One of the first adventures published with the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS rules was G1: STEADING OF THE HILL GIANT CHIEF, followed thereafter by G2: GLACIAL RIFT OF THE FROST GIANT JARL, and G3: HALL OF THE FIRE GIANT KING. I came to the game in 1983, roughly five years after these classic gems were published. My first introduction to this series of modules was through the adventure G1-2-3: AGAINST THE GIANTS, which I co-DMed with my friend Steve. I can honestly say that these were some of the best adventures I've ever used or played. The premise behind them is simple - giants are raiding the humans lands, cooperating in large numbers never before seen. Since these are stupid creatures of chaotic evil bent, the lords of the land want to find out who or what is responsible for organizing these raids and eliminate them to make the lands safe again.
Now there are some elements of this adventure that some may not be aware of. First, and foremost, these were the first adventures written with AD&D rules in mind. Gygax was in the midst of finishing the DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE when these adventures were written, the last of the big three books that comprise the "core rules" of the game. He had already written the monster compilation from original D&D, calling it the MONSTER MANUAL under the pretext of creating a new version of D&D called "ADVANCED" DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. It was, however, more akin to D&D than AD&D. The PLAYERS HANDBOOK had already been finished in 1978 and detailed all the new races and classes the characters could choose, the new spells they could use, and the various sub-systems which were a relic of D&D supplements (namely psionics rules, surprise rules, CHAINMAIL combat rules, and wandering monster encounter tables). So, while completing this gaming masterpiece, Gygax managed to change the rules of the game midstream on a number of occasions. These changes are evident in the early (pastel cover) modules written during the finalization of the AD&D book line, and the contradictions concerning such things as death at zero hit points, or the pesky Combat rules.
It was obvious that the characters created for the adventure anthology G1-2-3 were not necessarily rolled using the same rules stated in the Player's Handbook. In fact, the characters were what one would normally expect given D&D rules plus the supplements and DRAGON Magazine articles written at the time. This allowed some errors to creep into the mix. Also, these pre-generated tournament characters are not legal according to the rules as written. There are a few glaring errors that players of AD&D would recognize immediately. First off, the number of spells that the clerics have are completely wrong. The chart being used for number of spells is coming from the D&D Greyhawk Supplement and does not include bonus spells for high Wisdom (as stated in the PHB). Clerics are all listed as having "silver crosses" as well, which is a Christian ideal taken from the little brown books of the original D&D boxed set. This was later changed to the generic term of "silver holy symbol" in the PHB. All characters are listed as carrying "wine flasks" (later renamed as "wineskins" in the PHB). Cloyer Bulse the Magsman is listed as having a short bow which, as a thief, he clearly cannot use per the PHB rules (but no such weapon restriction appears in the D&D Greyhawk Supplement). It may be possible that his 18 Dexterity simply allows him to use a weapon for which he cannot train with his non-proficiency penalty of -3. The alignment of the high elf, Fonkin Hoddypeak, is listed as LG, but he speaks CG (which is probably the alignment that should have been listed on the chart). Some of the cleric spells listed (such as "death touch") were renamed in the PHB ("slay living," reverse of raise dead). The use of rings of protection with magic armor was not forbidden until the DMG was completed in 1979, yet these seem to function as part of Fonkin Hoddypeak's AC listing (elf fighter/magic-user with magic splint mail +2). The final glaring mistake is the ranger, Beek Gwenders of Croodle. This half-elf ranger cannot possibly be 9th level as listed - the maximum level a half-elf can reach as a ranger is 8th level, and that is with a maximum Strength score of 18. He should be listed at 7th level which, with near max hit points, would still allow him to be useful against giants. Half-elves were introduced in the D&D Greyhawk Supplement, but the ranger was never a part of D&D canon rules. This class was written up in a DRAGON Magazine article, and most likely added to the list at the end as a last minute addition after the creation of the PHB introduced the class as an official rule (without editing, of course...).
The ability scores for these characters are ridiculously high - AD&D campaign characters were probably few and far between at this time (using method I - 4d6 drop the lowest, arrange as desired only came out in the DMG), and even less likely in an established D&D campaign with 3d6 used for ability scores rolled in order. I notice that Gygax tended to make superhero characters in his modules. The lowest Constitution of any of these characters is 15, and few have any scores in the 8-10 range (except the demi-humans, curiously enough). These humans were apparently the cream of the crop, civilization's best defense against the predation of monsters from the wilderness.
