D&D General Basic Rule Set Help

[Fenris-77]

Mentzer has stated he sort of regrets using 36 levels and wishes he'd set the maximum to 20 instead. 10 years ago he also posted an idea for a revised thief class: https://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=17008

There's a lot of cool ideas going on their. I like it a lot.

 

[Mannahnin]

B/X and BECMI are compatible, though not identical. Holmes was a real outlier. My impression from reading histories is that Gygax was very hands off with Holmes, who injected lots of his own ideas into the product. As to which each was made for, I think the best bet is to look at publication year.

The When We Were Wizards podcast says that J. Eric Holmes MD was a doctor who played “white box” D&D with his sons and thought the game needed an introductory version. Holmes volunteered to write it himself for free, so no surprise that Gary Gygax agreed. Perhaps Gygax was so hands off because he was already preoccupied with writing the AD&D books.

I think probably a combination of him switching focus to AD&D, Holmes volunteering meant less work for himself, and maybe some awareness on Gary's part that he was a little too close to OD&D to do a good edit on it, as he had been both primary author and editor on the original 1974 rules.

1977 Holmes Basic differs from the 1981 and 1983 Basics in part because the use-cases were envisioned a little differently. Holmes specifically wanted to make OD&D easier to learn and get into. Part of doing that meant needing to patch missing bits, like there being no initiative system, as every OD&D referee typically had to do for themselves. During the project Gary also wanted to use that set to direct newbies to AD&D, so those were the main edits he made.

By the time 1981 Basic was worked on, lawsuits had already been filed and argued, and TSR was still trying to assert that Dave shouldn't have royalties on AD&D and that instead he should only get them on the D&D line. The Holmes set had also turned into a sales sensation in late '79. Gary was mostly out of design after the '79 DMG got published (doing intermittent modules thereafter, for the most part, and putting his name on hardcovers other people wrote and another which was a little-tested compilation of rules expansions and Dragon articles). Part of Moldvay's direction on B/X was to make it mechanically a bit more distinct from AD&D to help strengthen the argument that Dave's contract for royalties on D&D was for a distinct and separate game from AD&D. 1983 Basic & Expert are understandably more similar to 1981 Basic & Expert because it was intentionally compatible- a re-launch of the same game line with some minor tweaks and a major editorial re-organization to maximize its ability to teach new players out of the books how to play. Tutorial scenarios, lots of DM advice & guidance, etc.