Welcome to the Home of Drama Free Old School D&D Discussion.
Welcome to all of our members and visitors. The Ruins of Murkhill is the Home of Old School Dungeons and Dragons. OD&D - the Original Dungeons and Dragons is the focus of this forum, but we delve into many different old school games. Explore the forums and join the conversations!
Open Ended Original Edition Old School Fantasy Adventure Sandbox Role Playing Games (OEOEOSFASRPG™) The Open-Ended Sandbox Exploration of Dungeons, Wilderness and Cities.
Round off to the nearest dollar and you have the original printed price. This is the text of the Original Edition Premium Reprint from 2013 which has been edited to remove more references and is about 98% accurate to the original printing. OD&D Dungeons & Dragons Original Edition (0e) pdf at DriveThruRPG $9.99 The 3LBBs and the Reference Sheets.
"Swords & Spells" (1976), by Gary Gygax with Dave Arneson & Rob Kuntz, is supplement for OD&D. It was published in August 1976.
Origins (I): A Fifth Supplement. "Swords & Spells" is the fifth supplement for OD&D, published in same format as "Supplement I: Greyhawk" (1974), "Supplement II: Blackmoor" (1975), "Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry" (1976), and "Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes" (1976). However, old-school fans are adamant: you shouldn't call it "Supplement V". Most notably, it doesn't have "Supplement V" marked on the cover; more generally, it's a complementary game that carries over OD&D ideas, not a supplement per se.
There are actually many contenders for the role of OD&D's Supplement V. "Swords & Spells" is the only one that was published by TSR in the appropriate era. Steve Marsh submitted a "'Greyhawk' style set of materials" including "monsters, character classes, [and] treasures". Meanwhile, Rob Kuntz submitted his own "Supplement V: Kalibruhn" which included poison rules, a new wizardly class, and more. Neither was accepted. Marsh kept corresponding with Gary Gygax afterward (and would even intern with TSR in the summer of 1980), but TSR employee Rob Kuntz would leave in 1977, primarily due to his inability to move over to the creative side of the company.
In more recent years, OSR fans have produced their own supplemental OD&D books, such as Geoffrey McKinney's Supplement V: Carcosa (2008), Robert Conley's Supplement VI: The Majestic Wilderlands (2009), Jason Vey's Supplement VI: Forbidden Lore (2009), Robert C. Pinnell's Supplement VII: Lost Lore (2012), and a few others that weren't numbered.
As Gygax and early TSR did not call it a supplement or label it as one, it clearly is not a supplement to OD&D, what it really is, is an OD&D influenced rewrite (kinda sorta) of Chainmail. It is really a shame that the Robert J Kuntz "Supplement V: Kalibruhn" and that the Steve Marsh "Supplement VI: Name Unknow" were not published.
Important Note: if you buy these pdfs from DriveThruRPG it is important to remember that they are watermarked.
