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Charles Donnell
United States
Houston
Texas
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My Two Cents review of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (second edition).
My first review in the Iron Reviewer: Last Geek Standing contest is a My Two Cents review of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (second edition). I picked this particular item as my addition to the contest’s geeklist and first review for the contest for several reasons not the least of which is that it is the first role-playing game product that I ever purchased with my own money and that a good friend of mine gave me a replacement copy as a birthday present in the not too distant past after we had been reminiscing about the bygone days of various versions of D&D and the impact they had on our lives. I had also noticed that this game, though having a special place in the memories of many older D&D players such as myself, did not already have a review here on the ‘Geek and I felt that this was something I needed to address.
Technical Stuff
Published in 1981 by the now defunct TSR (Tactical Studies Rules) with the late Dave Arneson and the late Gary Gygax credited as designers and the late Tom Moldvay credited as production staff. Artwork throughout this edition is credited variously to Jeff Dee, Dave LaForce, Erol Otus, Jim Roslof, and Bill Willingham. This set came in a cardboard box featuring what appears to be a wizard and a fighter engaged in combat with a green dragon. Included in the box was a rulebook (the Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Adventure Game Basic Rulebook), an introductory module (the Dungeon Module B2 The Keep on the Borderlands), a set of low impact ‘soft’ polyhedral dice (the dice included came in a variety of colors, mine are a light blue except for the d20 which may be from a different set of dice, and had one of each of what was the standard set of D&D dice at the time – d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20), and a crayon (again, this could come in a variety of colors but was normally in a color that provided a good contrast to the dice included with the game; my set is missing the original crayon unfortunately so cannot be considered complete).
Stuff That’s Included
The Box – The set shipped and was sold in box made of fairly standard cardboard that was adequate for the shipping and shelf storage of the game. The box itself was decorated on the front by the aforementioned painting of heroes engaged with a green dragon by Erol Otus and has become something of recognized symbol among D&D players over the years. The back of the box has short text block which little more than a marketing blurb meant to excite the imagination and entice interested readers into purchasing the product.
The Rulebook (Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Adventure Game Basic Rulebook) – The rulebook included with this version of the basic D&D set had sixty-four pages and was divided into sections including an ‘Introduction’, ‘Player Characters’, ‘Spells’, ‘The Adventure’, ‘The Encounter’, ‘Monsters’, ‘Treasure’, and the ‘Dungeon Master’. Each section of the book contained the rules related to the heading of the section. For example, the section titled ‘Player Characters’ including rules for character generation and the definitions for the various aspects of characters in the game such ability scores, classes, hit points, etc. while the section on ‘Spells’ covers the use, requirements, and game effects of spells, and the ‘Monsters’ section includes rules and game statistics for a variety of opponents that the players’ characters may have to overcome. Although considerably limited when compared to the offerings available today, everything that is actually needed to start playing the game is included in this one rulebook. The major drawback to this volume is that it only includes the first three levels of play which while a starting point for a game of D&D simply doesn’t offer much in the way of longevity.
The Introductory Module (Dungeon Module B2 The Keep on the Borderlands) – This thirty-two page adventure is credited to Gary Gygax and is meant for 1st-3rd level characters created using the basic rulebook included with this set. The cover of the adventure is magenta on the outside and has artwork on the front depicting a small skirmish between adventures and hobgoblins along with the title and some information regarding the use of the module while the back cover has a smaller image of the approach to the keep and a list of other related gaming products available from TSR at the time. Inside the cover is a gridded blue line map of the Caves of Chaos which is the major encounter area of the module. The module includes sections including the ‘Introduction’, ‘Notes for the Dungeon Master’, background of the keep and surrounding areas, ‘Adventures Outside the Keep’, ’The Caves of Chaos’, ‘Tips for the Players’ as well as maps of the wilderness around the keep and the keep itself. There are also two pages of quick reference tables near the center of the module that includes information normally found on a dungeon master’s screen such as attack resolution tables, saving throw tables, equipment tables, and wandering monster tables. All-in-all this module was ideal for a novice group as it included not only readily identifiable areas for the player’s characters to explore and monsters for them to vanquish, but a readymade base of operations where they could rest and recuperate between adventures. The background material was enough to begin a long term campaign with, but not so detailed as to prevent a DM from flushing out the details to suit the game he was running or including it in a homebrew campaign of their own creation.
The Dice – The polyhedral dice included with the set were what was at the time the standard set of dice for playing D&D – one four-sided, one six-sided, one eight-sided, one ten-sided, one twelve-sided, and one twenty-sided die. Since the time this version of the basic set was published the ‘standard’ set of dice has expanded and now often includes multiples of several dice, most notably the six-sided die which can be rolled in large numbers by those playing 3.0/3.5 D&D or Pathfinder and the ten-sided die which now usually includes a pair of dice with one marked to represent single digits and one marked to represents tens so that a number from one to one hundred can easily be generated with the dice. The dice included in the basic set were made of low impact ‘soft’ plastic and were normally, though not always, hollow due to the casting process used in their manufacture. In some cases the casting process used in making the dice would create a die of uneven weight making the die roll to a particular number with greater frequency (i.e. it would be a loaded die). Additionally, the dice could come in a variety of colors including red, orange, yellow, green, and blue with the numbers on each face being a recessed groove in a standard font. The dice themselves were adequate for use in the game, but over time the edges and corners would wear causing the dice to sometimes roll without ever coming to rest on a solid facing making it difficult to get a good result without someone claiming the dice was ‘cocked’. This along with the somewhat uneven production quality of the dice, not to mention game mechanics requiring multiple dice of the same kind, led many gamers to invest in additional and/or better quality dice as soon as their budgets would allow. Also, the recessed grooves used on the faces were made of the same material and in the same color as the solid facing of the dice and could be exceptionally difficult to read if one did not realize the use of the crayon (see below) that was included in the set.
