Your introduction to D&D: what order of books?

[Janx]

as kids, we'd read all the pick-a-path books we could find. And many of the D&D novels. And we saw the ads in comics.

So, living in a small town with no bookstores or malls, in 1990, 1th grade I saved up some money and mail ordered from American Entertainment (who advertised in comics) I ordered the PH and DMG for 2nd ed and red gem dice from the Armory. I got the 1E PH and the 2E PH and the dice.

The writing styles were noticeably different in the two books. I thought the character generation was wacked up (thieves don't get to put points in their skills?)

We played about 2 games with the 1E PH, while I sorted out the problem with the company. Then I shipped it back and got the right PH.

The rules were much better organized.

From there, my friend got some used copies of the the 1E MM and MM2. Later, I bought the Monsterous Compendiums. And we played 2e until about a year after 3e came out.

We bought most of the rule books, the Complete series and the Players Option stuff.

We never bought campaign sets or adventures/modules.

 

[Keldryn]

My first exposure to D&D was the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game cartridge for the Intellivision, in 1983 or 1984:

Around the same time, or shortly after, my enjoyment of the Choose Your Own Adventure books led me to the similar Endless Quest books:

We moved into town (where we got more than two TV channels) in 1985, and I started watching the D&D cartoon along with the Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour.

In 1986, I began to notice the ads in my G.I. Joe comics for the Dungeons & Dragons game boxed sets, and it looked intriguing; I believe the highlighted product in those ads was SET 5: Immortals Rules.

At the winter Scout Camp in February 1987, one of the older boys had brought his D&D books and tried to get some of us to play. I think he mostly had photocopies of sections of AD&D books, and he gave me an Illusionist character to play. I had no idea what I was doing, but it was cool. The next week, I made my first D&D purchase:

Dungeons & Dragons SET 1: Basic Rules (Mentzer Edition)

My life was forever changed . It took me some time to grasp the distinction between "Advanced D&D" and the D&D boxed sets, and at first I saw them as more or less interchangable.

There are a number of images here, so please bear with me. I include them because these are the iconic images of what D&D is in my eyes, and seeing them instantly takes me back to being 12 years old and discovering the game for the first time.

The other early acquistions were, in rough order:

Dungeons & Dragons SET 2: Expert Rules (Mentzer Edition)

B7 Rahasia

Best of The Dragon, Vol. 1

B10 Night's Dark Terror

CM1 Test of the Warlords

X10 Red Arrow, Black Shield (I think back to how horribly we mangled the pronunciation of the "Soderfjord Jarldoms")

DL11 Dragons of Glory (missing the counters and might actually have just been the maps, but they were cool)

Dungeons & Dragons SET 3: Companion Rules

S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (monsters & treasure book only; the 32-page adventure booklet was missing)

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (my original one was a somewhat beat-up version with this cover. My mom later found a set of the AD&D PH, MM, and DMG in excellent condition with their original covers -- along with a Field Folio -- which I received for Christmas in 1987)


I also photocopied my friend's photocopies of the races, classes, and magic items sections from the AD&D Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Oriental Adventures, and Unearthed Arcana. These supplemented my BECM rules until I eventually obtained the hardcover books that actually contained the full AD&D rules.

 

[Wombat]

September 1975 -- I got the Three Little Books (OD&D)

Within the first couple of years I picked up Greyhawk and Blackmoor ... but I forget when I got Gods Demigods & Heroes.

After that ... I moved to Traveller & RuneQuest.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

My introduction was Holmes Basic and B1, closely followed by the AD&D books (MM, PH, DMG). I don't remember the exact order for modules and such.

