Retro RPG review 10: Part 1 - Basic D&D
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 มิ.ย. 2014
- Part 1 of a three part look at Original Dungeons and Dragons. That 'other' game that was published in parallel to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons for 22 years. How did that situation come about, and exactly how good a game was it? The answers might just surprise you!
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As a kid who had Basic, Expert, Companion, Master and Immortal sets this video brought back very fond memories. I was in fourth or fifth grade and though only had a couple friends to DM once in a blue moon, I'd spend hours crafting dungeons on graph paper and filling them with monsters and traps. Sometimes I hear a song from the 80's and nostalgia washes over me...sitting on my top bunk, head buried in these books, dreaming of another world, one vastly better than the one I was living in. Thanks for this video.
I started with the expert set in the early 80's, I then later got the red D&D box set.. had a lot of adventrue games and other books.
Basic D&D my gateway to RPGs. Fond memories.
I remember that red box set. My step mother got it, hoping it would be a thing she could do with my brother and me, but couldn't figure it out and gave it to me. I was about ten at the time, and just fell in love with it. I managed to get the next two sets before my mother caught wind that it might be devil worship and wouldn't let me play it anymore. She did let me keep them, though, but them up on the highest shelf in my closet. It wouldn't be until high school I'd get to start playing AD&D, but that was at a religious boarding school, so we were pretty limited on what we could have in terms of rule books. My friends and I began developing our own systems, based on the D&D and AD&D rules we had access to to fill the void, since nobody ever looked in our notebooks to see what we were writing, just assuming it was homework.
A friend of mine developed a really awesome game based on feudal Japan that these days makes me think of Inuyasha. That was back in the late 80's. I worked out a sci fi game that used fantasy races in place of aliens.
After high school, White Wolf was all the rage, and I played a lot of Vampire and Werewolf. I got back into D&D when 3rd Edition came out, and my girlfriend and I lost a lot of weekends with out friends doing that for a lot of years.
It's funny how a game can come to be such a big part of your life. D&D inspired me to become a writer, and I now have my own fantasy novel published. Can't image what my life would be like without having been handed that red box over 30 years ago now.
It appears we did a lot of things the same way. 1987 red boxed set. And blue green and black in a few years. Also got into battletech in 1989 till today. Star frontiers, conan, marvel super heroes 2nd ed, gamma world, and white wolf in the mid to late 90s. Goodness we should have been neighbors!
@@tnh723 We'd have had some kick ass times, that's for sure! I still have my Battletech set from back then, and the TSR Marvel Superheroes rule books.
I loved the artwork on the 1983, Red, Blue, Black and Gold D&D manuals.
When you showed the Basic, Expert, Companion, and Master sets (I actually bought the last one very late because it was translated in Italian many years after the Companion set), I've been overwhelmed by a tangle of emotions and nostalgia... I remember that, when a friend of mine went to London on holidays, I obliged him to buy the Master box and, when he brought it back, a friend of mine and I started to translate it every day after we finished our homework... Thank you very much for this video!
You were lucky, in Norway we only got to the Expert set xD
@@Mnnvint 😯
I was ten years old when the red box came out and when I saw it at our local K-Mart I was hooked. The bright red box with the huge red dragon on the cover very much appealed to the huge Tolkien nerd I was becoming. I played a few games of it down at the local hobby shop and with a friend from school but it wasn't until I went to college almost a decade later that I ended up joining a group. We played AD&D but every time I'd see something related to the basic set I'd buy it. I wish I had all that stuff. When I moved to Cali in 2001 I left all my books with our DM.
This is the D&D red box I started playing the game with. My best friend's older brother Matt bought it and wanted to run D&D. He grabbed us and a friend of his to play. That was 1983. Here I am all these years later.
Thanks Matt! 👍👍👍
My oldest sister introduced me to the Red Box set and I remain ever so grateful to her for that to this very day.
I started in 3.5 and incorporated a lot of d20 books into my homebrew campaign. Pathfinder rules is now the foundation of my world but find older books have no end to ideas and inspiration. I really like your series'.
What seems weird to me in retrospect is that in the 80s I really played D&D and AD&D as if they were a single game. Somehow it made sense to me.
