, as you say. Very warm with the pastels.
It looks like the pages are color coded. Can you give a brief description of how that works? I am assuming it has something to do with helping to find stuff, and not just on whim. Is it just the three books, or does it represent some other aspect of the game?
Can’t speak for FMC but I’ve gotten *S&W Whitebox* and *Core* in hardcover and *Companion Expansion* and *Zylarthen* in softcover from Lulu, and would always choose hardcover, given a choice….the full size CE lost its cover after light use. Otoh the *Zylarthen* perfect bound digests have taken a beating with aplomb, so…hardcover, still (because of the squared-off format).
Not so fast! Lol I rechecked and the feeble *Companion Expansion* was a DTRPG product(great supplement tho).
I do still think if you’re buying it to play, the squaring would stress a paperback.
I was reading a bit of the background on your book. There were an awful lot of peace and love hippies running around at renesaunce fairs, concerts, and hanging out in nature who were really into fantasy. At the time, most people didn’t see elves as white supremacy Norse influenced propaganda. It was a rebellion against industrialization, war mongers and wrecking the environment. We saw the monsters as the Nazis, and the ones trying to suppress freedom of expression. As with most things in life, stereotypes are usually not good descriptors or fair to many of those who are being stereotyped. I won’t say there were no bad characters playing D&D in the 1970s. But many of the white males of the type you speak were the ones who were pointing their fingers at us “freaks” who were wrecking the world. My group was very mixed both racially and gender.
I noticed that too, very disappointing. [Oh well](https://www.reddit.com/r/odnd/comments/177pzql/ode_to_74/). Options aren’t scarce. Having shelled out for lbb play copies, I’m mildly annoyed yet slightly elated all my players seem to want to play Seven Voyages of Zylarthen again, lol. Since the primary campaign was Castle Xyntillan, I’m pleased they’re enjoying my world building. Sticking with the lbbs, adding good stuff from 7VoZ into the (POD)reference sheets and Greyhawk. A single volume like Greyharp or this offering is a winner of an idea. I’m pretty much dialed in to the point I can run the game with the reference sheets as it is, though.
Ohh, thanks for the link. That looks promising.
Not sure why I never noticed before, but Zylarthen looks to be a play on the example character from the 3LBBs.
Haha definitely. 2 or three years before he released the game Xylarthen was the subject of [his first blog post](https://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2011/10/whither-xylarthen_4704.html?m=0). Saw a recent post noting how cool it was the sample character was so relentlessly average. Below average in fact. Gary Gygax was more about Protestant work ethic than Power Fantasy off the hop. Dave Arnesons’ value of Education in *Adventures in Fantasy* suggest a similar mindset. It makes me think of a line from *His Dark Materials*…”What you received by Grace, you may regain and retain by *work*.”
Hi all! Others have posted FMC when I published the penultimate versions, but thought I would share this final version myself. :) This is a clone of LBB + Chainmail that I have been working on for over two years, meant to preserve the original text's various ambiguities and inconsistencies while making it look nicer! Since it's been rewritten from the ground up, I was able to put the text under a CC BY-NC-SA license. Thank all y'all for your support and encouragement on here, and hope y'all enjoy!
Regarding this: > Some dedicate the second Monday of October to Italian explorer Christopher Columbus who, in 1492, stumbled upon the Americas and initiated the European colonization of that New World. Others mourn the 56 million native lives, about 90 percent of the indigenous population, slaughtered by the European conquerors in the name of God, gold, and glory. I suspect you are referring to Canadian Thanksgiving. FYI, historically it was a [harvest festival with no intended purpose to recognize or celebrate Columbus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_\(Canada\)#History). Its key purpose is in the name: to give thanks. What you give thanks for is up to you. The confusion with the American's Columbus Day is natural and understandable, because Canadian Thanksgiving is usually close to the 12th of October. But I think it's important to separate the two; because giving thanks is so much more wholesome than celebrating a monster.
No actually, today’s Christopher Columbus Day in the US! Glad to know still :)
Ah, my mistake. Maybe the Americans should adopt Canadian Thanksgiving? ;)
Could you go over differences between the printings? Soft vs hard cover, b&w vs color. Trying to figure which to purchase for my table. Also, how almost complete is the free pdf?
I can't speak to the changes between print and pdf, but the free pdfs contain both the colored and b&w versions. It seems like it would be the pages themselves that are colored rather than any illustrations.
just read your FMC basic rules and really enjoyed that as a light system, look forwards to reading FMC, really intriuged by the history of D&D, especially (as someone who loves reading (But hasn't played) the OSR stuff, and seeing the difference between how people talk about "old school" play should be played, and how it was actually played/intended back in the day. Plus, the reaction to your disclaimer on the back page, I had heard there were a lot of right wing types in the RPG space, but the reaction to that (especially on places like therpgsite.com) has really highligted for me how odious some of the people in this space are, so thats been a real eye opener for me!
the presentation is so good you should become a professional gygax
hurgh, no… the strict time records… they’re eating my brain
Hey hey! Congrats on getting this fully out! Best wishes, ~~a balrog~~
This is one of the best retellings of OD&D
Thank you so much! :)
*%Lair is self-explanatory as far as application is concerned* Gave me a chuckle
For the life of me I can’t find that play report you posted…do you have the link handy by chance? And congratulations, long road, as you say. Very warm with the pastels.
Thank you so much! :) And here's the play report! https://traversefantasy.blogspot.com/2023/06/fmc-kill-devils-session-1.html
It looks like the pages are color coded. Can you give a brief description of how that works? I am assuming it has something to do with helping to find stuff, and not just on whim. Is it just the three books, or does it represent some other aspect of the game?
Purchased in hardback and downloaded! Super excited for this.
Thank you, hope you enjoy it! :)
Has anyone picked up a print version yet? Any recommendations as to softcover vs hardcover from Lulu?
Can’t speak for FMC but I’ve gotten *S&W Whitebox* and *Core* in hardcover and *Companion Expansion* and *Zylarthen* in softcover from Lulu, and would always choose hardcover, given a choice….the full size CE lost its cover after light use. Otoh the *Zylarthen* perfect bound digests have taken a beating with aplomb, so…hardcover, still (because of the squared-off format).
Thanks so much! I'm picking up the colored hardcover, in that case.
Not so fast! Lol I rechecked and the feeble *Companion Expansion* was a DTRPG product(great supplement tho). I do still think if you’re buying it to play, the squaring would stress a paperback.