Which edition of D&D did you start with?

[tarchon]

I really started with High Fantasy, probably 2nd edition, since, unlike D&D, they had it at the public library.

 

[francisca]

Sorry.

I'm actually not that knowledgable on the various Basic D&D editions.

Could you please list them?

We have . . .

1981 Moldvay

19?? Mentzer (Red box)

19?? Rules Cyclopedia hardcover

What else?

1979 Holmes Basic

 

[Greylock]

vote ADD (1e).

Didn't know there was a 2e until after I re-upped a while back. Missed most of the drama over 3e.

3.5 is what I am playing now.

 

[X-Marks!]

Basic Sets

Yes, here too for the "first" basic set! [as pictured first.]

The DMG was just out by then, but it took a year or two until we could find the HC's in Canada. (We'd found the basic set in a cool, huge, funky toy store in the US on a family trip.)

~ALX~

 

[Ourph]

Sorry.

I'm actually not that knowledgable on the various Basic D&D editions.

Could you please list them?

We have . . .

1981 Moldvay

19?? Mentzer (Red box)

19?? Rules Cyclopedia hardcover

What else?

The Acaeum is a great source of D&D history info.

Their Basic D&D page

Essentially you have:

Holmes Basic Set 1977-1979 (7 printings)
Moldvay Basic Set 1981 - ? (4 printings)
Mentzer Basic Set 1983 - ? (2 printings)
Black Box Basic Set 1991 (2 printings)
Other sets (primer sets for the Rules Cyclopedia) - 1994, 1996, 1999
Holmes Anniversary Printing - 1999 (in the Silver Anniversary Collector's Set)
Rules Cyclopedia (not sure when the 1st printing was)

So, except for the 3 year period between the release of OD&D 1974 and the release of the first Holmes set and the ~4 years since the release of 3e, there has ALWAYS been an in-print Basic D&D set of one sort or another.

Even if you only count Holmes, Moldvay and Mentzer (stopping with the release of the Black Box sets in 91) that's 14 years, which beats both 1e and 2e in terms of time in-print.

Which probably explains why so many people started with one version or another of Basic.

 

[Maliki]

Started with 1st edition, then mixed in stuff from the basic sets, then moved to 2nd, 3.0 and now 3.5, with bits from the others thrown in.

 

[grodog]

Holmes Basic Set in 1977

 

[HellHound]

Yes, here too for the "first" basic set! [as pictured first.]

The DMG was just out by then, but it took a year or two until we could find the HC's in Canada. (We'd found the basic set in a cool, huge, funky toy store in the US on a family trip.)

~ALX~

Scary. That mirrors my own introduction. Bought the basic set in a great big ol toy store in the US on a family trip, and it took forever for the hardcovers of 1e to make it to a local store here in Canada.

In the end, I stuck to "Basic" D&D... I started running it again about 2 years before 2e was released, never bought 2e, and kept running one or more campaigns until 2000 and 3e.

 

[Dark Jezter]

The very first edition I played was 2nd Edition AD&D, so I voted for that.

However, I didn't become a regular D&D player until 3rd Edition.

 

[Mouseferatu]

And mine was the 1981 Moldvay Basic set.

Moldvay's is the only real Basic D&D. All others are just poor immitations of the real thing.

(Even those that came out before it.)