[quote="Doug Williams"]I've been curious about this for a while. How many of you started playing D&D during the era of the original woodgrain box editions?quote]

Sort of.  The Player's Handbook had just come out when I was introduced to the game.  I was so enthralled with the whole concept, I begged and begged my college-aged sister to drive me to the Homewood Hobby Shop in Birmingham, Alabama, where I bought the PH and MM.  I then borrowed the three-booklet white box set from my friend and HAND COPIED all the relevant DM's rules and combat charts.  

Needless to say, I was thrilled when the DMG was first published, and bought one from the same store as soon as it hit the shelves.  I've been doomed to game ever since . . .

madman31 wrote:While I'm thinking about it, what does OCE stand for?

A picture is worth a 1000 words...
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Doug Williams wrote:I've been curious about this for a while. How many of you started playing D&D during the era of the original woodgrain box editions? I began playing in 1982, using this set Page Not Found , and then quickly moved on to AD&D. I do remember seeing the OCE white box sets on the shelves of my local book store, but didn't buy one (at that time), due to limited finances. I have never played using the original rules, and was wondering if any of you have, and what kind of "feel" they had?

I just started playing oD&D in about February, around the time I began watching these forums and collecting on my own.  It is by far the best ruleset of the lot, and the most fun.  I highly recommend it over any of the others (including AD&D 1E).

Justice wrote:I begged and begged my college-aged sister to drive me to the Homewood Hobby Shop in Birmingham, Alabama, where I bought the PH and MM. I then borrowed the three-booklet white box set from my friend and HAND COPIED all the relevant DM's rules and combat charts.

Ah, a true addict.

When I started playing (1982ish), I was a sophomore in high school and had no regular source of income other than my allowance, which was something like $3 a week (no joke). In order to fund my D&D habit, I used to skip lunch and pocket the $1 a day my father gave me for lunch money. My parents often wondered why I was so hungry at dinnertime, LOL! There was a small bookstore near my high school, and during my lunch break I would walk over there, avoiding the teachers assigned to watch for such things, and read D&D books. Whenever I was able to get my grubby paws on some extra cash (mowing yards, washing cars, etc.) it all went toward the purchase of D&D books. Ah, the memories.

Doug Williams wrote:

Justice wrote:I begged and begged my college-aged sister to drive me to the Homewood Hobby Shop in Birmingham, Alabama, where I bought the PH and MM. I then borrowed the three-booklet white box set from my friend and HAND COPIED all the relevant DM's rules and combat charts.

Ah, a true addict.

When I started playing (1982ish), I was a sophomore in high school and had no regular source of income other than my allowance, which was something like $3 a week (no joke). In order to fund my D&D habit, I used to skip lunch and pocket the $1 a day my father gave me for lunch money. My parents often wondered why I was so hungry at dinnertime, LOL! There was a small bookstore near my high school, and during my lunch break I would walk over there, avoiding the teachers assigned to watch for such things, and read D&D books. Whenever I was able to get my grubby paws on some extra cash (mowing yards, washing cars, etc.) it all went toward the purchase of D&D books. Ah, the memories.

Hi.  Ummmm.  My name is John.  Ummm.  And I'm a . . . *sniff* I'm a gaming addict!  *sob*  

Heh... when I had the basic D&D box I took a notebook and TRANSLATED the whole english text into italian.
Then my friends lent it and made photocopies out of my translations... so it goes the copyright thing  :wink:

Hmmm, times past... sweet memories!

LOL

Keith wrote:Did you (or anyone you know) begin playing Original/Basic D&D and then move on to play with the Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, & Immortal rules?

Yup. I went from Basic to Expert, a bit of Companion. Never got to Master/Immortal.

I eventually switched to AD&D 2nd Edition, but still have a lot of the old D&D character sheets I played with back then

ddt58 wrote:The first set of rules I owned was a xerox copy of the 4th printing of the original rules. I know, I know, but I was a poor high school student. And the statute of limitations ran about 25 years ago! I paid Kerry Lloyd (who went on to write the Thieves Guild stuff with Gamelords) $3 for copies of the three books. I got an OCE and a 2nd print woodgrain later, but we moved on to AD&D as soon as the MM and PH came out.

   Do you know Kerry Lloyd?  Do you know what he is up to?    

I started in the spring of 1979 (had 1980 here but I got to looking at some of the old character records because of this thread and realized I cheated myself out of a year). We used the then brand spanking new AD&D rules. I was given one of the blue basic books to read by one of my high school teacher. He told me we would be using the advanced rules but the book would give me an idea since the books were well out of my spending level and had limited availability where I lived.

I found out later that the first adventure he ever ran us through was B1. We made it fine through there and then moved onto Tegel Manor....where we all died due to a random encounter in the wilderness (some sort of beetles, we still use the term Purina Beetle Chow when we get together, all to rarely, and talk about the old times). Shortly after that my teacher had to leave due to medical reasons and our group slit into two distinct groups. If anyone ever saw Freaks & Geeks I have to admitt to getting really nostalgic in the final episode where they were sitting around the table playing Dungeons & Dragons.

So long answer to a short question. We played a mix of Advanced rules with basic materials. And I also remember eventually seeing the white box and all the supplements at the local university a year or so later when we got cars and could go to where they sold stuff like that. I really regret not buying them then. I have copies of all of it (not a woodgrain or firsts or anything super valuable) but would like to have the memories I have attached to those item so they would be priceless (at least to me) like my first PHB is.