Of all of TSR’s letter-coded Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure module series, GR (“General Reference”) was perhaps the most feeble. GR1 and 2 were 3D building assembly kits, and later entries were collections of player handouts.
Today I’m profiling those first two, which came in box sets: Strongholds & Dungeons of Mystery (1992).
TSR had a brief flirtation with 3-D tabletop buildings in the early 1990s: Forgotten Realms’ Cities of Mystery (1989), Greyhawk’s Falcon trilogy (1990), and Castles (1990). (Other related examples include fold-up dragons and ships found as feature centerfold in Dragon magazines of the period)
GR1 Strongholds and GR2 Dungeons of Mystery took a page from the previous releases… literally. Strongholds in particular reprints its sheets from the earlier sets.
GR3, 4, and 5 were the Treasure trilogy, entirely different. (Link to my RPG reference page) Basically, “treasure map” handout-based mini adventure scenarios.
The coding is a bit chaotic. TSR was losing interest in the letter/number coding at this time, so some entries have them, some do not. See photo below.
These sets are super frustrating for collectors, as owners (of course) would assemble a few buildings and then shelve the set, leaving mountains of incomplete sets floating around. It appears even my examples are missing a few sheets, but I still think it’s worthwhile to share the reference photos here.
Strongholds (GR1) 1992 … 16 pages + 3 poster maps + 30 sheets of punch-outs … TSR 9353 … ISBN 1560763612 Check Wayne’s Books Inventory
Dungeons of Mystery (GR2) 1992 … Tim Beach & Dennis Kauth … 64 pages + 3 poster maps + 24 pages of punch-outs … TSR 9365 … ISBN 156076368X Check Wayne’s Books Inventory
Strongholds
Maps
Dungeons of Mystery
Dungeon of Mystery has a more substantial accessory booklet, featuring dungeon design advice, scenarios, and even a few creatures in Monstrous Compendium format.
Like its brother, GR2 does have some sheets coded, 9365XXX1401 through 3. Likewise, what sheets they choose to code and not code is a mystery to me.
Maps
See Also:
That’s why I look forward to coming here: To take a gander at all the lovely material. I feel recharged now.
I forgot who drew the isometric dungeon example. I wonder if this was around the same time and perhaps inspired these 3D projects. I remember it did influence me to give it a go and think more about 3D.