Swords Against - Beginner's Box (1979 Replica Edition)

Hex Number: 94
MSRP: $35.00

From the back of the box:

The reverse of the original box was blank, so I hope you don't mind me filling up the space with some context. In 2016, a few days after we had started Hollandspiele, Mary and I went to an estate sale and came across this box. I had never heard of it before, but I assumed based on the title it might have something to do with the Lankhmar books, or that, based on the repurposed J.R. Skelton illustration, it might have something to do with Beowulf. Both of these were things I was fairly obsessed with at this time, so I gave ten dollars to the daughter of the deceased.

The box had been sealed with heavy strapping tape. When I cut it open, I found it mostly contained the previous owner's personal effects. The core rulebook was missing, as was the "Dictionary of Devils". The only piece of the original game left in the box was the adventure module – but not its dungeon map, or the answer key for its many obtuse puzzles. The game was unplayable.

I went online to try to find PDFs of the missing material, but there were none. No downloads on DriveThruRPG, no entries in databases, no forums, no remembrances on groggy blogs. It was almost like it never existed at all.

But the box was proof it did. And in those personal effects there were a few clues that enabled me to piece together the story of an RPG publisher that existed for a few months in 1979, and the novelist who wrote an adventure module that in all likelihood was played by maybe a dozen people. More than that, I learned about the person who had owned my copy, and had annotated the module book with a puzzle of their own. The box was proof they existed, too.

It occurred to me that all of this was worth preserving, and a few years ago I set about securing the necessary permissions to publish this replica edition. The original publisher, Michael Lord, was still alive – he passed only very recently – and even sent me a copy of the missing materials. I went back and forth on whether or not to include them but ultimately felt I wanted to preserve the experience and existence of this specific copy. W. T. Schauss's partner was quite gracious and helped me put The Vanishing of Serlo's Keep into the wider context of the late author's work and life.

Jennifer Keaton was resistant to the inclusion of the personal effects, but changed her mind when she opened the sealed envelope containing an unsent letter her parent had written to Schauss. With her kind permission, that letter, too, has been reproduced, but she asks that you do not open it.

Best,

Amabel Holland

This production was made possible due to the generous participation of Samhain Bones, Scott Bultman & David McCord of NewVenture Games, Dr. Liz Davidson, Erin Escobedo, Mary Holland, Jennifer Keaton, Sara Lilycove, Michael Lord, Samantha Lord, and Elaine Zingerman & the W. T. Schauss Archive. Excerpt from Gunfighter of the Black Sea (1971 printing) appears courtesy of Elaine Zingerman, the W. T. Schauss Archive, and Best Bower Books.

Contents in chronological order: The Vanishing of Serlo’s Keep adventure module (summer 1979), Hares & Devils no. 3 (December 1981), a letter from W. T. Schauss (29 June 1983), a pencil (1984), code wheel from Ghosts of Fiergen computer game (November 1985), photocopy of pages 144 & 145  from Gunfigher of the Black Sea (c. 1986), and an unsent letter, still sealed in its envelope (1 September 1991). 

FOR MATURE AUDIENCES. Click here for content warnings (which may also contain spoilers).