Sunday, March 5, 2023

[Review] Lost Dungeons of Tonsiborg

Received this thing in the mail a couple days ago, purchased as part of the recent Kickstarter. It was originally only offered as a deluxe hardcover "collector's item" edition at $100 per copy, but late in the campaign the organizers bowed to public demand and added an option for a "mass-market" softcover version at $30, which is what I bought. It's POD quality, black & white interior (I believe the hardcover version has interior color), 164 pages long including an index and OGL boilerplate. 

First, some quick history: Greg Svenson was one of the most active players in Dave Arneson's original Blackmoor campaign and, among other things, a participant in the first expedition into the dungeons beneath Castle Blackmoor over the 1970-71 Christmas holiday, as recounted here. In 1973, so after about 2 years of play, Greg decided to create his own dungeon, Tonisborg, using the pre-publication draft of the D&D rules that was floating around the Twin Cities at that time (the first rules these players had ever seen, since prior to Gygax drafting and sending these rules to the Twin Cities for comment, Arneson had kept everything in his head as, effectively, a black box). He then lent the 10-level dungeon to his friend and fellow Blackmoor player (and creator of the Dungeon! boardgame) Dave Megarry, who was spending the summer in Boston, where he promptly lost it. But then, 40 or so years later, Megarry found the manuscript (which it turned out wasn’t actually lost, just misplaced) and shared it with Greg and the guys behind the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary, and they decided to publish it as a book, initially in a super-limited-edition deluxe hardcover collector's edition in 2020, and just now in an affordable paperback version (with promises of an eventual pdf version to come as well).

So this is a pretty neat historical artifact - an actual complete 10-level dungeon (maps and accompanying keys) that dates all the way back to before the publication of D&D, written by one of the players in Arneson's Blackmoor campaign. This makes it very analogous to Rob Kuntz's El Raja Key dungeons, created around the same time by a similarly-situated player (as Rob was one of the most active players in Gary Gygax's Greyhawk campaign) and published a few years back on the El Raja Key DVD Archive, but in an incomplete form (IIRC only 2 or 3 of the 12 levels included keys). This book includes both photographic reproductions of the original hand-drawn maps and hand-written keys (one line per room) as well as re-drawn maps and expanded (but still pretty minimalist) keys in something like the manner of the treatment given to Rob Kuntz's Bottle City.  

Looking at the maps, the resemblance to Arneson's style (as seen in the Temple of the Frog dungeons and the Blackmoor Castle dungeons in First Fantasy Campaign) is immediately obvious, and striking because it doesn't really look like much of anything else that's come out in the 50 years since. The dungeon levels are almost all hallways, many of them at 45-degree angles from each other, with tons of stairways and shafts connecting the levels. Sometimes the hallways meet in larger chambers that are almost always odd-shaped. There are only about a dozen rooms per level (only the bottom level has more than 20 rooms) and they're generally very small (10x10 or 20x20) and hidden behind secret doors in the middle of hallways (sometimes a room will lie at the end of a hallway, but more often the hallways end in stairwells or just dead-end). Almost all of them are occupied by monsters, with seemingly little if any consideration given to the inhabitants' size: a 10x10 room might well contain a dragon or purple worm or 18 ghouls or a dozen giant hogs. My guess as to how this would tend to work in play is that the players would wander down a hallway, a monster would burst out from a secret door to attack, and the party would flee to either a wider hallway or chamber to make a stand, only returning to the monster's lair post-combat to collect whatever treasure it might have had. 

It seems worth noting that all but one of the monsters and three of the treasures (with the "specials" all located on level 10) could be - and presumably were - rolled straight off the tables that would later appear in D&D vol. 2 & 3: a spectre with 10,000 silver, 2 gems, 4 jewelry, and a potion of growth; 2 gargoyles with 6,000 copper and 3 jewelry; 4 giant ants with no treasure; 2 wererats* with 3 gems and a ring of human control, etc. This is primitive stuff. But that's okay. In fact it's the point - it's a window into how the game was played in its earliest days, when it was all novel and everyone hadn't become jaded. Your mind is not going to be blown by this - you're not going to get any mystic revelations into the True Spirit of D&D or whatever. But you might get a stirring memory of the first dungeon you designed when you initially discovered D&D as a kid and how thrilling that was. There's probably no point in actually playing it - anyone with a copy of the rules and a set of dice can come up with something just as good on their own. It might be fun to run at a convention, though - let multiple groups delve in and see which one returns to the surface with the most treasure, and let them know the dungeon they're exploring was created in 1973, before the rules were actually published. Pretty neat for a few hours.

