Unpublished Manuscript by E. Gary Gygax: "Digital Dungeons & Dragons: Quest for the Witherer"
This is one of only three known copies of this unpublished adventure written by the late Gary Gygax, author of the Dungeons & Dragons game. It has never before been offered for sale on eBay or anywhere else. The package is 36 pages, including 6 pages of handwritten planning notes, a 1-page map hand-drawn with pencil, and 29 pages of typewritten text, frequently marked with hand-written comments in pencil & ink.
During my tenure as Gary's Creative Aide at TSR, I received copies of most of his creations, some for comments and review and others simply for my files; this falls into the latter category. At the time this was written, Gary was still composing his works on his trusty old typewriter. This was a rough draft, marked in many places with Gary's corrections and addenda. (It was never developed beyond this stage.)
Gary's hand-drawn map is included in this package, as well as six pages of Gary's hand-written notes -- one page directly applicable to the adventure, one page of "special languages", and four pages detailing a party of ten adventurers. It is unclear how this group would have been used in a published (or computerized) version of the adventure, but the list was copied and kept with the manuscript, so Gary must have intended to use them somehow...
The condition of the manuscript is Excellent / Outstanding; it has been in a file, undisturbed, for 25 years. I am retaining one copy for my personal collection.
History
In 1982, the executives at TSR were aware that hobby gaming wouldn't feed them forever. Gary Gygax focused his attention on expansion, and soon headed for Hollywood where he became Executive Producer of the D&D Cartoon Show. Before he left for the coast, Gary wrote this adventure for an experimental D&D computer game. TSR had dabbled in primitive computer games (including one fantasy-based, called "Theseus and the Minotaur" -- on 5 1/4" floppy discs) but they didn't sell well, probably because they were ahead of their time and were also poorly done. But Gary could see that personal computers were a growing trend, and created this solo adventure, [fully] entitled "Digital Dungeons & Dragons: Quest for the Witherer", so that TSR would expand along with the fledgling PC industry.
But while Gary was tied up with the TV show, the TSR executives remaining in Lake Geneva ignored Gary's instructions and in his vision. TSR missed their chance to be a pioneer of home computer games. This manuscript was forgotten, never to fulfill its purpose, and is one of the very few uncirculated treasures of TSR history.
-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-
This item is from the collection of Frank Mentzer, best-selling game author of the 1980s (five Dungeons & Dragons® rules boxed sets: Basic, Expert, Companion, Masters, Immortals) and one of the top game collectors in North America. Mr. Mentzer is also a featured auctioneer at the world's largest game auction at the GenCon® Game Convention (each August in Indianapolis, IN), his annual venue for most of the last 25 years. [Dungeons & Dragons and GenCon are registered trademarks of their respective owners.]
On May-20-08 at 07:02:46 PDT, seller added the following information:
Unpublished Manuscript by E. Gary Gygax: "Digital Dungeons & Dragons: Quest for the Witherer"
This is one of only three known copies of this unpublished adventure written by the late Gary Gygax, author of the Dungeons & Dragons game. It has never before been offered for sale on eBay or anywhere else. The package is 36 pages, including 6 pages of handwritten planning notes, a 1-page map hand-drawn with pencil, and 29 pages of typewritten text, frequently marked with hand-written comments in pencil & ink.
During my tenure as Gary's Creative Aide at TSR, I received copies of most of his creations, some for comments and review and others simply for my files; this falls into the latter category. At the time this was written, Gary was still composing his works on his trusty old typewriter. This was a rough draft, marked in many places with Gary's corrections and addenda. (It was never developed beyond this stage.)
Gary's hand-drawn map is included in this package, as well as six pages of Gary's hand-written notes -- one page directly applicable to the adventure, one page of "special languages", and four pages detailing a party of ten adventurers. It is unclear how this group would have been used in a published (or computerized) version of the adventure, but the list was copied and kept with the manuscript, so Gary must have intended to use them somehow...
The condition of the manuscript is Excellent / Outstanding; it has been in a file, undisturbed, for 25 years. I am retaining one copy for my personal collection.
History
In 1982, the executives at TSR were aware that hobby gaming wouldn't feed them forever. Gary Gygax focused his attention on expansion, and soon headed for Hollywood where he became Executive Producer of the D&D Cartoon Show. Before he left for the coast, Gary wrote this adventure for an experimental D&D computer game. TSR had dabbled in primitive computer games (including one fantasy-based, called "Theseus and the Minotaur" -- on 5 1/4" floppy discs) but they didn't sell well, probably because they were ahead of their time and were also poorly done. But Gary could see that personal computers were a growing trend, and created this solo adventure, [fully] entitled "Digital Dungeons & Dragons: Quest for the Witherer", so that TSR would expand along with the fledgling PC industry.
But while Gary was tied up with the TV show, the TSR executives remaining in Lake Geneva ignored Gary's instructions and in his vision. TSR missed their chance to be a pioneer of home computer games. This manuscript was forgotten, never to fulfill its purpose, and is one of the very few uncirculated treasures of TSR history.
Legal Edit/Addendum: This sale offering is only of this single copy of the work. No publication or distribution rights are included in this sale. Good Faith Attribution: There is no copyright notice on the piece, but pursuant to the 1978 U.S. Copyright Law, we must presume that this Work (i.e. the content, the text and graphics of which this is a copy) is Copyright (c) E. Gary Gygax and/or his corporation, i.e. Trigee Enterprises Corp. of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, USA.
-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-
This item is from the collection of Frank Mentzer, best-selling game author of the 1980s (five Dungeons & Dragons® rules boxed sets: Basic, Expert, Companion, Masters, Immortals) and one of the top game collectors in North America. Mr. Mentzer is also a featured auctioneer at the world's largest game auction at the GenCon® Game Convention (each August in Indianapolis, IN), his annual venue for most of the last 25 years. [Dungeons & Dragons and GenCon are registered trademarks of their respective owners.]
On May-20-08 at 10:08:20 PDT, seller added the following information:
Harrumph. Apologies for the above duplication. (Been a while since I sold anything here, and they changed everything...)
The salient corrigenda:
Legal Edit/Addendum: This sale offering is only of this single copy of the work. No publication or distribution rights are included in this sale.
Good Faith Attribution: There is no copyright notice on the piece, but pursuant to the 1978 U.S. Copyright Law, we must presume that this Work (i.e. the content, the text and graphics, of which this is a copy) is Copyright (c) E. Gary Gygax and/or his corporation, i.e. Trigee Enterprises Corp. of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, USA.
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Last edited by scribe on Thu Jun 12, 2008 3:23 am; edited 1 time in total
Interesting price!
Must admit I liked that one quite a bit since it has presumably been worn and the oxidisation/wear gives a somewhat better look than a shiny "new" buckle, IMHO.
Joined: 12 Nov 2005 Last Visit: 22 Mar 2020 Posts: 4574 Location: In the House of the Cosmic Frog
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 6:19 pm Post subject:
Quote:
Prices on rare TSR keep pushing higher...
It does seem so. Have you noticed how the mid-level TSR collectibles are coming out at a trickle now? I expect the availability of the high-end stuff to fall through the floor. Ebay's been fat with the high end for a year now, but that level of availability is unsustainable. That could change, of course, if collectors decide to start letting some things go. _________________ "This is cool."
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