Anyone play Basic anymore? (and other questions)

[GWolf]

Hey everyone! Just figure I ask a few questions here.

The story, or so it goes:
I was upset about my whole DnD crisis (mainly that my players where always uninterested) and I was hanging out with a friend, who was sitting there playing Diablo II on his pc completly zoned out. So I say I am going to go through his 20 something yearold step brothers closet and look for his fabeled "old dnd" stuff. I spend a good portion of the morning in the big closet that spans behidn the walls of the stairs and 2 rooms. To amazement at around 1:30pm, I found the DnD Rules Cyclopedia. I asked if I could have it and my friend who was busy click-slaying said "Ok jsut take it I am up to act 5!" or something, so I left and put it on my shelf since sunday. here are my questions now.

Questions
Is what I found Basic?
Is basic 1e?
Is basic cool?
Should I paly basic?
Does it have a good feel?
Any experinces?

 

[BeholderBurger]

WHoopey

D and D Cyclopedia was a revised edition of all the old basic rules.
It had all of the old rules from the original boxed sets with extra stuff added. If by 1st ed you mean D and D first ed then no...basic d and d had several editions before the revised cyclopedia. I think you might be thinking of 1st ed AD&D which is different.(Well more complicated)
Basic D&D is definitely cool, less complicated and still as much fun.
Download some of the old modules from Wizards and play some. You should buzz off them.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Is what I found Basic?
Is basic 1e?
Is basic cool?
Should I paly basic?
Does it have a good feel?
Any experinces?

a) Yes.
b) No. Basic predates 1e, although the Rules Cyclopedia was printed in (IIRC) the 2e days. If you've ever seen the old Basic boxes (the red, blue, green and black ones) you've found a collected version of those books.
c) Yes, in a retro sort of way.
d) See above.
e) Yes, especially to many of us, who look back on it as the dawning of our DnD careers.
f) I played it quite a bit in my high school years. I liked it.

 

[Walter_J]

Hey everyone! Just figure I ask a few questions here.

The story, or so it goes:
I was upset about my whole DnD crisis (mainly that my players where always uninterested) and I was hanging out with a friend, who was sitting there playing Diablo II on his pc completly zoned out. So I say I am going to go through his 20 something yearold step brothers closet and look for his fabeled "old dnd" stuff. I spend a good portion of the morning in the big closet that spans behidn the walls of the stairs and 2 rooms. To amazement at around 1:30pm, I found the DnD Rules Cyclopedia. I asked if I could have it and my friend who was busy click-slaying said "Ok jsut take it I am up to act 5!" or something, so I left and put it on my shelf since sunday. here are my questions now.

Questions
Is what I found Basic?
Is basic 1e?
Is basic cool?
Should I paly basic?
Does it have a good feel?
Any experinces?

Hello, and,
Wow, that's quite a set of questions there and trying to answer in brief is going to be a real trip! Basic evolved from the original "white box" set of rules, which AD&D (1E) also evolved from. Basic evolved on its own from there. The first set (Basic) covers levels 1-3. The next set, Expert, that came out covered 4-14. The third, "Companion" rules set cover 15 to I don't know what level off hand and then the fourth set, Master, covered up to level 36. After that came the Immortal Rules. Throughout all that there were various incarnations and reincarnations of the "Basic" rules (regardless of level range.)

What you have is a compilation of everything and covers levels 1-36 and maybe even Immortals (It's been a while and I can't recall.)

"Basic" is a great game, but it is DIFFERENT. For example, there are no race/class combinations. Your choices are Fighter, Thief, Magicuser, Cleric, Elf, Dwarf and Halfing. F's, T's, M's and C's are humans. Elfs are F/MU's, Dwarfs and Halflings are fighters (with their own special abilities of course.) (Note: some gazeteers and various other rule extensions did modify this line up.)

One of the great things about Basic is that once you get the hang of it, it is easy to "customize" to do what you want. It is also an easy game to mix with other games, especially AD&D. I often freely mixed 1E and Basic. It is a lot of fun and I think some of the best modules were in the B (basic) and X (expert) line.

Should you play? Well, if you have some people and the time, yeah, I'd give it a whack. I would if I had the people/time to do it in.

Walter

 

[Helspar]

The first time playing that solo adventure in the Basic set is some of the most formative (and probably one of the better rules teachers) TSR ever put out. Play it if you can find willing accomplices man. I would but all of my gaming group are stuck on 3rd Ed.

It sucked that you couldn't rescue Aleena!

Some of you might even remember the ancient rules set with art from Otis and Dee.

