#RPGaDAY - Day 3: First RPG Purchased

The Redbox Dungeon.

#RPGaDAY - Day 3: First RPG Purchased

I covered this yesterday... however, it looks like a few of these questions could be lumped in one post (in no particular order). So maybe I'll just post something interesting each day, instead of answering the questions? 

One of the curious things about Dungeons and Dragons is how it actually took a while before a coherent set of rules came out. A set that didn't require other books or knowledge of other games before beginning play. Part of this could be explained by the rush to get the original game published before other competitors brought out something similar. However, there seems to be a hangover from those first little brown booklets (1974) that took a while to shake. The Holmes edition (1977) did a lot to cure this hangover. This Dungeons & Dragons 'Basic Set' rulebook was edited by J. Eric Holmes, based upon the original work of Gary and Dave.

Deja Vu?

Of course by 1977, quite a few other 'role-playing' games were on the market. D&D was first RPG out of the gate but the other horses were certainly not far behind. In retrospect, the games that resembled D&D, or were 'improved versions' (D&D with better combat rules, D&D without elves, D&D in space, etc.), didn't really seem to be all that different than the official game. In fact, because the original D&D rules stated you should make things up yourself, 'house rules' were abundant and more important than anything written in the poorly indexed official D&D cannon.

I started playing in the 1980s. The list of RPGs published in this decade is huge! When I bought the Redbox, the Mentzer edition of D&D, the game had already undergone many 'changes' (or 'skins'),  'Advanced' Dungeons & Dragons being one of them. The differences between these two versions was barely noted by the gamers I played with. We used what we wanted from either of the two, including the plethora of RPG source books and magazine articles. We also borrowed from other RPGs, or played those games in a similar way to D&D. We played a lot of them. They all had something new to offer: Inspiration for the next game night (or afternoon).

Next... my recent RPG purchase.