That's how i run it. I use AD&D monsters and DMG, and introduce new players through D&D classes and ability scores/adjustments. I actually wrote the roll table from D&D inside the cover of my AD&D PHB just so i have it at hand whenever i want to use the AD&D classes/races options but keep the simplified results from D&D. I don't see any conflict between the rules at that point, except missing out on the Exceptional Strength chart, which feels tacked on anyway and i can use it or not use it.
Just a couple of pedantic points (that's my specialty). The Holmes rulebook was originally meant to be an introduction to OD&D. All the references to AD&D, even the alignment chart, were added in editing and not written by Holmes. Secondly, the original agreement that Dave and Gary signed said that the rights to D&D would revert back to the authors in the case the game went out of print. This is why TSR had to keep the basic line in print perpetually.
Yes, I should have clarified that a bit better. I'll definitely add that in when I go to part two, as I'm still working on the script for that. I have a cell picture with that very agreement line with their signatures made up, but forgot to include it. I could tweak these videos endlessly. lol.
TSR's handling of the basic line is a bit strange if you don't know the backstory. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense why they didn't promote it but also didn't cancel it. From what I understand, all the Gazetteer line was written by freelancers because the regular staff only wanted to work on AD&D.
Lol... I totally agree with you... some of the best RPG producers, and award winning products in that line and TSR almost pretended it wasn't there. I'm totally going to address that in my next video.
Basic... that's where my heart is!
I remember my cousin and I staying up for TWO DAYS (at his house) trying to make our very own Monster Manual. He was doing all the drawing, and I was making up the attributes of the monsters. Nothing ever came of that, and I believe it may have been the end of our D&D playing days, but it is a fond memory. I believe that was in 1985 or 1986, I was a teenager.
LOVED this video! As a player since 78', I loved this blast from the past!
I first started play D&D in 1983, a friend in 8th grade had the 1981 box set and that was the one that got me started playing D&D. that summer I sold greeting card to get my own box set and when it came in the mail and when I opened it up, it was not the 1981 box set that was shown in the book of items you can pick from. It was the first red box set printing. but 2 years later I ended up getting the 1981 box set that my friend had that got started me playing D&D and I steel have that old box set to this day.
great retrospective... Glad someone does a great history lesson on it. I've been playing AD&D 2nd since 1994 and played AD&D 1st since 1999... the more and more I've played, I enjoy the simple games like Swords and Wizardy (just adding in the Cyclopedia Rules)
Awesome trip down memory lane! I haven't played the "OG" D&D game in many years; like most folks I "graduated" to AD&D which to me reached its full flowering in 2e. But I do have several copies of all the boxed sets including an Immortals box autographed by Frank himself.😎🧙✨
I cut my RPG teeth on these original sets. Eventually we switched to AD&D because that is what everyone else was playing, but I tell 'ya, my most fond memories were those adventures in Mystara. Especially after I obtained a slew of those Gazetteers and the Hollow World campaign set.
I am very impressed by the amount of work you have put into your videos. Great work!
+Benny Palma Thanks a lot!!
We always played both original and AD&D, switching back and forth. In fact just a couple years ago a small group of mine finished (after over 10 years) running characters from 1st through 36th level, using nearly all the original modules and most of the gazetteers. It was a blast, with them becoming nobles etc., though we shifted all the Norwold stuff to the Northern Reaches. Always loved the gazetteers, which were among the most creative supplements ever produced in my opinion.
The idea of 36th level characters releases dopamine in my perspective
I was an AD&D guy totally, but this is still very interesting. Being an AD&D player, I was very aware of this stuff as it was coming out, and we incorporated some of it.
Yeah, I think a lot of us looked at this stuff and liked quite a bit. I know I liked the Domain system a lot and used that in my games.
Isle of Dread was my first module. I ended up only using bits and pieces of it in my own created campaign world, but it and others from that era really inspired me to make creative encounters.
AD&D 2e and Forgotten Realms is where it really took off though.
I grew up playing BECMI, its still my favourite version. That and 4th ed. My friend Calvert first introduced me to D&D back in 1983. I saw the red box on his shelf, and was blown away by the Larry Elmore cover art. "What is that" I pointed excitedly. It was actually his brothers, but he got it down for me and we made up a Fighter character. I was hooked!!
