Ya Basic! Trying To Understand the Perception of AD&D and the Sales of Basic
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GreyLord
Legend
Yes, I believe that was Gygax's story. Arneson, OTOH, had a story that he found one in England on a trip, and Dave Wesely that he found them in a scientific supply store. I'm not sure if firm confirmation of exactly when they first arrived has been found yet, but here's a pretty comprehensive article from Peterson's blog:
How Gaming Got Its Dice
For those of us who grew up with Dungeons & Dragons , it is easy to take the polyhedral dice of gaming for granted. Dice had played an in...playingattheworld.blogspot.com
As I recall TSR DID buy them regularly from Creative Publications, Inc. in Palo Alto for a while for resale.
DiceCollector.com - DICE THEME : BRAND : CREATIVE PUBLICATIONS
www.dicecollector.com
Good to say that. I tend to be more Gygax's side on things, and have a distinct bias (which shows), but I probably should give Arneson's more due.
My first DM first played D&D in a gifted and talented program in Illinois. He introduced me to D&D when he moved to our road in a small town in New York.
I created my first character with his PHB on August 2, 1982 - I was 13 - and I and his 7 year old brother started our gaming careers being asked who we were at the gates of the Keep on the Borderlands.
AD&D character, Basic module from the Red Box.
Only later did I learn Basic existed. The toy store in town had the PHB but nothing else. My DM let me read his Red Box later on, and my first thought was arbitrage on spear prices to double our gold if we could jump between worlds.
We never played Basic because we thought it was for kids, and we’d just finished 7th and 8th grades … his brother was going into 3rd grade, but smart enough to understand the Advanced rules too - 99th percentile, we figured out by getting into standardized testing results we were supposed to be too young to understand.
”Advanced” was good marketing to us! I never did meet anyone who was playing Basic, but I suppose some people were. D&D was underground until I got to college. Openly playing at school like the Stranger Things club is something we never would have thought of. But boy, lots of kids talked about the game a whole lot at school, and get togethers with other schools - I was in chorus and when I met singers from other schools at events, it was always a topic.
I created my first character with his PHB on August 2, 1982 - I was 13 - and I and his 7 year old brother started our gaming careers being asked who we were at the gates of the Keep on the Borderlands.
AD&D character, Basic module from the Red Box.
Only later did I learn Basic existed. The toy store in town had the PHB but nothing else. My DM let me read his Red Box later on, and my first thought was arbitrage on spear prices to double our gold if we could jump between worlds.
We never played Basic because we thought it was for kids, and we’d just finished 7th and 8th grades … his brother was going into 3rd grade, but smart enough to understand the Advanced rules too - 99th percentile, we figured out by getting into standardized testing results we were supposed to be too young to understand.
”Advanced” was good marketing to us! I never did meet anyone who was playing Basic, but I suppose some people were. D&D was underground until I got to college. Openly playing at school like the Stranger Things club is something we never would have thought of. But boy, lots of kids talked about the game a whole lot at school, and get togethers with other schools - I was in chorus and when I met singers from other schools at events, it was always a topic.
The Soloist
Hero
My group started and really played Basic Moldvay BX by the rules for a year in 1980. We were 15. As wargamers (Squad Leader, etc) we read the rules and used them, without any omissions. We did the full combat sequence, step-by-step every round and elected to use variable weapon damage. We graduated to AD&D in 1981, because race-as-class made no sense to us and we wanted more classes.
[edit: It's only years later that I saw the LBB and Holmes editions. It was disappointing. Moldvay BX was a step up visually and in type setting. It looked like a professional product rather than an amateur publication.]
[edit: It's only years later that I saw the LBB and Holmes editions. It was disappointing. Moldvay BX was a step up visually and in type setting. It looked like a professional product rather than an amateur publication.]
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GM Lent
Elder Thing
When I started playing in 1994, AD&D 2e was the norm. Of course, I didn't even fully grok that 1e was a different thing for ages, and I know I had at least one Basic Gazetteer too (The Golden Khan of Ethengar). The rules for all of them were compatible enough that I didn't have any trouble using them together.
Also, like others have mentioned, I liked picking up the Basic sets cause they had dice and other cool stuff in them.
Also, like others have mentioned, I liked picking up the Basic sets cause they had dice and other cool stuff in them.
Mannahnin
Scion of Murgen (He/Him)
Did you run through the combat sequence step by step with BOTH sides acting in each step, as the example of combat implies, or did you have EACH side separately go through the combat sequence, one side doing everything and then the other side doing everything, as the rules instruct?
I've seen a lot of folks get tripped up (including me!) by that example.
The Soloist
Hero
We followed the d6 initiative, one side acting before the other, unless there was a Simultaneous initiative, at which time both sides acted at the same time.
kronovan
Adventurer
In my CDN city in the early 80s, the sales charts would not look anything like those in the OP link, for the simple reason that games stores didn't stock Basic. They'd heard that TSR's president Gygax was only behind AD&D, so that's all they carried. Around the mid 80s a comic store in my city went full in for TTRPGs and that's the first time I saw any of the Basic books or boxes - & Traveler and CoC for that matter. I later learned from the owner, that the game stores in my area actually had a council due to wanting some fair pricing/competition rules and being cautious about an unknown market. To me that made sense why I could only find AD&D 1e on shelves.
I'm of course writing about a Canada before free trade when the distribution of USA produced books and some products was far from consistent. It didn't matter too much, becuase my gaming friends and I liked AD&D1e. But I'm wondering if those who've made comments about only AD&D gainined traction, had gaming or toy stores with similar stocking habits?
I'm of course writing about a Canada before free trade when the distribution of USA produced books and some products was far from consistent. It didn't matter too much, becuase my gaming friends and I liked AD&D1e. But I'm wondering if those who've made comments about only AD&D gainined traction, had gaming or toy stores with similar stocking habits?
The Soloist
Hero
Locally, the hobby (trains & radio controlled) store was the one who sold D&D basic and AD&D. They didn't like it much but there was money to be made.
kronovan
Adventurer
Interesting. There were a few hobby stores in my area that carried them too, but they tended to be those that also sold figurines for miniature war gaming. Once the fantasy themed figurine brands like Ral Partha became available, they was a noticable uptick in the number of RPG books on their shelves.
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