Lakofka Mystery Manuscript of Deities on Ebay

[geneweigel]

www.ebay.com/itm/314958666288?hash=item4954ffda30:g:jHcAAOSwezJlUZOh&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4MtI9Jd9Dn7N%2BnArL%2Fi3Qvhaa1F4kSNPttKAtSeoEN36LYy0qktOyYNO81i4Nd8ywtDaTt0DHl8ofKLwwObE21F6N%2FCtxYZMYWlVmaQ2Jsg3odtGPzVIKej455CeotL0KLluI6r5sTXihXdjV0fuJLTNSo8NJcA7TU6%2BIIEZ94IT93Os8t6T8fnnEV4%2B0UGxQ9EWGK1hda5EPvycqVbo1evhxeAqtkkYOlc1hNKF2qDlgENwsFqbjIje4FtE%2Fu7MVcyCwK%2FZzgMcJ1rnEO%2FkAtKlctZCYfJzA09%2BPgY%2BpB%2BU%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-ioqqP5Yg

[GRWelsh]

What's up with the Lakofka manuscript? I can't open the link since I took my work laptop to Italy with me... I was thinking of Lendor today when I saw ceiling fresco in the Palazzo Vecchio Museum. It was in the Room of the Elements which was very inspiring, fantasy-wise. The ceiling fresco showed Cronus/Saturn as "the god of time" mutilating his father Uranus "the god of the sky" with a scythe to bring about mortal life on earth. That seemed appropriately brutal for a Suloise creation myth...

[geneweigel]

Description
TSR Dragon Magazine Unpublished Unknown Gods Manuscript by Len Lakofka 1986
Hello Everyone,

The Collector's Trove Presents: The E. Gary Gygax collection! Another remarkable auction from The Collector's Trove, the world’s most successful online auction house featuring the collections of role-playing game industry designers, artists, and insiders including past employee’s of TSR, creators of Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

This is part of an ongoing series of auctions over the last decade which have included the collections of the founding fathers of roleplaying games, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, as well as David "Zeb" Cook, Darlene, Ernie Gygax, Kevin Hendryx, Bill Hoyer, Tim Jiardini, Harold Johnson, Rob Kuntz, Len Lakofka, Dave Megarry, Mike Mornard, Steve Marsh, Jim and Laura Roslof, Dave Sutherland III, Dennis Sustare, and Eric Shook. If you want to be kept aware of auction news and get a chance to own a piece of gaming history check out The Collector's Trove!

ITEM FOR AUCTION: The Collector's Trove has TSR Dragon Magazine Unpublished Unknown Gods Manuscript by Len Lakofka 1986 for auction!

CONDITION: The condition of the item(s) is GOOD+ as far as general wear (see NOTES ON CONDITION below). Light staple rust, with numerous indentations around the staple to the front and back page from resting against other stapled documents. The envelopes are in GOOD- condition, and heavily tattered from being opened. The envelope has transferred some of its glue to the cover letter. The cover letter is paper-clipped to one of the manuscripts, creasing it and causing light rust stains.

DESCRIPTION: This auction is for TSR Dragon Magazine Unpublished Article Series: Unknown Common Gods Manuscript by Len Lakofka 1986.

This lot includes two manuscripts, a cover letter by Len Lakofka to Kim Mohan, editor of Dragon Magazine, and 2 envelopes, one being the original mailing envelope addressed from Len to Gary Gygax. The manuscripts are vintage file photocopies of Len Lakofka's original dot-matrix printouts of two manuscripts for his unpublished, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Dragon Magazine article series: The Common and Unknown Gods of Greyhawk. The two manuscripts comprise 34 singles-spaced, single-sided computer printout pages. The cover letter includes a personal pencil note written and signed by Len. The envelopes have been hand labeled by Gary, "Lakofka - Greyhawk Deities".

