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[Let's Read] Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules, by Tom Moldvay
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<blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 6075761" data-attributes="member: 6680772"><p><strong>Introduction</strong></p><p>What The D&D® Game Is All About - The aforementioned art and foreword aside, rereading the Basic Rules has brought home how very clearly Moldvay laid out the point of the game. Here he refers to D&D as "the Dungeons & Dragons® Fantasy Adventure Game". While the cover refers to D&D as "the original Fantasy Role-Playing Game", the words "role-playing" <em>never</em> appear in the rules. There is no "What is a role-playing game?" section. The closest it gets is when he says, "In the D&D rules, individuals play the role of characters in a fantasy world..." In fact, that begins Moldvay's succinct description of what D&D is about: "In the D&D rules, individuals play the role of characters in a fantasy world where magic is real and heroes venture out on dangerous quests in search of fame and fortune. Characters gain experience by overcoming perils and recovering treasures. As characters gain experience, they grow in power and ability." </p><p></p><p></p><p>How To Use This Book - Here Moldvay summarizes the structure of the rule book, which Cook's Expert Set would follow. An Expert Set is promised to cover 4th to 14th levels, and a Companion Set for 15th to 36th level. He notes the use of the punched holes for combining the sets in a binder. Another interesting thing is that he tells the player to read the whole book, except for Dungeon Master Information. Dungeon Master Information only includes the rules for making up a dungeon, and a sample dungeon. The non-DM Information sections includes combat, monsters, and treasure. So Moldvay seemingly intended for players to have a grasp for how the rules worked (he writes, "It is more important that you understand the ideas in the rules, than that you know every detail about the game.") This seems to jive with the article in Dragon he wrote that Shannon brought up earlier. He says there:</p><p> Personally, I think this is part of the easy "buy-in" that is one of the strengths of Basic D&D. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Here he also notes, Moldvay expanded on this in the article: For myself, this being my first interaction with RPGs, this forever imprinted this conception of RPGs on me. Every edition of D&D (perhaps with the exception of 1e?) has included the basic disclaimer of "Feel free to make changes or add rules to fit your group and playstyle." But I don't think any other edition's gone that extra-step of putting "rules" in quotes and guidelines in bold, except for OD&D, which really hit the "don't call us, make it up yourself" angle hard.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Definitions of Standard D&D® Terms - Here Moldvay gives a quick rundown of Dungeon Master, player, player character, non-player character, party, dungeon, dungeon module, class, adventure, campaign, mapper, caller, monster, encounter, melee, and experience points. "Adventure" is defined as a game session, beginning when the party entered the dungeon, and ending when the party left the dungeon and divided up treasure. a "campaign" is then defined as "several related adventures (one adventure leading to another, often with the same player characters)". Some in the OSR have suggested that "campaign" originally simply referred to sandbox worlds independent of particular characters. If that is true, the sense of it was already changing by 1981.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Regarding the caller, I think the definition here is perhaps different from the popular conception:</p><p></p><p></p><p>It's interesting that fighting monsters is underplayed in this section. Moldvay says that in the course of adventuring, PCs will meet monsters, "which they will have to avoid, talk to, or fight." Interesting that avoid comes first, talk to comes next, and fight comes last. Further, he says, </p><p></p><p></p><p>Use of the World "Level" - Of course, there's a dedicated section for all the uses of the world "level".</p><p></p><p></p><p>How To Use The Dice - Always useful. Gives advice on how to "roll" a d4. This section is accompanied by <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vX1pbla-GkA/Tyx81FWDPEI/AAAAAAAABDw/NbR0lWAS588/s1600/Moldvay+Minis.bmp" target="_blank">this picture</a>, which brings back memories of dice, notebooks, and graph paper.