Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
You are wrong. BECMI had variable weapon damage. It had a crazy complex weapon mastery system. Weapon Mastery was optional. But variable damage was not.
Ummmmmmm........ I sometimes wonder if people read what I write?
On the other hand, when Holmes went to create Basic D&D by simplifying and clarifying OD&D, he went back to the d6 original d6 damage dice for all weapons. This continued in Moldvay/Cook (B/X) where all weapons did d6, unless the optional variable damage was used (p. B25). This continued through Mentzer's BECMI (which also had the optional rule, but IIRC recommended switching to variable weapon damage?).
BECMI (Mentzer Red Box) treats variable weapon damage the same as does Moldvay/Cook. It's an optional rule. If you go to additional rules at the end of the book, you will see that it is listed as an additional rule- variable weapon damage, aka "This advanced damage system ..." (Mentzer p. 60). The book teaches you the static, d6 method. Then it provides an optional rule for an "advanced damage system."
This is in contrast with AD&D (and it's progeny) which never used the static damage system.
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