We in the Cave were too busy playing it to make much note. The BBC offers the best media coverage we’ve seen. ” ‘I thought we would sell about 50,000 copies,’ says Gary Gygax.” And back then, that was a low number.
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We in the Cave were too busy playing it to make much note. The BBC offers the best media coverage we’ve seen. ” ‘I thought we would sell about 50,000 copies,’ says Gary Gygax.” And back then, that was a low number.
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Having played Chainmail way back when and then picking up the original 3 small paperbacks in 77, I have continued to enjoy the game with the same group of friends that played back then. Through all these years watching all the good (and bad) incarnations of role playing games, its good to see that it has survived this long and new generations are still rolling and enjoying themselves. Though I may not be too thrilled about 3rd edition and d20 in general, it still comes down to what works for you. Like Gygax stated back in the old 1st edition, they are not rules per se but guidelines for you to create a game that works for your group. That is the beauty of the game and that is why it has survived so long.
I’ve not had the pleasure of playing CHAINMAIL, or any of the OD&D, but I first got into it with my D&D Basic boxed set (the red one with Elmore’s art). I then collected two more (Expert and Companion) before I got into 1st edition AD&D. It was the beginning of my new hobby. I started absorbing anything AD&D, almost buying the new product right off the shelf. Then 2nd edition AD&D came along, which made for cleaning up and rounding up most of the more useful rules from the many 1st edition books released. I also started to branch out in other RPGs. Each have things that I like apart from D&D, like the developmental skill system. When new D&D publisher WotC announced they’ll released a third edition, I was both skeptical and curious. I was afraid they will take too much of 2nd Edition Revised (and the companion PLAYER’S OPTION books) into the new rules; I didn’t that revision much. Thanks to Eric Noah’s 3e News Site, I was able to get sneak peeks at the new rules … and I love it. No more THAC0 (to this day, I can never erase that stoopid formula), no more limited multiclassing, no more nonweapon proficiencies which is heavily based on your attribute (even a klutz can ride a horse if he is willing to improve his skill, one of the features I like about other RPGs). In simple words, they made drastic improvements. They kept certain things as sacred cows, as they don’t want to make the game much less D&D. They want to keep their already large fanbase. Of course, not everything WotC does for D&D is great. Only last year, just three years after the release of 3e, they introduced 3.5e revision. Great for new customers, not so great for owners of 3e core rulebooks. In what I think is their “too conservative” business move, they release ORIENTAL ADVENTURES using ROKUGAN as its featured asian setting, instead of KARA-TUR. This is a moot point since AEG was already in the early development phase of their own ROKUGAN d20 book. Great for L5R/Rokugan fans. Not so great for KARA-TUR fans. As for d20, for every skepticism, a challenge. They say it can’t be done, but it has. It may not be the best rules system nor perfect, but it is a very playable system. And while many critics say it is not suitable for “realistic” style of gaming, many gamers are butting heads offering their own “house” rules mechanics to make it “real.” Some took advantage of the OGL to have it published in one form or another (print or e-book). This allow the rules system to continually evolve over time, and the most useful rules mechanics to show up in more products. D&D is my first love. And no matter what great games or new games that come that I will try at least once, I always come back to D&D.
My first experience with D&D was the 1st edition DMG, I hadn’t even seen the other books. It was fascinating seeing the list of monsters and having my imagination fill in what they looked like. My first monster book was the Fiend Folio, NOT the Monster Manual! TSR lost me as a customer with 2nd edition, but WotC pulled me back in the fold with 3rd.
Hundreds of hours of gaming, hundreds of dungeon-filled pieces of graph paper, and hundreds of character sheets later, D&D still stirs up the imagination. But I must admit to being overwhelmed with 3.5, there’s just TOO much stuff!
Long live D&D!
t denmark
My first experience with D&D was Advanced D&D, first edition, first covers (with the demons on ’em). I quickly bought every roleplaying game I could get my hands on. I quickly realized that D&D’s cumbersome mechanics could never match up with the elegant mechanics from Traveller, DragonQuest, or The Fantasy Trip, so I pretty much gave up D&D. Then 2nd Edition came out and it became a cash cow, the company owned by a woman who hated gamers. Then 3rd Edition came out, and there’s now so many rules to it that it’s 2nd Edition all over again. And non-generic, to boot. d20 can’t do everything (just watch a good character concept get mangled by the d20 Modern rules).
I kinda wish someone else had taken d20’s place — Call of Cthulhu/RuneQuest OGL, anyone?
what is up with the new d&d mini things the peopl at wizards of the coast are going to far with those in d&d they are making to powerful of characters with ad&d they need to start producing more first edition i stopped playing because of that they are hard to get and it makes me mad