I find that there are other peculiarities in the listing of equipment which are not wrong, but indicative of how the game was played back in the day. There are quite a few instances of duplication of items (oil flasks, rope, spikes) which, quite honestly, would be seen as unnecessary in most of today's games. But the old school D&D mindset is different than modern play styles. Oil was used as a weapon or a deterrent in dungeon scenarios; it's also very useful for burning trolls, but risky to carry in large quantities with fireballs erupting around the party. Rope is used for more than climbing; one might need rope to bind prisoners, haul people or treasure out of pits, hold portals shut, or form trip lines across corridors. Curiously, the 10' pole is missing from the equipment lists of the tournament characters, but one of the clerics has garlic, wooden stakes and a mallet (presumably to tackle any vampires they might encounter). Iron spikes are carried by most characters, most likely for wedging doors open or shut in a dungeon. The generic term "sword" is used, when it is probably meant to be a "long sword" as in the PHB. It is not specified that the magic-using characters are carrying their spell books - but that is previously explained in the description of the "safe cave" that the characters find outside each adventure location. With their spell books "secured," they can prepare their spells and leave the books in the cave, freeing them up to carry more treasure back with them.
Now, I came to a realization the night before writing this article. I have been creating character sheets for these tournament characters from the list in the back of G1-2-3, mainly to see if I've been missing any rules over the years. While doing so, I noticed a trend in the levels of the characters. Most of the first five characters are near the high end of the level spectrum; the remaining four characters are all listed as being 9th level, with some class redundancies. This struck a chord in me, especially after having re-read the sections on wandering monsters in the Appendices of the DMG. Gygax had apparently "put his money where his mouth is" on this one! These characters were generated using his wandering monster list for encountered character-type parties! The rule I refer to is on page 175 of the Dungeon Masters Guide:
Number Of Characters In Party: There will always be from 2-5 characters in a character group, with men-at-arms or henchmen to round the party out to 9.
If one assumes that the first 5 characters listed are the actual player characters - Cleric 12th, Thief 13th, Cleric 12th, Fighter 14th, and Fighter/Magic-user 5th/8th, then the remaining characters at 9th level represent the henchmen of the player characters, with levels probably determined from the formulae on the wandering monster encounter charts as well. The level of the henchmen characters is supposed to be 1/3 that of the master +1 for every 3 levels of the master if above 8th (round down). In this case, the 12th level cleric or 13th level thief would have a henchman of 4th + 4 = 8th level (close, but not exact). The 14th level fighter would have a henchman of 5th + 4 = 9th level (spot on). The 5th/8th level F/MU equivalent level is calculated by averaging the levels and adding 1 for each additional class beyond the first, in this case 7th. However, such a character is very nearly at the limit of their levels anyways (9th in MU is the highest this elf could achieve) so I would assume that a single class henchman would equate to the others in experience. The average minimum level requirement for this adventure is 8th-9th, so it is likely that the characters were all bumped up to meet the minimum for the highest level of adventure (G3 at 9th level minimum). Just the fact that typical party size of nine characters was illustrated so well without additional explanation as to why there are nine characters (and not 6-8 or an even 10) just sort of hits the mark for me.
I like it when I can pick examples out of the modules and see where the rules came from that inspired these decisions. It makes sense, and I can see that the author was trying to create cohesion in the rules set. However, the decision to make the characters along the lines of original D&D and include them in the back of an AD&D adventure that had seen print without so much as an explanation of why they differ from the rules as written is confusing, and probably not the fault of the author (as I'm sure that most of the publications released at this time were a company decision to update previous products to the current rules and make more money). As one of the oldest examples of a module in the AD&D line, it is always useful to pick apart the decisions of the author and see how or why he came to his conclusions and how it would impact the adventure. For instance, it is obvious that if you are going against giants, you would recruit a dwarf with a dwarven thrower hammer +3 that does triple damage when thrown at giants, or a ranger with their damage modifier against giants based on their level. It's also a good idea to hire on a magic-user or two to do area-of-effect damage in large quantities, or have high strength fighters with multiple attacks and magic weapons. Low Armor Classes are a must when fighting against giants, since their HD alone allow them to hit all too well. It is quite possible that the first four characters are all rulers of lands in their own right, as they are all well above name level. Giant incursions on their lands, and the pressure of their lieges, may be why such an adventure was undertaken. And this is what you get when you think upon the origins of the adventure and how the pre-generated characters fit into the whole scenario. It would have been nice to get a little blurb as to why or how these characters were selected to perform the task from the author himself, or what motivated these particular adventurers to lead the fight "Against the Giants."
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