Homemade AD&D module from 1981

Around 1981, a book called Down in the Dungeon was published. It featured the theme of a dungeon and pages and pages of paintings of scenes inspired by fantasy roleplaying game play. The book included a view of several levels of the actual maze of the dungeon, and images of the denizens.

Inspired by this, I mapped out the dungeon presented on graph paper, then filled a notebook with a GM’s guide to the contents, all statted out for AD&D first edition. I’ll attach a scan of all 35 pages of my dungeon notes. You can see the format was inspired by the D&D modules of the time: numbered rooms, with GM notes in one color ink and words to read the players in another color ink. And many rooms have references to pages from the Down in the Dungeon to show the players.

I am totally amazed at the amount of work I put into this — all hand written too.

I post a link to the scan (it’s too big to attach) as a historical document for admiration and discussion. I’ve also scanned Down in the Dungeon, but I am uncertain of the copyright implications of providing it, so I’ve just included the cover.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VuMGsUdxI2K1xqUht5qrKvcp9swzIffu/view?usp=sharing


4 responses to “Homemade AD&D module from 1981”

    • Amazing write-up and details,

      Amazing write-up and details, Alan. I created something like this about 3 – 4 years back for my group (they like DMing from modules, I like creating new adventures), but most of it is lost now. I can see the time and effort you put into it. Well done.

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