The First Fantasy Campaign: Richard Snider's Additions

JG 37 "The First Fantasy Campaign" includes notes by Richard Snider, who "evolved an entirely separate campaign and mythos" as well as "an exceptional set of rules for Dragons" (to be covered in more detail, tomorrow).

Snider's campaign notes likely relate to a set of rules based on Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign, described as the "Richard Snider Variant" by Daniel Boggs in his post Almost Forgotten: A Published RPG Ruleset older than D&D

Illustration of a wraith, by Gary Gygax's wife's half-sister Keenan Powell, from OD&D vol. 2 "Monsters & Treasure".  Did the idea for level-draining undead in OD&D derive from the Richard Snider Variant?

What's interesting about the RSV is that the last couple of pages include the following sections from "Richard Snider's Additions" to JG 37 "The First Fantasy Campaign":

Differences in Creatures from Blackmoor Game:

Specifies that wraiths do not paralyze with their Touch (as per Chainmail) but rather drain one Life Energy point per hit - inspiration for the draining of "life energy levels" in OD&D vol. 2?

Defines three types of Dragons - Gold, Brown, and Green. Golden Dragons breathe Fire, are very intelligent, and "are the Lords of Dragondom" - see tomorrow's post, for more details.

Population of Known Area:

Lists a number of "Known Baronies" with exotic names (Patursia, Kusan, Koda, Rizzo, Chulan, Kankiang, Monkai, Relaco) described further in the fan-made Empire of Thonia: The Eastern Marshes

Wizardry Apprenticeship:

Rules for gaining Magic Power ability and using Artifacts of Wizardry.

The Languages:

Alludes to alignment languages.

Odds of Creature Friendship:

Based on speaking a creature's language, and modified by alignment.

 

I'm not sure if parts of the remaining sections appear in the Richard Snider Variant:

Hero and Superhero Flunkies:

Describes the risks involved in retaining powerful characters.

Vampires:

Lists methods to destroy a true Vampire, as well as rules for creating a Flunky-Vampire (involving the "Mass of the Undead").

An Explanation of Creature Psychology:

Describes three major motivational factors - Hate, Greed, and Egotism.

To learn more about the RSV, see RSV Character Creation: The Hero over at Hidden in Shadows.  An examination of the Wizard class and magic system is also forthcoming.

For more on Richard Snider and his contributions to RPGs in general, see this post over at Havard's Blackmoor Blog.