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I've been up to stuff, but not so much stuff for the blog, so... I'll do what I used to do and point y'all to 1d6chan. Which was 1d4chan back when.

Over there I've an interest in the deep archaeology of the D&D genre. A (grade-four) classmate, name of Silas, gave me the Mentzer Basic set for my tenth birthday. My parents got me more material the following Christmas, including the Moldvay Basic and the Marsh Expert sets. Over the next year we'd acquired still more (I say we because my little bro got Descent into the Depths, "official module of GenCon XI" - used). I certainly had the Companion Set in fifth grade. Also some AD&D but maybe I wasn't then ready for it - I'll get to this.

These days I've been pondering the stuff which TSR did not publish, in either line. But still important stuff.

Take Paul Jaquays' The Caverns of Thracia. This has turned out a bigger deal than I'd thought. I mean, I already knew that his M5 module added the fourth dimension to that Moldvay-Cook Known World we now call Mystara. Much more so - I propose - than Niles could manage with Alphatia. Here, we see how it was that the TSR writers had to sit up and pay attention to Jaquays such that M5 could happen.

(Where debased mages make themselves into liches in their elder life; it seems that, today, roleplayers become ... Jaquays. We didn't have JK Rowling to warn us, back then. But! back to the main post :-)

Another module I've covered is that module which laid out what was played at GenCon X, in 1977. I shan't name it; roll your cursor over that link. This wasn't as memorable except inasmuch as it might represent the last ten-level dungeon in the lore.

Among the supplements I'd got as a fourth-grader was the Monster and Treasure Assortment. This came out before the Palace of the Silver Princess. This came out before the G1-2-3 and the aforementioned D1-2 bundles. I remember thinking at the time - what the hell is a "Type III Demon"? Marsh's Expert Set didn't tell me. Why would we care to dig into a ninth or tenth level? Marsh was pointing me to wilderness adventure! (And the Companion Set was talking about ruling counties and leading armies.)

I think that, over the 1970s, which may not be appreciated by younger GenX as got to the hobby through Mentzer, the hobby was dominated by the deeper dungeon delve. Computer gamers see aspects of this in Nethack and Rogue. The "Roguelike" take on dungeons kept this up even after Lakofka's failure in GenCon XII which, those players complained, was a step back from the Depths in GenCon XI. I don't know that software gamers got a good Underdark until Ultima V in, what, 1988.