Amazing discovery! Len Lakofka wrote up all 15 of the of the Common or Unknown Deities of the World of Greyhawk as he did with the Suel deities on the pages of Dragon Magazine. He submitted these to Gary Gygax and Kim Mohan for publication while Gary was still struggling to regain control of his company after a hostile takeover had forced him out. Sadly, Gary never did regain control of the company he founded and these deities and this manuscript remained unknown--until now!

The 15 deities are given full details with statistic blocks and description, background, powers, worshippers around the World of Greyhawk, and details on their orders of clerics and their raiment, ceremonies, shrines, temples, and powers gained! Amazingly cool!

The deities covered in this treatise include: Tharizdun, Cyndor, Bleredd, Joramy, Lirr, Myhriss, Zilchus, Dellub, Kurell, Rudd, Velnius, Telchur, Atroa, Sotillion, and Wenta. Truly a crown-jewel of Greyhawk discoveries!

This auction lot comes from the personal collection of E. Gary Gygax!

Visuals are 3 images looks like typed up on a computer early 1980's style with partial views of Kurell, Joramy and mostly Zilchus. No art.

[GRWelsh]

Thanks Gene. That is the sort of lore that I hope gets shared online for the community once the auction is won. Does anyone know how much input or oversight EGG had on Lenard's "Gods of the Suel" articles or other articles in general? It seemed like they had a close working relationship or at least some connection during the early AD&D era.

[geneweigel]

I don't know how informed you were of the behind the scenes with Rob but it was one of the main subjects in the 3 way interaction that I was having Rob would say something then I would follow it up with Gary along with pushing for a "Castle Greyhawk" solely because Gary was "saving that for publication" and I was like well publish it, of course.

Distinction number one:

In 2002, Rob had never seen the WOG map.

Lets put this in perspective from DRAGON #1 (JUNE 1976):

Aug. 20-22 GenCon IX, Lake Geneva, WI; contact Gary Gygax, 330 Center St., Lake Geneva, WI 53147

SNIP
GenCon Update
There will be seminars by Fritz Leiber on S & S, and by MAR Barker on EPT/Tekumel, as well as a D & D seminar by Gygax, Arneson and Kuntz. There will also be competition for the best organized (integral) unit of miniatures, to be judged by Gene McCoy, Editor of WARGAMES DIGEST. Anyone wishing a full list of events, times, prizes, etc., should write to: Gary Gygax, 330 Center St., Lake Geneva, WI 53147. The program will also contain a listing of lodgings, restaurants, etc. See you there! Aug. 20, 21 & 22, 1976

The primary source of anectdotes, sent directly to my ears, for both of them, Gary and Rob, revolved around this convention.

When pried about "Greyhawk" I would get blather about this almost exactly from DRAGON #7 (JUN 1977):

