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Did you play the original D&D?
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madman31
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Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 5:43 pm

I actually started with AD&D back around, oh, 1981-2 or so. I remember my mother buying me the DMG for Christmas that year. Whatta thrill!

I never really played basic or white box stuff. Straight into the fire for me.

While I'm thinking about it, what does OCE stand for? I see it everywhere on this board and know it relates to late printing white boxes (after the basic set and AD&D had already come out) but am unsure what the acronym stants for.

Yep. I'm ignernt.

johnhuck
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Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:39 pm

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

A picture is worth a 1000 words...
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madman31
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Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 7:50 pm

Heh thanks. I guess I'm lazy as well as ignernt

beermotor
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 8:27 am

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).

Who is Ron Paul?

Keith the Thief
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Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 7:10 pm

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?

I've never met anyone who played the game with these rules sets ... with the notable exception of those who were unaware of the AD&D rules. Once they discovered the latter, they would immediately switch over.

TSR used considerable resources keeping D&D and AD&D as separate product lines, yet everyone I knew who used "D&D" (like a module) simply adapted it to AD&D.

Thanks,
Keith

"Not all those who wander are lost." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

Doug Williams
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 5:41 am

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.

johnhuck
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 6:42 am

Doug Williams wrote: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!

I did exactly the same. Unfortunately my money was spent every Friday on underage drinking at the pub! :oops:

Justice
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:08 am

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*

John Justice
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Zenopus
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:34 am

Keith: "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?"

I did, in a way. I started with Holmes Basic and then went on to AD&D. But I also liked the separate Basic-Expert line and would use those rules also.

My style of playing may have differed from many here because I mostly played with one friend, and we would take turns DMing while the other controlled an entire party of characters. I also had separate parties of characters, some made with AD&D rules, some with Basic/Expert rules. We would use the rules that went with the characters. Modules, too, although there we some Basic/Expert modules that we used with AD&D like B2 and X2. I had the Companion/Master/Immortal sets although my characters never actually got to those levels. I'm still torn between the simplicity of the Basic/Expert line and the detail of the AD&D line.

rosenkav
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:33 am

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

"It's mint, it's a first print, and it's mine!"

KA-POW

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El Diablo Robotico
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:13 pm

The first D&D set I ever got was the Holmes basic set. I don't know which printing it was, but this was back in Christmas of '79. I had a great time with it before moving on to AD&D. I got an OCE a year or so later, just cuz I had a collector's mentality, even back then. I still have my OCE that I bought back then, even though I lost (yeah, I know!) the Holmes set and the AD&D books I had (I've since repurchased everything).

GraysonAC
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 6:51 pm

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
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Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 4:27 am

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.

FormCritic
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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 6:43 pm

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?

"But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world."

FormCritic
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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 6:50 pm

Justice wrote:
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?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. :lol:

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 . . .

I have never met anyone who actually used weapon speed in a real game. Weapon speed factor was one of those rules that even the designers knew could not really be used. :cry:

"But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world."

Marlith
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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:02 pm

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.

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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:55 pm

We had only the basic boxed set with the red dragon encountering a party (in color). I have that box lid framed.

It was 1977 when I first heard about the game. 1978 when I played.

Our DM bought Greyhawk and Blackmoor and we tried to puzzle out their arcane meanings....which was difficult if you did not know of the existence of the basic boxed set!

We bought the Players Handbook that year and the DM Guide when it appeared next...our copy was a misprint...missing pages.

The original Monster Manual may rank as THE most INTERESTING gaming publication ever made. When it came out, it was a major leap forward in art, text and sheer imagination. I still like to read it. (I remember overhearing an argument at Oregon Boys State 1980, in a University of Oregon stairwell, about whether Demogorgon or Azmodeus was the most dangerous monster in the game. Azmodeus...no question.)

