Back in the day, my teenage epiphanies came thick and fast. Gary Gygax showed my the way, and not just with his name (all those anagrams he used). Not with the high camp of 4e with it's glossy fetish armour, butch muscle marys and over-sized weapons, but with the clumsy eroticism of 1e AD&D. The PHB cover - that team of desperate slender bearded man, the MM cover - with the centaur (part man part horse) with big club, bearded unicorn, and cock-nose troll gripping his bone - clues and symbols confirmed by the DMG's attention to dungeon dressing, clothing and condiments tables. Oh, I was game for exploring the unknown.
After coming across many weapons of variable damage (I still favour the guisarme) I learnt more about OD&D, how it started down in a basement, the yin/yang of Gygax/Arneson coming up with Alignment (I bet your character was Neutral), the swings-both-ways classing of manly bearded Elves, the how-many eyestalks Beholder, rods and orbs, the Purple Worm (and can I say, Rules Cyclopedia cover - the girth ..hello), gelatinous enemas cleaning out passages - too much.
There still seems to be a lot of AC/DC confusion in the gaming world but I feel heartened by the ever-present double-entendres (James Raggi's 'Grinding Gear' - I ask you) that help keep the game smutty, adolescent, and ever-so-queer. With this blog I shall endeavour to poke into the nooks and crannies of the OSR, reviewing the cream-of-the-crop.
xoxo
