8.2 /10 1 Votes
4.2/5 Goodreads Pages 60 Genre Role-playing game | 4/5 DriveThruRPG Publication date 1976 Originally published 1976 Page count 60 Publisher TSR | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Works by Gary Gygax, Role-playing game books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Idiom eldritch wizardry lazarus arisen
Eldritch Wizardry is a supplementary rulebook by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume, written for the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game, which included a number of significant additions to the core game. Its product designation is TSR 2005.
Contents
Contents
Eldritch Wizardry introduced psionics and the druid character class. The sixty page supplement added several other new concepts to the D&D game, including demons (and their lords Orcus and Demogorgon), psionics-using monsters (such as mind flayers), and artifacts (including the Rod of Seven Parts and the Axe of the Dwarvish Lords).
Publication history
Eldritch Wizardry was written by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume and published by TSR in 1976 as a sixty-page digest-sized book, and was the third supplement to the original D&D rules. The supplement was part of the continued expansion of D&D in 1976, which also included Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes and Swords & Spells.
It bears the designation Supplement III, following the Greyhawk and Blackmoor supplements, which were released the previous year, and its product number was TSR 2005. Illustrations were provided by David C. Sutherland III, Tracy Lesch, and Gary Kwapisz, with a cover by Deborah Larson. The booklet was edited by Tim Kask.
John Eric Holmes' 1977 Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set was a revision of the original Dungeons & Dragons plus the Greyhawk, Blackmoor, and Eldritch Wizardry supplements. Some of the anti-D&D moral panic had started with the 1976 publication of Eldritch Wizardry.
The Eldritch Wizardry supplement was reproduced as a premium reprint on November 19, 2013, as part of a deluxe, premium reprint of the original "White Box" which featured new packaging in an oaken box. Each booklet featured new cover art but was otherwise a faithful reproduction of the original, including original interior art.
Reception
Space Gamer Magazine gave a positive review, saying "It's as good as Greyhawk, and that's saying a lot. It should put the spice of danger and unpredictability back into D&D, and partially satiate that hunger for new material that typifies D&D enthusiasts everywhere."
RPGnet reviewed the book in 2001 as vintage nostalgia rating it with a 4 for style ("Classy and well done"), and a 4 for substance ("Meaty"), and saying "From the depths of RPG history, it's one of the books that started it all."