Fantastic Wilderlands Beyonde! Judges Guild - 1978

[@Raycheetah]

The Judges Guild world was HUGE! With a complete set of region maps, you could cover the floor of a good-sized room with detailed hex-grid maps, all sprinkled with encounter areas, as well as urban settings. That setting always had the feel of an ancient world, rich in obscure history. I'm always glad to see other folks discovering or re-discovering an appreciation for these great gaming products! =^[.]^=

[@theoldwarlock]

We're excited to start diving into it a little bit more! Keep your sword arm free!

[@Raycheetah]

@@theoldwarlock I remember one excellent campaign in which the party simply acquired a small ship (from pirates, as I recall), and used it to explore the many coastal islands on the map. Simply investigating all of the small mysteries presented by the placed encounters, with the addition of the occasional dungeon as seemed appropriate, kept them busy for ages. =^[.]^=

[@willmistretta]

Also, Necromancer Games touched off a bit of a JG/Wilderlands revival around 20 years ago. The eighteen original campaign maps and their keys were compiled into a single massive boxed set, there was a hardbound that combined CSIO with Wraith Overlord, and so on. These products were awesome and I'm so glad I grabbed them up when I did because they're stupid expensive now. $300 just for the boxed set. Such a shame.

[@xaxzander4633]

Yes all for 3rd ed, i have managed to acquire 2 of those box sets, and 2 of the CSOTIO books. they are gold, jerry, gold!

[@willmistretta]

@@xaxzander4633 The good news there is that they have almost no stats beyond classes, levels, and alignments.

[@xaxzander4633]

@@willmistretta Ya i dont play 3rd ed, i know it got a bit overboard with statblocks, I have some of the books. I appreciate the added content, and the massive amount of maps and ideas. Still pissed that we cant still buy it because of cancel culture. However as you say the books are amazing and keep rising in value.

[@theoldwarlock]

Thanks for letting us know about this. Will have to scour the markets to try and find them. That price is pretty steep, though! Wow!

[@DMRaptorJesus]

Wilderlands is really cool, my second DM had those so I haven't seen them for almost 20 years. I remember thinking they were really cool, he never wanted to use them but he had made his own maps just like it. Our group had a players map mostly filled, while he had a DMs room in his house where he kept all his maps. Those were some great games!

[@DragonsShadow-ttrpg]

The only Judges Guild alumni that springs to mind is Jennell Jaquays(formerly Paul). Jaquays wrote a number of adventures for D&D through Judges Guild such as Caverns of Thracia, one of the first instances of the use of politics in D&D(I think). Her design style was different from the others and eventually got her a job as a level designer at ID Software the company that made Doom and Quake alongside Sandy Peterson. In my opinion the greatest of her works was The Heroes of... series including title like Heroes of Legend, these were massive tomes full of character creation options. Sadly She died January of this year at the too young age of 67.

[@xaxzander4633]

RIP, my all time fav is thracia!

[@DragonsShadow-ttrpg]

@@xaxzander4633 I love Thracia too, but I think my favorite is Heroes of Legend, basically a book full of tables that added things like; if something weird happened the day your character was born etc. Lots of cool stuff in those books.

[@theoldwarlock]

Wow, thanks for the comment! It's great to learn new stuff like this. Keep your sword arm free!

[@CaptCook999]

I'm a big fan of the Judges Guild stuff! I played in two campaigns that used it and it is what I would have used if I was a DM. I have all the Wilderlands Settings except for the City State of the World Emporer. This world is based on the premise that many thousands of years ago, a technologicaly advanced civilization was destroyed. So it is possible to find "ancient artifacts" that are actually technological devices. The details in those modules is fantastic and it is also deadly.

[@solomani-42]

+1 for the JG. And a comment for the algorithm gods.

[@theoldwarlock]

You're the best Solomani!

[@MykeDiemart]

That was awesome of your friend to trade you his find. That old judges guild stuff is cool.

[@KabukiKid]

Boy, I have such a fondness for those nice big, thick maps JG made back then. Their print stock was almost newsprint, but the maps were always high quality. They had some real duds in their catalog, but the gems definitely outshone them. Really great stuff from that company.

[@GMDM78]

Although living in the UK at the time, I was able to buy a lot of Judges Guild as it came out (78-81, Tegel Manor, CSIO, Fortress Badabaskor, etc..). After moving to Denver I found a great game shop on the south side which had tons more Judges Guild and was able to get a lot of the later products. I still have lots of the modules in my game world, just waiting to be discovered. The early stuff is great if you can take 2-4 lines of description and wing it as the players react and go off on a tangent like they are wont to do.

[@xaxzander4633]

save that stuff its quite valuable. just check out the going for on E-bay for a decent CSIO.

[@theoldwarlock]

Thanks so much for the comment! Keep your sword arm free!

[@Shamustodd1]

Over the years I've had multiple copies of City State of the Invincible Overlord and I used to have City State of the World Emperor. Huge maps with all the detailed info you'd expect from Judges Guild.

[@theoldwarlock]

That's super cool! Thanks for the comment!

[@CorwinJohnson-il3kb]

Awesome find love old stuff like that

[@jarrodjanuary5486]

Dark Tower is the only Judges Guild product I purchased. I ran a few friends through it but it wasn’t clear where the map started. Room 1 did not seem like the entrance. I may pick up the Goodman Games remake.

[@norwolf01]

I used a lot of their products back in the day and I am looking to use some of their stuff in both a gaming group I am part of as well as some of my solo play.

