If you started playing D&D with the Basic D&D rules, which edition was it?

[Krieg]

I started with the Moldvay box too, in 1979.

Did you use prescience or time travel?

 

[Ourph]

I think that's just the book found inside the Moldvay box. I have both the box (seen in the first post) and the book (seen here) and I do believe they go together.... with the Zeb expert set which I cut my teeth on until succumbing to the the 1st ed books. Never saw a companion or masters set until after 2nd ed was out.

One printing of the Moldvay Basic book was released sans box. The cover was a slightly brighter shade of red than the books that came with the box sets IIRC.

 

[Glyfair]

I seem to remember that one of the major differences between the Holmes version and the Moldvay version was the basic purpose. I believe the Holmes version was meant to bridge the gap between oD&D and AD&D, while AD&D was still being released. The intent was to have players use the Basis D&D for the levels it covered and when they surpassed those levels, graduate to AD&D.

By the time Moldvay was released, they decided that Basic D&D was a separate, although related system, and created the additional books to allow higher advancement within Basic D&D.

At least, that was my perspective of it during that time period.

 

[kengar]

I seem to remember that one of the major differences between the Holmes version and the Moldvay version was the basic purpose. I believe the Holmes version was meant to bridge the gap between oD&D and AD&D, while AD&D was still being released. The intent was to have players use the Basis D&D for the levels it covered and when they surpassed those levels, graduate to AD&D.

By the time Moldvay was released, they decided that Basic D&D was a separate, although related system, and created the additional books to allow higher advancement within Basic D&D.

At least, that was my perspective of it during that time period.

That was the essential idea, yes. Apparently the "strategy" behind the product lines mutated over the years in TSR. Basic D&D was kept around -initially- to keep the OD&D fans happier. As long as it kept selling, TSR was happy to support the line.

 

[Orius]

Allston - Released in 1991, the "New, Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons Game" or the Black Box set was the first version of Basic D&D to cover levels 1-5 rather than levels 1-3. (I find that the current versions of 3E Basic D&D only cover levels 1-2 is rather annoying!)

Um, actually my black box rulebook credits project design to Troy Denning, not Aaron Allston.

 

[MerricB]

Um, actually my black box rulebook credits project design to Troy Denning, not Aaron Allston.

Indeed - I took the name of this particular line from the Rules Cyclopedia.

Cheers!

 

[WSmith]

I got the blue book Holmes set with chits from K Mart clearace rack for $1 in 1979. I always wanted to be THAT fighter about to loose the arrow at the red dragon. It lead me into AD&D. The rest is history.

 

[Greenstone]

I started playing in '83 with the Moldvay set... a friend came to South Africa from the UK with it.

I only got my own copy of the game when it became available here in '84 - and that was the Mentzer Basic and Expert sets. I will never forget sitting in SC's tiny bedroom, playing B1, B2, B3... then X2 (Castle Amber).

Sadly, the group split up after that, and I started to DM my own group, having got my dad to buy me the AD&D PHB, DMG and MM (as well as the BEST adventure TSR has ever produced, IMHO, N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God)...

Ah, good times, simple times.

 

[Keldryn]

It was the Mentzer 1983 Basic Set for me, in 1986.

Well, the first time that I played was at Scout camp (during the 5 or 6 months I was in that, then I quit). One of the older boys (2 years older, I think) brought his D&D "books," which was basically a couple of binders full of photocopies of selected sections of the AD&D PH, DMG, MM, and Unearthed Arcana. I'd seen ads for the D&D sets in my G.I. Joe comics, and I'd read a lot of the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure and some of the TSR Endless Quest books, so I was quite interested in D&D. I'd looked at the sets in the store as well.

After playing that first game, in which I didn't really have much of an idea what I was doing (I think I was given an Illusionist to play), I went out and bought the D&D Basic Set, played through the solo adventure in that, then read the DM's book and DMed an adventure while a few of my friends learned how to play. So I sort of started DMing before I was really a player. A trend which has still continued... I have spent far more time as a DM than a player, and since I haven't had a lot of time for playing the past few years, I estimate that I've probably only played D&D 3.x about a dozen times since it came out in 2000. And I've only ever DMed. I've never actually been a player using the 3.x rules.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Quickly moved on from the Basic Set to the Expert, Companion, and Masters sets. I got the AD&D PH, DMG, MM, and UA books over the course of the next year, and we played a mish-mash of both systems for a long time, using the Gazetteers and B-X-CM series modules. Eventually, we retired the D&D sets, and played first edition AD&D entirely, first in the Known World, and then moving over to Greyhawk and the "gray box" Forgotten Realms set.

But the old "Red Box" Basic Set still defines the look and feel of D&D/AD&D to me, even to this day. As well as the Elmore, Easley, and Caldwell oils that graced the covers of much of the D&D product line from that era. As well as the Elmore and Easley interior illustrations from the Basic, Expert, and Companion sets.