How did D&D survive its early years?

[Zander]

My first experience with D&D was the then brand new 1st edition AD&D. I was still at school, fourteen years old and only a couple of my peers played. In my quest for a gaming group, I was directed by my local games store (a newly opened branch of Games Workshop, back in the days when the variety of games they sold was phenomenal) to my local university.

Long live the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology D&D Society! Ok, I doubt it still goes by that name but they were happy to accept a kid into the fold and practically every Tuesday night for the next couple of years, I went along to participate in or just watch games of D&D and Traveller.

Sorry about this being OT and picky, but AD&D may be older than you think. It came out in the late 70's and was certainly available in the UK at the beginning of the 80's. AFAIK Games Workshop didn't have any branches per se at that time. They had one shop in Hammersmith (actually, Ravenscourt Park), London and a mail order centre in Uxbridge. By the time GW had a branch in Manchester, 1E AD&D had been around for several years.

 

[Darklone]

Yeah, powerlevel... Nowadays player whine with a 15 in their prime stat, back then (and still in 2nd edition), a 15 was less useful and less common than 3rd editioned chars believe.

IMHO, the frequent char rerolling led to a nice evolution of tougher character with better survival chances.