[@kevinm3428]

Judges Guild’s Tegel Manor was the single-best haunted house ever created. I’ve been running campaign across the 18 huge world maps for decades. Review more of their stuff, as it was so far ahead of its time, and needs more exposure. Great video!

[@theoldwarlock]

That's one I'd love to take a deeper look at. Thanks so much for you comment, and keep your sword arm free!

[@ken.droid-the-unique]

This stuff is awesome!

[@willmistretta]

Love it. I'm actually in the planning stages for a Wilderlands game right now, likely to use Swords & Wizardry. The wild, gritty '70s swords & sorcery vibe of it all combined with the detail level is just fabulous. I love how it's practical, player scale detail, too, not just a few paragraphs trying to describe an entire nation like TSR was prone to do. So much more immediately useful.

[@xaxzander4633]

All the JG stuff was fantastic. Be careful they are collector addictive.

[@deadlyDM]

Good video guys. Judges Guild did great work. I currently run Greyhawk, but have ran Wilderlands in the past, and plan on returning to it in the near future. I really like the Necromancer Games and Judges Guild collab from 2005 - the 'Wilderlands of High Fantasy' box set. It was released for the 3.5 edition of the game, but it is overflowing with usefulness for a game of any edition. Highly recommend it. If you find one for a fair price, definitely add to the collection!

[@theoldwarlock]

Thanks for the recommendation! Keep your sword arm free!

[@michaeldrinkard678]

Another entertaining and educational video! Much coolness! I don't have a bunch of JG items, but I'm looking to cure that problem. Looking forward to more fun and ... games... from ya'll!

[@theoldwarlock]

Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed the video! Keep your sword arm free!

[@hydra1396]

I love wilderness exploration adventures. i will have to check this out! Is this on drive thru?

[@theoldwarlock]

I think you can find remakes of it from Goodman Games.

[@georgelaiacona111]

Love Judges Guild stuff. Still have some, though I don't use it as much as I used to. Need to dig it out again. Great video. I love all The Old Warlock videos!

[@theoldwarlock]

Thanks so much for watching! Keep your sword arm free!

[@TonyAsberry-i2f]

I actually have one of those maps hanging up on my wall

[@viciousrodent]

Definitely agree on the level of detail being useful for me as a GM. My players sometimes ask me stuff like "What are the farmer's growing here?, "What kind of food does this inn have?", "What's the current moon phase?", "What kind of rock is the wall of this cave?", etc. etc. Which... often they somehow manage to work into some scheme or bit of nonsense they have going on, but other times they do it just because they find it ammusing that I basically always have an answer. And... the times they do work it into a scheme or bit of nonsense it's always fun to see how, exactly, they're going to go from "How windy is it today, exactly?" to "Okay so I want to do some nonsense involving a lightning bolt from the mage, some illusions from the illusionist, an improvised kite, and a 10ft pole, to burn down the bandit tent and make it look like one of the gods is mad at them so they run away and we can loot the camp." [real example -- it didn't work quite as well as they'd hoped, but, it definitely worked better than I as GM had expected it would, and certainly better than their plan B of "Attack an entire bandit camp directly" would have.] And similar cases wwhere having an answer to that... seemingly innocent and meaningless bit of detail basically turns the entire session in a direction no one at the table (especially me, running the game) could have prepared in advance is always fun.

[@theoldwarlock]

We completely agree! Adding in interesting details give the players much more freedom in planning their adventures, keeping things more interesting and fun for everyone! Thanks for the comment, and keep your sword arm free!

[@bizzy5439]

that's the best opener in a while

[@theoldwarlock]

Alex here - thanks, I was pretty proud of this one.

[@raff3486]

This is some interesting stuff. I've heard of the Judges Guild before, but now I'm truly intrigued. Also I shall see if any of my friends are interested in this stuff!

[@theoldwarlock]

We couldn't recommend more! Thanks for the comment!

[@Lightmane]

Gotta love Judges Guild. I still have that bad module, The Illhiedrin Book. Boy was that a bad module, but at the time I had no clue, and since the girl on the cover was hot, let alone naked, of course I bought it... I mean... ya know... what? 😏

[@xaxzander4633]

Dont judge the guild on that lol, and ya Alcastra is hot. But seriously, City stare of the invincible overlord is epic, as well as wraith overlord the underground of the city. Tegel manor is the first haunted house, and the caverns of thracia is in my opinion the best module of all time.

[@Lightmane]

@@xaxzander4633 yeah, Judges Guild had some great stuff.

[@stephaniefry7575]

its like talking to friends i had as a teenager hanging out,,, thnks i never seen my ol pals

[@theoldwarlock]

Thanks for the comment! Glad you're enjoying the videos!

[@manuelgarcia-si4cs]

the invincible overlord

[@shaneandera1409]

Did the knight in shining armor relieve us from the end of video drabble? Lol

[@theoldwarlock]

Frank IS making his presence known again. Trying to keep us focused.

[@AgranakStudios]

For the algorithm!

[@theoldwarlock]

We can't thank you enough!

[@BX-advocate]

I got a question that is unrelated to this video. What happened to the video where you compared a fighter in 5E and AD&D using the same stats and dice rolls to check to hit chance?

[@theoldwarlock]

Hello Mr. B. It's pulled at the moment. It's one of several we're think of redoing.

[@BX-advocate]

@@theoldwarlock Ah okay fair enough, thanks for getting back to me. I hope it does come back it made really good points.

[@scythe0925]

DEAR FRIEND???

[@theoldwarlock]

See how you are?