RetroRoleplaying: The Blog

As I mentioned in my post from November 1st, my wife had a chance to get medical treatment (cancer follow-ups and her back problems -- which turned out to be partially cause by her radiation treatments for her cancer) thanks to the generosity of a local group who arranged to pay 10 times what we we gave them (the $4500) we came up with will pay for up to $45,000 in tests and treatment. Unfortunately to we had practically no advance notice on this and the only way we could come up with much money was to raid our property taxes savings account. Donna's already had 3 MRIs, 2 CT scans, X-rays, other tests, seen numerous doctors, proven to be still cancer free, discovered one of her vocal chords is paralyzed, is starting PT and will likely have surgery on her right and and wrist after the first of the year. The MRIs and CT Scans totaled almost $19,000 (one of the MRIs was so complex it was 8K alone) so this has been a great deal for her. However, if we don't raise about $3400 by the end of January we will not be able to pay the property taxes and will probably lose our house. So we are going to have a Holiday Cancer Fund Drive with a very large number of hard to find giveaway items (thanks to a bequest of old RPG games from a long time former player in my games (see this post: Received Five Boxes of Old RPG (mainly D&D) Items). This time most of the giveaway items will be D&D items from third party (i.e. not TSR) publishers from the late 1970s and early 1980s. There are a lot of items and they will be given away in up to 10 groups (generally grouped by publisher).

Here's a list of the items in the various groups:

1st Group, published by Attack International Wargaming Association or by the John Scott Clegg Company: Book of the Dragons (AIWA, 1977) and The Interfax of Spells, Necromancy and Black Magic (AIEA, 1978), Notmaidag Robber Headquarters (Clegg, 1979), The Tombs of Valla (Clegg, 1980), and The City of Valla (Clegg, 1981).

2nd Group, published by The Companions: The Curse on Hareth (1982), Plague of Terror (1983), Brotherhood of the Bolt (1983), Streets of Gems (1983), and Gems for Death (1983), and Treasure Trove I: Cards of Power (1982).

3rd Group, published by Dimension Six, Inc.: The Compleat Fantasist (1980), Mountain of Mystery (1980), The Temple to Athena (1980), The Town of Joundan (1981), The Nine Doctrines of Darkness (1980), The Second Adventure, The Nine Doctrines of Darkness (1981), and Furioso (1980).

4th Group, published by Dragon Tree Press: Monster File Number One (1981), The Handbook of Tricks and Traps (1981), The Dragon Tree Spell Book (1981), Stones of the Selt (1981), Amazon Mutual Wants You! Volume One (1982), Book of Artifacts (1981), Book of Plots Volume One (1981), and Desert Plots: Amazon Mutual II (1983).

5th Group, published by The Fantasy Factory or by Varanae: Overland Encounters: First Through Fourth Levels (Factory, 1978), Overland Encounters: Fifth Through Eighth Levels (Factory, 1978), Overland Encounters: Ninth Level and Above (Factory, 1978), The Trap Manual (Varanae, 1979), Monstrum 1 (Varanae, 1980), and Book of Dragons (Varanae, 1981).

6th Group, published by Massconfusion 1984: Dragonrunners of Kola, Torture Tower, The Tomb of St. Duncan, Lady Eileen's Castle, Werewolf Country, The Dungeon of Dr. Demento, The Book of Paith, and The Condo of Dr. Demento (all published in 1984).

7th Group, published by Phoenix Games or by Martian Game Modules: The Book of Fantasy Miniatures (Phoenix Games, 1978), The Lost Abbey of Calthonwey (Phoenix Games, 1979), The Mines of Keridav (Phoenix Games, 1982), T.H.E. Non-Player Character (Martian Game Modules, 1978), and T.H.E. Fighter (Martian Game Modules, 1979).

8th Group, published by Riverside Adventure Gaming Society (RAGS) or by North Pole Productions: Quest for Excalibur (RAGS, 1981), Temple of Veesah (RAGS, 1981), Spring Quest (RAGS, 1982),Seven Easy Pieces (RAGS, 1982), Tome of Mighty Magic (North Pole, 1982) and The Serpent Island (North Pole, 1983).

9th Group, from assorted publishers: Lair of Medusa (Delf Enterprises, 1982), The Phantastical Phantasmagorical Montie Haul Dungeon (Gamelords Ltd, 1982), Ironhoof Highlands (Group One Games, 1981), and The Book of Swords and Other Magical Weapons (Loremasters, 1982)

10th Group, from assorted publishers: The Book of Mars (The Image Game Company, 1981), Pitfall I (Inner City Game Designs, 1982), and Escape From the Minotaur's Lair (International Dungeon Designs Ltd, 1981), Down in the Dungeon (Squadron/Signal, 1981), Your Paladin Has Been Stolen!! (!By Druids!) (TAG Industries, 1981), and Order of St. Talis (Zeppelin Publications, 1979).

One group will be given away at the end of this drive for every $300 donated. If less than 10 groups end up being given away, the groups to be given away will be select randomly. 50% of the groups given away will go to the two of the five highest donors (3 for one random high donor winner, 2 for the second random high donor winner if all ten groups are given away) with the high donors able to have their choices of groups from the groups being given away (high donor selecting first). Any ties will be broken with TSR/AD&D trivia questions. The remaining groups (5 groups if all ten groups are given away) will be raffled off: for every $10 a person donates, they will receive one chance for each group of items in this raffle.

In addition, the following four special items will be raffled off as money is raised, the first item when $750 is raised, the second when the total reaches $1500, the third when the total reaches $2250, and the last when $3000 is raised:

* First 25 issues of White Dwarf magazine
* Set of AD&D books signed by Gygax (Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, DMG, Monster Manual II, Oriental Adventures, and Unearth Arcana)
* Photocopies of Domesday Book Issues 4 - 12
* The Artists of TSR (portfolio)

Occasional additional donated items (gift cards, Steam game keys, Judges Guild modules, etc.) may also be raffled off either during the drive or at the end of the drive.

Book rate postage will be free to winning donors in the US and Canada. Others will need to pay for postage over the first pound.

As usual, anyone donates anything at all (even a dollar) to the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund gets access to a few special downloads (like pdfs of two 1970s D&D fanzines I edited, a special edition of Microlite74, and more) as described on the RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund web page as well as in progress draft downloads of my current projects).

If you would like to help but cannot make a donation, please help spread the word around the blogsphere (and other places). In fact, if you make a post to your blog talking about this fundraising drive and post a link to your post in a comment to this post, we'll give you one entry in the raffle. Note: Your blog will have to have some way for us to email you if you get lucky or will will not be able to get your prize to you. I still have not been able to pass Mind Reading 101.

To get help us keep our house (and to get access to some special downloads and possibly the above mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. My apologies for having to ask for donations and my heartfelt thanks to everyone who donates. If you cannot donate but wish to help, please spread the word about my request and offer. Thanks in advance for any and all help.

(Special Note: We have already raised $270 since I mentioned this in my post from November 1st. Special thanks to our early donors!)