Found him in the pages of an old issue of White Dwarf I found in my stacks of old cool stuff.
Issue #26 to be exact, from...you guessed it..."back in '81" (Aug/Sep 1981), had a nice little writeup I could have used "back in..." Ok, I'll stop doing that (for now).
Here's a shot of the 1-pager "Lizardmen as Player Characters" by Roger E. Moore and Michael Brown, from that issue:
The article mentions two novels as inspiration for such a beast as a PC: "The Doomfarers of Coramonde" by Brian Daley and "Quag Keep" by Andre Norton. "Doomfarers" I have no recollection of, but "Quag Keep" is an old favorite of mine, and maybe I unknowingly used Gulth, the lizardman in that story, as inspiration for my guy...dunno.
I haven't read "Return to Quag Keep" yet, but I do linger on it, every once in a while, at good ol' Barnes&Noble.
In summary, I guess my messed-up 8th grade mind wasn't too nutty, rolling up a Lizardman as my first PC in Moldvay's Basic D&D. So there!
9 comments:
Doomfarers of Coramonde is a personal favorite of mine. A fun read. Available at just about any used bookstore.
Well, I had better snatch one up then. I can't seem to stay away from the used bookshops around here, so I will grab a copy next time out. Thanks for the tip!
BTW, your blog (the lair) is one of the very first I ever read. It's been a favorite mine ever since. Great work there, bro.
White Dwarf always had the most fantastic art, and that's a great illustration.
BTW, your profile pic of the Nogra is from the first issue of The Dragon I ever bought. :)
@Scott:
You are spot on on the White Dwarf artwork. I wish I had more old issues of WD. I have tons of Dragon (and some Dungeon) issues, but not too many White Dwarf.
And yeah, I have always loved that Nogra pic. Jeff Dee had some amazing work back then (still now, too). The huge 1-pager "Pally claiming Dragon kill" pic from "Rogues Gallery" (http://paratime.ca/v_and_v/pics/jeffdee/paladin01.jpg) is my alltime fave of his. Then again, I always liked Pallies, so there ya go.
The old-school art was so amazing, Dee, Otus, Willingham, and Roslof all had graphics that I would just stare at as a youth, and still appreciate today.
Thanks too for the plug in your T&T post on your blog. I am now a faithful follower...hehe. Nice work there. Very interesting (and vast!) concept you have there for your setting/world/game (http://worldofthool.blogspot.com/). Very cool!
I was never a big Jeff Dee fan for D&D, but I liked his stuff for Villains & Vigilantes. Erol Otus was my favorite along with Trampier, and I really liked Willingham and Roslof as well. Reading so much T&T lately has also reacquainted me with Liz Danforth's stuff.
Roslof was nice enough to do a small commission for me recently:
http://tinyurl.com/97qv8f
Glad to have someone else paying attention to my ramblings on the Thool blog. I'm kind of all over the place on that one. :)
I have just recently finished "Return to Quag Keep" and I must warn you that the Lizard Man character appears only at the beginning and at the very end of the book. He wanders off to the north to the swamps (for which he apparently is pining) and doesn't take part in the "action" of the story.
[note word verification: winge]
@The Evil DM: well I did grab a copy of "The Doomfarers of Coramonde" a couple days ago. I was out for some last minute Christmas shopping and drove past one of my favorite used paperback shops. They had two copies...now they have one. ;>] Thanks for the tip!
@Mild Colonial Boy, Esq.: Ahhh...interesting. I have often wondered if a sequel to Quag Keep would be any good. Not that the lack of Lizardman action makes it good or not, just saying. I may still check it out, once I finish these other 60 or so tomes in my "den of dorkness."
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