Designers Forum
GARY GYGAX ON DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
Origins of the Game
The most frequently asked question at seminars which I have given on DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is: “How did the game originate?”. Because of the frequency of this question, and the involved nature of the reply required, I thought it a good idea to once again put it in writing. The Forward in DUNGEONS & DRAGONS contains most of what follows, but I will go into greater detail here. When the International Federation of Wargaming was at its peak, it contained many special interest groups. I founded one of these, the “Castle & Crusade Society”. All members of this sub-group were interested in things medieval and I began publishing a magazine for them entitled Domesday Book. In an early issue, I drew up a map of the “Great Kingdon”. Members of the society could then establish their holdings on the map, and we planned to sponsor campaign-type gaming at some point. Dave Arneson was a member of the C&C Society, and he established a barony, Blackmoor, to the northeast of the map, just above the Great Kingdom. He began a local medieval campaign for the Twin Cities gamers and used this area. The medieval rules, CHAINMAIL (Gygax and Perren) were published in Domesday Book prior to publication by Guidon Games. Of course, they were in a less developed state, and were only for a 1:20 figure scale. Between the time they appeared in Domesday Book and their publication by Guidon Games, I revised and expanded the rules for 1:20 and added 1:1 scale games, jousting, and fantasy. Rob Kuntz and I had acquired a large number of 40mm figures, and many of them were so heroic looking that it seemed a good idea to play some games which would reflect the action of the great swords and sorcery yarns. So I devised
such rules, and the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association proceeded to play-test them. When the whole appeared as CHAINMAIL, Dave began using the fantasy rules for his campaign, and he reported a number of these actions to the C&C Society by way of articles. I thought that this usage was quite interesting, and a few months later when Dave came down to visit me we played a game of his amended CHAINMAIL fantasy campaign. Dave had taken the man-to-man and fantasy rules and modified them for his campaign. Players began as Heroes or Wizards. With sufficient success they could become Superheroes. In a similar fashion, Wizards could become more powerful. Additionally, he had added equipment for players to purchase and expanded the characters descriptions considerably — even adding several new monsters to the rather short CHAINMAIL line-up. The idea of measured progression (experience points) and the addition of games taking place in a dungeon maze struck me as being very desireable. However, that did not really fit in the framework of CHAINMAIL. I asked Dave to please send me his rules additions, for I thought a whole new system should be developed. A few weeks after his visit I received 18 or so handwritten pages of rules and notes pertaining to his campaign, and I immediately began work on a brand new manuscript. “Greyhawk” campaign started —the first D&D campaign! About three weeks later, I had some 100 typewritten pages, and we began serious play-testing in Lake Geneva, while copies were sent to the Twin Cities and to several other groups for comment. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS had been born. Its final form came over a year later and consisted of nearly 300 manuscript pages which I wrote during the wee hours of many a morning and on weekends. The first D&D (as opposed to variant CHAINMAIL) dungeon adventurers were: Ernie Gygax, Don Kaye, Rob Kuntz and Terry Kuntz. They were soon joined by Don Arndt, Brian Blume, Tom Champeny, Bill Corey, Bob Dale, Mary Dale, Chip Mornard, Mike Mornard, and Tim Wilson. All of these gamers — as well as the other play-testers — contributed to the final form of the game. There were then three character classes, with players beginning at first level (rather than as 4th level Hero-types or relatively powerful Wizards), and each level was given a heroic or otherwise descriptive name. The actions that they could follow were outlined. Spells were expanded. The list of monsters was broadened again, and a complete listing of magical items and treasures was given. The reaction to the manuscript was instant enthusiasm. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS differed considerably from Dave’s "Blackmoor” campaign, just as the latter differed from CHAINMAIL: but, based on the reception given to the game by the others testing it, he had to agree that it was acceptable. Although D&D was not Dave’s game system by any form or measure, he was given co-billing as author for his valuable idea kernels. He complained bitterly that the game wasn’t right, but the other readers/players loved it. In fact, the fellows playing the manuscript version were so enthusiastic that they demanded publication of the rules as soon as possible. Thus, D&D was released long before I was satisfied that it was actually ready. I am not sorry that we decided to publish then instead of later, even though I’ve often been taken to task about it since, and I hope all of you feel the same way too. You can, however, rest assured that work on a complete revision of the game is in progress, and I promise a far better product.

After hearing versions of this for the umpteenth time, I would sicken of it and be what about the "Greyhawk" Greyhawk?

This is where they diverge.

The plan was Ernie Gygax and Kuntz as said in DRAGON #37 (MAY 1980):

To sum it all up, the World of Greyhawk project will go on for several years, with the initial maps and Gazetteer complemented by rules for miniature figure recreation of the warfare of the place, plus a line of figurines from MiniFigs in the near future. Next will come a series of special modules—one this year, and then many more through the next couple of years. The City of Greyhawk might make a 1981 publication date, certainly 1982, and about the same time
the series which will eventually represent the whole of the Dungeons of Castle Greyhawk will begin. If all goes well, there might be an add-on map or two, and there might also be additional dungeon/ campaign sets similar to the T-Series. Because there are so many demands on my time, much of this depends on the co-operation of fellows such as Skip Williams, Steve Marsh, and maybe even Rob Kuntz and Ernie Gygax (neither of wham are known for their rapid work, shall we say?).

