There were a number of similar articles around this time period, when D&D was exploding in popularity. They could be described as a genre of old-school stuff unto themselves. I remember seeing one of them (mom's copy of People?) at the time, just before I started actually playing, so every aspect of the game was a mystery.

I think I imagined D&D being played in the dirt like with ordinary toy soldiers. Photographers for these articles often posed minis on the ground; I guess that's how they assumed it should be. When a classmate brought Keep on the Borderlands to school, I wondered if the object of the game was to keep your figure on an area of a board that was a border, like if your guy fell off the border a dragon would eat him or something.

I would see the racks of D&D merchandise at hobby stores, which depicted themselves as documents of an alternative universe. At this point I still didn't quite grasp the concept of the game world, so it just seemed like they meant everything literally. Real-world details segued into alien weirdness. It was like talking to someone who appears normal at first but then you gradually realize he's insane.  

Many were in shrinkwrap, & labeled DO NOT READ. This was intriguing. Why would you buy a book to not read it? Someone called the Dungeon Master would read it - what's a Dungeon Master? Is that like Captain Howdy? Does he sneak into your house at night to read it, so when you awake in the morning to find your module de-shrinked, you know he's visited? (This continues to be my theory to explain shrink junkies.)

they had a review of the Dark Tower board game  

http://www.people.com/people/article/0, ... 57,00.html

Zenopus wrote:This one?

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From the Jan 14 1980 issue of People Weekly. Thanks for the tip, hadn't seen it before.

A pdf of the entire magazine (Lee Majors cover!) can be downloaded here:
Jan 14 1980 issue of People Weekly

Or the text of just this article can be read here:
If Students' Tails Are Dragon and Their Minds in the Dungeon Lately, Blame Gamesman Gary Gygax

Isn't it nice of People to put all of their old issues up for reading?
No other hits for Gygax in their search engine until his passing in 2008 (just a paragraph).

It's amazing how much the tobacco industry spent on advertising in the US during this era. I wonder if it was the saem in the UK. At the moment every single TV show is sponsered by the gambling industry and you get an advert before and after each TV programme for one or other gambling institution. Is in the same in the US?

mbassoc2003 wrote:It's amazing how much the tobacco industry spent on advertising in the US during this era. I wonder if it was the saem in the UK. At the moment every single TV show is sponsered by the gambling industry and you get an advert before and after each TV programme for one or other gambling institution. Is in the same in the US?

There are a few commercials for gambling enterprises here in the US, largely in the form of commercials to visit Las Vegas, but the dominant sponsor for most US shows is the drug industry with the most annoying commercials ever.  They are often longer than typical commercials and they typically have the announcer talking 100 miles an hour the last five seconds with all kind of disclosures about how the medicine has a 1 percent chance to kill you or make you suffer horribly.  

The potential for interesting commercials has been squandered especially by Viagra and Cialis (both erectile dysfunction drugs).  

Commercial opens with man sitting, head down, on the edge of the bed.  Dreary music plays.
*Narrator speaks* "Life got you down? *Pause*  "Well not ANYMORE!"
*Man looks up from bed excitedly*
*Narrator shouts* "With Viagra, you can have sex all the time with as many women as you want!"
*Beautiful, scantily-clad women fly in on top of him from every direction with squeals of delight*

See?  The drug industry just blew it!   

mbassoc2003 wrote:It's amazing how much the tobacco industry spent on advertising in the US during this era. I wonder if it was the saem in the UK. At the moment every single TV show is sponsered by the gambling industry and you get an advert before and after each TV programme for one or other gambling institution. Is in the same in the US?

Heck, you should listen to some of the old radio comedies I've come across from the 30s-50s (Jack Benny, Burns & Allen, etc.). One sponsor for an entire half-hour show, with the product ad somehow placed in the show itself. If I'm not mistaken, the sponsors may also have been paying the actor's salaries directly, as they were the sponsor's employees.

Zenopus wrote:This one?

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I think I find this image more unsettling than the "gaping statue mouth that contains a sphere of annihilation" from the old Tomb of Horrors illustration booklet...  

Cheers, JohnH aka Wandering Monster

Angus_The_Red wrote:I absolutely LOVE articles and advertisements bout mah game here. They all take me WAY back. Here's one of my favorites.

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The photo caption refers to the DM as Jim Perelman.  Wasn't that the name of the guy who annotated a PHB?

By the way, hello from Nairn, Scotland.    The weather's been fantastic.  I'm starting to wonder if the reputation for bad weather is just an effort to keep interlopers (the English?) away.  

Anyone have info on the contents of the 1979 Us article @  
** expired/removed eBay auction **
beyond what's in the auction listing?:

a 2 page article on Gary Gygax --the creator of Dungeons & Dragons --with a large photo

Bracton wrote in D&D magazine/newspaper articles from 70s/80s:

Angus_The_Red wrote:I absolutely LOVE articles and advertisements bout mah game here. They all take me WAY back. Here's one of my favorites.

[ Image ]

The photo caption refers to the DM as Jim Perelman.  Wasn't that the name of the guy who annotated a PHB?

By the way, hello from Nairn, Scotland.    The weather's been fantastic.  I'm starting to wonder if the reputation for bad weather is just an effort to keep interlopers (the English?) away.  

Beyond pubs and golf, are there any interesting game shops there?