I still wonder, however, at the sheer stupidity of including demons and devils in the Monster Manual. Maybe it was only obvious after the fact that every mom in Christendom was going to balk when they spotted Satanism on the family tabletop.

(I worked with James Ward a few years ago...he told me that one of his jobs at TSR was to testify in court cases...for the prosecution. His job was to explain that D&D was not a handbook for occult murders and that the "D&D made me do it" defense was impossibly stupid. Apparently, every teen who commited a violent crime in the late 70's and early 80's tried to claim that casting continual light had driven them temporarily criminally insane.)

I do not long for the original rules because AD&D was and is a better game than the jumble of Greyhawk, Blackmoor etc. First Edition AD&D totally rules over its timid re-write...Second Edition AD&D. Third Edition AD&D (and 3.5) is a different game using similar math.

I would pay good money for a new monster manual that consisted entirely of souped-up and advanced versions of the basic monsters in the 3.5 monster manual. The time involved in creating NPC's and monsters is a major drawback of the newest system.

Anyway....

Mark

"But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world."

Deadlord
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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 8:22 pm

My solution to that is not to play the newest system. If I get the urge to play 3E, i fire up my computers and play Diablo online for a while. No real difference.
I think I mentioned long ago that I DMed In Search Of as my first gaming experience. The party would walk down a corridor, open a door, and I would read the entire description of the room, including things like "Under a loose flagstone is a box containing 30 GP", or "Placing a chip of the rock under the tongue produces a magical effect". I remember perfectly how they beat the shit out of the magic rock, hacking off chips by the dozen, and stuffing them in their mouths. I still crack up picturing it.
After that abortive attempt, I didn't play again until I was invited into a game with B2 as the mod. I rolled these stats on 3d6 per stat (still have the character sheet):

STR: 18/00
INT:12
WIS:12
CON:18
DEX:17
CHA:15

I of course had to be a fighter. Since the party was already well into the module, I was chained up against a wall in the zombie room near the Temple of Chaos for my big intro. The PC's were supposed to rescue me. Unfortunately, they were annihilated. Just as the last character went down, I asked the DM if it was possible for me to pull the chains out of the wall. I did so. The Dm then told me the zombies were turning toward me, and I had to decide what to do. One PC was right in front of me, almost dead. Beside him was the silver +2 bastard sword that the party leader had owned. I thought it thru, and announced I was taking the PC with me, since I could not carry both. We got out, I spent a great deal of time nursing him back to health. When we went back later, we destroyed the zombies with the help of a new cleric, and I got the sword, which was what I had figured on anyways, hence my decision to save the PC. My character eventually hung it over the mantle in his castle.
Ack, I am misting up.........

If you hit a Rowsdower, you get to keep it.

Theleb
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Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 11:44 pm

MShipley88 wrote: I still wonder, however, at the sheer stupidity of including demons and devils in the Monster Manual. Maybe it was only obvious after the fact that every mom in Christendom was going to balk when they spotted Satanism on the family tabletop.

Yeah, Gygax, et al, should have consulted with and won the approval of religious fundamentalist moms across the country and filtered the entire game through them. :roll:

grodog
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Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 1:16 am

I started playing in 1977 with Holmes' Basic set, and moved quickly into AD&D from there. I bought an OCE set in the early 80s, but never used it except for reference, and later sold it to Paul Stormberg or Jason Zavoda (I forget which off the top of my head; between them, they bought 90% of my early SRs, TDs, OCE, supplements, etc. when I unloaded them in the middle 90s).

MShipley88 wrote:
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?

Kerry Lloyd died years ago, c. 1984 or so. Tadashi Ehara (formerly of Chaosium, and currently of Different Worlds) owns all the rights to the Gamelords lines, and we're working to republish them. There's some additional discussion on this over in the non-TSR items on eBay thread.

If you're looking for GL stuff, see the DWP web site (in my .sig), though it crops up pretty regularly on eBay too.

Allan Grohe ([email protected])
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