Table of Contents

A Proposed TOC for Volume 1 (Whatever it's called)

I'm still wrestling with a suitable title for what I hope will be the first in a series of Grognardia anthologies. In earlier posts, I’d referred to it as the Grognardia Primer, but I’ve come to think that’s not quite right. Fortunately, several subscribers offered alternate suggestions that have really resonated with me — particularly Grognardia Basic, with the possibility of future volumes like Grognardia Expert, and so on.

I like these suggestions not just because they nod to well-loved editions of Dungeons & Dragons, but also because they clearly communicate how the volumes might relate to one another. That said, I haven’t settled on a final title yet. It may still be a while before I do.

When I first conceived of this project, I imagined Volume 1 would cover the entirety of what I now think of as the First Age of Grognardia — roughly 2008 to 2012. That was optimistic. Once I began combing through the archives, it became clear that if I want to keep each volume a manageable size, the first book can cover only the blog’s initial year: March 2008 to March 2009.

Even within just that one year, I’ve found more than 40 posts worth including. Some are well-known and foundational to what would become the Old School Renaissance. Others are more obscure, but contain ideas, arguments, or even terminology that would later prove influential. All of them, I think, deserve a place in the first volume.

I haven’t yet done a close review of the next period — April 2009 and beyond — but I suspect it will yield a similar number of posts. If that’s the case, I may end up compiling annual anthologies for the first four years of the blog. That’s not what I initially envisioned. I’d hoped to release fewer, more broadly themed volumes, but I also don’t want to produce anything unwieldy. There's a balance to be struck and I’m still figuring it out.

So, expect a few more posts like this as I think through the shape of the series. I appreciate your patience and your suggestions.

On a more concrete note, I believe I’ve finalized the table of contents for Volume 1. It includes the following posts:

• What’s a Grognard (March 30, 2008)

• Pulp Fantasy D&D (March 31, 2008)

• What Is Pulp Fantasy (April 1, 2008)

• The Clone Wars (April 17, 2008)

• Do It Yourself Days (April 18, 2008)

• Sea Change (April 21, 2008)

• On the Oracular Power of Dice (April 24, 2008)

• How Dragonlance Ruined Everything (April 28, 2008)

• REVIEW: The Original Bottle City (April 30, 2008)

• “Old School” (May 1, 2008)

• Memories of Game Stores Past (May 2, 2008)

• Rough Edges (May 15, 2008)

• Brandification (August 1, 2008)

• The Other LBBs (August 7, 2008)

• The Shoulders of Giants (August 18, 2008)

• The Old School Culture (August 19, 2008)

• Locale and Plot (August 21, 2008)

• Gygaxian “Naturalism” (September 4, 2008)

• How It All Began (September 10, 2008)

• 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time (September 18, 2008)

• My Megadungeon: Dwimmermount (October 15, 2008)

• Some Words about Pulp Fantasy (October 18, 2008)

• D&D as a Myth Cycle (October 21, 2008)

• Picaro and the “Story” of D&D (October 28, 2008)

• A Game for Grown-Ups (October 31, 2008)

• Where I’m Going with All This (November 3, 2008)

• A Nostalgia Project (November 27, 2008)

• Scrappy-Doo and the Hickman Revolution (December 4, 2008)

• In Praise of Mentzer (December 6, 2008)

• The Secret of My Success (December 9, 2008)

• The Dwimmermount Campaign (December 12, 2008)

• Another Old School Tradition (December 20, 2008)

• The Implicit Christianity of Early Gaming (December 23, 2008)

• Silver Age Obsessions (January 2, 2009)

• Dwimmermount Begins (January 9, 2009)

• The Ages of D&D (January 11, 2009)

• The Extraordinary Ordinary (January 14, 2009)

• Travel(l)ing Man (January 20, 2009)

• When in Rome (February 17, 2009)

• High Gygaxian (February 19, 2009)

• Gygaxian Unnaturalism (March 3, 2009)

• On the Loss of D&D’s Endgame (March 27, 2009)

If you don’t see one of your favorite posts from Grognardia’s first year in the upcoming table of contents, now’s the time to let me know — either by leaving a comment below or by emailing me at jdmaliszewskiATgmail.com. I’d be delighted to hear from you. It’s entirely possible I’ve missed something that deserves a place in the anthology, and your input could help ensure nothing important slips through the cracks.

As I mentioned before, I was genuinely surprised by how many strong posts emerged just from that first year alone. Not to toot my own horn too loudly, but revisiting those early days reminded me why the blog struck a chord with so many readers. There’s a lot of material that still holds up.

Next week, I’ll be sharing one or two sample introductions from the upcoming volume. Some of the posts will include new commentary, offering context or reflections with the benefit of hindsight. Others will appear as they originally did, without any preamble. I want the posts to speak for themselves where possible, but in some cases, a brief introduction helps set the stage or explain why a particular piece was included.

I’ll share more about how I’m approaching this in my next post, so you’ll have a better idea of what to expect.