Len comes aboard Greyhawk (He is already a "columnist" for Dragon) in DRAGON #52 (AUG 1981) with Greyhawk Languages articles with intro from Gary validating that he has been around forever.

Rob alludes to a mysterious time in Mexico and is back in DRAGON #55 (NOV 1981) where Gary hints Len has done Suel deities (This is long before publication; see below)

Those readers who attended my two seminars at GenCon XIV, or otherwise spoke with me about developments on Oerth, know that the revised and expanded edition of WORLD OF GREYHAWK Fantasy World Setting will contain a score or so of the deities popular in the Flanaess. Len Lakofka has done those of
the Suel people, while I detailed those generally served in the area from the Grand Duchy of Geoff to the Great Kingdom. There is the first bit of good news for those who are chaffing for more information. I am also hopeful that the Kindly Publisher and his Esteemed Editor will see fit to publish the data on those deities herein, so as to obviate the need for all who own original editions of the campaign setting to purchase the new. (If they seem recalcitrant, Good Readers, a bit of pressure will surely smooth the way...)

SNIP

Finally, I had heartening news recently. Rob Kuntz, after a long stint away from AD&D™ gaming (reputedly due to a case of reveling in royalty income) has again returned to the creative fold. Being first one of the original participants in my Greyhawk campaign, and eventually its co-DM, Rob is eminently qualified to assist in the production of the storehouse of material and information which you are asking for. Rob and I have sat down several times over the past few weeks to discuss how we should about this production in order to assure an orderly and useful flow of new things. Here is the tentative list we are now aiming at:
A. Regular WORLD OF GREYHAWK game information via the “Sorcerer’s Scroll” column — you have the first here!
B. Completion of the CITY OF GREYHAWK map and gazetteer. Rob, Terry Kuntz, and Eric Shook are now at work on the project.
C. Detailed, smaller-scale maps of important areas of the Flanaess, complete with important residents and some encounters. The same team has ruled off the world map,

Gary details who is developing what in DRAGON #57 (JAN 1982) and still no Len:

For those of you who wish to plan ahead, Rob Kuntz will cover the action surrounding the Sea Barons, Spindrift Isles, See of Medegia, Almor and the
Kingdom of Nyrond. Meanwhile, I’ll skip to the Lordship of the Isles, the Scarlet Brotherhood, Hepmonaland, the Olman Islands, and on into the Amedio Jungle.
Next will be the Pomarj, Wild Coast, Celene, and the three Ulek states, Then comes Greyhawk, Urnst Duchy and County, Furyondy, Dyvers and the Nyr Dyv,
Verbobonc, and the Temple of Elemental Evil. A discussion of Veluna, Highfolk, Bissel, Ket, Perrenland, and the Tiger Nomads will make a very mixed bag indeed for a future column. The Valley of the Mage, Geoff, Gran March, Sterich, Keoland, the Yeomanry, and the Sea Princes covers the southwest nicely. The
last major portion discussed will be the Caliphate of Ekbir, Tusmit, Zeif, the Paynims, UII, and the Dry Steppes.

GODS OF THE SUEL PANTHEON first surfaces in DRAGON #86 (JUNE 1984)

So this official talk on paper of Len doing the Suel goes back to 1980 in WOG FOLIO which is right before the time of L1 THE SECRET OF BONE HILL (1981) which is set in the city of Restenford on Lendore Isle, in hex B-78 (According to WOG boxed set 1983).

From WORLD OF GREYHAWK FOLIO (1980):

Lendore Isle, on the other hand, has much trade with the continent and pays, through the Council of Seven of Lo Reltarma, a liberal sum to both the Lordship of the Isles and the Sea Barons to pass without incident. This immunity has been ignored on occasion by an enterprising pirate who is then later exterminated - whether by an agent of the Council or by someone else is unknown. The humans of Lendore Isle pray almost exclusively to the ancient gods of the Suloise, but how this religion became dominant on this faraway isle is a mystery. Lendore Isle is named for the Arch-Mage who founded its civilization, but tales of him and the fellowship he brought to the Spindrifts are all but lost.

