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philmophlegmI've been buying old RPG stuff on eBay again. I spend quite a lot of money on old RPG stuff on eBay. I tell myself that the reason I can afford a nice car is that I don't have children. Well perhaps I should tell myself that the reason I can afford to spend lots of money on 25 year old RPG books is that I don't buy alcoholic beverages*.
Anyway, one of the items that came today was the old D&D Companion Set. Back in the 1980s, you could get both Dungeons and Dragons and _Advanced_ Dungeons & Dragons**. AD&D was a much bigger financial outlay since you needed to buy the Player's Handbook, Dungeonmaster's Guide and Monster Manual (all hardback books) at least. But you could start playing 'Basic' D&D by buying a single red boxed set with a picture of a dragon on the front. This boxed set contained a softback player's book and a softback DM's book which were all you needed to start adventuring...
This was achieved by only having rules for a) low level characters and b) dungeon adventures. The way 'Basic' D&D was played, your characters didn't do anything of note outside until they reached 4th level, at which point you bought the confusingly named 'Expert' Dungeons & Dragons set (which was a dark blue box, and not to be confused with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Expert D&D took your characters up to 15th level or so and concentrated on outdoor 'wilderness' adventures.
Now were you to read White Dwarf or Imagine at the time (the two leading RPG magazines in the UK), you would definitely get the impression that a) only kids played D&D - grown-ups played AD&D and b) high level campaigns were somewhat lowbrow. Most magazine adventures of the time catered for characters of first up to seventh level, and most used the AD&D rules.
The low level thing always struck me as strange because it didn't fit in with most fantasy literature. I felt that the characters would be more interesting if they were the heroes of the world, not some minor wandering adventurers. Of course at the time, the fantasy literature I was reading was stuff like The Lord of the Rings and Thomas Covenant, but even so, how many adventure fantasy novels have the equivalent of low level characters as their heroes?
Anyway, the D&D game had no such qualms. After the Expert Set came the Companion Set (pale blue, 16th to 25th level or thereabouts) in which your characters became rulers of their own lands and led armies into war. Then there was the Master Set (black) in which your characters went from super-high level up to immortality and finally the Immortals Set (brown) in which your characters were immortal god-like beings. I don't know how many people got to Master or Immortal levels. There aren't that many copies of the Immortals set on eBay (at least, not cheap ones).
What prompted this post was the nostalgia value of flicking through the Companion rulebooks. Larry Elmore did almost all of the artwork for all the D&D boxed sets, including the covers, so whenever I see some of his work, I always think back to the very first RPG campaign I ever played in, with Markon the Fighter and Brother Benjamin the Cleric.
In the equipment list for the basic set was the item "10' pole". I remember clearly the discussion that followed as we prepared for our first dungeon adventure:
"What do we need a 10' pole for anyway?"
"Dunno."
"We'd better get one. Just in case."
"In case of what?"
"Dunno."
"I know - what if we need to prod something that's ten feet away? We'd be glad of a 10' pole then."
"OK. We'll buy a 10' pole."
"I've got no money left."
"You shouldn't have bought that shield."
"You've got enough - you buy it."
"I'm too weak. I'd be encumbered."
And so on...
Happy days.
* On the subject of alcoholic beverages, congratulations to one of the players in my RPG campaigns who is now a qualified Master of Wine: http://www.mastersofwine.org/en/news/index.cfm/id/CB5B9B21-39A8-4821-B193E0840AE87CDC
** In the 1970s, there was only D&D - see the userpic, with somewhat amateurish production values and bad writing by today's standards.
Anyway, one of the items that came today was the old D&D Companion Set. Back in the 1980s, you could get both Dungeons and Dragons and _Advanced_ Dungeons & Dragons**. AD&D was a much bigger financial outlay since you needed to buy the Player's Handbook, Dungeonmaster's Guide and Monster Manual (all hardback books) at least. But you could start playing 'Basic' D&D by buying a single red boxed set with a picture of a dragon on the front. This boxed set contained a softback player's book and a softback DM's book which were all you needed to start adventuring...
This was achieved by only having rules for a) low level characters and b) dungeon adventures. The way 'Basic' D&D was played, your characters didn't do anything of note outside until they reached 4th level, at which point you bought the confusingly named 'Expert' Dungeons & Dragons set (which was a dark blue box, and not to be confused with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Expert D&D took your characters up to 15th level or so and concentrated on outdoor 'wilderness' adventures.
Now were you to read White Dwarf or Imagine at the time (the two leading RPG magazines in the UK), you would definitely get the impression that a) only kids played D&D - grown-ups played AD&D and b) high level campaigns were somewhat lowbrow. Most magazine adventures of the time catered for characters of first up to seventh level, and most used the AD&D rules.
The low level thing always struck me as strange because it didn't fit in with most fantasy literature. I felt that the characters would be more interesting if they were the heroes of the world, not some minor wandering adventurers. Of course at the time, the fantasy literature I was reading was stuff like The Lord of the Rings and Thomas Covenant, but even so, how many adventure fantasy novels have the equivalent of low level characters as their heroes?
Anyway, the D&D game had no such qualms. After the Expert Set came the Companion Set (pale blue, 16th to 25th level or thereabouts) in which your characters became rulers of their own lands and led armies into war. Then there was the Master Set (black) in which your characters went from super-high level up to immortality and finally the Immortals Set (brown) in which your characters were immortal god-like beings. I don't know how many people got to Master or Immortal levels. There aren't that many copies of the Immortals set on eBay (at least, not cheap ones).
What prompted this post was the nostalgia value of flicking through the Companion rulebooks. Larry Elmore did almost all of the artwork for all the D&D boxed sets, including the covers, so whenever I see some of his work, I always think back to the very first RPG campaign I ever played in, with Markon the Fighter and Brother Benjamin the Cleric.
In the equipment list for the basic set was the item "10' pole". I remember clearly the discussion that followed as we prepared for our first dungeon adventure:
"What do we need a 10' pole for anyway?"
"Dunno."
"We'd better get one. Just in case."
"In case of what?"
"Dunno."
"I know - what if we need to prod something that's ten feet away? We'd be glad of a 10' pole then."
"OK. We'll buy a 10' pole."
"I've got no money left."
"You shouldn't have bought that shield."
"You've got enough - you buy it."
"I'm too weak. I'd be encumbered."
And so on...
Happy days.
* On the subject of alcoholic beverages, congratulations to one of the players in my RPG campaigns who is now a qualified Master of Wine: http://www.mastersofwine.org/en/news/index.cfm/id/CB5B9B21-39A8-4821-B193E0840AE87CDC
** In the 1970s, there was only D&D - see the userpic, with somewhat amateurish production values and bad writing by today's standards.
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-12 01:59 pm (UTC)Loot-hoarding and inventory-stuffing for the win ;-)
no subject
Date: 2011-05-12 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-24 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-25 09:55 am (UTC)Except for one thing: I thought the real hero of LotR was the Duck...