 

[The Ghost]

In the fall of 1991 we received the following from a friend's older brother:

1st Edition AD&D (The ones with the orange spines)
Player's Handbook
Dungeon Master's Guide
Legend's & Lore
DragonLance Adventures
Greyhawk Adventures

1st Edition AD&D Modules
A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity
A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade
A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords
A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords

1st Edition Boxed Set
World of Greyhawk

2nd Edition Boxed Set
The City of Greyhawk

Notice the lack of a monster manual. Funny thing - I still do not own a 1st Edition Monster Manual (In book form; I did buy the PDF last year)

 

[Erekose]

Red Box (Moldvay) Basic Set (including B2 - Keep on the Borderlands)
B1 - In Search of the Unknown
B3 - Palace of the Silver Princess
B4 - The Lost City
Blue Box Expert Set (including X1 - Isle of Dread)
X2 - Castle Amber
X3 - Curse of Xanathon
AD&D Monster Manual
AD&D Players Handbook
AD&D Dungeon Master Guide
AD&D Deities & Demigods

 

[Marius Delphus]

"Monochrome Blue" (Holmes) Basic D&D
B2 Keep on the Borderlands
"Red" (Cook) Expert D&D
X1 Isle of Dread
AD&D 1E DMG
A couple of old Dragon Magazines (issue numbers in the 60s and 80s)
AD&D 1E MM
AD&D 1E PHB
A-series
G-D-Q series

After that, I was basically hooked.

 

[Riley]

The first night:
- AD&D Player's Handbook and Monster Manual (perused during someone else's game)
The next week:
- Holmes Basic (we went through the included adventure using AD&D characters).

The next couple months:
Pretty much every book in the AD&D and D&D series circa 1981. The local library had an amazing collection of D&D books - until they were eventually all stolen by gamers and/or fundamentalists.

The first that I owned was the Moldvay Expert Box, I think, but that took a couple months.

 

[Stormonu]

My first book was the Holmes basic set, with Keep on the Borderlands (and a bunch of metal minis). I lost the rulebook and had only the module until the Moldvay set came out - that was the next book I had.

From there:

D2 - shrine of the kuo-tao & D3 - vault of the drow (given to me by a friend).

various modules, all purchased at once (S1-S4, A1-A4, C1, D1-3, B1, B3-B4, I1, X1, N1, U1-3, UK1)

AD&D 1E DMG, PHB (I didn't get the MM - didn't have the money and the monster stats were in the DMG anyway). Yeah, I had all those modules before I had the proper rules for the game to play...

However, I think that both 2E and I6 - Castle Ravenloft is what has had the biggest impact on how I view/play D&D. It wasn't until around about 2E that I got serious about playing by the rules. Castle Ravenloft heavily influenced my approach to D&D - and other RPGs.

 

[Hierax]

• 1981 Basic Boxed Set (Moldvay/Otus)
  • + Basic Rules
  • + B2 - Keep on the Borderlands

• Expert Boxed Set (Moldvay/Otus)
  • + Expert Rules
  • + X1 Isle of Dread

• B1 - In Search of the Unknown

• X2 - Castle Amber (great introduced me to CAS!)

• Tegel Manor (Judges Guild Orange booklet for OD&D)

• B3 Palace of the Silver Princess

• AD&D (1st ed.) Monster Manual

• AD&D (1st ed.) Players Handbook

• AD&D (1st ed.) Dungeon Masters Guide

• AD&D (1st ed.) Fiend Folio

• AD&D (1st ed.) Deities & Demi-Gods

• T1 - The Village of Hommlet

• World of Greyhawk

• then a whole bunch of the lettered series of AD&D modules

Somehow we got the crazy idea into our heads that Advanced D&D must have been the Companion to Expert and managed to hybridize B/X D&D and AD&D -- I suspect our in this crazyness of ours we were not entirely alone -- and only much later when the newer Basic/Expert/Companion/etc (Mentzer) came out figured out that AD&D and B/X were actually different games but didn't care and worked those in too, and then Unearthed Arcana and Rolemaster, and on and on it went ...

Hmm, that was pretty influential progression -- the clean rules of Moldvay's B/X, the expanded options of AD&D, and the flavour of Greyhawk and the great classic modules, along with a steady stream of the Savage Sword of Conan Black & White Magazine/Comics further reinforcing the Sword & Sorcery influence.