Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
And You May Ask Yourself- How do I play D&D? Commercialization and the Closing of OD&D
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Yora" data-source="post: 8459436" data-attributes="member: 6670763"><p>The 1974 D&D rules are pretty much unreadable to the uninitiated. They are the cheat sheets for people who already knew the game, having it been taught by others, or expanding on their existing familiarity with wargames like Chainmail.</p><p>It became clear quickly that TSR had struck gold with D&D, with a huge potential market, but the existing product was not capable to serve that market outside the existing wargaming communities. Making a product that was much more accessible was a commercial necessity to reach potential customers.</p><p></p><p>The first attempt was the 1977 Holmes Basic Set, which for some reason is probably the most obscure of all D&D editions. What exactly the plans were for this one I don't know, nor am I familiar with what content it actually delivers and how accessible it is. But it came out the same year as the AD&D Monster Manual. I would guess with the Basic Set and the MM, you could run a game out of the box.</p><p>The Player's Handbook followed in 1978, and the Dungeon Master's Guide in 1979.</p><p></p><p>I tried reading the PHB and DMG, and I have to say they are still really esoteric tomes that remained very much incomprehensible to me, though my preconceptions of the d20 systems might have been more a hindrance than a help in that regard.</p><p></p><p>Now the interesting point that I want to come to is that in 1981, four years after the Holmes Basic Set and Monster Manual, and two years after AD&D was complete with the three rulebooks, TSR created the extremely compact Basic and Expert Sets, B/X. Compared to the three AD&D book, this game is absolutely tiny. The Basic rules and the Expert rules are 64 pages each, which includes all the monsters (2 times 16 pages) and a lot of duplicate material. And also in a font that has probably half the amount of actual text per page.</p><p>And it is this version of Dungeons & Dragons that really sold like crazy. To my knowledge, it significantly outsold AD&D, if you include it's second edition BECMI. But it's also a much cheaper product, so I have no clue which of the two games created the most revenue for TSR.</p><p></p><p>When WotC bought TSR and started work on a new D&D game, they went all out on continuing the AD&D game. I assume because AD&D had the famous settings. Forgotten Realms of course being a native AD&D setting, but also Dark Sun and Planescape.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Yora, post: 8459436, member: 6670763"] The 1974 D&D rules are pretty much unreadable to the uninitiated. They are the cheat sheets for people who already knew the game, having it been taught by others, or expanding on their existing familiarity with wargames like Chainmail. It became clear quickly that TSR had struck gold with D&D, with a huge potential market, but the existing product was not capable to serve that market outside the existing wargaming communities. Making a product that was much more accessible was a commercial necessity to reach potential customers. The first attempt was the 1977 Holmes Basic Set, which for some reason is probably the most obscure of all D&D editions. What exactly the plans were for this one I don't know, nor am I familiar with what content it actually delivers and how accessible it is. But it came out the same year as the AD&D Monster Manual. I would guess with the Basic Set and the MM, you could run a game out of the box. The Player's Handbook followed in 1978, and the Dungeon Master's Guide in 1979. I tried reading the PHB and DMG, and I have to say they are still really esoteric tomes that remained very much incomprehensible to me, though my preconceptions of the d20 systems might have been more a hindrance than a help in that regard. Now the interesting point that I want to come to is that in 1981, four years after the Holmes Basic Set and Monster Manual, and two years after AD&D was complete with the three rulebooks, TSR created the extremely compact Basic and Expert Sets, B/X. Compared to the three AD&D book, this game is absolutely tiny. The Basic rules and the Expert rules are 64 pages each, which includes all the monsters (2 times 16 pages) and a lot of duplicate material. And also in a font that has probably half the amount of actual text per page. And it is this version of Dungeons & Dragons that really sold like crazy. To my knowledge, it significantly outsold AD&D, if you include it's second edition BECMI. But it's also a much cheaper product, so I have no clue which of the two games created the most revenue for TSR. When WotC bought TSR and started work on a new D&D game, they went all out on continuing the AD&D game. I assume because AD&D had the famous settings. Forgotten Realms of course being a native AD&D setting, but also Dark Sun and Planescape. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
And You May Ask Yourself- How do I play D&D? Commercialization and the Closing of OD&D
Top