I'm a sucker for D&D history and love looking at these old artifacts - First Fantasy Campaign and Rob Kuntz's archive and those over-the-shoulder photos of Gary Gygax's Greyhawk Castle dungeons, and so on. To me, there's something refreshing ands inspiring about seeing what the game looked like to its creators before it become professionalized - when they were creating stuff to play, not to sell. So, for me, this content, which between the 2 versions of the dungeon and a couple pages of history (the history of the manuscript, not in-game backstory) fills about 50 pages, is worth the $30 I spent on it. Which is good, because the other ~110 pages are weird and dubious.

To start with, before the dungeons, there's a ~35 page introduction made up of essays about how to play and run games in the "old-school" style filled with anecdotes and interview quotes from Arneson and various members of his circle (a lot of it seemingly drawn from Secrets of Blackmoor) a lot of which is good advice (though some of it is questionable) focusing on all of the usual-suspect topics: players should focus on strategy and tactics and think outside the box and focus on the situation rather than the game rules; GMs should focus on keeping things moving and building atmosphere and tension and shouldn't be afraid to improvise (rulings over rules) and shouldn't focus on stuff like balancing encounters - challenges should be tough but potential rewards for good play rich (and resource-management concerns should always be considered: light, encumbrance, etc). Generally pretty solid advice (and, I would note, little if anything that Gary Gygax would've disagreed with) but all very basic and old hat to anyone likely to be reading this book (i.e. hard-core collectors and game-historians). 

Early in this section they make this statement: "We do not assume that you or your players have ever played an RPG before. This entire book is a lesson on how to play these games and how to combine new and old play concepts in order to create an enriching play session." Really? Someone who's never played or read an rpg before is going to pay $100 for this book of all things? This ostensibly high-end collectible (when the publishers were arguing against the notion of doing the mass-market edition one of their justifications was that they wanted it to be an archival-quality collectible that people would treasure and pass on to their grandkids) that isn't even available for sale via traditional retail channels is also supposed to be an entry-level product? Bizarre, to say the least. 

These essays could have made a nice pamphlet aimed at new (or at least new-to-old-school) players, and would sit fairly comfortably alongside the many other such pamphlets that already exist, but in the context of this product it all feels pointless and even vaguely insulting, as if to say that anyone with sufficient knowledge and interest in the history of the hobby to be interested in this book would actually need to learn any of the "lessons" offered here - that we're apparently all idiots who need explained to us (over half a page and at least 500 words) stuff like the idea that the referee shouldn't place the map on the table but should instead describe it to the players verbally and have them draw their own copy of the map as they explore. Wow, really? I had no idea! I mean, I've been doing this for 39 years, but  because I've only experienced the debased Gygaxian version for idiots and not TRV ARNESONIAN DND I've never been exposed to this revolutionary concept. Thanks, guys!

This bizarre confusion about who the audience of this book is supposed to be is compounded by the final third of the book, which is an entire "retroclone" version of the original D&D rules. These "Champions of ZED: Zero Edition Dungeoneering" rules were apparently previously published in a standalone version before being included here and purport to be a true-to-Arneson representation of the game. In practice, it appears to be about 90-95% identical to the contents of the 1974 boxed set, including all of the same ability scores, classes, races, spells, monsters, treasure tables, and magic items, all of which are dutifully reprinted. 

