From the Zenopus Archives: Good fun!

From the Zenopus Archives: Good fun!

https://sites.google.com/site/zenopusarchives/

I’ve gathered together a list of some the more obscure allusions, homages and motifs that I or others have noticed in the Holmes rulebook. 

This list focuses on the later portions of the rulebook. Dr. Holmes edited the first Basic rulebook from the text of the original D&D booklets, as well as the Greyhawk and Blackmoor supplements, but Gary indicated that Holmes wrote the Sample Dungeon himself. 

The Holmes Basic rulebook was first published at some point in mid-1977. The page numbers below refer to the revised 2nd edition rulebook, which was published in Nov 1978.

Disclaimer: Some of these connections may be purely coincidental!

* * * * * * * * * * 

Monster List – Giant Rats (pg 27)

The entry for Giant Rats indicates they are “also known as Sumatran Rats”

This alludes to an untold Sherlock Holmes story involving “the giant rat of Sumatra”, which is briefly mentioned in The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire (1924) by Arthur Conan Doyle. The entry for Giant Rats is not present in the earliest printings of the Holmes Basic rulebook; it was added by the 2nd edition (Nov 1978), and is a version of the entry for Giant Rat from the Monster Manual (Dec 1977), which also refers to them as Sumatran. Thus, this allusion probably originated with Gygax (author of the Monster Manual).

Monster List – Lycanthrope (pg 30)

“Thus we find were-wolves in Europe, were-tigers in India, were-leopards in Africa and were-sharks in Polynesia”

In July 1976, Holmes published a short tale titled “Were-shark” in Alarums & Excursions #11. This tale reads as a campaign encounter and features a gruesome wereshark that is half-man, half-shark. This tale later appeared in revised form as Chapter 2 (“Dark Water”) of his Boinger and Zereth novel, Maze of Peril, published in 1986 but written as early as 1979. Of note, Holmes lived in Hawaii for a time as a youth (where he met Edgar Rice Burroughs), and there is a traditional Hawaiian tale of Nanaue the Shark Man. Also of note, Jaws was released in the summer of 1975. Dragon #14 (May 1978) made a brief mention of the were-shark (“a natural for mermen”) in an article on Lycanthropy by Gregory Rihn. Gary Gygax later included a version of the wereshark in the Monster Manual 2 (1983).

SAMPLE CROSS SECTION OF LEVELS (pg 39)

The illustrated Sample Cross Section of Levels features a “Great Stone Skull” on Stone Mountain, and an underground city. A “Great Stone Skull” appears in the Conan story “Shadows in the Skull” by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. It’s in a southern region (south of Zembabwei) and is home to a city of serpent-folk. This story is most easily found in the book Conan of Aquilonia (1977), a compilation of four Conan stories, but was first published as the featured story in the February 1975 issue of Fantastic magazine. This places the story’s first publication before that of the Holmes Basic Set in 1977. This story was later illustrated in King Conan #4 (Marvel, Dec 1980). While it remains to be shown conclusively whether the details of the illustration originate with Holmes or someone else at TSR (e.g., the artist), there is a feature similar to The Pit in Holmes’ later novel Maze of Peril. Furthermore, Holmes was a fan of Conan: he once contracted with L. Sprague De Camp to write a Conan sequel set in Africa (“Conan on the River of Doom”), and though paid for it was canceled before completion by the editor. He also wrote in his 1980 Psychology Today article that his “players have wandered through bits of Barsoom and Hyperborea”. Holmes also referenced Howard’s Conan stories elsewhere in the Basic rulebook (see below).

The Sample Cross Section also has a Domed City on the 7th Level. The “domed city” is common enough in science fiction to have an entry on Wikipedia. The dome provides atmosphere containment for harsh environments such as under the sea or in space (or perhaps underground?). Of note, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom (Mars) had crystal-domed cities in the land of Okar near the north pole of Mars (Warlord of Mars, 1913). Holmes wrote an authorized sequel to Burroughs’ Pellucidar series, titled the Mahars of Pellucidar (1976), which featured the Mahars living in an elaborate underground city (although not domed per se). Also of note, the popular sci-fi movie Logan’s Run was released in the year before the Basic Set was published, and featured an underground domed city where post-apocalyptic human survivors lived sheltered lives.

Dungeon Mastering as a Fine Art (pg 40-41)

“When characters swear they call on the wrath of their appropriates deities, be it Zeus, Crom, Cthulhu or whatever” (pg 40)

In the Example of play, the Caller exclaims “Crom’s Devils!” (pg 41).

Here, Holmes makes a suggestion for role-playing and then demonstrates its use in the example. The “Crom’s Devils” curse is used by Robert E. Howard’s Conan in several stories such as the Hour of the Dragon and Black Colossus. Later, Holmes’ character Zereth the elf uses this expression in the Maze of Peril novel. The rulebook also points new DMs to the works of Robert E. Howard further down on page 41.

The sentence on page 40 also contains one of the earlier references to Cthulhu in a D&D rulebook. Soon after, Holmes co-wrote an article with Rob Kuntz detailing the Cthulhu mythos for D&D (“Lovecraftian Mythos in D&D”, Dragon #12, February 1978). Holmes was later thanked in the acknowledgments section of Deities & Demigods (1980), which was co-authored by Kuntz and included the Cthulhu mythos. Later, Holmes’ novel Maze of Peril featured a underground race of Lovecraftian frogmen – the Dagonites.

