I just took a fascinating spin through just about every D&D source book I own searching for elfin chain, I cannot find it in OD&D (v1-3 and S1), Holmes, B/X, nor the 1st edition AD&D DMG. I did find it in my 2nd edition AD&D DMG, and then discovered it as well in Unearthed Arcana. Is this really the first appearance of the amazing light-weight armor? It always struck me as such an iconic piece of treasure, I really expected it to exist in earlier versions of the game.
More troubling though is the dates here. Unearthed Arcana was printed in 1985. However, the whole reason I went digging for this item was that I was transcribing the pre-gen characters from A1 to character sheets, and noticed one of them wears it. A1 was printed five years earlier, in 1980, so clearly the item existed well before UA hit the shelves. Am I missing something here?
IT ARE IN DMG (NON-MAGIK KINDS. AND IF IIIRC FRIEND FOLIO FOR A DROW AND GDQ MOD-YULES.
WHY AM YOU SUCH EFFIN NOOB?!! GAWD!
:p
-NUNYA
Now for the democratic response: You will find it in AD&D 1E DMG p. 27. “It is obtainable only from elvenkind who do not sell it.”
My interpretation is that this was retroactive continuity to explain why MM elves can have AC 5 with move 12″, which itself is a numerical copy-forward legacy from the super-elves that appear in Chainmail. You can see me talking about that on my blog here.