Sometimes an adventurer, no matter how determined & worthy, has no one to (form a) party with. Such a sad state and waste of attribute rolls, Doritos, and Mountain Dew. Your character’s caltrops rusting away, their 10’ pole propped up forlornly in the corner . . .
+ Add the perceived “un-coolness” of roleplaying games in the 1980s - Subtract The Internet to find others to play with __________________________ = Leaves you with DMing your adventures yourself
Boo. Like playing both sides of the Chess board, this can get old and boring really quick.
The 80s had at least one Ace up its sleeve though . . .
You want to know what it was?
Here’s the answer ——>
What? Don’t see it? That’s because it’s INVISIBLE INK!
Rub the magic pen in the designated areas (apply to your mobile device or computer screen at your own risk), and voila . . . words/numbers/pictures appear!
What a surprise when I found out recently that TSR created not just 1, but 2 Dungeons & Dragons Invisible Ink Modules!
Both produced in 1983, “Blizzard Pass” and “Maze of the Riddling Minotaur” were made to be used in conjunction with the D&D Basic & Expert boxed sets, though I found you really didn’t need either of those rulesets to play.
These are both very self-contained in their own different ways - so much so, that instead of “modules”, I actually consider them standalone gamebooks (another 80s sleeved-Ace of solo-play enablement, btw) when playing the solo part of the adventures.
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Some could consider the invisible ink aspect sort of a gimmick, since:
it might not add much value to the gameplay,
you could only reveal the invisible ink once,
this made the books more expensive than they needed to be
But I still think they’re really cool. The Invisible ink lends a greater level of interactivity, and it can keep you honest for your first go through (I’m looking at you, non-Lawful alignment characters!)
I had a lot of fun playing through both of these modules this week.
Blizzard Pass had the cool narrative of your adventuring party not trusting you due to a village murder accusation. There was a constant undercurrent and accusations of betrayal throughout the adventure - which at some points you actually had the option to act on!
The game mechanics were simple enough, requiring just a d6 and d20. You simply used your magic pen to reveal the section numbers indicated and made rolls against the stats of your included character sheet. There were several ways to perish, many of them most unpleasant.
A couple of those “Guidelines & Tips” for playing were hilarious to me though. It felt like I was being lectured by a school teacher!
I bought an original Blizzard Pass module that had many formerly-invisible entries rubbed, revealed and oxidized decades ago, but there were many entries that were never scrawled on - AND - there was no magic pen to be found!
Even if there were a magic pen, it would’ve dried out back in the Reagan administration.
What was I to do?
Blacklight.
Yup. Huddled under a blanket with a blacklight flashlight, I was able to make choices other than my module’s former master.
I’ve heard a legend that exposing used invisible ink pages to bright sunlight may make the yellowed passages of yore recede back into the nether, so I did a little experiment of my own to no effect.
“Yes & Know” Invisible Ink Gamebooks were a staple road-trip activity for kids in the 70s and 80s. Instantly recognizable, and found at many road stop shops, these things allowed you to while away the time without asking Papa Smurf if “we’re there yet?” every 5 minutes.
Lee Publications continued to make these books, almost absolutely unchanged, until a few years ago when they were sold, and the final chapter on this product line was closed after about 50 years. I hope parents are prepared to threaten to pull over the car a lot more often than in past generations.
While writing this article, I had a flash of recollection about an old Scholastic craft book I received as a kid that had a HUGE influence on me. I even remember trying to make my own invisible ink with a potato at my grandparents’ house based on its recommendation.
I still have that book.
Funny, I remember creating codes and ciphers, and trying to learn Morse Code flash signals, but as with D&D, I typically had no one to do these with, so I would pretend to find and decipher my own codes, under the watchful eye of Blackhat, the spy mentor in the book.
Interesting I guess this could be considered another form of solo adventure book - at least for me!
Speaking of Scholastic, if you remember the old Scholastic Bookmobile, reminisce with me about it and TSR’s Endless Quest books:
I still remember the excitement in elementary school when the Scholastic Bookmobile (pronounced “moe-BEEL”) would roll into town. There was something magical about this itinerant book fair caravan that promised fantasy and fun to our youthful imaginations.
I went down the rabbit hole (as often happens when I write my newsletters) about invisible ink over human history and uncovered some really interesting articles for those interested:
“The Hidden Past of Invisible Ink” from American Scientist Magazine is a fascinating read that traces its use throughout history, including usage in espionage, stage magic, and science
I purchased a licensed scanned re-print of “The Maze of the Riddling Minotaur”. All the invisible entries were filled-in (printed) so no pen is required. It’s hard & expensive to find copies of these that were not filled out, and I would feel guilty for doing so if I were to get one.
