Why is the original red box so special

[Plane Sailing]

As a possibly interesting corollory, I was introduced to D&D some years early, via the three books + supplement 1 greyhawk; I don't think I even noticed when the original red box appeared.

And now? The new red box means nothing to me. I just don't have the nostalgic 'marker' for it.

However, it is really cool reading about everyone else for whom it was a big thing. Introductions to RPGs FTW!

Cheers

 

[Olli]

well, being from germany, there wasn´t quite the buzz sourunding D&D, but the older brother of a clssmate came back from the states with this funny "game", without a board, without winners and those funky dice...

coupled with Elmore art, and just having read LotR, it was all my 12year old mind wished for...

it was all downhill from there, being a TSR fanboy and loving the game! I don´t think 1ED did the same to me, it will allways be the red box (and it had Thuls, one of the strangest monsters i know, and gamebreaking in the warmachine rules )

 

[DragonLancer]

The old red box basic D&D was my first encounter with Dungeons & Dragons back in 1986. It was simple and very basic but it was worth hours of fun and set me up in the hobby I continue to enjoy to this day.

 

[wedgeski]

there was around a million copies of the basic D&D box set sold during 1989.

A million *red-box* D&D sets in *1989*?!

I'm utterly staggered by that number.

 

[IvanMike]

the moldvay box was my big intro in terms of a product i owned - i practically had my eyeballs glued to it for a few hours and then played with whoever i could round up and nail down. the three 1e books entered my library as i stopped buying albums long enough to buy them (rush albums of course). The mentzer is just as good. Sure, RC is more compact than actually owning all of BECMI or B/X or what have you - but the sheer coolness factor is undeniable. I tend to run a "basic" 1e hybrid anyway so those two versions will forever be D&D to me.

 

[rogueattorney]

A million *red-box* D&D sets in *1989*?!

I'm utterly staggered by that number.

People who weren't around in that time period just don't understand how infused into pop culture D&D was at that time period.

It's why I always scoff at WotC reps who cite how 3/4e hard back sell compared to 1e hardbacks. I notice they never mention the D&D box set side of the equation. From 1977 to 1990, millions of millions of millions of those thing were sold in toy and hobby shops nationwide.

A substantial majority of D&D players between the ages of about 48 and 28 learned to play with one of the three boxes, with the red Mentzer/Elmore box being the one sold for the longest with the largest print runs. It still may be to this day that a majority of active D&D players learned to play D&D with one of those boxes.

I don't think it's going out on too far of a limb to conjecture that a majority of lapsed D&D players learned to play with one of the D&D Basic sets, with a good number of those being people for whom that was one of the very few D&D products they ever owned. I don't think there's any doubt that it's that group that WotC is going for with the new Essentials box.

Of course, the cynic in me wonders how some of those lapsed players are going to react when they open up the set to see a game they can barely recognize as the game they played when they were kids, and thinks that maybe WotC would have a better chance of capturing that old market if they actually produced a game more like the one those lapsed players knew and liked. But that's just me being cynical.

 

[Scribble]

Of course, the cynic in me wonders how some of those lapsed players are going to react when they open up the set to see a game they can barely recognize as the game they played when they were kids, and thinks that maybe WotC would have a better chance of capturing that old market if they actually produced a game more like the one those lapsed players knew and liked. But that's just me being cynical.

They will react pretty much the same way people who look at something they haven't seen in like 20 years react.

"Whoa... D&D... I remember this... They're on 4th edition now huh? Crazy! Good times... good times."


You and I? We've been in the loop- we can remember enough to argue various minutia to death... Someone like that? All they remember are things like:

"I made an elf! I fought monsters and got gold. The dice were neat. The jock at school called me a dork."


As for me... I kind of started with the red box... Someone I knew lent it to me to look over before he was going to run a game. He never did and I ended up going to the store to buy the big black box.

 

[wedgeski]

People who weren't around in that time period just don't understand how infused into pop culture D&D was at that time period.

Thing is, I *was* around in those times. I'd been playing D&D for years in 1989, but at that point it was all AD&D/2E and I'd left my own red box way behind. I had no idea that thing was still selling so heavily.

 

[Rel]

It's why I always scoff at WotC reps who cite how 3/4e hard back sell compared to 1e hardbacks. I notice they never mention the D&D box set side of the equation. From 1977 to 1990, millions of millions of millions of those thing were sold in toy and hobby shops nationwide.

I dunno about "millions of millions of millions". Cuz that's like...quintillions. But I take your point.

As a matter of fact, my wife visited some family in Memphis back around the holidays last year and came away with the Red Box that her aunt purchased for her sons back in the 80's. Her aunt knew I "liked D&D stuff" and gave it to her to take home.

It was very obvious that it had barely been opened and never been used. The dice, complete with white crayon, were still in the sealed plastic bag. No doubt she was one of thousands of parents who purchased the game, probably thinking it was just another boardgame, for kids who never even played it.

But whatever! I've got a barely used Red Box!! Woot!

 

[Retreater]

My entry into D&D was the first printing of the AD&D 2nd edition PHB (the one with the mounted soldier riding through the canyon). My nostalgia harkens back to that era, with their kits, priests of specific mythoi, tan'nari, crazy campaign settings (Al Quadim, Dark Sun, etc.), and the somewhat white-washed, Eurocentric, Tolkien-inspired fantasy that was 2nd edition. Of course, I was 12 at the time.

I discovered the Red Box while I was playing 3.5, about 7 years ago. A coworked was cleaning out her garage and found a very poor copy of the Basic rules, along with some character sheets and modules. She knew I was into D&D and gave it to me.

What impressed me, as an outsider to Basic D&D with no nostalgic pretense, was mostly how it was a self-contained game. A DM could run a bunch of short campaigns with it, never needing to advance beyond those few scant levels. Seriously, you could probably game 9 months to a year with the material in the Red Box without needing to upgrade to Expert.

Retreater