In the first edition of D&D this game was listed even before funky polyhedrals in What You Need to Play. I've Googler the box cover, which looks very 70s, and I've seen the maps. But what other than the map did this game provide to the origins of the hobby? Surely just an outdoor map could be found or made easily banyplace, so what made OS special?

I played it once or twice, my step dad handed me down a copy of it when I was 11 or so. Nothing about it really stands out, some rules for movement and food and water. I am fairly certain I just made shit up as I went while loosely basing it on the rules. Nice enough maps though, nothing stellar.

Quote from: TristramEvans;706928But what other than the map did this game provide to the origins of the hobby?

Basically nothing. It is used for off-hand adventures in the wilderness beyond the immediate dungeon surroundings (see OD&D vol. 3 The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures, page 15+).

It just came out at the time (1972), the board was just there, and it seemed good enough for the job.

In the original Castle Greyhawk, this is the board that was used to get back home once Robilar, soon followed by Tenser and Terrik, went down the slide to China at the bottom of the dungeon.

Quote from: TristramEvans;706928Surely just an outdoor map could be found or made easily banyplace, so what made OS special?

Well the game itself is pretty random, but one cool feature of the Outdoor Survival map is that, by the very theme of the game, which was basically survival in the wild in a variety of terrain types, the board could be used for fantasy gaming without too much of a stretch to the imagination (shifting a few elements, like assuming the ponds indicate Castles for instance, and buildings are towns, because it doesn't include stuff like modern roads and railways and stuff you'd find in WW2 hex maps for instance), and the variety of terrain could be used to simulate a standard, varied, abstract, non-descript wilderness landscape.

The board also includes a 1-6 direction printed on the board directly to use when you get lost. It's used for the same purpose in the OD&D rules, determining a random direction from the hex you are in once it's been determined you are indeed lost.

It does its job very well. And it's gorgeous, sturdy, and so on, of course (IMO).

Just found Gary Gygax explaining the same thing basically to estar on EN World:

Quote from: Col_Pladoh, aka Gary Gygax on EN WorldThe OS board made a perfect generic terrain board, the pond areas being either hamlets or castles. With a check for loss of direction and another for encounter, the whole matter was easy and fun for the players adventuring outdoors.

Cheers,
Gary

Source: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?171753-Gary-Gygax-Q-amp-A-Part-XII/page10&p=3027526&viewfull=1#post3027526

What Ben said.  Basically, hex maps that weren't wargames were hard to come by.

And we DID actually PLAY "Outdoor Survival" a few times.  "Go downhill until you find water, follow water until you reach people" is how the game goes.  Water equals life.

I made a hexcrawl style map off of the original version.

http://wilderlands.batintheattic.com/southlandsm.jpg

Important Note: It's generally really cheap on eBay

....also includes the "missing starvation & dehydration" rules...

Interesting, I guess it was just a case of "here's a nifty resource to make use of",  namely a map. The map is nice, reminds me of the Harn maps Ive made use of myself over the years.

Quote from: estar;706977I made a hexcrawl style map off of the original version.

http://wilderlands.batintheattic.com/southlandsm.jpg

That's pretty cool as well.

The old Avalon Hill game?

It was very meh in terms of gameplay.  My brother owned a copy, and basically you had to survive in the wild in much the same way that Bear Grylls does.  Be smart, follow the creeks, and get off the map.

IIRC, it was one of Avalon Hill's biggest sellers because it was found in just about every National Park's gift shop.  I can't find the old cite for that, however.

If you want to use a terrain map, the Squad Leader and Advanced Squad Leader maps are good.

SL maps are on a much smaller scale. Notionally 40 m/hex, although there's some fudging.  Many wargame maps could be adapted of course; ancient/medieval/fantasy would be especially suitable, although they might be too recognizable in some cases, I guess.

ISTR that OS was recommended by Gary partly as a favor to the OS designer but I don't remember where I may have read that.

We picked this up a couple of years ago and didn't find much too it. It was simplistic and deadly ... as opposed to Source of the Nile which is Complex and deadly.

GaryCon 2012:

Had it but lost it with a-lot of other old game stuff that was stolen.

Here is a scan of the map up on BGG. Someone has also done an advanced version of the game.



Interesting game. Oddly I never connected the mention in D&D and the game as being the same thing. ook.