Wizards: TONS of classic D&D adventures & books now online

IT FINALLY HAPPENED! Wizards of the Coast has re-released PDF versions of classic Dungeons & Dragons adventures at their new site www.dndclassics.com.

The even BETTER news is that the purchase system is run by DriveThruRPG. Which means for those of us who already have an account, we don't need to go makin' a new one. Starting today, more than 80 files are for sale, inlcuding the '81 Basic Game (the one that came in the red box). Prices are supposedly start at $5, which is quite nice, considering this is all out-of-print material.

Word is, these are fresh scans folks--and searchable too!

Big 'ol hat tip to Geekdad over at Wired.com

Images: Wizards via Wired

UPDATE: The site seems to be overloaded, I'm sure due to the announcement this morning. This is surprising since DriveThru is usually pretty reliable. So looks like patience is in order. If anything, it's a great sign that so many people want to play OSR-style D&D!

They've posted an announcement to watch their Facebook and Twitter channels for updates.

Inspiration: Caves of Nottingham

Boing Boing mentions a post over at BLDGBLOG on the caves of Nottingham, which are being mapped as part of the Nottingham Caves Survey. They are, in many respects, similar to those at Cappadocia (manmade, cut into sandstone bedrock and cliffsides).

The storied history of the caves which inlcudes ties to Robin of Locksley--has long been the spark of tall tales. From the article:

Incredibly, there are more than 450 artificial caves excavated from the sandstone beneath the streets and buildings of Nottingham, England—including, legendarily, the old dungeon that once held Robin Hood—and not all of them are known even today, let alone mapped or studied. The city sits atop a labyrinth of human-carved spaces—some of them huge—and it will quite simply never be certain if archaeologists and historians have found them all.

"Even back in Saxon times, Nottingham was known for its caves," local historian Tony Waltham writes in his helpful guide Sandstone Caves of Nottingham, "though the great majority of those which survive today were cut much more recently." From malt kilns to pub cellars, "gentlemen's lounges" to jails, and wells to cisterns, these caves form an almost entirely privately-owned lacework of voids beneath the city.

Here's a look at the map they've created:

Nice inspiration for the Caves of Chaos, yes?

Images: Nottingham Cave Survey and BLDG BLOG