Strategic Review 101 Spring 1975

TLDR: I summarize the first issue of The Strategic Review, from spring 1975.



This TSR house engine began as a six-page, two-column circular with clean, sans-serif fonts. Printed before the Greyhawk and Blackmoor supplements, it provides an interesting look at D&D in diapers.

Contents included:

• News – primarily plans for future publications 
• A "Creature Feature" in which the Mind Flayer made its first appearance
• A summary of changes to the new printing of Tractics
• A discussion of spears in Chainmail, which ends in a promise to really do pole-arms justice in the future (which had me snickering, knowing just how much space they got in AD&D)
• Two and a half pages on "Solo Dungeon Adventures" 

The last article on solo dungeons, also the largest of this issue, was penned by Gary Gygax, with a nod to George A. Lord and play testing credit to Rob Kuntz and Ernie Gygax. Most of the three pages consist of the random dungeon generation tables that later appear in the AD&D DMG.

Some of my own earliest solo explorations used these tables and I found them to be quite workable. I was using the DMG versions, but I may have to give these precursors a whirl. I'm not sure how many differences there are, if any.

One thing I have to say, I love the look of this zine. I wish that Dragon had adopted some of the same no-nonsense styling. But I realize I may be in the minority in that wish.