Abandoned & weird retrogeek stuff

The last character was inspired by more of a modern mythical creature, a cryptid. Probably the most well-known one, next to your yetis and sasquatches.

As for a little bit of his story:

How to Mardi Gras in D&D – Dave Trampier’s infamous orgy from Dragon magazine #10, October 1977, for the article “D&D Option:  Orgies Inc.” by John Pickens.

The article proposes a simple solution to excessive loot accumulation:

Instead of receiving experience for gaining treasure, players would receive experience only as the treasure is spent.

There are suggested calculations to convert gp value to experience, and the stipulation that:

Only special expenditures reflecting the characteristics of a character class count toward experience.

Pickens gives five examples:

Sacrifices to a god – all classes

Philanthropy – lawfuls

Research – magic users and alchemists

Clan Hoards – dwarves and other clannish folk

Orgies – fighters (excluding rangers and paladins), bards, thieves, all chaotics (except monks).  If you have enough gold:

If you follow us on Instagram (@agslibrary), you know we are big fans and participants in Map Monster Monday, which was started by the folks over at the Boston Public Library’s Leventhal Map Center. 

To kick off our first Map Monster Monday on Tumblr, we are pleased to share with you a 1573 work by the famous cartographer Abraham Ortelius. 

Ortelius was the leader of the Golden Age of Map-Making in the Netherlands in the late 16th and early 17th century. An earlier work of his, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, or “Theatre of the World,” (stay tuned, we may be posting from this work soon), is widely considered the first modern atlas. 

Ortelius (and other map-makers from his day) drew monsters in the seas of their maps to captivate readers’ attentions and sell more pieces. They also intended to inspire a sense of excitement in the risky and dangerous unknown.

For example, the images in this 1573 atlas are accompanied on the next page with descriptions of the monsters (translated from Latin). To match a monster to its description, note the letter next to the monsters in the first image in this series:

C. “The BURCHVALUR has a head bigger than its entire body. It has many very strong teeth, of which they make chess pieces. It is 60 cubites long.”

D. “The HYENA or sea hog is a monstrous kind of fish about which you may read in the 21st book of Olaus Magnus.”

E. “Ziphius is a horrible sea monster that swallows a black seal in one bite.”

F. “The English whale, thirty ells long. It has no teeth but its tongue is seven ells in length.”

G. “HROSHUALUR, that is to say as much as sea horse, with manes hanging down from its neck like a horse. It often causes great hurt and scare to fisherman.”

I. “SKAUTUHVALUR. This fish is fully covered with bristles or bones. It is somewhat like a shark or skite, but infinitely bigger. When it appears, it is like an island, and with its fins it overturns boats and ships.”

Were they ringed?

Did they droop?

Maybe they sat at a 90 degree angle to the elephant’s face?

Or maybe they were more like trumpets?

Some artists stuck to what they knew and just drew dogs with tubes on the front

Others decided trunks were a mistake and made the whole face long

And these guys gave up completely.