A recent thread over on Dragonsfoot asks: How many AD&D players who started in the 80s knew about OD&D?
Here is my answer, which I posted there, and have expanded a bit here:
My first D&D set, from 1982, was (obviously) Holmes Basic, and the rulebook includes a Preface stating that it is "based upon the original work published in 1974 and three supplementary books published in the two year period after the initial release of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS", and then a reprint of the "Foreword from the Original Edition", where Gygax gives a brief yet evocative history lesson on the origins of D&D that begins, "ONCE UPON A TIME, long, long ago..." And my copy was the 3rd edition, which has a product listing on the back cover of "OTHER ITEMS FROM TSR" available for mail order, including the "Original Dungeons & Dragons Collector's Editions".
So I was aware of the original D&D rules basically as soon as I had my first rule set. I quickly moved onto AD&D from Holmes Basic, owning all of the hardcover rulebooks by mid-1983, but there again I encountered OD&D: my copies of the Monster Manual and the Players Handbook again have product listings that include it.
And I learned even more about the early history once I started reading Dragon. On the rack at B. Dalton at the local mall where I bought my Dragon magazines, I found the Best of Dragon #1 and #2, which reprint a number of articles from the early years, including "Gary Gygax on D&D: Origins of the Game" in BoD #1.
At some point I found a copy of Moldvay Basic at a Goodwill thrift store. This set included a copy of one version of TSR's Gateway to Adventure catalog, which had a page for the "Collectors Edition" which showed the OD&D set and supplements. This was the first place that I actually saw what the OD&D booklets looked like, other than Eldritch Wizardry, which early on I once spotted on the rack at B. Dalton.
Later in the '80s, I came across a still new-on-the-shelf copy of the Original Collector's Edition (OCE) of Whitebox OD&D at a game shop and bought it, and still have. I was actually somewhat surprised that the rules were so similar to what I was familiar with, as I was expecting more differences. In the next year or two after that I ordered Chainmail and the Blackmoor supplement directly from TSR's Mail Order Hobby Shop, which was still selling copies through '89 or so, although the copy of Blackmoor I received from them was essentially a high grade photocopy.
So, with different degrees of understanding, I was aware of OD&D throughout my years in the 1980s playing Holmes Basic and AD&D.
I started with AD&D in 1982 when I was 12, and I heard about OD&D via my DM (a teacher at my school). IIRC, she'd been playing D&D since that version and also Chainmail.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great teacher!
DeleteI too started with AD&D in about 1980 - 81 (when I was 9 or 10). I was dimly aware that there was an older, pre AD&D game, but no copies of OD&D were available where I was growing up in Canada. There are a few references to "Greyhawk" in the Dungeon Masters Guide which were obviously not references to the world of Oerth.
ReplyDeleteGood point on the DMG. "Time in the Campaign" references "the original game of D&D" (pg 37); the section on combat references Swords & Spells; and Appendix H: Tricks of the DMG sends the reader to OD&D Vol 3 and the Greyhawk Supplement for more ideas.
DeleteI also was first exposed to D&D via the Holmes boxed set, and although I was aware of the LBBs, I never got a copy until they were reprinted by WotC. I moved from Holmes to AD&D pretty quickly, although a friend had the Moldvay/Cook B/X sets and I also played that as well.
ReplyDeleteI hear you on the last part; for a time I played both AD&D and B/X. I had trouble finding regular players where I lived, so I mostly played with one friend. We would take turns DMing for the other, who ran an entire party. Mostly AD&D, but he had the B/X sets so at one point I created a B/X party and he DM'd me using those.
DeleteI started with Moldvay Basic Set, but played Holmes and AD&D immediately. AD&D even before I played my own Basic Set. That was 1981. I got Eldritch Wizardry and Blackmoor from a hobby store because they were cheap, and then the white box reprint from the Mail Order Hobby Shop. I still have it. So yeah, I knew about OD&D. Didn't play it, but knew it.
ReplyDeleteMy first game of D&D was AD&D 1st edition, but my first group played Mentzer BECM. I knew there was a precursor edition to both of them (and I don't mean the Holmes/Moldavy Basic books, which we also had), but I didn't much care, AD&D and BECM were perfectly fine (until I left D&D in '89 and never looked back as a GM). It wasn't until much later in life (the early 00s) that I started to want to see how it "all began" and I started hunting for original editions of some of my favorite games (GURPS Man to Man and Orcslayer first), and despite my dislike of D&D, OD&D was one of the sets I hunted down.
ReplyDeleteI may have played one game of OD&D with my dad's friend in 1978 - I was 9 years old and don't remember the rules set. I received the Holmes set from my parents in 1979 for Christmas, and by 1980 I was playing AD&D - as the Holmes set told me to. I did not even learn of B/X until the early 2000s, and never studied the OD&D rules until a few years ago. I was blown away on how near-identical the rules of OD&D and B/X were!!!
ReplyDeleteMy best friend received Holmes basic 8th grade Christmas break Dec. 1977. The first book I bought in early 1978 was the AD&D Monster Manual and sometime by summer several of us had bought AD&D Players Handbook. Of course the DM's wasn't out yet, so we supplemented with Supplements I-IV, especially Blackmoor and Deities & Demi-Gods, and used the Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets Second Edition booklet and Judges Guild DM's Screen which were both based on OD&D. Regretfully I never thought to pickup up the "Collector's Edition" of OD&D, but certainly was aware of it. Also by fall 1978 we had introduced Arduin Grimoires into our game, which were more directly tied to OD&D than AD&D. When the DM's Guide finally came out in 1979 our group already had a hodgepodge of home rules on speed factor, binding wounds, THACO (although I don't believe it was called that early on, but the process was used to speed up to-hit calculations). Fast forward to today and we run a house-ruled version of Advanced Labyrinth Lord and tend to look from 1st ed. AD&D then backward to OD&D and its relatives for clarity on the rules, and only if those sources aren't sufficient then look forward through B/X, BECMI, 2nd ed., and on if necessary.
ReplyDeleteI had the same “Gateway to Adventure” brochure as you (think it came in the Cook Expert set), but paid almost no attention to the listing…after all, I already owned the “Basic” and “Expert” sets, what more did I need? I was far more smitten with ads for Gamma World, Top Secret, etc.: fantastic NEW games that I didn’t yet own!
ReplyDeleteThat was (roughly) 1982. It would be a couple more years till I discovered that AD&D was a wholly different game from B/X. And it was (probably) 1986 or so before I laid eyes (and hands!) on copies of the original LBBs (belonging to a non-gamer friend’s older brother). I was able to acquire my own copies in a used bookstore circa 1988(?) and found them both fascinating and delightful…though they didn’t hold a candle to the REAL game (AD&D).
I didn’t figure out the whole supplement thing, Strategic Review, Holmes Basic, etc until DECADES later…maybe not even till after I first started blogging. I’ve learned more about the history of the game (and it’s design) in the last 10 years then I learned in my first 30 in the hobby.
Crazy.