OD&D Edition Experience: Did/Do you Play BECM/RC D&D? How Was/Is It?

[Zardnaar]

I admit, it would drive me crazy to try to run a long-term Basic D&D campaign, and I'd need a hundred pages of house rules just to make the attempt. The BECM rules don't have a lot of the elements of a "modern" RPG...all the different races and subraces, all the classes and subclasses, the backgrounds, the feats--and that's just on the players' side of the screen! A (mostly) balanced Challenge Rating system for the monsters and a single, unified dice mechanic are just the tip of the iceberg.

But while I'm being honest: you know what BECMI also didn't have? It didn't have rigorous board-game rules for movement, flanking, board position, and line of sight. It didn't have Advantage, inspiration, reactions, opportunity attacks, and other arguments-waiting-to-happen. There was no such thing as a "power combo" or "optimized build." It didn't have ten different ways to cheat death, with half of them available at 1st level.

Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't give up the modern RPG game design of 5E and switch back to the Basic D&D rules. No way, those days are long gone. But history became legend, legend became myth, and some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. I miss the days when my players cared more about the story we were all telling, and less about their position on a grid or how many times they get to reroll the same die.

For the most part the mechanics are 1d6 or 2d6 instead of a d20.

It's not hard to insert ascending numbers either.

 

[atanakar]

Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't give up the modern RPG game design of 5E and switch back to the Basic D&D rules. No way, those days are long gone. But history became legend, legend became myth, and some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. I miss the days when my players cared more about the story we were all telling, and less about their position on a grid or how many times they get to reroll the same die.

I don't see a difference in game play between 5e and AD&D. Maybe it's my group but we do a lot of role-play, problem solving and world building. Combat is only a last resort. Could be the type of game I prepare too. No long crawls, no multi-day wilderness treks...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I played AD&D, but the version that proceeded those boxes.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Prologue:

Lori and Lisa - two funny and smart girl cousins who were visiting from Michigan - had tried to teach me how to play B/X D&D, but I was completely confused. We were sitting on the 1970s avocado-colored carpet at the front entrance of my house, trying to play a boardgame with no board, on tiny black and white squares on pieces of paper (where are the playing pieces?), with my cousins talking a lot of words I didn't understand. The only thing I enjoyed was that these cool cousins were showing me attention. I must've been very young. (6 or 7?) The name of the game didn't stick with me, and I'm not sure I even realized it was the same game that I later came to love. Only years later, did I see my cousins' Moldvay Basic book, and realize in retrospect that those dim memories were actually of D&D.

Another gateway: I was into Choose-Your-Own-Adventures, but I'd been eyeing the D&D books in the Waldenbooks in Mercer Mall (in Bluefield, West Virginia, on the edge of coal country). I flipped through the orange-spine Easley-cover AD&D books, but they were way over my head. But the small, dark typeface made an impression. Mysterious - I wanted to know more.
***
But this thread isn't about that. It's about BECMI! So the tale begins...

I was 9 years old in 1983 when I received the Red Box for Christmas. I grew up in southern West Virginia, in a rural area near the town of Princeton. Man, Larry Elmore's covers are engrained into my memory. Iconic.

Looking through the books, I felt such a magical, mysterious feeling. In awe, just looked through the books for awhile (weeks?), but then mustered the will to play through the solo adventure in the Caves west of town, with Aleena and Bargle. Such wondrous feelings. My character was named "Shayne Swiftblade" -- and looked exactly like the iconic fighter depicted therein. Who, in retrospect, looks quite a lot like Bono from U2! (A question for Jeff Easley someday?)

Shayne remained my player for several years, advancing up to Companion Level, approx. level 10.

BTW, in those days, the dice in the box came with white crayon which you rubbed into the faces so that you could read the numbers. The plastic was very soft, and before long, the dice corners would get worn to a nub.

Within a few weeks or months, I convinced my older brother to play. I DMed the enclosed Castle Mistamere adventure. Memories: Carrion crawler comes up from a hole with a board over it. Paralysis! Rubble-damaged wall. Goblins? (or kobolds?) Bag of peas, kept for rest of adventuring career.

We didn't yet understand that damage didn't carry over to the next monster. When my brother rolled 6 dmg, and the monster only had 4hp, then the next monster in the group took 2 dmg as well. (We were 'Cleaving' or 'Sweep Attacking' all the time! ;o) )

IIRC correctly, weapon dmg was all 1d6 at first. With different weapon dice introduced later as an optional rule.

I went on to get the Expert Set. The Town of Threshold! Gateway to Adventure. I remember cracking the box open on a family camping trip (maybe in Ohio), while sitting on a picnic table. I was so engrossed in reading the wilderness rules, that I remember not being interested in what was going on with the family and camping. I felt some guilt about that.