I got my own copy of the Red box for my birthday and my friend Alan had the expert set and the Isle of dread. We played it to death. We plated through B1, B5 and B3 then made up our own Dungeons. Calvert, Alan, Ian Robbie and myself all loved it. . Sadly both Calvert and Robbie have passed, but one of my fondest memories from the 80s and my childhood is playing D&D at the weekend and school holidays. All the best from Lancashire, UK.
My Dad gave me his copy of the blue box when I started playing when I was 12. It came with B1, which has always been my favorite module. I thought I had lost it, but recently found it, with much excitement. I love the reissue produced by Goodman Games, which includes Keep on the Borderlands, as well.
Bravo! Very well done, double thumbs up. Glad to know that my preference of basic D&D to AD&D was justified. It was simple and fun. The Basic/Expert/Companion/Master books contained ample amounts of resources and information to keep me using these rules for 20 years.
To this day, I still refer back to my Basic D&D books for inspiration, ideas and rules.
+Wally D.M. Glad you enjoyed. I draw a LOT of inspiration from the spheres of influence, the dominion rules and so on for creating my own fantasy campaign. In fact, I currently am running the world of Mystara.
Been playing AD&D since Fall of 1981 and your videos are great!
Thanks! Got some new stuff coming out soon!
Buried in the Immortals Set, it said that if you brought your character up to the highest Immortal level, then reincarnated him as a Level 1 character and worked him all the way back up to the top Immortal level AGAIN, then you have won Dungeons & Dragons... :-)
And if you picked a thief you had to level up to 36 as all three other human classes just to make it to immortality (once) as a thief. Because they hated the thief class. I played D&D for ten years and never got a single PC to 9th level never mind to 36th.
Even the words "prime requisite" brings back good memories. Don't have much use for that word these days, surprised I remembered what exactly it meant.
Absolutely love basic D&D My first ever D&D box set I ever got was the Redbox which we picked up from a garage sale I ended up playing it with my brothers and it was a great time Good memories
The Ruins of Zenopus was so fun it made me a life long player. Pirates, evil wizards and a damsel to save? Sold.
Same!
Weapon mastery was a fun and extremely well made sub-system. The best weapon related system in D&D I dare to say. Parry was fun and with that lethality, almost required!
Wrestling the great equalizer.
Parry as I recall was a terrible, broken rule making it virtually impossible to hit a character who had it. Weapon Mastery generally was a good system, superior to the contemporary AD&D 'weapon proficiencies'. PCs with weapon mastery hit harder (when armed) but were still vulnerable in terms of hit points and to some extent saving throws. I kept the total number of slots the same but changed when you got them to much earlier, which I think reflects real world skill acquisition.
I may be confusing Parry, a full round action, with Deflect.
The thing I best remember about OD&D was that one of the six DMs I was involved with ran rules as written and we called all the campaigns D&D.
Is it possible to have nostalgia for an era you were not a part of. I was born the year the rules Cyclopedia came out and I am thirty years old now. My first dungeon master (who is now my fiancée) introduced me to a crazy homebrew system based off of the rules cyclopedia and AD&D made by her father around the time we were 5. I started playing in middle school with that system and I was hooked on the old school gaming that would form the OSR. I’ve been playing for more than half my life at this point mostly playing old school games (suplemented with White Wolf games, Call of Cthulhu, and my shadowrun/cyberpunk hybrid system) but I only started playing after 3e.
I feel an intense longing for the old days that I was never a part of.
I've generally found the original D&D adventures were excellent, even if I didn't use the rule set. The Palace of the Silver Princes and Isle of Dread are very good.
Isle of dread is basic D&D, Moldvay edition, which is considerably later than original D&D. From memory I recall it being packaged with the expert set.
I thought that the basic dnd rule set came with keep on the borderlands?
