D&D review: 1974

Eben · Feb 18, 2003

A review of the dungeons and dragons from 1974. You really should read this.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~beattie/timeline/1972-1979/dd.gif

paqman · Feb 18, 2003

Funny

I Like the ... but at 3.50 each are priced rather high.

This guy would probably scream if he was able to know that they would be priced more then 10 times that today.

Bagpuss · Feb 18, 2003

I love the fact its not suited to be a table-top game, better suited to play-by-mail or phone.

Henry · Feb 18, 2003

Dorn proves the important example: never adventure alone...

The funny thing is that people have proven that it is fun to play by phone, (I have done this), by mail (I haven't done this), by e-mail (nope), by message board forums (yep), and by computer game online play (again, yep)!

And my favorite is the part where he says it puts too much work on the referee, compared to the players...

EricNoah · Feb 18, 2003

Wow, that is awesome! You can almost literally hear the paradigm shifting...

diaglo · Feb 18, 2003

he didn't review my favorite thing mentioned in Booklet 1. a campaign should range from 4 to 50 players per referee. with a 20 players to 1 referee being the optimal.

they were referees not Dungeon Masters then.

nsruf · Feb 18, 2003

I knew it, a game like that can't possibly work! Why oh why didn't they listen to this guy back then?

From the review:
The resulting mess in interpretations is enough to tax the patience of most gamers to the extreme.
...
The scope is just too grand, while the referee is expected to do too much in relation to the players.

Hit the nail on the head, that reviewer...

Drawmack · Feb 18, 2003

that's great. The funny thing is I know a lot of wargammers and they still say the same things about RPGs.

Wow 50 people. that would be one hell of a chaotic mess.