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Finally, How To "Win" - Here Moldvay downplays adversarial DMing, saying "The DM and players do not play against each other" and "the DM must not take sides." It ends with a statement that might actually be controversial today: "A good D&D campaign is similar to the creation of a fantasy novel, written by the DM and the players."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iosue, post: 6075761, member: 6680772"] [b]Introduction[/b] What The D&D® Game Is All About - The aforementioned art and foreword aside, rereading the Basic Rules has brought home how very clearly Moldvay laid out the point of the game. Here he refers to D&D as "the Dungeons & Dragons® Fantasy Adventure Game". While the cover refers to D&D as "the original Fantasy Role-Playing Game", the words "role-playing" [i]never[/i] appear in the rules. There is no "What is a role-playing game?" section. The closest it gets is when he says, "In the D&D rules, individuals play the role of characters in a fantasy world..." In fact, that begins Moldvay's succinct description of what D&D is about: "In the D&D rules, individuals play the role of characters in a fantasy world where magic is real and heroes venture out on dangerous quests in search of fame and fortune. Characters gain experience by overcoming perils and recovering treasures. As characters gain experience, they grow in power and ability." How To Use This Book - Here Moldvay summarizes the structure of the rule book, which Cook's Expert Set would follow. An Expert Set is promised to cover 4th to 14th levels, and a Companion Set for 15th to 36th level. He notes the use of the punched holes for combining the sets in a binder. Another interesting thing is that he tells the player to read the whole book, except for Dungeon Master Information. Dungeon Master Information only includes the rules for making up a dungeon, and a sample dungeon. The non-DM Information sections includes combat, monsters, and treasure. So Moldvay seemingly intended for players to have a grasp for how the rules worked (he writes, "It is more important that you understand the ideas in the rules, than that you know every detail about the game.") This seems to jive with the article in Dragon he wrote that Shannon brought up earlier. He says there: Personally, I think this is part of the easy "buy-in" that is one of the strengths of Basic D&D. Here he also notes, Moldvay expanded on this in the article: For myself, this being my first interaction with RPGs, this forever imprinted this conception of RPGs on me. Every edition of D&D (perhaps with the exception of 1e?) has included the basic disclaimer of "Feel free to make changes or add rules to fit your group and playstyle." But I don't think any other edition's gone that extra-step of putting "rules" in quotes and guidelines in bold, except for OD&D, which really hit the "don't call us, make it up yourself" angle hard. Definitions of Standard D&D® Terms - Here Moldvay gives a quick rundown of Dungeon Master, player, player character, non-player character, party, dungeon, dungeon module, class, adventure, campaign, mapper, caller, monster, encounter, melee, and experience points. "Adventure" is defined as a game session, beginning when the party entered the dungeon, and ending when the party left the dungeon and divided up treasure. a "campaign" is then defined as "several related adventures (one adventure leading to another, often with the same player characters)". Some in the OSR have suggested that "campaign" originally simply referred to sandbox worlds independent of particular characters. If that is true, the sense of it was already changing by 1981. Regarding the caller, I think the definition here is perhaps different from the popular conception: It's interesting that fighting monsters is underplayed in this section. Moldvay says that in the course of adventuring, PCs will meet monsters, "which they will have to avoid, talk to, or fight." Interesting that avoid comes first, talk to comes next, and fight comes last. Further, he says, Use of the World "Level" - Of course, there's a dedicated section for all the uses of the world "level". How To Use The Dice - Always useful. Gives advice on how to "roll" a d4. This section is accompanied by [URL="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vX1pbla-GkA/Tyx81FWDPEI/AAAAAAAABDw/NbR0lWAS588/s1600/Moldvay+Minis.bmp"]this picture[/URL], which brings back memories of dice, notebooks, and graph paper. Finally, How To "Win" - Here Moldvay downplays adversarial DMing, saying "The DM and players do not play against each other" and "the DM must not take sides." It ends with a statement that might actually be controversial today: "A good D&D campaign is similar to the creation of a fantasy novel, written by the DM and the players." [/QUOTE]
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