Just Hit "Send"

It is said the best way to find errors in document is print/send/mail, etc.

I've found a number of errors in the reader copy of the Annotations. Those are corrected, and work on the print version will continue.

Should you find anything needing fixing? Please don't assume I know about it, I would appreciate you dropping me a line. I'll be happy to give you a shout out in the next reader version and the upcoming print release.

Already? Updated Annotations

I overlooked a huge formatting error. Here is the new version: 1a

Annotations v1a

OD&D Annotations: A Closer Look At A Seminal Work

Here is my document for annotations. 10-pt. Arial, ragged right. 


OD&D Annotations First Edition

What I’m Working On

The reader version of Annotations is in the hands of proofreaders. I expect to release it “into the wild” within the next week.

My Psion for OD&D came up this past week. I realized, much to my surprise, I never released the updated version I promised. I’ll probably work that up in the next week or two, since most of the work is already done though in rough beta form.

After that? I’m going to take on annotating the supplements to OD&D.

Keep in mind I have a trip coming up and will be out of pocket for about a week and a half. So any releases after Annotations and Psion are pretty tentative at this time. I’ll release my working draft of the supplemental annotations on this ‘blog, just like I did the main rules.

The Supplements, Annotated?

What's New With Phil & Dixie ... errr ... What's Next For Annotations? 

The response to my modest little effort to annotate OD&D's TLBB has been gratifying, to say the least. My current plans are to (1) finish whipping my manuscript into a nice PDF and POD format, and (2) being annotating the supplements. I'm considering all sources at this time, though it's possible I'll narrow the field a bit once work begins.

The syllabus starts getting a bit fuzzy after one gets "outside the box" but at the least I'll include the digest-sized booklets; with the possible exception of Swords & Spells.

What I might do is an "off-the-menu" annotation of the auxilliary works: Chainmail, Swords & Spells, AH's Outdoor Survival, and the periodicals Strategic Review and Dragon.

I'm currently projecting no more than 2 weeks to polish the current OD&D annotations ms, I've been working steadily on it the past few days, then I'll begin with Supplement I: Greyhawk. 

Thank you for reading! 

The Egg of Coot, Annotated

The Egg of Coot, A Historical Note: The Blackmoor Campaign’s “Egg of Coot” was not a jab, subtle or otherwise, at Gary Gygax. The rumor refuses to die Arneson’s Egg of Coot was Gygax, whose initials of EGG make this an easy leap for some. The truth of the matter is this: the Egg of Coot was an insult against a real person but it was was not Gygax. The evil “Coot” immortalized in Arneson’s campaign was a gamer in Arneson’s Napoleonic Wargame named Gregg Scott (grEGG sCOTt). Scott was unhappy as Arneson shifted his gaming group from Napoleonic warfare simulations to fantasy gaming. Scott took his frustration out upon Arneson by playing a rather nasty joke on Arneson which cost Arneson both time and money to correct. Arneson got revenge by immortalizing Scott as the evil Egg of Coot. Both Arneson and Gygax, as well as gamers in Arneson’s group, told this story over the years when asked, there is no doubt at all Gygax was not the Coot.

IMC: Druids, PC & NPC

Yes, there is a difference between the PC and NPC versions.

Player-Character Druids

Your typical player-character druids from the rulebooks. They're dedicated to Neutrality and tend to err on the side of Law in wider conflicts. Wood elves, in particular, gravitate to this class.

Non-Player Character Wild Druids

These are the not-so-Neutral ones, the militant tree-huggers with bad attitudes and a toothache. Wild Druids lean toward Chaos rather than Law. They basically hate humanity and its allies for their tendency to gather in large, ecology disrupting communities. These have access to all spells: magic, cleric, and druid. The tactics they use are specifically chosen to create fear and ruin morale such as those employed by guerilla fighters since time immemorial. Animal forms taken tend to be apex predators or raptors, subtlety is not the forté of this class. Woe to any PC wishing to establish a stronghold in what Wild Druids consider their territory.

In addition to a wide selection of spells, Wild  Druids are able to link together to cast higher level spells. This is additive, so three first level druids linking to a third level druid allows the latter to cast spells as a sixth level caster. Fortunately, Wild Druids rarely work together and even then only in small groups of two or three.