Sing to me, O Muse, of BECMI!

[TerraDave]

B/X...with the adventure in each, and the adventures have key additional material for the DM....remains one of the best versions of the game. RC is fine. C is fine. Low number B and X modules are great (as are some of the others). Splurge, get a bunch of stuff (if you can somehow get a B or X box set, consider yourself lucky).

My only advice is that low and even mid-level PCs are real squishy. You may want some house rules around this.

 

[CleverNickName]

Also? Don't believe BECMI.

BECMI lies.

#BarglewasFramed
#JusticeforBargle

Then it's time for him to stand trial!

D&D General - The Fate of Bargle

Bargle the Infamous, known magic-user and member of the Court of Baron Ludwig von Hendriks, has been arrested and will stand trial for crimes against Duke Seftan von Karameikos III. He is currently being held in the dungeons of Threshold, and will soon face trial before Patriarch Sherlane...

www.enworld.org

 

[Jahydin]

For the truly nerdy such as myself:

A 4 hour discussion on why AD&D is better for beginners than B/X.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

So, for those of you who have experience, what separates BECMI from AD&D, both in rules and flavor?

A lot less textually dense than AD&D 1E.

What is good about it, what is not good (Thief Skills, I know about), and how should a campaign for this be run? Would it be best starting with the B and E box sets?

If you want the BECMI experience, I'd suggest getting (pirated scans) of all five boxed sets. And plan from the start to make it through all five in a certain timeframe.
If you followed the XP as written, it's gonna be a helluva a long journey to the Companion (aqua green) Set! Me and my brothers played from 1983 (when I was 9) till the end of high school...at which point we just reached Companion Level!

I'd suggest that you set a time frame (e.g. 6 months or 1 year) for a sort of "cut-scene" approach, where you do pass through the key "events" in the BECMI progression: e.g. Basic level 1-3, Expert level 4 and 9 (Name Level), the first and last level of Companion, the first and last level of Master, and then one or more Immortal adventures. This could all be dramatically achieved in a relatively short campaign arc.
For Basic levels 1-3, I'd suggest you play through some or all of B1-9: In Search of Adventure and B10: Night's Dark Terror.
And then just do two Expert adventures, two Companion adventure, two Master adventures, and then end an Immortal adventure or two.

Or should I just grab a copy of Rules Cyclopedia off of eBay and make something from that?

Dude, if ya wanna play BECMI, then "cannot" use RC...that's a different edition. (Though yeah, it's 98% the same.)

Also, what do y'all think of the Known World/Mystara as a setting?

It's great. It's zany. It's a crazy patchwork quilt. Mystara ain't gonna be the "grimdark" world. It's like Saturday Morning Cartoon Action Hour.

There's something to be said for real-world cultures serving as graspable handles. "Okay, these people you meet along the road are basically Eastern Europeans. You're basically a Viking. Your buddy is basically an Arab. And you're travelling through a country which is basically the Medieval Byzantine-Greek (Eastern Roman) Empire, though with Classical Roman/Latin themes blended in. (Though some of these portayals were done hamhandedly, according to present standards, that doesn't invalidate the basic gist.)

I'd also play up there being Lupin and Rakasta (of various real-world based breeds) in pretty much every town. And Tortles too. They're like the dog-people and other animal-people you see in the city-scenes of Dragonball anime...people don't even bat an eye. They're just people.

Red Curse = mutant super-powers. I could do without the "drug addiction" aspect which was added on by the AD&D editors.

Immortal Rules = Superheros. If you count the Immortal-Level play (and why wouldn't ye?), Mystara is really the "superhero" setting of the D&D Multiverse.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

A lot less textually dense than AD&D 1E.

If you want the BECMI experience, I'd suggest getting (pirated scans) of all five boxed sets. And plan from the start to make it through all five in a certain timeframe.
If you followed the XP as written, it's gonna be a helluva a long journey to the Companion (aqua green) Set! Me and my brothers played from 1983 (when I was 9) till the end of high school...at which point we just reached Companion Level!

I'd suggest that you set a time frame (e.g. 6 months or 1 year) for a sort of "cut-scene" approach, where you do pass through the key "events" in the BECMI progression: e.g. Basic level 1-3, Expert level 4 and 9 (Name Level), the first and last level of Companion, the first and last level of Master, and then one or more Immortal adventures. This could all be dramatically achieved in a relatively short campaign arc.
For Basic levels 1-3, I'd suggest you play through some or all of B1-9: In Search of Adventure and B10: Night's Dark Terror.
And then just do two Expert adventures, two Companion adventure, two Master adventures, and then end an Immortal adventure or two.

Dude, if ya wanna play BECMI, then "cannot" use RC...that's a different edition. (Though yeah, it's 98% the same.)

It's great. It's zany. It's a crazy patchwork quilt. Mystara ain't gonna be the "grimdark" world. It's like Saturday Morning Cartoon Action Hour.

There's something to be said for real-world cultures serving as graspable handles. "Okay, these people you meet along the road are basically Eastern Europeans. You're basically a Viking. Your buddy is basically an Arab. And you're travelling through a country which is basically the Medieval Byzantine-Greek (Eastern Roman) Empire, though with Classical Roman/Latin themes blended in. (Though some of these portayals were done hamhandedly, according to present standards, that doesn't invalidate the basic gist.)