 

[Walter_J]

I started with the "Blue Book". On the cover was a plate-armor fighter drawing back a bow and a wizard in a pointy hat and wand ready to throw down with a dragon. I think that's the one that followed the white box. After that I think came the three-hole punched books--red "basic" with the 1 in the upperleft corner followed by "green" expert with a #2. Then TSR started back over with Red basic, Blue expert, Green companion, Black Master and Gold Immortal. I think those were the best rules out of any of them (The entire set, I mean).

Just some stray thoughts.

 

[Alcamtar]

Originally posted by GWolf
Hey everyone! Just figure I ask a few questions here.

Questions

Is what I found Basic?

Yes.

Is basic 1e?

No. It is commonly referred to as 0e (as in "zero edition") since it evolved from the original three booklets. However it was actually developed in parallel with 1e.

Is basic cool?

Yes, I prefer it to other editions of D&D. But opinions differ.

Should I paly basic?

Sure, try it out. If you can't find local players, it lends itself well to PBEM due to its simplicity.

Does it have a good feel?

As someone else said, it has a bit of a retro feel. It is simple and "rules light" compared to other editions, but still has that D&D feel -- all the old familiar monsters, spells, etc. The balance is a little different than 1e/3e -- people do less damage, but they also have fewer hit points, so it all balances out.

I find Basic D&D to have something of a lighthearted, wide-eyed-wonder feel to it. It is not dark and gritty and edgy like 3e. What Basic D&D excels at is that "classic" (1970s-1980s) D&D gaming. It's all about style and flavor and grand adventuring, not realism or rules. (At least that's how I see it; really, you can do what you want with it.)

Any experinces?

I played a lot of 0e way back when and it's one of my favorite games of all time. Recently I've played only a little cause most people want to play 3e instead. I did try it with my current group and had a good time; we didn't find it limited or broken or anything, even after having played 3E, GURPS, and other games.

It is a lot simpler. Encourage your players to make their characters interesting and unique through roleplay rather than through feats and magical toys. Encourage description, and reward creativity. Finally, feel free to modify things. Want a wizard who can swing a sword, or a halfling thief, or an attack of opportunity? Easy, you just need DM permission.

Personally I'd avoid weapon mastery, as it can bog down the game, or else restrict it to "expert" level.

One last thing: I heartily encourage you to check out the Classic D&D website. It's got plenty of material and links to get you started:

http://www.geocities.com/classicdnd/dnd.htm

Also, check out OD&Dities, the Basic D&D webzine. It will give you a good "feel" for Basic D&D and has some great introductory material:

http://www.tongue.fsnet.co.uk/

Oh, yes, here is a "Classic D&D" messageboard:

http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/

And mailing lists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bdnd/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theoddguild/

 

[WSmith]

GWolf, you might want to check out this thread:

Who still plays Basic D&D?

Everyone touch on the technical stuff, so I will pass. The feel of basic is a great rules lite feeling. No need to bog yourself down with lots of extra codification. Character creation takes me no more than 5 minutes to do it by the book, but I can take all the time I want and be free to describe my character however.

As far as the tale, my friend I could turn it into a story. But, to get the Rules Cyclopedia is a good score, especially for free. I am trying to find one myself.

 

[Inez Hull]

Original D&D is the main form of D&D I've played in my roleplaying career (somewhere between 15 - 20 years). I've never played 1st edition AD&D and have only played a little of 2nd edition. I have never played but now GM 3rd edition.

Up until last year my gaming group regularly swapped between playing either Rolemaster with most of the optional rules plus a stack of house rules, or OD&D. If our previous GM resumes duties we may well play it again in the future.

I've always enjoyed OD&D and despite it's many flaws, find that the system runs smoothly and often lends itself to roleplaying, simply by it's lack of rules. You can't differentiate characters very easily during the rolling and assigning part of character creation. This necessitates a bit more thought into character creation on the story side if you don't wan't yet another cardboard cut-out 1st level fighter.

Admittedly if you're going through lots of TPK's, which OD&D seems to somehow lend itself to, the lack of variety and complexity wears a bit thin. However, the most enjoyable campaigns I've played in have all been with OD&D.

Contrary to most popular opinion though, OD&D has a fair degree of complexity in some areas. The weapon mastery rules in the Master Set are far better than weapon specialisation in AD&D. I also find the power level of PC's in OD&D a bit less exponential than 3rd ed (good thing!)


The main problem with OD&D is flexibility


Gripes aside though, the game has given me many years of wonderful memories and has a great setting (love the grand duchy and I will always picture Threshold as the archetypal adventuring base)

 

[GWolf]

Thank you guys very much! What would I do w/out you all