Judges Guild D&D products

Bren · September 02, 2016, 06:17:35 AM

Quote from: Larsdangly;915633Yah, Tekumel was one of those things that even people seriously into the hobby didn't know existed in ~1978-1979.

By 1976 it seemed as obvious as Boot Hill to us. Which is to say, obvious. I guess what was obvious may have depended on who you knew and whether you or they bothered to look at what TSR had for sale.

estar · September 02, 2016, 08:17:25 AM

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;916708Is it possible to simply, briefly explain the difference? I'm getting a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of detail, and very fuzzy on which product is which. What I really want is CSIO maps and guidebook, and outdoor maps and keys.

The new maps (part of the bundle you were looking at) are part of the Wilderlands Boxed Set that were released by Necromancer Games in the mid 2000s. They are basically redrawn from the original with a different style of art.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;916708What I really want is CSIO maps and guidebook, and outdoor maps and keys.

estar · September 02, 2016, 08:28:37 AM

I realize that the Judges Guild could have their store better organized but even then because of the way Judges Guild released their early products it got a little confusing what where.

In a nutshell what happen is the following.

Judges Guild was started a subscription service, most of their early product were released piecemeal through the various installments. The first installment was labeled as I for initial. The second was J, the third was K and so on.

Each subscription had product and an issue of the Judges Guild Journal. After a couple of installments, these where were bundled into a traditional standalone product. City-State of the Invincible Overlord, Tegel Manor, Widerlands of High Fantasy, Modron, etc.

And then to just to make it fun, Judges Guild started to turned the Journal into a standalone magazine and then merge with Jennell Jaquay's Dungeoneer for a series of Journal/Dungeoneer. Then that was dropped in favor of 12 Pegasus issue.

There are several distinct printing for many products most only had two during Judges Guild first period of operation but City-State of the Invincible Overlord had 7 each were slightly different. For CSIO the later the printing the more stuff JG threw in. The final version of the original print runs was the one I linked too in the post.

As for the rest you can use the Acaeum Judges Guild site to get a grip on what what. It also includes the new products so you can how all those relate. Includes screenshots of the covers.

If folks what to get a sense of how things were released this is the list to look at.

Dimitrios · September 02, 2016, 09:49:08 AM

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;916708Is it possible to simply, briefly explain the difference? I'm getting a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of detail, and very fuzzy on which product is which. What I really want is CSIO maps and guidebook, and outdoor maps and keys.

As far as the outdoor area maps go, I've got the Necromancer 3e boxed set, and old Judges Guild versions of City State of the World Emperor and Tarantis from the early 80s. My impression of the differences are 1) the boxed set is black on white and on thinner paper stock compared to the brown on beige and thick paper stock of the original maps, and 2) the location keys in the book are sometimes slightly different, usually by being a bit more fleshed out.

I don't have the products with me for comparison just now, so this is from memory.

Haffrung · September 02, 2016, 12:20:01 PM

Quote from: estar;916636I don't think at any time from anybody I knew promoting the Wilderlands products, including myself, has ever said that every roleplayer would find them equally useful or useful at all. You asked earlier why would they be useful. I explained why. Now you explained why they are not to you. Which is a reasonable answer. However what true for you is not true for everyone.

I haven't said the Wilderlands are bad products, or that they should be for everybody. I was challenging the assertion - depressingly common on any forum frequented by grognards - that the only reason someone wouldn't like a setting book that's light on details is because they're babies who expect everything to be done for them, instead of the resourceful and self-reliant types who filled the hobby back when giants walked the earth.

Gronan of Simmerya · September 02, 2016, 09:48:52 PM

Quote from: Haffrung;916781I haven't said the Wilderlands are bad products, or that they should be for everybody. I was challenging the assertion - depressingly common on any forum frequented by grognards - that the only reason someone wouldn't like a setting book that's light on details is because they're babies who expect everything to be done for them, instead of the resourceful and self-reliant types who filled the hobby back when giants walked the earth.

