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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 4749277" data-attributes="member: 80487">I guess different people might have different ideas of what "cult status" means. To me, it would look like the situation before and soon after the original set's publication: the game spreading by word of mouth and often by "bootleg" copies, little known otherwise. By 1978, I was meeting "non-gamer" people who had been attracted by the box cover of the first Basic Set in a store and taught themselves to play -- which is about as "mainstream" as I would ever expect.That blue-covered book packed a lot of inspiration into 48 pages (including the two-page reference sheet)! Someone has produced a "Holmes Companion" that extends character advancement to 9th level (including additional spells) -- in just four more pages.The monster selection was comprehensive: if memory serves, all those from the original set plus a good few from Supplement I. Magic items were limited to 10 each in seven major categories (70 total), but served well their exemplary purpose.What facilitated such brevity was simplicity. The combat rules took up but three pages. A full-form monster "stat block" usually had just nine very short pieces of data (move, hit dice, armor class, treasure type, alignment, attacks, and damage).In the 4E PHB, the chapter on character classes starts on page 50!(By that point in the 1st ed. AD&D PHB, you're starting on the sixth level cleric spells list; lists for all classes fill pp. 40-100, or about half the book.)</blockquote>

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