Palace of the Vampire Queen

Palace of the Vampire Queen is a Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game adventure published by Wee Warriors in 1976. It is notable for being the first stand-alone role-playing adventure.

Palace of the Vampire Queen
AuthorsPete Kerestan and Judy Kerestan
First published1976

Contents

Palace of the Vampire Queen is a simple early scenario for TSR's Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game set in a five-level dungeon, with maps for both the players and the GM.[1] The adventure is set on the isle of Baylor in the Misty Isles archipelago.[2]

Publication history

Palace of the Vampire Queen was written by Pete and Judy Kerestan, with art by Brad Schenck under his pseudonym "Morno". It was published as 15 loose-leaf sheets and an outer folder.[1] Despite being an unlicensed D&D product, in 1976, TSR picked Wee Warriors for exclusive distribution in order to promote sales of D&D, making Palace of the Vampire Queen one of the first four Wee Warriors products to be widely sold in this manner.[3]:28 Occasionally copies of the adventure would arrive at TSR missing a page; TSR staff would add a photocopy of the missing page to the package.[2]

Palace of the Vampire Queen was the first published standalone role-playing game adventure.[4]:152 Although TSR's adventure Temple of the Frog had been published a year prior and thus was the first published RPG adventure, it was included in the D&D Blackmoor expansion booklet, and was not a stand-alone adventure; TSR did not publish any stand-alone adventures until 1978.

Wee Warriors published a second edition in 1976 that consisted of either 17 or 24 loose-leaf sheets — sometimes pages were printed double-sided, sometimes only single-sided.[2] The third and fourth printings in 1976 were 13 double-sided loose-leaf pages.

Wee Warriors followed up in 1977 with a second adventure set on Baylor, Dwarven Glory, which was also distributed by TSR.

However, late in 1977, the rapidly growing TSR stopped distributing third-party merchandise, and the fifth printing of Palace of the Vampire Queen took the form of a pamphlet-sized 30-page center-bound book that was distributed by Wee Warriors.[2] The sixth and final edition, also distributed by Wee Warriors, was a 28-page pamphlet-sized book with a cardstock cover.[1]

A third D&D adventure, Misty Isles, also set in the Misty Isles archipelago, was released in 1977 and was also distributed by Wee Warriors.[2]

Wee Warriors ceased publication in 1978. In 2019, Precis Intermedia acquired the Wee Warriors product line,[5] with a re-release of Palace of the Vampire Queen as a remastered reprint.

References
  1. Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. Prometheus Books. p. 146. ISBN 0-87975-653-5.
  2. "Palace of the Vampire Queen". Acaeum. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  3. Shannon Appelcline (2014). Designers & Dragons: The '70s. Evil Hat Productions. ISBN 978-1-61317-075-5.
  4. Shannon Appelcline (2014). Designers & Dragons: The '80s. Evil Hat Productions. ISBN 978-1-61317-081-6.
  5. "Brett's Blog". Precis Intermedia. Retrieved 2019-12-13.


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