Erik,
I hope you are feeling better. I know it will be a long road. My family and I are thinking of you and yours.
I wish to beg a favor. Would you run this on the Tavern?
This is the mystery of “Free 100 Level Dungeon”. Does anyone have this or have more info on this Dungeon?
I have absolutely scoured there internet and asked everyone I know. Here is what I’ve learned so far. This was a half page ad from Marvel’s X-Factor, issue #28, May 1988. The address is in a shopping center in Brampton Ontario a a suburb of Toronto.
$12 USD in 1988 would be worth $26 today adjusted for inflation. I do think it’s strange that the ad doesn’t specify CAD or USD.
Without an actual title or a author’s name chances of finding this one are slim as those are the normal means of cataloguing the written word. Have you seen this or know the author? Did you ever visit Star Games in Brampton?
Funny how this is making the rounds. On redit, the user notice it was in X-Factor 28 (May, '88), so thanks to my multiclassing, I was able to get a picture of it. It was also in a Heathcliff comic from 85 but I don't have confirmation on that.
ReplyDeleteI suspect the seller was trying to pad their take by not specifying the USD or CAD. A check in US funds would have been 20% higher due to the exchange rate.
There were an amazing amount of Game ads in those years, mostly D&D but some Top Secret.
Don't forget getting the book out of CAnada into the US would have been more expensive - so the padding would even out.
DeleteTrue... Didn't think of that.
DeleteWhat I can't believe is how no one seems to have a copy. It could not have been cheap to get all that ad space. It must have been worth his while.
When I lived near the Canadian border back in the early 90's, the local mall took CAD at even money despite a roughly 15 cent difference in the exchange at the time. I wouldn't consider the lack of dollar differentiation to be that odd.
DeleteI put the hounds out on it! Let’s see if they come back with anything!
ReplyDeleteI wouldnt fixate on the lack of currency specification - at late as the 70s, a 75 cent paperback was 75 cents in both currencies - so it might not have been worth the confusion/buyer difficulty to address it.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I have earned my OOP RPG Expert Badge. Ive never heard of this.
Intrigued!
It's also advertised on page 88 of Dragon #101. 6 Canadian 5 us. Company is called "Fantasy monsters"
ReplyDeleteLooks like James Maliszewski got started on that Dwimmermount earlier than i thought
ReplyDeleteThere's a thread about this on Dragonsfoot: https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=84202
ReplyDeleteThe upshot is that we think that it was made by Edward Dobrianski who also produced a monster book called "Fantasy Monsters and Robots". So far no one seems to have seen a copy, though.
Biopunk in the comments on https://apaladinincitadel.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-design-bad-dungeon.html?m=1 had a copy
ReplyDeleteWow. Great find Joe!
DeleteI have spoken with Ed Dobrianski he confirms he did make it but does not have any copies.
ReplyDelete