The first product I ever purchased ...
Red Box D&D and rather than plundering it from online, I actually took a picture of my copy. It is missing everything except the players handbook and the DM guide. The dice are lost to the sands of time, the little pencil, etc. etc.
Our DM had his own copy, but having another set of dice and an extra players handbook was a must. So being an independently wealthy fellow in those days (ahh the days of living with mom and dad and having a paper route!) I sprung for one and then we had a set of dice for the players and a set for the DM. I was honestly a little stingy with my PHB, but the other one only had to be shared between four players instead of five.
5 comments:
Those were the days..! I also had my red box copy, and I remember it was translated to Finnish. That is a rare thing around here, for Finland is a small country. We usually play our RPG's and Warhammers in English :) Now the red box is long gone, and all that was inside of it. But I also lost all the later rule sets, like Expert and Companion. Now when I think of it...Where the hell are they? I have to make some calls to the old gaming group!!! :)
Ya now that you mention it I ended up buying all the other boxes too all the way up through immortal I think. All lost to the sands of time ...
I've long had the ambition of running a classic basic D&D game for my kids one day. Hmmmm ... maybe I should start looking on eBay for the other sets ... hmmm ... Doh!
The boxed sets were after my time. I recall buying the black hardcover Players Manual in 1978 when I was in high school and yes, wasn't that disposable income nice back then.
Someone in my first group had a paperback original book, Greymoor, I think? I still have a copy of GG's Chainmail rules from the 1970s.
Cheers,
MP
I always wanted to try Chainmail. From what I recall the system was an outgrowth of historical gaming and more based on minis-centric tabletop combat. D&D is all just a happy accident in a way.
I like that RPGs have their roots in mini gaming as I think if I had to choose between minis and RPGs ... it would be a tough choice but I think I'd choose minis.
The irony for me though I guess is I've never been a huge fan of using minis for an RPG.
Chainmail was a good set of rules. It was for historical games but it had a fantasy section where you could do battles with elves, dwarves, orks, etc, in a way that anticipated GW's LOTR games by thirty years. Likewise, another board game from the 70s, Steve Jackson's Melee, had optional rules for RPG that anticipated D&D. It's interesting how many people were all thinking the same way in the 70s. Gygax was just the most successful in packaging it all together as D&D.
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