On Wednesday I’m going to be running a one-shot adventure using the original 1974 rules for Dungeons & Dragons. These rules are also referred to as OD&D (Original Dungeons & Dragons) or the “White Box”.
Why the “White Box”? Because the rules were originally sold in a wood-grained box with white labels and, later, in an all-white box. The box contained three booklets: “Men & Magic”, “Monsters & Treasure”, and “The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures”.
Some quick background info on this: I have never run or played in an OD&D campaign. The earliest version of the rules I have ever used is the 1981 Basic Set designed by Tom Moldvay, and that only briefly. I originally came to D&D by way of the 1983 BECMI rules designed by Frank Mentzer before moving onto a weird hybrid of 1st and 2nd Edition AD&D.
(BECMI stands for Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, and Immortal — the names of the five boxed sets comprising the rule system. This edition of D&D was largely identical to the Rules Cyclopedia published in 1991.)
I do not, unfortunately, own an original copy of the OD&D set. But I do own the PDFs available through RPGNow, which replicate the 6th printing of the rules. (Earlier versions of these rules cannot be reproduced legally because the Tolkien Estate successfully sued TSR for using hobbits and ents in the rulebooks.) So a couple weeks ago I printed them out and started reading.
Of course, even though I’ve never played OD&D, I’ve learned quite a bit of it here and there over the course of my two decades in the hobby. So it’s not like I was coming to it with completely fresh eyes.
But this was, in fact, the first time I’ve actually read these rules cover-to-cover. (Actually, I’ve read them several times now.) And I’ve found the process thought-provoking in many ways. So I’ve decided to start a new series of essays, of which this is the first: Reactions to OD&D.
I’m not entirely sure where these essays will take me. I have a few notes laid out, so I know that some of them will deal with history; and some of them will deal with game design; and some of them will deal with tradition. Some of it will be merely reflective and some of it will be practical.
But I will utter a word of caution before I begin: One thing these essays will not be is a pleasant romp down a nostalgia-filled lane. The OD&D rules are, in many ways, remarkable and fascinating historical documents. But — while I am looking forward to my one-shot as an entertaining and quirky evening of throwback fun — there’s no way that I would spend any notable length of time playing this game.
So if you’re grognard, I warn you to beware: I am going to be critical of OD&D’s flaws… of which there are many.
(For those who are curious: I’ll be using The Caverns of Thracia, one of the classic adventures from the Judges Guild, for the one-shot.)
REACTIONS TO OD&D
Reactions to OD&D
The Ur-Game
Thinking About Morale
Ranged Combat
Prime Requisites
The Scope of the Game
OD&D Character Sheets
Gygaxian Rulebooks
Experience Points
Encounter Probability
Turns, Rounds, and Segments… Oh My!
Wandering Adventures
Interesting Facts About the Blood Shield Bandits
Vampires as Lycanthropes
Turn Undead in Blackmoor
The Arnesonian Dungeon
Arneson’s Machines
Hex-Clearing Procedures
Gods & Clerics
ADDITIONAL READING
OD&D in the Caverns of Thracia
Running Castle Blackmoor
Character Creation in 5 Sentences: D&D 1974
ARCHIVED HALOSCAN COMMENTS
Justin Alexander [this comment has been edited]
Jennell Jaquays was way ahead of her time. Caverns of Thracia has a copyright date of 1979 — two years before Keep on the Borderlands, but light years ahead of anything else coming out at the time: The complex mapping. The evocative history. The detail-drenched room keys. The competing and fully-realized factions of NPCs.
It’s rare for me to find a module that I don’t feel any compunction to tweak or adjust. Caverns of Thracia is on that list.
@Leland: I’ll be very interested to hear your thoughts as this series progresses! Wink
Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 3:18:25 PM
Leland J. Tankersley
The good old white box — that’s what I started with. Right around the time the AD&D Player’s Handbook was released. I actually dug mine out not too long ago and leafed through them.
Don’t feel you have to spare my feelings, though. There’s nostalgia there, of course; but there’s also recognition of the many (many) problems and strangenesses of those days. And the typos. (Oh, the typos.)
Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 9:25:27 AM
JohnnyDM [this comment has been edited by the owner of the site]
I recommend periodically going back to your gaming roots for all old school gamers. I began my latest campaign in 2000 as a lark by inviting my old players from High School to get back together 10 years later to play 1st edition. It was meant as a one-shot regression to our teenage years: Kicking down doors and killing monsters using the rules we played back in the day. Everyone enjoyed it so much we’ve been playing every month since then (but quickly switched to 3.0/5 when we decided to continue seriously).
It’s very cool that you’re using Judge’s Guild material for your game. They produced a tremendous amount of great (and not so great) stuff for D&D and RQ. I was fortunate to hang out with Jennell and Ruta Jaquays because they lived down the street from me in Jackson Michigan. Jennell tutored some of my older friends in art and would occasionally run a D&D game for us.
Fond memories.
Good luck with your OD&D game, Justin. I’ll be looking forward to your reports.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 7:44:46 AM
“there’s no way that I would spend any notable length of time playing this game.”
Out of curiosity. Did you?
Statements that aged like milk.