2007-07-06 Games From The Seventies

The PDF book market is strange. I just read on EN World that Dungeons & Dragons, Original Edition is for sale as a PDF. From Wikipedia’s Editions of Dungeons & Dragons:

EN World

Dungeons & Dragons, Original Edition is for sale

Editions of Dungeons & Dragons

The original Dungeons & Dragons was published as a boxed set in 1974 and featured only a handful of the elements for which the game is known today: just three character classes (fighting-man, magic-user and cleric; four races (human, dwarf, elf, hobbit); only a few monsters; only three alignments (lawful, neutral, and chaotic). The rules assumed that players owned and played the miniatures wargame Chainmail and used its measurement and combat systems. [...] The release of a “Basic” rulebook in 1977, removed the game’s dependency on the Chainmail rules, and made it much easier for new, non-wargaming players to grasp the concepts of play.

One would think that such a thing would never sell. But in a world where even the weirdest fringe group features on some Long Tail, you can buy the strangest things. And I must confess I’m curious. After all, it’s just USD 6. That’s less than half a ticket for the movies here in Switzerland.

Long Tail

I wrote about the game before: 2007-04-05 Original Dungeons and Dragons, and linked to Delta’s D&D Hotspot where he talks about the rules of original D&D.

2007-04-05 Original Dungeons and Dragons

Delta’s D&D Hotspot

The idea that kept following me around was the effect of a high Strength score for fighters: All it meant was that you gained more experience points. No bonus to hit, no bonus to damage, nothing like that. But if you think about it, it makes sense: As you progress faster, your attack bonus increases faster than that of your fellow weaklings. You will end up hitting more often and thus doing more damage in comparison to characters that have been played for the same number of sessions. Very simple. If I knew more about it, I might even think it elegant.

And it has no rogues! 😄

​#RPG ​#PDF