Very well done. I have been playing D&D since 83. Started on the red boxed set acquiring the Expert, Companion, Masters & Immortals sets & eventually the Rules Cyclopedia & the D&D basic rules remain my primary D&D gaming system. The only adjustment to them being we use the more complex & realistic alignment axis common to all other editions as the simplistic, non axis, Law - Neutrality - Chaos system common to Basic D&D is not detailed enough to suit our campaigns. Though I would purchase the Advanced system & then the 2nd Edition & play them as well my main focus remained the basic rules. The Rules Cyclopedia made the system so much easier as they complied it all into one hardback tome & included the general skills section. I now possess & play 5th Edition D&D but to this day still focus primarily on the older Basic system running my games from the Rules Cyclopedia. I have a really good number of gamer friends who love the classic basic system as well so there are no shortage of gaming sessions. Look forward to more great videos. Subscribed :)
I'm a bit late to the party, but this was an excellent intro to Chainmail, the OD&D era and the Basic sets. Very well done, mate! 😎
Hey Captain, I love your reviews. They were exactly what I was looking for. They are informative, well scripted, and easy to listen to. I also enjoy your well explained opinions.
I am especially interested in published adventure modules, city modules and world modules. That later two are difficult to sort out but your reviews really help. Perhaps you can do more "Greyhawk" and the "Forgotten Realms" discussions. Greyhawk is challenging because of it's internal timeline and tangical linkage to adventure modules which partially color it in. On the other hand, Forgotten Realms has complete cites... Waterdeep and what else? It seems sprawling and perhaps unwieldy.
Your seperate reviews of rule books / game systems and modules which is wonderful. My only suggestion is to index your reviews somehow. TH-cam makes it difficult to find reviews I want to watch again sometimes. Also, I couldn't find an email address for you, so I decided to post this introduction and fan letter, to one of my favorite reviews as not to junk up your "on topic" comments. I do hope you get this.
I played a good bit in high school and college, but let it go for awhile in my 30s & 40s. Started watching "Critical Role" and reading about "professional & semi-professional DMs" in places like Bloomberg News. Game cafes have sprung up around Chicago. "Ah, the game has finally come of age, I thought" and off I was off to catch up on everything I missed in the way of published modules. That's where your reviews come in.
What have I learned? I like how the game has evolved toward "sandbox style" adventures with multiple "adventure rails". I also am pleased to see DMs consideration of "dungeon ecology" where ghouls don't live down the hall from orcs. I'm a bit skeptical over the vast proliferation of player character "races" and the tenancy toward improbable and ironic player characters, but I admit I have a Tolkien bias and a distaste for "kitsch" in D&D.
I really appreciate all the work you have done to help an old gamer like me catch up on things before diving back in.
Wow. Thank you so much for your response! I will try to do more Greyhawk reviews to be sure!!
I feel you there. I played starting with 1st edition AD&D at 9 or 10 and bowed out by time 4e hit and the group I was playing with for now 20 years kept with 3.5 and Pathfinder because we all didn't care for 4e D&D but by that point I was also so sick of playing 3.5 because it just boiled down to the rest of the group just seeing what broken builds they can slap together and Pathfinder wasn't much better with them. But I caught a few episodes of Dice 📷 action and Critical role when 5th edition came out that I started getting that itch again, so I went to the local game shop and browsed through the 5e books to see what changed from 4e, liked it picked up the DMG, MM and PHB and hopped on roll 20 to play a few games as my usual group was still stuck on 3.5 and PF and started enjoying the game again. Sadly I may have to find a new local group to play with as they keep wanting to run everything else but, plus the DM has developed a bad habit of changing games in the middle of the campaign.
I'm glad to see that you've continued the series. I look forward to the next installment -- I've heard about the Known World setting, but don't know much about it.
I still play this version of the game with my group.
And why not? Its a great game!
