Saturday, November 5, 2011

35 years of D&D Basic Sets

The new Pathfinder Beginner Box is now available and is reported to be of high quality. It's not something I will likely be purchasing, but it is nice to see the continuing legacy of the Holmes Basic Set in the field. Next year marks the 35th anniversary of the publication of the original Basic Set in the late summer of 1977.  

"[S]ufficient information across the board to enable play for a group for a limited period of time--enough to determine if the game is "right" for the group. That's what the Basic Set of D&D was for, and that was a good idea that J. Eric Holmes came up with." --- Gary Gygax, Dragonsfoot forum post, 2002

Chronology of D&D Basic Sets:







1996 - The Classic D&D Game (different cover)

1999 - Holmes Basic rulebook and B2 reprints included in Silver Anniversary Box

1999 - D&D Adventure Game (2nd edition AD&D)

2000 - D&D Adventure Game (3rd edition AD&D)

2004 - D&D Basic Game (3rd)

2006 - D&D Basic Game (revised; 3rd)

2008 - D&D Roleplaying Game Starter Set (4th edition AD&D)


2011 -  Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Beginner Box

(with thanks to the Acaeum, as always).

We still await a beginner's set for the OSR, either for an existing retroclone or a "community starter" as discussed at the OD&D Discussion Forums. (Let me know if I have forgotten something; I refer here to a physical boxed set, not just a pdf of starter rules, etc).  

Addendum: Yesterday, James on the Underdark Gazette posted An Introduction to Game-Mastering an Old School FRPG, a revision of a piece previously intended for either a Brave Halfling intro set (which changed to a different project) or the OD&D community starter linked above (which petered out).
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6 comments:

  1. Desert ScribeNovember 6, 2011 at 3:04 PM

    Z, Lamentations of the Flame Princess was sold as an actual boxed set, complete with tiny dice and even a pencil.

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  2. Hamel™November 6, 2011 at 9:09 PM

    The purpose of the list should be gathering Starter Sets (with limited character advancement), not Boxed Sets. ;)

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  3. Hamel™November 6, 2011 at 9:49 PM

    Anyway, D&D Adventure Game (2000) is missing:

    http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/dndcore/863490000

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  4. Zenopus ArchivesNovember 7, 2011 at 7:08 AM

    Desert Scribe: Do you refer to the Grindhouse edition of LoFP? As far as I can tell, it did have a "Tutorial" book in it, but also had two other rulebooks covering the complete game. (Sort of like Star Frontiers, with Basic and Advanced rulebooks in one box). As Hamel noted, I focused here on sets only having introductory material.

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  5. Zenopus ArchivesNovember 7, 2011 at 7:13 AM

    Hamel, thank you for that tip. (I did wonder if I was missing something since I didn't have a 3rd edition intro set listed until 2004). I added an entry to the list, and a few notes to distinguish what editions the later sets are for, since they used "Adventure Game" for both 2nd and 3rd edition intros.

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  6. Hamel™November 7, 2011 at 10:04 AM

    I am glad to have been helpful.

    As a side note, 1999 D&D Adventure Game (the very last TSR's Basic Set) has a funky feature: it employs a single Saving Throw, very similar to Swords & Wizardry's one.

    ReplyDelete