As with any retroclone game, there are a few minor differences: saving throws are handled differently (saving throw values are rolled as a parallel set of stats); XP is only earned for GP that are spent (as per FFC); there's a critical hit system when an attack rolls a natural 20 (with a 1-in-10 chance of instant death); etc. I'm pretty sure all of these differences could have been summarized in about 4 pages of house rulings (and, I should probably note here, none of these additions or changes actually appear to be, you know, any good - to the extent any of them actually do represent material that was used by Arneson and present in the pre-publication drafts but was left out of the published game that's, if anything, a testament to Gygax's editing and playtesting to identify them as bad rules). But instead we get almost 60 pages copy-pasting every spell, monster, and magic item description, and every table from D&D vol. 1 & 2. Curiously, except for a couple pages about dungeon-stocking, nothing else from vol. 3 is included - nothing on outdoor adventuring, castle building, barony management, expert hirelings, aerial combat, or waterborne adventures. Maybe this material was included in the standalone version of Champions of ZED but was excluded here as not being relevant to play within the Tonisborg dungeons? 

We even get half a page explaining how to read dice: what "3d8" means, how to use a six-sided die to get a number from 1-3, and how to use 20-sided dice both to generate a number from 1-20 (use a control die to determine if you use the number rolled or add 10) and to generate a number from 1-100 (roll two dice at once where one represents the tens and the other the ones, with a result of 00 counting as 100, not 0). Because, again, in the publishers’ minds there are apparently people out there who were willing to pay $100 for this book (and, for that matter, to read all the way to page 96 in it) who don't already know that. 

So, it's weird. On the one hand it's a reproduction of an artifact from the earliest days of the hobby of interest to the hardest-core game historians. But on the other, it's trying to be a complete stand-alone game and instruction manual for n00bs (who have $100+ to spare and are following rpg Kickstarters). I'm not sorry I bought it, but am very glad I only spent $30 on the softcover and not $100 on the "collector's item" hardcover. When the pdf version is released, I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in the early days of the hobby. If you like original D&D and First Fantasy Campaign you'll probably find the middle-third of this book (the actual dungeons) interesting. 

*This one is a mild curiosity because wererats weren't actually included in the original D&D set and were added to the game with Supplement I (Greyhawk) in 1975. I wonder if maybe they were included in the draft Svenson was using but got dropped from the final product, or maybe he'd heard about them from someone who played in Greyhawk, or maybe it was a case of parallel evolution (wererats, after all, feature prominently in Fritz Leiber's The Swords of Lankhmar, published in 1968, and seem like a pretty obvious candidate to become a D&D monster), but the last doesn't actually seem all that likely since it would be the only such case in the dungeon - everything else except for the one "special" monster on level 10 comes straight out of the D&D Vol. 2 monster list  (or, for the various giant animals - spiders, beetles, ants, hogs, etc. - the dungeon encounter tables in Vol. 3)


18 comments:

  1. Indeed, these are like three books rolled into one. Should've been three saddle stitched booklets instead.

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  2. The additions to the dungeon itself are bizarrely puzzling. I cannot grok it. I would have been down for notes discussing how the original play went. As an amateur D&D archaeologist, *that* would be worth the price of admission for me. You've hit the nail on the head: "We do not assume that you or your players have ever played an RPG before. This entire book is a lesson on how to play these games and how to combine new and old play concepts in order to create an enriching play session." Wut?

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  3. Still digesting my copy, but I have come to similar conclusions. The most interesting part, which feels genuinely fresh despite its great age, is the dungeon design style. D. H. Boggs did a deep dive on his blog, and it is really a different paradigm from the Lake Geneva or Judges Guild approach. You start getting ideas from it, and you could apply it to something more elaborate. The game archaeology part is cool, too; you can see the raw energy and ideas that would become D&D emerging from pure imagination. Strong frontier energy.

    The rest, well, it is sort of filler. Even the expanded rooms amount to Monster/Treasure allocations with more words. But it is good to see this piece of history being made available, even if it is a super-niche interest within a niche hobby. For all the Gygax -vs- Arneson conflict still being fought, my inner antiquarian is happy.

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  4. Interesting review, thank you. I don't really collect, just play, so I'll pass. But it certainly sounds interesting and adds to the history of D&D.

