I was given the red box Moldvay Basic as a birthday present by friends of the family in 1982, and then blue box Cook Expert for Christmas the same year. My brother and I taught ourselves how to play from the rulebooks - that edition of the Basic rules made the job very easy.
The family had already been given a copy of Traveller as a Christmas present a couple of years before, but my brother and I couldn't really work out how to play the game from the rulebooks. I think that Basic D&D is the only roleplaying ruleset I've seen makes it possible for someone completely unitiated to learn how to play just by reading the books.
The family had already been given a copy of Traveller as a Christmas present a couple of years before, but my brother and I couldn't really work out how to play the game from the rulebooks. I think that Basic D&D is the only roleplaying ruleset I've seen makes it possible for someone completely unitiated to learn how to play just by reading the books.