KayBee Toys had a D&D book section for only a little while (probably just during the D&D boom-bust of 1983-1985), then marked it all down to clearance. A sore memory: I purchased the AC10: Bestiary of Dragons and Giants from KayBees, only to later find it was missing the cardboard "dragon spell" dial thingy. I felt remorseful. Maybe I did ask for a refund, or maybe I didn't (I was really shy). I think (maybe) the clerks said they couldn't do anything since it was a clearance item. I thought about that for months and years though, how I was missing the dragon-cardboard thingy.

KayBees also carried the AD&D Action Figures (Warduke, Strongheart, etc), which I admired, but never really got into. (I supposed that since they were labeled AD&D, not D&D, that they weren't for me.) I was into "He-Man Figures" and Transformers.

When I went to Waldenbooks to look in the extensive D&D section, I really felt that the "D&D" logo was "my stuff", and the "AD&D" stuff was intimidating but cool books for big kids or adults.

I went on to purchase various Basic and Expert modules. And ran them for my two brothers. These are ones I remember running. (Of course I also owned some modules that I didn't get around to running.)

-B1-9: In Search of the Unknown (super-module compilation. awesome.) Note: by the time I got around to buying modules, I hardly ever saw the B modules for sale singly. I think TSR let them go out of print pretty quickly.)
-B10: Night's Dark Terror
-X1: Isle of Dread (came with the Blue Box)
-X6: Quagmire!
-X12: Skarda's Mirror
-O1: The Gem and the Staff (solo adventure, though I think I sort of ran it for my younger brother, with me DMing.)
-Some of the mini-adventures from AC10, e.g. white dragon, black dragon
-(In later years: DDA: Eye of Traldar, and B11: King's Festival. I picked up some Gazetteers eventually, but I don't remember playing any of their adventure seeds.)

These BECMI modules were so fun. I have some fleeting memories from all of them.

I enjoyed the AC (accessories) series as well:

-Book of Marvellous Magic (with Alternate World Gates leading from the D&D Universe to the AD&D Universe, to Gangbusters Chicago, to Boot Hill in the U.S. Southwest, to WWI Dawn Patrol, to the irradiated Gamma World, and to Star Frontiers galaxy.)
-Creature Catalogue. As with all the TSR UK-produced books, this had wonderfully evocative b&w line art. A classic. (Not to be confused with its later RC-era re-do, which wasn't as charming.)

In junior high* our D&D group expanded beyond my two brothers.

*(Which, for me, started when I was 10, because I'd gotten 'double-promoted' as a 4-year old in kindergarten -- a social disaster - I wouldn't recommend it!)

Regular players:
-Chad (older bro) - played an Elf named Yclept (Old English for 'called')
-Chism (younger bro) - played a Dwarf named Rolf (?)
-Gary R. (one of my best friends) very fun guy. Shot milk out his nose during funny moment. What was his character tho? I don't remember.
-James L. (my older brother's friend)
-James R. (a friend in a grade lower than me.) - played a thief who lost an ear through torment as a prisoner. Thus took the nickname: "One-Ear". Then gathered a whole string of other nicknames, such as "Wild Man". I remember James asking me in the blue-cinderblock Matoaka High School cafeteria if he could join our group. I was impressed that he had the courage to ask, and amazed that I had an experience that someone else wanted.

We would have sleep-overs and play most of the night. 8-hour mega-sessions. It was so fun and cozy.

In retrospect, I wonder why some of my other friends didn't join, I don't remember if I asked them and they declined, or if I just sensed they wouldn't be into it, or what.

BTW, I've recently gone back and tried to play Basic D&D, and bumped into difficulties. For example, I forgot how THAC0 works, and I found the Prerequisites rules to be unmeaningful. (E.g. get a 10% XP bonus forever, just because you rolled high stats?) But we didn't know any different. Back in the day, every little detail was meaningful to us. Those were just the rules. Like Monopoly or checkers.

All my adventures took place in or around the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, the home country of the BECMI setting.

Man, the characters were uber-rich. AFAIR, we didn't deal with encumbrance at all. They just somehow sucked up all the gold. They had hundreds of thousands of gp.

I designed a magic shop in the capital city of Specularum, where the PCs could go and buy and sell their magic items. I felt bad when my younger brother cried when his character didn't have enough money to buy the magic item he wanted. (Or something like that.) I felt sorrow. I still think of that, when someone talks about what age is appropriate for D&D, and how to DM for younger players.

We also had some one-off players:
-James R.'s dad (who became interested in D&D through playing the gold box SSI computer games)
-Kevin M.
-Craig
-My dad, who played "Hugh Halfling", who wore a red velvet bathrobe.

Eventually, two other fellows took up DMing as well (the two James). We divvied up the worlds:

-James L. took Greyhawk. We played a wee bit of AD&D1e (UK2)
-James R. took Forgotten Realms. AD&D2e
-I took Dragonlance. But never actually DMed it. (Just bought some DL books.) I remained DM of the Known World of BECMI.