But what’s cool is you can tell where the invisible parts used to be by the thinner print/lines.
You like mazes? And gamebooks? Then check out this recent Rediscovered Realms newsletter:
What is it about mazes that is so intriguing? Maybe it’s that they harken back to carefree childhood activity fun, or perhaps it’s some shared archetypal memory of our own personal minotaur lurking through the labyrinth of life we’re seeking to journey through? Is it a vicarious feeling of escaping some situation or place we’d rather not be, personal gr…
This module had very different game mechanics, and actually made really good practical use of the original’s invisible ink - obscuring parts of the maze, riddle answers, “dice” throw results . . .
There aren’t any dice required for this module, as you get the random results by picking which invisible squares you want to reveal which included all the numbers you need.
It’s actually pretty cool that you don’t know how many hit points the monsters you encounter have (well - you wouldn’t know if you had the invisible ink version!) Each entry has about the same number of boxes that you tick off as you do damage, but you don’t know they’re dead until you get to a “D”!
My favorite “mechanic” though is narrative in nature: You’re given a silver owl at the outset which serves as a device to relay your experience back to the council if you die. That way you as the player can justify knowing which ways NOT to take the next time through. It also eloquently explains why the labyrinth map given to you by the council only has certain sections filled in (spotty experience of past perished adventurers!)
“This owl,” she explains, “is a statuette of great power. Should you perish within the maze, it will come to life, return to Ahmadi, and tell him the tale of your adventure. Your death would not be in vain, for the next champion would learn from your mistakes.”
Because of this “wise” mechanic, there is only 1 dead-end/death passage in the entire module - basically any time you die or are incapacitated, you go to section 128:
“128. You topple to the ground, mortally wounded. As you feel the cold grip of death you reach into your pocket for the small silver owl that the royal council gave you. As you release the owl, it grows to full size and flies off in the direction you have come from. It will return to Ahmadi and tell him what you have done and the paths you have taken. You may begin the module again with a new character, learning from the mistakes of the previous champions.”
This story is fun. You are seeking the kidnapped Princess Lydora in an ancient sealed off maze where rumors of reawakened evil have been heard. I’m still going through it myself and hope to not have to send out too many more silver owls.
Here’s a riddle from one of those meddling . . .er, riddling minotaurs:
When whole I have A hole in my center I go many miles While traveling in circles What am I?
You want one more?
You may see across my width Though my beginning and end can be leagues apart I am forever moving But you will always see me in the same spot What am I?
I won’t burden you with finding a magic decoder pen, but you’ll have to read until the end of the article to find the answers!
Both modules have a group-play section to them as well. So if you don’t have an issue finding others to play with, you could play these as regular modules with full D&D rules. They’re even separate adventures, so you can play both the solo and group play without ruining the fun. It was a great idea, and probably a conciliatory consolation/value-add for you technically only being able to use the invisible ink aspect once!
Fun Fact: the campaign setting for both of these modules is in “Mystara”. That’s the original D&D Basic RPG boxed set world, also called, “The Known World”
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(Featuring artwork from Clyde Caldwell & Luke Eidenschink!)
Thanks for joining me and rubbing that slightly smelly but magically revealing quill on this latest Rediscovered Realms quest!
(Also, thank you because it sometimes sucks to play solo all the time. It can feel like riding a WHEEL down a RIVER of invisible ink . . . before you cascade down the waterfall to another silver-owl-generating event)
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Maze of the Minotaur was my first D&D module I bought as a kid. I loved minotaurs and was disappointed that the "Minotaurs" were actually golems. And at a 1-10 level range, it was the widest spread I can remember. My first level thief didnt last long:-)
Cool story about the blacklight torch. I thought M2 made better use of the invisible ink with the map that M1.
These were probably the best two of the solo modules.
Boy oh boy do I miss invisible ink workbooks. They were tons of fun and I liked these adventures back in the day too. I did prefer Tunnels & Trolls solos, especially Arena of Khazan, but these were a pretty good time.
Maze of the Minotaur was my first D&D module I bought as a kid. I loved minotaurs and was disappointed that the "Minotaurs" were actually golems. And at a 1-10 level range, it was the widest spread I can remember. My first level thief didnt last long:-)
Cool story about the blacklight torch. I thought M2 made better use of the invisible ink with the map that M1.
These were probably the best two of the solo modules.
Boy oh boy do I miss invisible ink workbooks. They were tons of fun and I liked these adventures back in the day too. I did prefer Tunnels & Trolls solos, especially Arena of Khazan, but these were a pretty good time.