THE CREATION of the world’s preeminent Fantasy Role-Playing Game (FRPG), Dungeons & Dragons, is one of the most fascinating tales to be told in all the shared histories of entertainment, play and game design. Two very different men, David Lance Arneson and Ernest Gary Gygax, undertook an unprecedented collaboration which gifted us — as their shared legacy — with one of the most intriguing games the world has yet experienced. Their game did not just simulate one isolate corner of reality; it dared to encompass the entirety of all realms of adventure, the consensual playground of the human imagination.

HAWK & MOOR tells the story of Dave and Gary, and the many other people whose efforts gave first life to the game we know and love today. Arneson had spectacular ideas, but Gygax knew how to refine them. Collaboration soon turned to conflict as Arneson believed his game was being taken from him, and Gygax crystallized systems where incomprehensible riddles had stood before. Both men were creative geniuses, but the game they created from Gygax’s Chainmail (1971) was the end result not only of their teamwork, but also of their clashes and disagreements.

HAWK & MOOR Book V: Age of Glory focuses on the great generative schism, in which Original Dungeons & Dragons grew along two entirely new evolutionary paths: Basic and Advanced. Basic D&D would be exemplified by Dr. J. Eric Holmes’s edit of the Basic Set, while Advanced D&D would make its monumental debut with the release of Gygax’s epic bestiary, the Monster Manual.

Beyond these great events Book V also explores the burgeoning FRPG landscape of 1977, providing details on the release of Traveller, the Snit games of Tom Wham, Ogre, Elric, The Arduin Grimoire, the Manual of Aurania, the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, Tegel Manor, Star Empires, White Dwarf, Warlocks & Warriors, the Dungeon Hobby Shop dungeon, the Quest for the Teeth of Barkash-Nour, the Rankin & Bass film version of The Hobbit, and much more.

This volume also features details on Origins III, the unforgettable Gen Con X at the Playboy Club, and interlude essays which explore the TSR Metamorphosis Alpha campaign, the development and origins of Gamma World, and the fantastic Wormy cartoons created by David A. Trampier. Details are also provided on the Saul Zaentz / Tolkien Enterprises cease and desist predicament. An elaborate chronology of these and many other events from 1977 is included as an appendix for easy reference. Many books tell the tale of the origins and early years of Dungeons & Dragons, but Book V is by far the most detailed history for the formative year of 1977, when TSR became the undisputed champion of the sphere of role-playing games. This information has never before been compiled to this level of detail.

HAWK & MOOR Book Five: Age of Glory includes 71,700 words on over 200 pages, supported by 445 footnotes and annotations. Prepare yourself, take up torch and sword. Come along and experience an unprecedented journey into the Golden Age!