List of systemless fantasy role-playing game supplements
This is a list of tabletop fantasy role-playing game supplements published by various companies. Many of these books were unlicensed publications intended to be used with Dungeons & Dragons or other game systems, and many were designed to be "generic" or "universal", or to be adapted to any fantasy role-playing game system. This list is organized by publisher.
According to Shannon Appelcline, although the adventures of the Maze of Zayene series "were unforgiving 'gauntlets' of the type that Kuntz enjoyed, they were somewhat unusual for the time because they had a political veneer laid out upon them – centring on a plot to assassinate a king. They also feature the evil wizard Zayene, who Kuntz intended to be a recurring villain, constantly returning to bedevil players."[3]: 241 The adventures were all published in 1987 and included Prisoners of the Maze, Dimensions of Flight, Tower Chaos, and The Eight Kings.
Judges Guild was founded by co-founder Bob Bledsaw, along with partner Bill Owen, who travelled to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to visit the headquarters of Tactical Studies Rules (TSR), publishers of Dungeons & Dragons, on July 17, 1976. Bledsaw and Owen had hoped to convince TSR to publish some of the materials they used in their D&D campaigns, as well as Owen's rules for a game set during the American Civil War. While at TSR, they met with D&D co-creator Dave Arneson, who gave Bledsaw and Owen verbal approval to produce some supplemental game materials (known as "play aids") for both Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D). At that time, TSR's only published play aids for D&D were the Dungeon Geomorphs, and the general feeling at TSR was that no one would be interested in supplemental materials.[4]
Tor Books published The Willow Sourcebook (1988).[1]: 180
Turtle Press
Weapons is a compendium of virtually every edged or impact melee weapon used in any medieval or primitive culture.[5]Weapons is an indexed sourcebook describing hundreds of different melee weapons, each illustrated. Weapons are covered in six sections: Swords, Knives, Hafted Weapons, Spears, Pole Arms, and Miscellaneous.[1]Weapons was written by Matthew Balent and published in 1981 by Turtle Press, and was later revised and included in The Compendium of Weapons, Armour & Castles.[1]: 385 Matthew Balent was one of a few future Palladium Books writers who Kevin Siembieda met through the Detroit Gaming Center. At the time, Balent was working on a reference book that could be used in fantasy roleplaying games. Balent was a Library Sciences graduate, and had the skill and knowledge required to pick through hundreds of books to create a general overview of medieval armor and armaments. The Palladium Book of Weapons & Armor (1981) was the first of several books Balent compiled for Palladium.[6]: 156 Lewis Pulsipher reviewed Weapons in The Space Gamer No. 43.[5] Pulsipher commented that "In my view there is no need to add weapons to those already in most FRPG; but if you must, you'll need to look them up in a good source to get some detail. Ten times as much information about a tenth as many weapons, presented more professionally, would have been much more useful. In short, Weapons is virtually useless."[5]
Underworld Publshing
Lore of the Crypt Book I: Magic Treasures (1991)
Lore of the Crypt Book II: Monsters and NPCs (1991)
Lore of the Crypt Book III: Spells (1991)
Lore of the Crypt Book IV: New Rules, Races, and Classes (1991)[7]
The Dwarven Glory (1977) - Another early adventure module unrelated to the previous adventure. For a time, TSR was the main distributor of the first two adventures, despite the fact that these were unlicensed products.[8]
