Clik here to view.
Publisher: Wizards of the CoastYou're guiding your party through a dense swamp. Suddenly, the jaws of three large crocodiles snap menacingly. The fighter draws his sword, and the magic-user prepares to cast a spell. The crocodiles creep slowly closer.
Time out. Have to find the tables in the rules.
Resolving combat is just a dice roll away if you have the D and amp;D Combat Shield. All the tables you need are included on this handy 3-panel screen: monster hit rolls, saving throws, armor class, variable weapon damage, and several others. Experience tables for each character class are also given. The Combat Shield also comes with an Expert Game mini-adventure: and quot;The Treasure of the Hideous One. and quot; The adventure features a ready-to-use treasure and quot;map and quot; that you may introduce into your campaign when your players find clues to a lost treasure. Several interesting and quot;encounters and quot; are thrown in, too, so you'll have plenty of chances to use the Combat Shield.
Three crocodiles? No problem!
Product History
AC2: and quot;Combat Shield and Mini-Adventure and quot; (1984), by David and quot;Zeb and quot; Cook, is the second Game Accessory for the Basic D and amp;D Game. It was published in January 1984.
About the Title. This accessory is called a and quot;Combat Shield and quot; rather than the more common and quot;Gamemaster's Screen and quot; (or and quot;Dungeon Master's Screen). It would be the only time that TSR used this name. In fact, implying that combat is the focus of a GM's screen is quite rare, though ICE published a and quot;Middle-earth Role Playing Combat Screen and quot; (1984, 1989, 1993) and a and quot;Space Master Combat Screen and quot; (1988) for some of their own games.
Origins (I): Increasing AC. The and quot;Combat Shield and Mini-Adventure and quot; (1984) is the second gaming accessory for the Frank Mentzer version of the Basic D and amp;D line. Its predecessor was AC1: and quot;The Shady Dragon Inn and quot; (1983), a book of NPCs; the and quot;Combat Shield and quot; was a much more typical gaming accessory for the period.
The and quot;Combat Shield and quot; is also notable for it label of and quot;Basic and Expert Game Accessory and quot; making it the first explicit crossover product for the Basic D and amp;D line. As it happens and quot;The Shady Dragon Inn and quot; supported both of the extant Basic D and amp;D sets too, but it was more subtle in doing so, saying it was and quot;for D and amp;D Fantasy Game and quot;.
Origins (II): A History of GM Screens. The first GM's screen in the roleplaying industry was the and quot;Judges Shield and quot; (1977) produced by Judges Guild for OD and amp;D. TSR got into the the act just a few years later with an AD and amp;D and quot;Dungeon Master's Screen and quot; (1979).
Shortly afterward, TSR came up with the idea of packaging a short adventure with their screens and then produced such packages for most of their games, including the and quot;Boot Hill Referee's Screen and Mini-Module and quot; (1981), the and quot;Gamma World Referee's Screen and Mini-Module and quot; (1981), the and quot;Top Secret Administrator's Screen and Mini-Module and quot; (1982), GWAC1: and quot;Gamma World Referee's Screen and Mini-Module and quot; (1983), and the and quot;Star Frontiers Referee's Screen and Mini-Module and quot; (1983). The and quot;Combat Shield and quot; was TSR's first attempt to apply this new methodology to one of their D and amp;D games.
About the Screen. The and quot;Combat Screen and quot; is an interesting example of the design an early GM screen. Though the GM's side has some of the things you'd expect like monster hit rolls, monster reactions, and experience charts for killing things, it also rather surprisingly has most of the player tables, like saving throws, turn undead tables, character hit rolls, and even thief abilities. It's a sign of how much the GM was seen as the arbiter of the game rules in the early days of the hobby.
Meanwhile, the player side of the screen is a bit of a mess. The players get to look at the cover copy and the back cover copy(!), plus a panel of character experience charts. Publishers would resolve this problem in later GM screen releases by putting a flimsy dust jacket over the actual screen, so that the GM could discard the sales copy before he started using the screen.
Adventure Tropes. The mini-adventure, and quot;The Treasure of the Hideous Ones and quot;, begins with a tiny six-location hex crawl. Cook then switches things up with a more freeform sort of wilderness exploration, set on a square-gridded(!) map of an island. Since the adventure is for characters levels 4-7, this fits in perfectly with the adventure tropes of the D and amp;D Expert Rules (1981, 1983).
Exploring the Known World. Despite being such a small adventure, and quot;The Treasure of the Hideous Ones and quot; is clearly set in the Known World. It starts in and quot;the small village of Luln and quot;, which appeared back on the original map of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos found in the first Expert Rules (1981). The exploratory hex map and quot;does not exactly match any map in the Expert rules and quot;, but there's certainly room for it northwest of Luln.
Monsters of Note. and quot;The Treasure of the Hideous Ones and quot; introduces the cay-men, one-foot-tall lizardmen-like humanoids. They'd become one of the unique humanoids of the Known World, appearing in X9: and quot;The Savage Coast and quot; (1985) and later supplements set in that area.
NPCs of Note. Underlying the connections to Karameikos, some of the backstory talks about Duke Stefan the Hermit, who apparently ruled this area a hundred years before. He obviously was intended to be an ancestor of and quot;Duke Stefan Karameikos the Third and quot;, who was introduced in the Expert Rules, but his position as a duke is more troublesome, as Traladara only became the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, under Duke Stefan III, as revealed in and quot;GAZ1: The Grand Duchy of Karameikos and quot; (1987). (There are certainly possible retcons and explanations, but in the main this shows how undefined the Known World was before the Gazetteers appeared.)
About the Creators. Cook was the author of the original D and amp;D Expert Rules and one of the co-creators of the Known World, so writing a short Known Worlds wilderness adventure was very much a return home for him.
About the Product Historian
The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of and nbsp;Designers and amp; Dragons and nbsp;- a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.