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  5. If, on close inspection of the photographically reproduced maps you find yourself noticing bloody fingermarks and can't help decoding other stray marks as real world map symbols don't go wandering off like the MR James antiquarian who finds himself pawed to death, in an old house, by a hairy shadow.

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  6. I appreciate the amount of effort spent on writing such a long review, but I do feel compelled to address some misapprehensions.

    >>> Dave Megarry, who was spending the summer in Boston,
    Megarry moved to Boston in 1974 and he took a copy of Tonisborg Dungeon with him, having been encouraged by Gygax to start a D&D fanbase there. He left Boston a few years later and sent boxes of things to his parents house for storage - in one of which was the copy of Tonisborg. After leaving TSR he moved back to Boston, this time with Greg Svenson who had the originals of Tonisborg with him. He asked Greg if he could make a photocopy and then lost them. Both Svenson and Megarry thought Tonisborg was gone for good having forgotton the earlier photocopy sitting in a storage box.

    >>>There's probably no point in actually playing it - anyone with a copy of the rules and a set of dice can come up with something just as good on their own.

    Except nobody has come up with a dungeon design like that since. The stocking list is not so important, being temporary and predominantly by the book as you note, although btb dungeons aren't all that common either really.

    >>>filled with anecdotes and interview quotes from Arneson and various members of his circle (a lot of it seemingly drawn from Secrets of Blackmoor)

    No, Griff only contributed a couple quotes, the rest were from my research. They are all cited so it is easy enough to tell.


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  7. >>>Generally pretty solid advice (and, I would note, little if anything that Gary Gygax would've disagreed

    I should hope so - I quoted from three of his players including his original co-DM.

    >>>Early in this section they make this statement: "We do not assume that you or your players have ever played an RPG before. This entire book is a lesson on how to play these games and how to combine new and old play concepts in order to create an enriching play session." Really?

    The book is intended to be timeless and aimed primarily at players of "new" editions of D&D, whether that is 5th or 6th or 18th edition of D&D.

    I totally agree that the advice section is not of much utility to fellow grognards, but again the book is meant to be timeless - a hundred years from now we won't be around to complain about being told what we already know, but the book will be and that is the point.

    As to the expensive "artisan books", - well Griff Morgan really likes high end books and he is in charge of publishing, but it was always the intention - as both Greg and I insisted - that affordable mass market/PoD and pdf. versions be made available after Griff's delux copies had run their course. You bought your copy for $30, so... yeah.

    >>>... but because I've only experienced the debased Gygaxian version for idiots and not TRV ARNESONIAN DND I've never been exposed to this revolutionary concept. Thanks, guys!

    ??? The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg is NOT Arnesonian D&D, and doesn't claim to be. The advice section was mostly - about 75% - written by Griff, and the rest by me, and neither of us are Twin Cities players. Sure I threw in a lot of cool quotes from Twin Cities guys and we like to talk about their gaming because that is where Greg is from and that's his friends, but I also pulled in quotes from Kuntz and Mornard. I suggest you are upset at a straw man.

    >>>This bizarre confusion about who the audience of this book is supposed to be is compounded by the final third of the book, which is an entire "retroclone" version of the original D&D rules. These "Champions of ZED: Zero Edition Dungeoneering" rules were apparently previously published in a standalone version before being included here and purport to be a true-to-Arneson representation of the game.

    ZED most certainly does not purport that. I have to say this isn't the first time I heard some strange claim about what the ZED rules are supposed to be, and I'm beginning to think nobody bothers to read the introduction. In a nutshell ZED draws on Beyond This Point be Dragons, the 3lbb's and the house rules of both Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in equal measure. Although it is fair to say there is a bit more of Arneson in ZED than in the 3lbb's, the ruleset is still more Gygaxian than Arnesonian overall because of the heavy BTPbD/3lbb content and Gygaxian house rules.

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  8. >>>to the extent any of them actually do represent material that was used by Arneson and present in the pre-publication drafts but was left out of the published game that's, if anything, a testament to Gygax's editing...

    None of the Arnesonian material included in ZED was present in pre-publication drafts. The combat system was drawn from the draft and is Gygaxian.