TSR also published another fantasy RPG in their early days, Professor M.A.R. Barker's "Empire of the Petal Throne." Quite obscure, relative to TSR's well-known flagship D&D (in all its variations), EPT used a somewhat modified D&D rules base to depict Prof. Barker's world of Tekumel, which that author claimed had hosted tabletop RPing back in the '60s. I wouldn't doubt that at all, as Prof. Barker was quite brilliant and creative in his own right, nearly on a par with Tolkien, in that he studied ancient and foreign languages and cultures to create the alien world in which his adventures took place. I would have loved to have sat in on a conversation between him and Gary Gygax, as the two bore much in common, either to see how they got on, or possibly to see the sparks fly. EPT was actually a science-fiction setting so cunningly wrought that its own inhabitants perceived everything as magical or supernatural in origin, having lost the knowledge of their pre-cataclysmic past. EPT was wrought with rich vocabulary rivaling Gygax's own prose, and illustrations often superior to those in contemporary D&D products (as well as MUCH high production values, with a price tag to match). While "good" and "evil" existed as concepts, alignment wasn't a social construct, and a priest of the "evil" fire god Vimuhla might well live right next door to a champion of the "good" warrior god H'nalla. Much as in ancient Egypt, all gods in Tekumel were considered parts of a cosmic whole. Much later, EPT has seen re-publication at least a couple of times outside of TSR's bailiwick, using different game systems, but the setting is top notch, and a real gem for gamers seeking something different.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_the_Petal_Throne
=^[.]^=
I pull these vids out every now and again to get me inspired for Skyrim! Thanks Capt! :)
Great video. Look forward to seeing the other two parts.
Fantastic job on this video. You answered a lot of my questions about old school D&D. I cut my teeth with the Mentzer boxed set and AD&D.
In addition to the boxed sets and gazetteers, BECMI also had the PC-series of rulebooks, that introduced lot of new playable races for example pixies, pookas, centaurs, mermen, harpies and lycanthropes and new classes.
I really love these reviews. Please keep 'em coming!
I really appreciate your reviews and how informative they are!
Thanks a lot, that really means a lot to me. I enjoy making them, and doing the research, and have a lot more coming!
I remember playing through the Basic, Expert and Companion Sets between 1984 and 1986. I still have the first two sets, no idea who I ended up lending the Companion Set to.... I would like to see a review of classic modules if possible
Great series! Thank you for sharing your experience and time!
+Kalyska Thank you so much. This series was done simply for the love of the game, and I'm very happy that so many people have enjoyed it with me.
+captcorajus It's fantastic. Thank you.
My Dad had the In Search of the Unknown version of the Blue Box. It was how I first learned to play. I quickly grabbed a copy of the Basic Box (red) and was hooked. I bought an Expert module, and so had to seek out the Expert box, but it never got to the table, since my characters never made it that far. It sure was fun to read though!
Enjoyed this. Lots of memories. Thank you. :)
👍for the passion and I love those boxes and gazetteers, I owned Basic and immortal, and the principalities of Glantri. I love how they treated the mage back then when it wasn't called a wizard :) I feel wizs are underpowered now and generally the game pushes people towards other option since everyone can cast useful spells and the spell slots of a wizard are only so many.
That´s it, the great and powerful one.
Until today I say that the Basic D&D was never a introduction to Ad&d, it was a diferent game and a lot of people like me prefer to play.
Some Ad&d gamers love to say that all modules and adventures are crap and the simple rules get boring with time, but they are just one kind of gamer.
Im the first guy to have fun taking one our to create a character a very tick rpg book, but d&d remained unchanged because the modules and adventures mainteined the fun.
A lot of people dont have imagination, time to create his own adventure or just love to get the pre made adventures to play a fast game in the weekend.
Wizards destroyed this kind of game that now Paizo is giving something to play.
This is such a great set of rules and world. I still play in the world of Mystara, although it is much different after all the years and campaigns played. The Keep on the borderlands is still going strong, we are currently playing Horror on the hill, in the hopes that the player characters can make a name for themselves and enter the keeps honor guard. Thanks for the great video, love your content.
Great info! Very appreciated!
Basic D&D rocks!
Weapon Mastery was a great idea... The only thing I remove from it is the whole "primary" vs "secondary" target.
There is nothing like the new game smell of a new 1st edition boxed set, or a new D and D manual.
Great memories from childhood.
My first basic boxed set came with the Descent Into the Unknown module. We moved to Advanced AD&D from there as the books came out. Remember saving my paper route money to buy the books.
B1 In Search of the Unknown. I've done a review on it on this channel. You might enjoy taking a look! Thanks for your commenting!