I posted all this to clarify that it was nebulous with many coming and going. Terry Kuntz's name appears, once I believe, as part of the Greyhawk crew but towards the end it seems Len was the only one steadily in the Greyhawk corner by 1985 or so. So this manuscript seems to be what was slated for the fans.

[GRWelsh]

Don't forget the reference to the mineral 'Lacofcite' in module D3 (1978) and spells like "Leomund's Secret Chest" in the PLAYERS HANDBOOK (1978). So he must have had the association with EGG by at least as early as 1978. I don't have the reference handy, but I remember hearing in interviews that Tim Kask and Len Lakofka both helped EGG quite a bit with the AD&D rule books, which may have included both writing and editing. The fact that EGG gave Len his own little corner of the World of Greyhawk, the Lendore Isles, implies a close relationship by the time the Folio (1980) was published.

[grodog]

Yes, Len carried the torch for Greyhawk when many others had dropped it completely or put it down for awhile.

He wrote many pieces for Greyhawk before the Suel deities series, ran tourneys set in GH at GenCon, and continued to develop GH via campaigns in the Sea Prices, Ratik, and Lendore. See my partial bibliography at grodog.blogspot.com/2020/11/an-index-of-the-dungeons-and-dragons-works-of-lenard-lakofka.html for a list of known works, and my recollection is that he contributed many new spells to the PHB too.

Allan.

[foster1941]

I have a (totally unsubstantiated) suspicion that a lot of the new spells introduced in the AD&D PH were created by Len - especially the ones that feel underpowered, have a lot of fiddly-seeming detail, and/or have a significant chance of not working and leaving the caster worse off than if they didn’t cast the spell (all of which are traits I associate with his output - see his cleric spell additions in Dragon #58). Examples of spells I think he probably created (just from the level one MU list) include affect normal fires, erase, find familiar, friends, identify, mending, Nystul’s magic aura, and write.

[GRWelsh]

I was thinking the exact same thing, and add the message spell to that list. A similar theme was in "The Cloistered Cleric" article... Weak, fiddly and not very useful and more related to world building stuff going on in the background. I feel the same way about cantrips.

On the other hand, for something I do like from Len a lot is the "5% rule" which I use for my campaign. I like the idea that characters can improve in smaller but more frequent increments, especially in a campaign where it can take a long time to go up a single experience level.

[geneweigel]

The Gygax relationship with Len had gone back to the 1960's from what I gathered. I believe with the Diplomacy game (Len had a fanzine called Lliasons Dangreuse). From my perspective knowing very little about the Diplomacy game (Which had become somewhat obscure in the 1980's or at least enough that I never noticed it.), when Rob and Gary started to regale me with tales of Arneson and Diplomacy I was like... "And now back to the good part: GREYHAWK! OH YEAH!" So I found out from Gary that Len was cool and some story about him being religious. I don't want to misconstrue it. I feel like I'm forgetting something regarding TSR and him coming from California. I can't recall but it didn't seem very "D&D-ish" or I would have "chiseled it in stone".

[grodog]

Alas, I didn’t win this manuscript, or any of the others I bid on. However, I may be able to get access to the content from the winning bidder.

Allan.

[grodog]

Nov 21, 2023 11:56:14 GMT -5 grodog said:

Alas, I didn’t win this manuscript, or any of the others I bid on. However, I may be able to get access to the content from the winning bidder.

From my post at www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2359670#p2359670 :

I am in touch with the winner, and will hopefully work something out to make the two Lakofka mss., at least, available to fans, like the other mss. at www.annabmeyer.com/lakofka-archive/ (some of which were provided by collectors, and some from Lenard’s estate).

Allan.

[geneweigel]

I've never even saw those. There was a 3rd edition thing that I saw that seemed odd. Are those tied into the Spindrift Islands or is it something else?