This game requires no game board becuase the action takes place in the player's imagination with dungeon adventures that include monsters, treasures and magic'
Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (authors own copy, with thanks to Neil Hubbard for donating it)
It all started with a trip to a school fayre...
In the late June of 1984, my brothers school held a summer fayre. It was the standard thing - tombola, games and lots of jumble stalls, selling everything from mismatch roller skates to tarnished silverware.
One of the stalls was selling toys. in amongst the Star Wars figures, Action Man kit and Cindy dolls there was a bright red box with a dragon on the cover... and the same name as one of my favourite cartoons!
I remember putting the Action Man that I had chosen back down, and picking up the box. It rattled... I opened the box, and inside there was two booklets and a set of odd looking dice - the rattle in the box. I asked my Dad to buy it for me, instead of the Action Man. He looked bemused as to why I would want a box containing two booklets which would cost 75p rather than the Action Man, but he agreed.
I didn't put those booklets down from then until bedtime. They captivated me. The two booklets - 'Players Manual (emblazoned with READ THIS BOOK FIRST!) and the Dungeon Masters Rulebook (READ THIS BOOK NEXT!), both with the same picture of a warrior fighting a dragon (by Jeff Easley) on the cover filled my 8 year old imagination with ideas galore, which over the coming summer weeks my brother and my friends explored, until we wanted more - more monsters, more magic, MORE DRAGONS!
But, back to the Basic Set..
Written by Frank Mentzer, what the 8 year old me didn't know was that this was a new version of the game written by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax. Released in 1983, it was the first release in what became known as the 'BECMI' range (which stands for Basic, Expert, Companion, Master and Immortal sets) of boxed set rules. You could happily play the game with just the Basic Set, but the ECMI sets added greater depth to the rules.
The Player's Book, within 64 pages, explained how to create a character, fight battles and cast magic spells. The Dungeon Master's Rulebook in 48 pages, furthered these rules, providing rules on how to deal with various situations, abilities for the various character options and most importantly, details on monsters and treasure - without these two the whole game would be a lot less exciting!
Looking back, I wonder how we managed to get so many games from so little. The two book were black and white throughout, and the rules as the name suggests, were 'basic'. Compared to today's games such as Pathfinder (which is the spiritual, if not actual successor to D&D Basic) it gives very little in the way of situational guidance or detail.
So why did it hold mine, and my friends attention for so long?
Because, to a group of boys from a small Midlands market town (Birmingham is a 12 mile car journey away), there was nothing like it. From these 112 pages we could explore dungeons and fight monsters that we had seen in the cartoon, and read about in the Hobbit (we were too young to have yet read Lord Of The Rings), without spending a fortune on boardgames or props.
Unfortunately, my original box is now lost in time - think I lent it out and never got it back... But thanks to fellow hobbyist Neil Hubbard I have a new copy.
And the magic is still there. Just opening the box filled me with inspiration and special memories, pulling me to run one more game...
Next I'll be moving onto Advanced Dungeons and Dragons - why was it called Advanced, and what's this about being able to play an Elven Fighter? That's two classes!
I'd love to hear how your hobby started, what inspired you to play the games we play?
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