I'd also play up there being Lupin and Rakasta (of various real-world based breeds) in pretty much every town. And Tortles too. They're like the dog-people and other animal-people you see in the city-scenes of Dragonball anime...people don't even bat an eye. They're just people.

Red Curse = mutant super-powers. I could do without the "drug addiction" aspect which was added on by the AD&D editors.

Immortal Rules = Superheros. If you count the Immortal-Level play (and why wouldn't ye?), Mystara is really the "superhero" setting of the D&D Multiverse.

PS: for the iconic “Aleena and Bargle” experience, there’s the Caves West of Town—the solo adventure in the Red Box Players Book.
Castle Mistamere in the Red DMs Book is also “iconic”. And the 3e sequel in Dragon magazine.

Tho maybe the Red Box adventures are pretty thin for modern standards. but could be micro-quick “Mystaran experiences.”

 

[Tonguez]

I am seriously considering running this just for a change of pace. My normal DM does heavily-focused story campaigns,. I am more one for sandbox, or at least start with sandbox, see what the PCs do, then develop a story from that (enemies, rivals, allies, political changes, etc.).

What would be the best approach for this type of campaign?

B1-9 In Search of Adventure (Basic) - Wizards of the Coast | Adventure Modules | D&D Basic | DriveThruRPG.com with a base in Threshold (the northernmost town in the Duchy of Karameikos) players go through a compilation of parts of the first nine B-series D&D Basic Set modules strung together across three adventure paths (with a helpful flow chart).

 

[Kai Lord]

For the heck of it I actually played through the tutorial Bargle and Aleena adventure for the first time in over 30 years and just like when I was a kid I failed my saving throw after Aleena died and got led out of the dungeon by my "friend" like a chump.

Then when I redid the ending as if I succeeded against the charm spell as the book suggested I rolled a miss on my one and only attack to get him so he got away. I really do hate that wizard.

 

[Weiley31]

I was always interested in playing BECMI.
Although I will admit that I will do it via a combination of Old School Essentials+Dark Dungeons X(for Clockwork+Lupine/Modeling the Monk+up to level 9 spells or something)+either Companion along with Masters and/or Rules Cyclopedia.

With Lamentations of the Flame Princess thrown in via the Alice specialist and a number of its modules/adventures.

I'm not really great at percentages/percentiles when it comes to skill use so we're gonna be using the Lamentation of the Flame Princess' Specialist method when it comes to doing the thieves skills.

Luckily, Necromantic Gnome has the answer/solution for that via this as well:

Carcass Crawler Issue 1

The Official Old-School Essentials Zine The first issue of Carcass Crawler—the official Old-School Essentials zine! Each issue of Carcass Crawler is packed with new material for your games, including new character classes and races, new spells and magic items, new monsters, optional and expanded...

necroticgnome.com

 

[Cruentus]

B1-9 In Search of Adventure (Basic) - Wizards of the Coast | Adventure Modules | D&D Basic | DriveThruRPG.com with a base in Threshold (the northernmost town in the Duchy of Karameikos) players go through a compilation of parts of the first nine B-series D&D Basic Set modules strung together across three adventure paths (with a helpful flow chart).

I am currently running Castle Caldwell for my son using OSE Advanced as a "drop in" adventure in Greyhawk, and depending on your DM and table style, it could really need a lot of work for it to make "sense" for the party investigating it - lots of empty rooms, rooms with closed doors with monsters inside (how did they get there, how do they feed, how long have they been there?), and at least 3 sets of human/humanoids inhabiting the castle (the castle isn't that big - do they know each other? work together? ignore each other? fight? The adventure is silent).

One of my longtime friends and co-DM's said "you're overthinking it". My 13 year old son when adventuring in it said "This doesn't make sense." LoL. I'm finding a lot of the older adventures need some prep, and perhaps some moving of parts and filling in holes that aren't apparent just skimming through them. But YMMV.

I've been sticking with OSE Advanced, using optional rules, plus the first two Carcass Crawlers for some added depth/balancing of classes (looking at you, thief), as well as Dolmenwood content, and am waiting for Carcass Crawler 3 to publicly release. I've also adapted the weapon mastery rules and simplified them for our game to allow all the classes to use weapon proficiencies to do more damage with selected weapons.

 

[Musing Mage]

I am currently running Castle Caldwell for my son using OSE Advanced as a "drop in" adventure in Greyhawk, and depending on your DM and table style, it could really need a lot of work for it to make "sense" for the party investigating it - lots of empty rooms, rooms with closed doors with monsters inside (how did they get there, how do they feed, how long have they been there?), and at least 3 sets of human/humanoids inhabiting the castle (the castle isn't that big - do they know each other? work together? ignore each other? fight? The adventure is silent).

I have run this a few times - and justify it by saying that the goblins have claimed the keep and are running the place as a waypoint refuge for anyone who is travelling. This simple explanation explains why the dangerous monsters are locked up (the goblins corralled them into the rooms), and the presence of the merchants, bandits, and priestess... all of whom have paid coin to the goblins for shelter and protection.

It actually works out well enough, and is a soft reminder to players that they don't have to fight everything as a first course of action. (Not that they take such suggestions...)