Show us where somebody said that in this thread.

danbuter · September 03, 2016, 03:36:55 PM

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;916875Show us where somebody said that in this thread.

GameDaddy's post. How did you miss it?

Gronan of Simmerya · September 03, 2016, 03:41:56 PM

Quote from: danbuter;917001GameDaddy's post. How did you miss it?

If you mean Post 12, I admit that "Walls O Text" make me skip over them. But yeah, point taken.

RPGPundit · September 08, 2016, 06:55:17 PM

Quote from: estar;916408How did you run the Wilderlands badly? Wwas just a bad campaign altogether? Or was it something specific to the Wilderlands?

My main error was that I started the campaign out in the middle of nowhere.

GameDaddy · September 08, 2016, 09:03:58 PM

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;917003If you mean Post 12, I admit that "Walls O Text" make me skip over them. But yeah, point taken.

Eh? ...Some of the jaded young kids here... were dissin on Bob Bledsaw, who in fact, was the first person to create a dedicated campaign setting for D&D back in 1977. Then he published a commercial version of Dave Arneson's D&D campaign. I just took exception to the ignorant and jaded disrespect shown here about that awesome accomplishment, that is all.

All the new kids seem to think that anyone could have created a published campaign setting for D&D, however, no one had in fact done that, in at least 1,977 years, since we have kind of been keeping track of time... so there's that.

Once the D&D books were published, just about any one who had a set of the LBB created their own game world, but Bob published, and mass produced an RPG game world that everyone could share.

GameDaddy · September 08, 2016, 09:31:12 PM

Quote from: Justin Alexander;916591Wilderlands of High Fantasy (maps available through links at the bottom)

I have an extra original print Wilderlands of High Fantasy that I picked up last year as part of a bundle when I needed to get an extra CSWE book after I found one of my books missing, It has two GM's maps instead of a Player's Map and a GM's map for the Map 1 ...make an offer.

Mike Badolato has extra original CSIO player map 1's available for $4 a pop plus shipping.

crkrueger · September 08, 2016, 09:55:23 PM

Quote from: daniel_ream;915355I have links to about six of them in my bookmarks, plus a couple of installed binary versions that will do everything from crappy fractal terrain all the way to tectonic plate modelling, rain shadows and atmospheric patterns, at any resolution I want, with a hex overlay if I felt that hexes were at all useful for this sort of thing.

Care to share?

Akrasia · September 09, 2016, 12:50:52 AM

I own a lot of JG stuff (both original and 3e). I treasure it. But I mainly use it for ideas. I don't think I've ever run the setting itself.

(My version of the Forgotten Realms -- the Savage North and the Moonshae Islands -- is strangely shaped by the Wilderlands.)

Exploderwizard · September 09, 2016, 09:45:38 AM

Quote from: GameDaddy;918076All the new kids seem to think that anyone could have created a published campaign setting for D&D, however, no one had in fact done that, in at least 1,977 years, since we have kind of been keeping track of time... so there's that.

http://geekologie.com/2012/11/move-over-ancient-romans-new-oldest-d-20.php

The ancient Egyptians were rolling d20's as far back as the Ptolemaic period. We might just not have uncovered their campaign notes written on papyrus still buried somewhere beneath the sands.

Campaigning with the ancient Egyptians- Thats REAL old school!

estar · September 09, 2016, 10:59:26 AM

I know of several good map generators but none of them are capable of generating anything like a Wilderlands product or Blackmarsh. The big problem is fitting the locales in with the geography. To date it takes human invention to make anything worth using however tersely it is written.

The situation with dungeon maps and specific setting, like science fiction, is different. Because of the characteristic of both types of setting (a room with maze, a star field on feature less space). Random generators are able to generate something only a step or two from being usable . For example the Donjon site and the Traveller Map.

But even as skilled as Drow is in coding up all his utilities the map generation he has only produces the map. There is no associated content unless you use the science fiction utilities. Or you use his random dungeon generator.