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

[Longspeak]

I owned and enjoyed reading the entire BECMI set. I only ever GMed B and E. Never had a group stick to C or M levels. Never really wanted to try running I.

But we were mostly AD&D 1st and 2nd by that point. I liked how BECMI simplified things a bit, but most of my players wanted the extra complexities of AD&D.

 

[Reynard]

We never used modules but a lot of people say BECMI has some of the best modules written for the game. Any suggestions that would be fun to convert to 5E?

 

[Enrico Poli1]

We never used modules but a lot of people say BECMI has some of the best modules written for the game. Any suggestions that would be fun to convert to 5E?

B2 Keep on the Borderlands
B3 Palace of the Silver Princesse
B4 The Lost City
B5 Horror on the Hill
B7 Rahasia
B10 Night's Dark Terror
The Eye of Traldar
X1 Isle of Dread
X2 Castle Amber
X3 Curse of Xanathon
X4 Master of the Desert Nomads
X5 Temple of Death
X6 Drums on Fire Mountain
X9 War Rafts of Kron
X10 Red Arrow, Black Shield
Quest for the Hearthstone
CM1 Test of the Warlords
CM2 Death's Ride
CM3 Sabre River

My suggested Adventure Path for 5e could be:

Any One or two B modules/The Eye of Traldar (Lvl 1-3)
then B10 (3-4)
X1 (4-6)
X3 (6-7)
X6 (7-8)
X4 (8-9)
X5 (9-10)
X9 (10-11)
Quest for the Hearthstone (11-12)
X10 (12-15)
CM1 (15-17)
CM2 (17-18)
CM3 (18-20)

 

[commandercrud]

The best edition of D&D by far.

 

[Longspeak]

I don't know the number, but Earthshaker (I think that's right) was always one I wanted to run for my group.

 

[CleverNickName]

We never used modules but a lot of people say BECMI has some of the best modules written for the game. Any suggestions that would be fun to convert to 5E?

My recommendations:
B2 "Keep on the Borderlands" - a classic
B7 "Rahasia" - probably the best adventure for the Basic set
X1 "The Isle of Dread" - the standard by which all hexcrawls are measured
X4 "Master of the Desert Nomads," X5 "Temple of Death," and maybe X10 "Red Arrow Black Shield" - an excellent adventure path in a far-away land
CM1 "The Test of the Warlords" - excellent primer for mass combat, dominions, and castles.

 

[Shiroiken]

Companion wasn't bad, but Master wasn't very impressive. Immortal was awful IMO. The Cylopedia was a great concept, however, by providing all of the rules in one place, as opposed to 5 boxed sets. As before, IMO the rules were okay, but the adventures were usually pretty amazing. I often utilized them in my 1E games.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I played it in the 80's when I was first starting to learn rpg's - and frankly still mastering the art of reading. It was certainly fun at the time!

I've broken it out from time to time since - and it generally doesn't hold up for me or the people I play with. It's too simple once you know how it works, which is needlessly hard to do because of how it's written. We'll play a few sessions and then go back to a more modern game.

I would definitely recommend it for people who are new to fantasy and rpg's, though, since it doesn't have any confusing options, meaning you can get to the 'fun stuff' faster

I do kinda miss the older, simpler, black-and-white morality of those older games, though. I understand it's unrealistic, but if I wanted realistic I wouldn't have bought a book with a dragon on the cover. Too much moral nuance and everything becomes a grey blob.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Gaming for me began with the Red Box. Played up to the Masters set before jumping to AD&D 1e.

The Red Box still evokes such a sense of wonder and magic. And as far as mixing accessibility, magic, and art together, I don't think it's yet to be equaled.

Being pretty young, I remember very few of my adventures specifically, alas. Only vague bits. But I do have one of my character sheets from back then:

 

[CleverNickName]

Also, the BECMI set had the artwork of Larry Elmore and Jeff Easley. No other edition has come close to even matching the quality of artwork in these four boxed sets, in my humble opinion. My first degree was in illustration, and it gave me a high appreciation for artists that use black-and-white ink or pencil as their medium.

But the Rules Cyclopedia's artwork? Um...I don't wanna talk about it. Suffice to say, one of these examples is not like the others...

Speak with Dead, from the Expert Rules Set.

Frost Giant Raiders, from CM1: "Test of the Warlords"

Bargle vs. Aleena, from the Basic Rules Set

The Town of Threshold, from the Expert Rules Set

A Dungeon Master (I think?), as portrayed in the Rules Cyclopedia