Time Travel

[James McMurray]

I found the Rules Cyclopedia at yahoo as an ESD. This'll hopefully freak my players out. I've even got an old adventure I can run them through (Sabre River).

 

[Spatula]

Isn't that 1st Ed. boxed sets?

Nope. Those are the OD&D sets that were published alongside 1st edition.

 

[the Jester]

For a really different feel, convert their characters to AD&D 1e or maybe even OD&D to make a point.

~Marimmar

Heh... back in the 2.8 "Players' Option" days, a campaign arc I ran had the pcs go back in time and convert to 1e, then 2e as they hopped forward. It was fiendish and confusing and fun!

 

[Anubis]

The confusion stems from the fact that D&D0 had several versions of its own, and the later versions were around at the same time as D&D1 (AD&D).

D&D0 had a brown book version (the oldest and rarest, collector's items today), a "ring binder" version that had holes in the sides (there were three of these, Basic, Expert, and Companion), then the "boxed set" version that most of us know of (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, and Immortals were the boxed sets of the version). After that came the Rules Cyclopedia, which was a combination of the boxed set version.

What we play today is actually version 3 of ADVANCED D&D, not regular D&D. They simply dropped the Advanced because it really doesn't matter anymore.

Basically it goes like this:

D&D (circa 1970?)
D&D V.2 (circa 1975?)
D&D V.3 (circa 1985?)
AD&D 1st Edition (circa 1979?)
AD&D 2nd Edition (circa 1989?)
D&D 3rd Edition (circa 2000)
D&D V.3.5 (circa 2003)

These are the ones I'm aware of, at least.

Anyway, to answer the original question, that's the D&D V.3 you're looking for, and the missing set is the Companion set, but getting the Rules Encyclopedia would be better.

 

[andargor]

D&D0 had a brown book version (the oldest and rarest, collector's items today), a "ring binder" version that had holes in the sides (there were three of these, Basic, Expert, and Companion), then the "boxed set" version that most of us know of (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, and Immortals were the boxed sets of the version). After that came the Rules Cyclopedia, which was a combination of the boxed set version.

Hmmmm. We played with a version that had a box with a color illustration, and a thin book inside with the same illustration but in monochrome blue. It was a red dragon atop its hoard, with a fighter/archer drawing an arrow, and a wizard casting a spell. It was bought in 1976. It came with brown dice that wore off fairly quickly.

Hey, I was 9 years old... I should go to my friend's and take another look.

EDIT: Found a great site here. It shows the earliest versions, and their value. The one we have is this one , and this is the rulebook . I guess you're right, according to them, it's not OD&D (the brown books).


Andargor