    >>>Curiously, except for a couple pages about dungeon-stocking, nothing else from vol. 3 is included - nothing on outdoor adventuring, castle building, barony management, expert hirelings, aerial combat, or waterborne adventures. Maybe this material was included in the standalone version of Champions of ZED but was excluded here as not being relevant to play within the Tonisborg dungeons?

    That's right.

    >>>*This one is a mild curiosity because wererats weren't actually included in the original D&D set and were added to the game with Supplement I (Greyhawk) in 1975.

    The wererats were a twin cities thing, inspired by the book as you guessed. Same with the Ylth'yl on the 10th level.

    Anyway this was fun. Thanks again for doing the review.

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    1. Thanks for reading the review and taking the time to make these responses. Lots of good context and clarifications and additional info here, and I must sheepishly confess a couple of the corrections you noted are things I spotted/realized as I continued reading after posting the review but was too lazy to come in here and edit (mostly because I can't edit from my phone which is what I mostly use during the week - I busted out the laptop to make this reply.

      I really do think this is a remarkable book (and apologize for the claim that anyone with a set of dice could do as well - I was referring strictly to the keys; the maps (as you and Melan have noted, and I also noted in the review) really are exceptional and unusual and worthy of study and analysis as a road not taken at the very least - one wonders how the "standard" dungeon might have developed differently had something like this been included as the sample dungeon in the D&D set) and am glad you guys released it (and even more glad that you released the mass-market-priced edition so I could own it). I've also had a couple people reach out to me since posting this review to say they're planning to pick up the pdf version once it's released, so hopefully that won't be too far away.

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  9. As there are two readerships, the Intended and the Likely, the Likely being people like me who bought up most of the oldest material out of curiosity (FFC, WoHF, Arduin et al.), it should make sense to offer two editions.

    One edition would be cheaper and cleaner without any material ... "aimed primarily at players of 'new' editions of D&D, whether that is 5th or 6th or 18th edition of D&D." [DHBoggs]

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  10. Interesting read, thanks Fos.

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  11. what discord or forums have active discussion of 1e and OSRIC? looking for somewhere to talk adventure design and rules and ideas

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    1. I don't really use Discord so I don't know, but my understanding is there are several active channels. Maybe another more in-the-loop reader will see this and let you know. Forum-wise there's not much. The defaults (as far as I know) are still Dragonsfoot and Knights & Knaves Alehouse but both of those have major issues (the former overrun by pedantic rules-lawyers and morons, the latter overrun by right-wing culture warriors) so I'd hesitate to recommend either one :/

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  12. Okay thanks very much

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    1. Dragonsfoot is fine. So is Knights & Knaves. There are a few bad actors on these forums but, at least in the case of Dragonsfoot, less then there used to be. And in truth, no forum membership is perfect. There are always problem children. Try it out for yourself. If you try it and don't like it, no harm no foul. At least you made that decision yourself and didn't let someone else make it for you.

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    2. Yeah, despite my misgivings I still post at Dragonsfoot (and recently passed the 20th anniversary of creating my account there).

      I did give up on Knights & Knaves about a year ago, though, following an exodus of many of the other most reasonable and interesting longtime posters (including most of the mods/admins) a few months earlier. I didn't want to, because I was literally the last remaining member of the original mod/admin staff chosen by the board's now-deceased founder, but when it was made clear to me that I was on my own and everybody else was in favor of (or at least not opposed to) allowing the site to become a culture-war grievance repository in the manner of theRPGsite, I realized it was no longer a place I was interested in hanging around or being associated with. Which is a shame, because at one time the quality of discussion and project collaboration there was pretty high (it gave us OSRIC and Monsters of Myth and The Hyqueous Vaults, and a lot of the material that ended up in The Heroic Legendarium was also workshopped there).

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    3. I don't know. I've seen Kellri put the clamp on such talk. Certainly KnK is nowhere near as bad as theRPGsite, in that regard. Nowhere close to that.

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    4. That's good to hear. Maybe he clamped down more after I left (and/or maybe some of the bad actors also left).

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