We played a mix of all at the same time from original basic to advanced. Because what ever was in the gaming store was released and the stores sold whatever they could get
No store even knew details of the differences as you outline here, because they didnt have the hindsight and perspective you do now. We just combined everything and ran with the best of it and somehow it all worked out and was tonnes of fun
*Happy happy joy joy .*
*I'm here to watch again .*
*An with a new channel .*
*At some point i will cover B.E.C.M.I. D&D on my channel .*
Great review
I enjoy the cruder older basic dungeons and dragons art. It has an indie charm.
Absolutely! Me too.
7:39 The Original Books with Extended content in Deities & Demigods ... MMOs before computers and internet ! :-)
I love the BECMI game. I probably played this version more than any other edition, and this video taught me a lot.
My question is: why didn't TSR push this line as much as AD&D. In many ways, it really is a superior game.
8 years later ... 👍👍
This is still my favorite version of the game. I would run it, if I could find a group interested in it. I know the criticisms and complaints and share many of them, but for simplicity and just plain fun, it's still my favorite.
Yes! It had a simpler, freer feel, with less rules-lawyering of the magic spells possible, for example. The ethos of the boxed or BECMI version (from the initials of Basic, Expert, Companion, Master and Immortals) tended to enable more role-playing and less number-crunching.
The expert set appeared in "stranger things"
I noticed they (Stranger Things) have both D&D and AD&D
I downloaded dungeons and dragons "Set 3: companion rules".
It explains how much revenue a peasant family generates, how much revenue 200 peasant families generate, how much gold and how much XP the PCs gain during a month.
There are percentage die tables for how much confidence the servants have in the dominion.
There are tables for natural disasters that can befall a PC's dominion.
I suggest people buy Mat Colvilles "Strongholds and followers"
support current writers instead of downloading a 40 year old product.
That said, dungeons and dragons set 3: companion rules is exactly what it sounds like. A ruleset for companion, retainers and servants.
I personally love basic Dungeons & Dragons . I think it was a very fun system.
Hey, you're back. :) Thanks for the info about Basic and AD&D. I have heard it before from various sources but it is nice to have it all in one place. I do much prefer a more rules-lite approach to gaming and so basic and retro-clones that are similar too it are some of my favorite games.
Thanks for watching, and glad you enjoyed it. I think you'll find the next video very informative as well as I delve into the development of the D&D 'Known World' or Mystara campaign.
I don't know much about The Known World / Mystara so yes, I think I will enjoy it. :)
this was awesome to remember and see some things I had never. Game makers need to read these before they make a ORPG!
We played the boxed sets before we played AD+D. However I bought the DMs Guide for 20 bucks with my pocket money around the same time. Because of this my instinctual play is based in D+D such as monster morale as you referred. So I agree with you actually and like the boxed sets slightly more. But it's a close run thing!!
I started with the second version of the Basic set and went all way through to the end then started AD&D with second edition.
My first DnD game my older brothers introduced me to was Keep on Borderlands! 😊
Thanks Captain
I and my group love the rules Cyclopedia and the gaz series.
I had all the box sets and 2nd ed core books and 14 other advanced books lol alot of great mems there. I miss thac0
How about reviewing some modules? I've always found that interesting and there aren't many of them on youtube.
I did review the Tomb of Horrors, and certainly, there are many worthy of review. All things in time. I still have several other reviews coming up before I can get to some classic modules, but I will do them.
Basic still rules!!! I still have all the seperate rule sets.
I'm a new comer to D&D and am loving your reviews. Would you consider reviewing the Secret of the Saltmarshes? I'm really curious on your opinion of it.
Thank you for your information. This video helped me wrapped around Dnd basic batter than anyone else. I really wanted to try Dnd basic recently and I hope I could find similar minds within my Dnd club.
Is there any resources dedicated to retro Dnd that you can recommend?
I do love a good retro review and I think some others on G+ would like to check this out too. :)
I had a blast running a Labyrinth Lord campaign which is a retro-clone of Basic and Expert. It was a breath of fresh air for me that got me back into running D&D style fantasy again after being severely burned out for a few years. It was a lot of fun.
I have the Mentzer Basic, and the Holmes Basic set and some of the books from Expert, and a few of the other ones. If you can get a hold of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia it has most of that stuff all under one cover. If you want to get it for free search for Dark Dungeons which is a retro-clone of it that was put out by Blacky the Blackball at Gratis Games.
