Castle & Crusade Society

Domesday Book #13 (July 1972)

Formed by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz in 1970, the Castle & Crusade Society was a chapter of the International Federation of Wargaming dedicated to medieval miniature wargaming. Gygax's interest in medieval warfare led him to create the Castle & Crusade Society as a special interest group within the IFW. Gygax's interest had turned to miniature games, so he and co-creator Jeff Perren put together a set of medieval miniatures rules for publication in a C&C fanzine called The Domesday Book; the name of their new rules was "Chainmail".

Its starting membership included Gary Gygax, Rob Kuntz and Jeff Perren, and as of mid-April 1970, also included Dave Arneson.

The C&CS published a newsletter called the Domesday Book. Its first issue is dated March 1, 1970; both the first and second issues are only a single page long. As of the third issue, membership stood at only nine persons; circulation of this newsletter would never exceed eighty copies. The fifth issue contained a set of rules called the LGTSA Medieval Miniatures rules which would be expanded and published by Guidon Games as Chainmail in 1971; this being one of the primary predecessors of the original Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Issue #9 contained a map of the Great Kingdom, the campaign environment in which the cities of Blackmoor and Greyhawk were first initially developed for the purposes of a C&CS play-by-mail game.

Issue #13 of the Domesday Book published some early details, as well as a map, of Blackmoor from Dave Arneson's first fantasy role-playing campaign in July 1972. This article was reprinted almost verbatim in the First Fantasy Campaign (1977), with slightly altered map art.

The Castles & Crusades Society officially re-launched as an online society dedicated to supporting and promoting gaming, especially RPGs, in 2008. The Domesday Book was re-launched with new, quarterly editions beginning in April 2008.

References

• Index to issues of The Domesday Book