OD&D Edition Experience: Did/Do you Play BECM/RC D&D? How Was/Is It?

[CleverNickName]

Thanks for the link, @Bruce Heard. And I just wanted to say I'm a big fan of your work, especially the Gazeteers and X-10. In fact, my most recent 3-year D&D campaign was heavily based on the Kingdom of Wendar and The Northern Reaches.

 

[Badvoc]

I started with the Moldvay Basic magenta box and played that for a year or two before looking to "upgrade".

The local toy shop stocked a whole load of RPGs at the time and I seem to remember looking at the various BECMI boxes and the 1e core books with the new Jeff Easley covers that had just arrived and trying to work out which to spend my pocket money on. Ultimately went with 1e and never progressed from B/X to BECMI.

I think the decision was partly due to the shop having some 1e modules in that I was excited to play.

 

[CleverNickName]

Related topic, did anyone pick up the Goodman Games conversions of modules B1 and X1? They are pretty incredible.

 

[DammitVictor]

Never played the BECMI boxed sets... but I owned the Rules Cyclopedia back in the day, and a number of the Gazetteer supplements, and it warms my heart to know I wasn't the only young D&D fan who didn't know the difference between D&D and AD&D for years.

By extension, this means that I never really played the RC back in the day, either, but I incorporated some material into my AD&D whatever edition games. My longest running, highest level character-- at least, that started from the beginning-- was my 15th level Troll/Shaman/Assassin whom I retired after completing Die, Vecna, Die.

I've tried to run the Rules Cyclopedia again in the 2010s, but it never worked-- in ways that had nothing to do with the rules themselves, and everything to do with the mindset of certain players. There are rules adjustments I might make in the future-- like clarifying the difference relationship between the Stealth skill and the Thief's Hide and Move Silently class features-- but 99% of my house rules for this version of D&D are "you want to play what? **** it, let's go."

I still maintain that my favorite version of D&D-- Player's Option-- would have been way better in BECMI than it was in its actual ruleset: BECMI's cleaner, more sensible ruleset; applying subrace customization to race-as-class; incorporating RC Weapon Mastery with C&T Weapon Mastery; and so forth. As much as I talk about my "two modes" of D&D being "turning Player's Option into Pathfinder" and "turning Pathfinder into Player's Option"... I tend to overlook how much of both efforts resembles trying to turn both into Rules Cyclopedia.

 

[wingsandsword]

My experience with Basic D&D came in two phases.

The first was circa 1992, when I bought the "Black Box" Basic starter set at Toys R Us and thought it would be really neat to learn to play D&D. I'd heard of D&D, but this was my first actual experience with it.

The misunderstandings with school and parents, wrapped up in the "Satanic panic" scare about D&D aside, as a kid I just couldn't wrap my mind around some of the rules. I remember sitting down, reading through that booklet and pouring through the various materials. . .and THAC0 just eluded me. I was never particularly good with math as a kid, and the mechanic of "do I hit the monster or not" eluded me. I couldn't get together a group to play the game because of misunderstandings with well meaning, but highly misinformed, people in a small town who only had heard vague statements about D&D being some kind of satanic practice. . .but even if I could, I STILL couldn't figure out how to play the game because I couldn't figure out THAC0.

The second phase was circa 2000. One guy in my college gaming club was a big fan of the Rules Cyclopedia. Nobody else was particularly interested in that version of D&D, but, since it was his thing, we agreed to play a one-shot of it with him DM'ing it. It was okay, I guess, if you just wanted, well, Basic D&D. After years of playing AD&D 2e (and other RPG's), the limited options for character creation and progression chafed, to say the least. It was good for a short straightforward, typical wilderness or dungeon crawl adventure, but I remember leaving that session wondering how that game could support more complicated or in-depth adventures.

 

[CleverNickName]

Heading into the last week of these nostalgia surveys, and it seems the rumors are true: BECMI truly is the "forgotten edition" of D&D. It isn't leading any of the surveys, in any category. It's just kind of...there. Hanging out, in the background.

That hurts my heart a little bit. I have so many great memories thanks to this edition of D&D: long nights hanging out with my friends, laughing and rolling dice. I remember how everyone cheered when the party slayed the last kopru in the Temple beneath the Isle of Dread...or that first night they spent in the monastery and were attacked by The Master's bhuts...or that summer where they claimed a dominion and built a castle in Norwold, then had to defend it from frost giants.

Ah well. It might be largely forgotten but it's still my favorite, and that counts for a lot. (Especially if I'm the only one counting!)

 

[Enrico Poli1]

Heading into the last week of these nostalgia surveys, and it seems the rumors are true: BECMI truly is the "forgotten edition" of D&D. It isn't leading any of the surveys, in any category. It's just kind of...there. Hanging out, in the background.

That hurts my heart a little bit. I have so many great memories thanks to this edition of D&D: long nights hanging out with my friends, laughing and rolling dice. I remember how everyone cheered when the party slayed the last kopru in the Temple beneath the Isle of Dread...or that first night they spent in the monastery and were attacked by The Master's bhuts...or that summer where they claimed a dominion and built a castle in Norwold, then had to defend it from frost giants.

Ah well. It might be largely forgotten but it's still my favorite, and that counts for a lot. (Especially if I'm the only one counting!)

You are not the only one!

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

We played it and liked it, but our introduction was really AD&D and we thought this was the same system. So we quickly were mixing the two together, then dropped D&D altogether for AD&D.

 

[Jester David]

Am curious. I do have a copy of the Rules Cyclopedia for collector's sake and have considered doing a quick test mini-campaign to see how things handle.

 

[Viking Bastard]

The RC was my very first love. My best friend's older brother ran a game of it for us when I was 9 years old and he spent the entire time trying nothing but humiliate us but immediately fell in love with it and have been since. I ate that book up, soaking up every last detail. Still load up the PDF every once in a while when I need inspiration.