Sample Dungeon

“The sorcerer Zenopus built a tower” (pg 41)

The name of the sorcerer is very close to Xenopus, which means “strange foot” in Latin, but is also the name for a genus of African clawed frogs, which are social, aquatic, and fish-eating. The use of the name was presumably an in-joke as Dr. Holmes was a neurophysiologist and Xenopus laevis is commonly used in biology research. As mentioned above, Holmes later used frog-men in his novel Maze of Peril. The tower is perhaps alluded to in Holmes’ dedication to his 1981 book (Fantasy Role-playing Games) which includes the adventurers who plumbed the depths of the Wizard’s Tower.

Paleologos suggested in this Dragonsfoot thread that the location of sorcerer’s tower in the town is reminiscent of the sorcerer’s tower (also found inside a town) in the Conan story The Tower of the Elephant (1933). 

“the sea cliff west of the town” (pg 41)

Holmes lived in California (L.A.) at the time the basic rulebook was edited, so it makes sense that the sea is to the west. Paleologos suggested in this DF thread that the geography of Portown was influenced by Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar, which also has a sea cliff west of the town. The geography of Lankhmar is possibly loosely based on San Francisco. 

“a much older city of doubtful history” and “the older, pre-human city” (pg 41)

A pre-human civilization is reminiscent (to me, at least) of the pre-human alien civilization described in Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness (1931). Holmes furthered this concept in the Maze of Peril, descrbing a megadungeon Underworld that stretches to the center of the earth and was built by an unknown prehistoric race.

Green Dragon Inn (pg 41)

This inn takes its name from the inn in the Shire in the Lord of the Rings (which also inspired a Green Dragon in Greyhawk City, owned by Rob Kuntz’ character Robilar). Other Tolkien references are sprinkled throughout the text, including Balrogs (twice on page 14), “The “Nazgul” of Tolkien” (pg 32), and Barrow wights (as per Tolkien)” (pg 33). Furthermore, the first printing of the rulebook used the term “hobbits” throughout. In the 2nd and later printings “hobbit” was replaced with “halfling”, save for one remaining reference to “hobbits” on page 17 in the description of the spell Cure Light Wounds. The other Tolkien references remained unchanged throughout the printings. Of note, stats for Balrogs appeared in early printings of the D&D rules. Page 41 also tells the new DM that the “imaginary universe of Dungeons & Dragons obviously lies not too far the the Middle Earth of J.R.R. Tolkien’s great Lord of the Rings Trilogy”. This may be the most explicit connection between D&D and Tolkien in any of the early D&D rulebooks. Holmes later wrote that ‘this epic adult fairy tale, without a doubt the greatest work of fiction produced in this century, inflamed the imaginations of an entire generation” (pg 63, Fantasy Role Playing Games, 1981).

Room I – Bronze Mask (pg 44)

The question-answering bronze mask in this room is a version of the Brazen Head of medieval lore (which is common enough to have a Wikipedia entry). These constructs were said to be made by wizards and could answer any question. Roger Bacon was supposed to possess one, and this has appeared in literature, including John Bellairs “Face in the Frost” a 1969 fantasy novel later reviewed by Gary Gygax in Dragon #22 (pg 15, Feb 1979) and included in the inspirational reading list in Appendix N of the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide (Aug 1979).

Room J – Giant Spider (pg 44)

The giant spider in this room lurks near the roof and will “drop on unwary adventurers”. In the Tower of the Elephant, a giant spider drops on Conan from the ceiling of a room in the tower.

Rooms L and M – Giant Crab and Large Octopus (pg 44)

The 1961 movie Mysterious Island (with special effects by Ray Harryhausen) also features a giant crab hidden in the sand on a beach, and also a giant octopus-like creature. The movie is based on the 1875 Jules Verne novel of the same name, but the novel does not include a giant crab or octopus. Holmes had previously used a giant octopus-like creature hiding in an underground river in Mahars of Pellucidar (1976). And his August 1976 “Adventure of the Giant Chameleon” in Alarums & Excursions #13 mentions a scroll of “charm mollusc” that later came in handy with the kraken in the Adventure of the Sorcerer’s Isle (the tale of which was never told). Holmes later used the giant crab hidden on the beach in Maze of Peril.

Room M is also the pirates’ sea cave hideout. Pirates hiding treasures in sea caves seems to be a well-known conceit (I have children’s book about caves that mentions it), though I haven’t found any specific literary sources (fantasy or otherwise) using this.

Room N – Dancing Dagger (pg 45)

The animated dagger found in sarcophagus #2 is perhaps a variant of the Dancing Sword, which first appeared in the Greyhawk: Supplement I. The Dancing Sword itself may have been inspired by Stormbringer, which could fight while floating in the air (e.g., in The Sleeping Sorceress, 1971).

Room S2 – Ape and Wand (pg 45)

Kveldulf suggested in this DF thread that the ape in the wizard’s tower is reminiscent of the ape kept by the Red Priest Nabonidius in the Conan story Rogues in the House (1934). Also, in the Conan story the Tower of the Elephant a sorcerer keeps a captive creature (not an ape) in the upper room of a tower. Going back further, in Edgar Allen Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) a sailor keeps an orangutang captive in Paris. A common theme throughout these, including the Holmes scenario, is the hatred of the captive primate for its master. 

The thaumaturgist’s wand of petrifaction is similar to the wand wielded by the White Witch in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe of the Chronicles of Narnia. It requires a to-hit roll, which may imply it is a touch-based attack similar to the wand of the White Witch (thanks to Lemunda’s Brother for pointing this out in this Knights & Knaves Alehouse thread). On the other hand, the Holmes rules require a “to hit” roll for Magic Missile so the wand could also be interpreted as having a ray-based attack).

Comments welcome!

(cross-posted to Knights & Knaves Alehouse and Dragonsfoot)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7cav44145d9SlphWFdpVDNSOFk/view?usp=sharing