Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Dragon Reflections #14 - Dungeons & Dragons Divided!
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Dungeonosophy" data-source="post: 7760967" data-attributes="member: 6688049"><p><strong>Others of us stuck with BECMI D&D</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"Most of us" refers to those of you who were of the generation who cut their teeth on OD&D and AD&D in the mid-to-late-seventies. The situation was different for those us from the next generation who began gaming around the time of the "golden year" of 1983. The release of the first three Mentzer boxed sets simultaneously in 1983 (Red Box Basic, Blue Box Expert, and Aqua Box Companion) birthed a fairly large segment of gamers which stayed with BECMI D&D all the way till the end of its run in the 1990s. I was one of those. Born in 1974, I was too young to have experienced the OD&D and the early AD&D era. I remember when I was a little kid, my two older cousins (who were girls!) once guided me through a Basic D&D adventure (in retrospect this was the Moldvay set), but I didn't understand it. Fast forward a few years...the Red Box was magic to me.</p><p></p><p>I admired the Easley-cover AD&D hardbacks in Waldenbooks, and would flip through them every time I visited, but the small font and dense rules looked too daunting. I couldn't understand "segments" and all that. And anyway, Red Box led right into the other boxed sets which were sitting there gleaming on the store shelf; plus there was a whole line of cool B, X, CM, M, and IM adventures. And the Elmore cover paintings and graphic design were iconic. That was a different situation than what y'all faced with Holmes Basic D&D and Moldvay/Cook B/X D&D, which were sparser "dead ends" compared with AD&D at that time.</p><p></p><p>The later Master and Immortals boxed sets were, in some regards, as complex as AD&D, and in the case of Mentzer's Immortals rules...*more* complex than AD&D rules. But it was a gradual build up. I loved the Known World, later known as Mystara. </p><p></p><p>To my knowledge, in late elementary and junior high, I was the only DM in our local community, and I only DMed BECMI. But by my late teens (early '90s), our D&D group in southern West Virginia had a circle of three DMs - each with their own niches: one (who was a little older than I) did AD&D Greyhawk, another (who was a little younger than I) DMed AD&D Forgotten Realms, and I still DMed BECMI D&D Known World (and a bit of AD&D Dragonlance). Even now, though I'm a sort of grognard of all the D&D settings, including Greyhawk, GH feels like it's "not mine."</p><p></p><p>I figure there's a significant segment of D&D folk who grew up almost entirely within the BECMI groove.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dungeonosophy, post: 7760967, member: 6688049"] [b]Others of us stuck with BECMI D&D[/b] "Most of us" refers to those of you who were of the generation who cut their teeth on OD&D and AD&D in the mid-to-late-seventies. The situation was different for those us from the next generation who began gaming around the time of the "golden year" of 1983. The release of the first three Mentzer boxed sets simultaneously in 1983 (Red Box Basic, Blue Box Expert, and Aqua Box Companion) birthed a fairly large segment of gamers which stayed with BECMI D&D all the way till the end of its run in the 1990s. I was one of those. Born in 1974, I was too young to have experienced the OD&D and the early AD&D era. I remember when I was a little kid, my two older cousins (who were girls!) once guided me through a Basic D&D adventure (in retrospect this was the Moldvay set), but I didn't understand it. Fast forward a few years...the Red Box was magic to me. I admired the Easley-cover AD&D hardbacks in Waldenbooks, and would flip through them every time I visited, but the small font and dense rules looked too daunting. I couldn't understand "segments" and all that. And anyway, Red Box led right into the other boxed sets which were sitting there gleaming on the store shelf; plus there was a whole line of cool B, X, CM, M, and IM adventures. And the Elmore cover paintings and graphic design were iconic. That was a different situation than what y'all faced with Holmes Basic D&D and Moldvay/Cook B/X D&D, which were sparser "dead ends" compared with AD&D at that time. The later Master and Immortals boxed sets were, in some regards, as complex as AD&D, and in the case of Mentzer's Immortals rules...*more* complex than AD&D rules. But it was a gradual build up. I loved the Known World, later known as Mystara. To my knowledge, in late elementary and junior high, I was the only DM in our local community, and I only DMed BECMI. But by my late teens (early '90s), our D&D group in southern West Virginia had a circle of three DMs - each with their own niches: one (who was a little older than I) did AD&D Greyhawk, another (who was a little younger than I) DMed AD&D Forgotten Realms, and I still DMed BECMI D&D Known World (and a bit of AD&D Dragonlance). Even now, though I'm a sort of grognard of all the D&D settings, including Greyhawk, GH feels like it's "not mine." I figure there's a significant segment of D&D folk who grew up almost entirely within the BECMI groove. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Dragon Reflections #14 - Dungeons & Dragons Divided!
Top