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<blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 4872067" data-attributes="member: 80487">D&amp;D Volume 1, pp. 5-6 (&quot;Preparation For Play&quot;), and elsewhere in the original set (especially Volume 3, with starts with a cross-section of levels). It was hardly an &quot;elusive hint&quot; there, being quite explicitly described.Even if one never encountered the &quot;little brown books&quot;, one was unlikely to be separated by many degrees from someone who had until some time after the Holmes Basic D&amp;D (which also conveyed the dungeon concept) came out in 1977. The Advanced books were explicitly aimed at experienced D&amp;Ders (&quot;No more searching through stacks of books and magazines ...&quot;), and at first the only way to have acquired such experience was via some recension of the original game.After AD&amp;D alone (or, more likely, Moldvay Basic) boldly went where no D&amp;Der had gone before -- when and where its local roots were planted at least primarily by the new texts without the context drawn from the original and passed on by example -- the original conception was easily obscured. It stood clear as day in the PHB and DMG for those prepared to see it, which may be one reason neither author nor editor sought to make it clearer.The &quot;mega&quot; aspect is more a second-order component of the first-order design considerations that sought NOT to produce a linear string of encounters that could be &quot;finished&quot;, &quot;cleared&quot; or &quot;solved&quot; by players.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ariosto, post: 4872067, member: 80487"] D&D Volume 1, pp. 5-6 ("Preparation For Play"), and elsewhere in the original set (especially Volume 3, with starts with a cross-section of levels). It was hardly an "elusive hint" there, being quite explicitly described. Even if one never encountered the "little brown books", one was unlikely to be separated by many degrees from someone who had until some time after the Holmes Basic D&D (which also conveyed the dungeon concept) came out in 1977. The Advanced books were explicitly aimed at experienced D&Ders ("No more searching through stacks of books and magazines ..."), and at first the only way to have acquired such experience was via some recension of the original game. After AD&D alone (or, more likely, Moldvay Basic) boldly went where no D&Der had gone before -- when and where its local roots were planted at least primarily by the new texts without the context drawn from the original and passed on by example -- the original conception was easily obscured. It stood clear as day in the PHB and DMG for those prepared to see it, which may be one reason neither author nor editor sought to make it clearer. The "mega" aspect is more a second-order component of the first-order design considerations that sought NOT to produce a linear string of encounters that could be "finished", "cleared" or "solved" by players. [/QUOTE]

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