TOWN DESIGN: ENTERING HOMMLET - INTRO

WARNING: this post ended up being more of a background than actually about "town design" hence the "intro" in the title; however, I felt it appropriate to come before what comes after, so I left the title as is...

I have mentioned this before, but the first time I ever played D&D I was seven-years-old & my fighter PC, Kron*, wandered into the town of Hommlet. I vividly remember the green cover of the module & the removable grid-papered map of the town, that the DM, who was nine (a neighbor), laid flat on the carpet to show me where I was. It took a bit of investigating, but I pinned the module down (T1: The Village of Hommlet) & bought a copy via eBay five years ago. I also remember the yellow-colored character sheet I used (another AD&Dism). That said, I dont recall seeing any other books @ all that day. My main recollection is that I found a horn of some sort (perhaps a Horn of Valhalla?) in some farmhouse & I remember John rolling 2d6 time & time again after I would tell him what I wanted to do next. The game left a huge impression on me.

But when I returned home, I was in for a strange surprise. "There's this game I played that I really want called Dungeons & Dragons," I said to my mom. "Where did you play that game? You are never to play that game ever again, you understand? That is a bad game," she said (or something like that), as if I'd just told her I'd been doing drugs & wanted her to buy some for me. I was confused & bummed (a mood mix I would grow accustomed to around this time in my life). Quite simply, I was a child of the Satanic Panic. The way I can date this rather precisely, in retrospect, is that the following Christmas, I received the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Intellivison Cartridge released in 1982 (I guess this was to appease my wishes for the real game). I also recall the Mentzer Red Box coming out not long after my interest in owning the game, due to my circumstances, had waned a bit. The one RPG I owned within this era was the Indiana Jones one that TSR put out in 1984 & it sucked. It didnt even have character generation rules. I never played it.

I mention all this for a number of reasons: 1) I am surely a bit of an anomaly within the OSR community b/c while I played early D&D mishmash a few times in the early 80's, I did not actually own the game, or play D&D or RPGs that much as a kid & 2) my interest in old school D&D comes from modern boardgaming w/ my girlfriend (now wife) & its bringing to mind that stunted desire to play D&D in the early 80's vs. any disenchantment w/ current versions of the game or modern pen/paper RPGs in general... So, as you can imagine, after perusing copies of Moldvay/Cook grabbed via eBay in 2007 & about to start up a campaign for a few friends using B2: The Keep on the Borderlands, stumbling upon the OSR blogosphere was both exciting & enlightening.  Google+, ConstantCon & FLAILSNAILS have only made it moreso & then finally there's 3) I felt that throwing this info out there would help you understand a) where I'm coming from, and b) give a solid foundation for my interest in T1: The Village of Hommlet, specifically.

I've been working on a number of towns in Furthermoor, so I felt like it was as good a time as any to do a thorough examination of T1. If you wish to play T1 one of these days & never have, I plan to give proper spoiler warning & will try not to include spoilers @ all, unless truly necessary. My plan is to zero in on specific design features that help Hommlet come alive during play, as well as highlight other peculiar/interesting things I notice in the process.

*I cant remember exactly how the name Kron came about, though I do remember I thought it was cool b/c it sounded similar to Tron. Perhaps I suggested Tron & John met me halfway w/ Kron? The reason I suggest this possibility is that "Kron" is an actual name in the Greyhawk setting, i.e. the Kron Hills, which are mentioned in T1 on pages 2 & 7 & sit just west of Hommlet.