My first-ever published D&D article, yes.
My first paid published article appeared a dozen years before that. I'd had a novel published before the first issue of The Dragon appeared.
Yes, I'm ooooold. ;}— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 14, 2020
It was called Fool's Master, and was a "kids having adventures" novel like Phil Stong's Way Down Cellar or Brinley's Mad Scientists Club series, and it's looooooong out of print, from a defunct publishing house. I may dust it off some day…if I EVER have any spare time.
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 14, 2020
Without a reminder would you be able to remember what your first Dragon mag article was about? How well do your early days of D&D writing stick out in your memory? So much work over such a long career. Sure. Vividly remembered! My first for Dragon was a "fix the mistakes" for the DIVINE RIGHT boardgame, but it was held back for a DR theme issue (34), so The Curst (Dragon's Bestiary, issue 30) became my first, followed by The Crawling Claw (32). Then the Gates piece in #37.
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 14, 2020
That is absolutely amazing. Crafting the world that would go on to be the official D&D setting but still remembering your first magazine publications. An inspiration! Thanks for the reply Those were golden days. Writing like the wind, just having fun, going to school and then university, in the Swinging Sixties and then the Cool Seventies…when the writing fire was still new and bright, and so many of the writers I thought gods were still alive, and I met them!
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 14, 2020
That sounds blissful. Do you think the fire of writing (specifically for roleplaying game content) has dwindled in recent years? I can only imagine how exciting it must have been to be a crucial part of the growth of what would go on to be such a culturally influencing phenomenon For writing adventures, a little. For worldbuilding/setting details/adventure hooks, and fiction, not at all.
Yes, it was exciting, but at the time it's not "this is going to be so big and culturally significant" but rather "Wow, this is fun! More more more!"— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 14, 2020
Side note: it isn’t lost on me how incredible it is that I get to talk with someone who directly impacted my childhood and continues to influence my adult life through #ttrpg. Thanks for taking the time to chat with me. A pleasure. I'm just a gamer who wouldn't go away. ;}
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 14, 2020
