OD&D Editon Experience: Did/Do you Play B/X? How Was/Is It?

[Koren n'Rhys]

In the late 70s and early 80s when I played most local clubs seem to have taken great pride in home brew rules systems of long persistent campaigns that built on the 3 little books, and usually the Greyhawk expansion. I had to search on "B/X", and only because in those days different systems were a regular topic of conversation (much as today). Adding Basic in the thread title could perhaps help your total vote count.

But this particular poll was specifically about BX, not the other editions. Though I agree it probably should have been titled Basic, not OD&D.

 

[CodeFlayer]

I confess respectful empuzzlement then. - Is BX - Basic + Expert ?

edit - I would also add that in those days there was a great deal of rules snobbery, which I cringe to think of now. All the versions have their merits, including those yet to come.
edit2 - please forgive my failure to read the thread sufficiently before posting.

 

[Voadam]

I confess respectful empuzzlement then. - Is BX - Basic + Expert ?

B/X is Moldvay Basic Set and the follow up Cook Expert Set. They had Erol Otus artwork on the covers and higher thief percentages than the later Mentzer BECMI and Rules Cyclopedia basic D&D editions. They were preceded by the Holmes Basic set with the Sutherland cover.

 

[Lurker Above]

Yeah, OSE is pretty great! It is simply much better organized and easier to use than the other variants, including the original. And the advanced options are cool too, since they expand things without a bunch of extra rules. Their tweaks on some classes make them more streamlined and playable than the originals, in my opinion. And as someone noted, they'll soon be releasing an Advanced Monsters book. I've written some of my own material for future use and I can say that the books are very DM friendly. I have the combined Rules Tome and the two advanced companion hardcovers. Finally, I love the digest size. Great for hauling around.

 

[Mark Hope]

Late in 2e I came to be disillusioned with AD&D's idiosyncratic reverse bell curve for bonuses from stats and really missed the B/X small but fairly universal bonuses that were available at lower stats and really accommodated a 3d6 roll array.

I missed this earlier but omg yes. B/X stat mods really suit the 3d6 curve and I use them in my AD&D game in preference to AD&D's spread whenever possible.

 

[JediSoth]

B/X was the first version of D&D I played. One of my friends introduced me (he just had the basic set) and after a few months I somehow begged/cajoled my way into having my parents buy me the Expert set (I think it was also the only one I could find locally). We hobbled through playing along with a borrowed copy of the Basic set from the library. At least one summer someone in our group always had that set checked out (they had a rule on how many consecutive times a person could check something out, so we kept it in rotation). Eventually I got a Basic set of my own, but it was the Mentzer revision (BECMI). At the time, we couldn't determine any specific differences in the rules (we were 8 and didn't even understand words like "encumberance," so we ignored rules that we didn't understand).

We ended up mixing and matching books and adventures from B/X, BECMI, and AD&D because we were pretty much on our own and didn't have anyone telling us we were playing "wrong." There weren't any game stores around here then; I bought D&D books from playing like Ed Shock's Toys and Hobbys, KB Toys, and even Kroger. It was a special time.

 

[CleverNickName]

But this particular poll was specifically about BX, not the other editions. Though I agree it probably should have been titled Basic, not OD&D.

That's unfortunately beyond my control; ENWorld has a limited selection of tags for these threads, and the website uses "OD&D" as a bit if a catch-all for some older editions of the game.

 

[Koren n'Rhys]

That's unfortunately beyond my control; ENWorld has a limited selection of tags for these threads, and the website uses "OD&D" as a bit if a catch-all for some older editions of the game.

Interesting - I didn't realize that was the case. Not much of a tagger myself (I don't start many threads here)