Vol. 1, #12 w/Gary Gygax Short Story - The Expedition into the Black Reservoir

1974 was a very good year for the gaming world. There was a new kid on the gaming block, and his little woodgrain box was making a lot of waves with more on the horizon. Gary Gygax, world-renowned progenitor of the roleplaying genre, was on a mission to promote this strange new game concept, and so it came to pass that a story from the Castle of Greyhawk came to find itself on the pages of El Conquistador, a small press magazine whose general focus was on diplomacy-based wargaming. The magazine's other fare included historical pieces, like the cover story on Constantine & Christianity, as well as game reviews and rules suggestions.

The Expedition into the Black Reservoir is a charming throwback to the original game system with use of the game-like terminology unabashedly spattered into the text. It could well be the first published piece on the world of Greyhawk, though this is unconfirmed. It has never been republished outside of other issues of this publication, and takes a place as one of the lost gems of the beginnings of the Dungeons and Dragons franchise as well as the world of Greyhawk. The low circulation of the magazine itself means that there will be few, if any opportunities to find another copy of the story.