Have fun with the Ravenloft game. :)
*****
I have a pdf copy of the Rules Cyclopedia, though at one time i did have the actual book. Thinking about buying it again on ebay, though, I am looking forward to the new D&D rules... from what I've been able to find out its going to be going back to 'basics' so to speak. BTW Tim, thank you so much for all the shares.
I had never seen a D&D Rules Cyclopedia for sale but I kept hearing about it on G+ and through the many OSR blogs. Then I was at a gaming store and saw a used copy for $5. Needless to say I was a happy camper. :)
I am excited about the free Basic D&D Next PDF, and the Starter Set sounds pretty cool too. I like that the books are going to be more like a series of optional rules. I think they are going to do 5th right.
Um the TH-cam guy needs to track down Jon Peterson's Playing at the World to get some details right. And if he thinks Blackmoor wasn't intended to for large combats he needs to reread the stats in Temple of the Frog God
I love your reviews. I was wondering if you ever thought of reviewing Greyhawk and/or Forgotten Realms?
Does BECMI have more content in the way of modules compared to the rest of the editions?
So why did AD&D 2nd become D&D 3rd edition? Was the "D20 system" different enough that they did not have to pay royalties or something?
Not at all. WOTC owns TSR and all its publications outright and completely. The idea was to 'modernize' the game, and bring all the disparaging systems to heel, which was certainly a lofty goal. i enjoyed d20 initially, but once you got to higher levels and all the feats were added in a myriad of splat books I lost interest.
I still have all my books and an almost perfect AD&D monster Manual hardcover. Just before covid hit i purchased all the new 5E books just to read them. Such fond memories
Anyone know the intro music used? I really like it. Kinda reminds me of Zelda for some reason.
Also, subscribed :)
Basic-Companion I've always believed were superior in some respects to AD&D, as you've stated, by Master Rules though....to much retconning of the game going back to the lower levels. A new B/X rules should have been introduced prior to Master rules.
I'm actually kinda interested in how the fantasy races functioned as classes in those versions of D&D
Basically, they were 'fighters' with various experience charts. Elves were actually a combination of fighter and m-u and progresed slower.
@@captcorajus Did they have strict level limits or was there something at play to ensure they were useful long term?
@@unwithering5313 The level limits were a bit harsh. Especially considering that human levels went all the way up to 36. However, later supplements introduced 'attack ranks' to allow them to be played longer.
@@captcorajus why did they even implement level limits?
I want the becmi box sets sooooooo bad
I'm gonna start an adnd 1e series of games which will be ran through the old tsr modules, but even if its adnd, is there something from the basic set which i might wanna use on my game?
perhaps the time rules (10 seconds vs 1 minute) other wise, I feel the game mechanics are different enough o keep separate. For what it's worth, I play second edition with some influence from1st, like the maximum ability scores for your race. I feel comparing 1ed AD&D to D&D is like comparing 2nd ed to 1st ed.
I'm stepping down from the soapbox now...
I want to find an online game. I liked 1st edition AD&D, but basic sounds like a much streamlined game.
If I'm honest I think B/X or OSE > BECMI > RC
Rules Compendium stretches out spells and thief skills to the point where some classes are just plain useless at the lower levels. The original B/X and now Old School Essentials are on point. I don't rate them higher than Advanced D&D but on the same level. The C, M, I are perfectly fine in their own right but I so rarely find adventures get to that point that I rarely use them. Fine to have and I recommend looking at them for ideas but not suited for me.
What other products or rules did Dave contribute beyond Blackmoor?
I love the info, and your personality. Small suggestion: a pop filter for your microphone. It detracts a little from your otherwise outstanding work. Thanks!
+Joe X (AverageJoeVinyl) Thanks a lot, glad you enjoyed. This is one of my earlier vids. My equipment got better as I went along. ;) I think I was using a cheap headset mic for this one. I'm currently using a shure sm58 with a 'pop' filter. :D
What about spellfire, the card game ?
Dave Arneson looked just like Arn Anderson.
i hate in search of the unknown it makes you work too much. i like my text boxed so i know what to read when I DM
Can someone explain the 1e ac rules to me. And why less ac is better