The Crayon – It would be difficult for me to provide a thorough review of this part of the game as my current copy was given to me as a gift and the original crayon was missing from the set and I would be somewhat hard pressed to find a replacement crayon that actually came from one of these sets. Still, I feel I should give you my impression of what I can remember about the crayon. I remember that when I opened my original set and the found the crayon I wondered, “What the heck is this for?” and simply put it back in the box since I didn’t want to lose anything I might need later to play the game to its fullest. (Give me a break. I was still fairly young at the time…) It was not until a subsequent to the hobby store where I had purchased it and a conversation with several other gamers that I learned the crayon was included to fill in the recessed grooves of the numbers on the dice to make them easier to read. Fortunately, there was another gamer at the store who had just purchased his own copy of the game and was in the process ‘inking’ his dice who showed me the way to use the crayon. After this, the dice became considerably easier to read.
Stuff I Liked
The world of possibilities that this game opened up for me and my friends when we first got our own copies and began to run our own campaigns. (Yes, I’m an admitted and longtime fan of Dungeons and Dragons and this is the one that really solidified this in me.)
The open ended design of the included module made for a great starting point for a campaign world. Many DMs, myself included, used this as a starting point for long running campaigns.
Stuff I Didn’t Like
The rules provided with this set only allow for character advancement to 3rd level which is simply far too limiting. The product would have been a better value if it had provided rules for further character advancement.
The quality of the dice left something to be desired. Although adequate to play the game they were sufficient in neither quality nor quantity to serve as a long term solution for the game. (Of course, my opinion on this is certainly affected by the dice currently available and decades of improvements in the quality of dice available to role-players and gamers in general.)
My Two Cents
To say that it would be difficult for me to give an unbiased opinion of this product is an understatement. I have a great fondness for this set, both from my early role-playing memories and from the bond it has allowed me to share with friends in more recent years. Still, I would have to say that for those of us currently gaming, I would not recommend purchasing this product unless it is for nostalgic reasons or as a collector’s item. There are a number of retro-clones currently available that can provide a similar if not identical gaming experience without having to go through the effort of trying to track down a serviceable copy of this set and that are generally available at a lower price point. Beyond this, it is my opinion that there a great many role-playing games currently available that have the advantage of years of development in the role-playing game industry since this set was release and as such deliver superior mechanics and better implementation in their rule set not to mention having current support from their respective manufacturers making them a better investment of a person’s gaming time and resources.
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Eric Dodd
New Zealand
Martinborough
Wairarapa
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Re: My Two Cents review of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (second edition).
The fact that the D&D BECMI system was split into FIVE separate boxed sets just seems bizarre now. No one I knew ever bought past Expert - we'd all moved onto AD&D or other systems by then.
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Jeremiah Lee
United States
Ypsilanti
Michigan
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Re: My Two Cents review of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (second edition).
Red Wine Pie wrote: The fact that the D&D BECMI system was split into FIVE separate boxed sets just seems bizarre now. No one I knew ever bought past Expert - we'd all moved onto AD&D or other systems by then. I think it was split up for two main reasons, and both make sense:
1) Profit. They could charge about $15-20 each set. This let them get more money overall, and (perhaps more importantly) it got us kids in at a lower price point. I could scrape together $15, but I couldn't get ~$80 at once for a "full" set.
2) Simplicity. Perhaps we weren't ready for a full set of rules, perhaps we would have been overwhelmed by that much detail, and wouldn't have played. Perhaps not, but I'm sure TSR had this idea.
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It is strange, when considered against today's games.
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Charles Donnell
United States
Houston
Texas
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Re: My Two Cents review of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (second edition).
Jeremiah_Lee wrote: Red Wine Pie wrote: The fact that the D&D BECMI system was split into FIVE separate boxed sets just seems bizarre now. No one I knew ever bought past Expert - we'd all moved onto AD&D or other systems by then. I think it was split up for two main reasons, and both make sense: 1) Profit. They could charge about $15-20 each set. This let them get more money overall, and (perhaps more importantly) it got us kids in at a lower price point. I could scrape together $15, but I couldn't get ~$80 at once for a "full" set. 2) Simplicity. Perhaps we weren't ready for a full set of rules, perhaps we would have been overwhelmed by that much detail, and wouldn't have played. Perhaps not, but I'm sure TSR had this idea. - It is strange, when considered against today's games.
It was a little strange in retrospect, but I think that it was, at least in part, due to the evolving nature of the RPG market at the time. There seemed to be more of a free-wheeling aspect of product development and marketing during this era of RPGs than there is today. Which of course has both its positive and negative aspects.
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