We alternated between playing AD&D2E in Forgotten Realms (with James R. as DM) and playing BECMI in the Known World (with me as DM). (The Known World wasn't called Mystara yet.)

We played on up into high school. I bought the Companion, Master, and Immortal Set. But we only made it up to level 10, IIRC, the beginning of the Companion level. One of the last events I remember was running a dominion-building session for my younger brother, whose Dwarf established a Barony in the forested foothills of the northwestern Altan Tepes in Karameikos.

I continued to collect BECMI books on up into my 20s, and picked up the Rules Cyclopedia / Thunder Rift stuff, but never played it again.
***
Of course, Mystara remains my favorite D&D world. I've contributed articles to (and provided the name for) the Vaults of Pandius -- the Official Mystara Fan Site. And interviewed (or gathered Q&As from) various BECMI authors. D&D will be around for generations, maybe centuries - might as well wring the authors' memories while they're still around!

I've enjoyed reading Frank Mentzer's posts over the years at Dragonfoot, and also appreciate how Bruce Heard has remained very active in administering the Mystara Reborn and BECMI facebook communities. Though having idolized such men from childhood, I feel disappointed when encountering human frailties/foibles.

***​

Recently, I've corresponded with Mike Gray, author of the BECMI module XL1: Quest for the Heartstone -- the only adventure tie-in with the LJN AD&D Action Figures. And he and I have co-designed an entire unofficial world and map around that. He calls it MOTHERLAND.

Similarly, I've talked with Rose Estes, and she's advised on designing an unofficial map and name for the world of the D&D Endless Quest gamebooks. She calls it Quest World.

So, BECMI was good to me. It was such a charming, evocative introduction to the imaginal realm.

Thank you Gygax, Mentzer, Elmore, Heard, Easley, and all the other BECMI designers, artists, and crew.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

As expected the voting results for this edition thus far are strong. Good edition.

 

[Stormonu]

Truthfully, I mostly used the B/X books, and for a long time the BECMI series was for me just a repackaging I didn't have the money for. Somewhere along the line, I did get a copy of the Expert set and got the Companion rules for one Christmas - but by then I was mostly into AD&D and these books just became part of my library (and I didn't like high-level games, so the Companion rules never got use).

I did collect and still have all those old sets (including a replacement Companion set that is still in shrink wrap), and the Rules Cyclopedia. However, they just sit nicely on the shelf and do not have the worn-to-bits look of my B/X books.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Much like the 1e AD&D "Do/Did you play it?" thread...I had to choose "Did and still playing". Because I have two Basic D&D campaigns "going on"; one uses BECMI/RC/Dark Dungeons, and the other is pure B/X. Both are set in The Known World (re: "Mystara"). Last time we played, however, was about a year ago. Life got in the way of it and things got hectic about 8 months ago or so.
..
That said, I still tinker with my version of the setting, making maps, writing adventures, making tables, lists and other cool things to use in the future, etc.
..
Just to be sure: I am an "old school DM" who cut his teeth on B/X back when there was only B and X was still in production. As such a (Killer) DM, by today's standards, the idea of a "campaign" is NOT a single particular 'story line' with a beginning, middle and end. That's not a "campaign"; that's an "adventure". So doing B1, then B2, then B3 is not a "campaign"...it's a series of adventures strung together by the DM's imagination and Players participation. After B3 is ended, well, you just keep playing! Maybe it's time for B6...then maybe X2, then X1....who knows? That's a "campaign'...it just keep's going. So...to clarify...when I say "I am still playing/DMing my BECMI/RC/DD or my B/X campaign", that's what I mean. We never 'ended' it; if we get a hankering for some B/X, we'll pull out our B/X guys and pick up where we left off. So...uh...yeah. That.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[delericho]

I started with that Red Box, then moved to Expert and Companion. Then we 'upgraded' to 2nd Ed. We had an absurd amount of fun with those sets, even though I did a terrible job of actually running the game.

In hindsight, many of the so-called improvements in AD&D 2nd Ed were nothing of the sort - in a lot of ways, BECMI is the better game (IMO). On the other hand some of them, notably the split between races and classes, are pretty much essential, so I don't think I'd ever go back. All IMO, of course.

 

[Orius]

Technically, yes. Never had the Red Box, and didn't get around to buying the RC before it went out of print, but I started with the Black Box, which is RC's Basic set. I still have it. The Black Box was okay, but I felt the 5 levels was kind of limiting, and I prefer AD&Disms like separate race and class, nine alignments, etc. At least with the RC, you get a nice complete set of rules and a launching point for playing in Mystara, while 2e is more scattered. In hindsight, I probably should have picked up the RC when it was still in the bookstore rather than buying some 2e stuff like the Arms & Equipment guide, but even then it would have delayed the inevitable. I started playing in 1993, and that was right when TSR ended the D&D line. I'd have had to move on to 2e at some point.

 

[dave2008]

I played AD&D, but the version that proceeded those boxes.

There was already a thread about that: Edition Experience 1e AD&D