Intro:
With all the new players entering the RPG arena with D&D3E I think it’s a good time to review this old classic for them, so they know just what those rule-books they see in the used discount bins at game stores are all about. I will admit up front, I think D&D Basic/Expert is still the best fantasy RPG out there (for reasons I hope come across in the review). It’s not just nastolgia speaking, I think it’s a very solid, complete, compact set of rules, that fully stimulate the creativity of players and GMs. It is comprehensible to the beginner, and flexible enough to keep the experienced happily entertained.
History:
I don’t think this review could possibly be complete without a brief history of D&D / AD&D. This is old news to most gamers who have been around a while, but will probably be interesting to some newer players. T$R (the original publisher of D&D) was the big player in the RPG industry until they went bankrupt. Some of the things they did were really unscrupulous. Probably the best single source for this info is HEROIC WORLDS by Lawrence Schick, although there is plenty of other details to be found elsewhere. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to talk to “personalities” such as Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax, Lou Zocci (sp?), Ken. St Andre, and more in the 80s (when fireworks were erupting) at conventions, but that was long ago. I’m going to quote from HW because I think this sums it up pretty well, I won’t go into the entire history of D&D/AD&D, just the reason for D&D Basics existence. If you want to know more pick up HW.
“The Basic set was revised in 1980, and again in 83, improving each time as TSR’s game design and graphic standards improved. Over 10 years several million copies of the D&D Basic Set have been sold. It was and remains the singe most common introduction to role-playing games (grubman-this was written in 1990). In 1977, when Basic was first released, there was no Expert Set and no plans for one; instead, players were directed to buy TSR’s new improvement on D&D(grubman- the 3 little books that comprised the original D&D), AD&D. AD&D was conceived as the replacement for Original D&D: new players would buy the D&D Basic Set, then move on to AD&D and the Original D&D would be phased out. (grubman-skip a little here, get to the beef) There was a perceived legal necessity to sperate D&D from AD&D after Dave Arneson sued for royalties from AD&D, which bore Gygax’s name alone. TSR had to contend that AD&D was a different game from D&D, so the differences between the two were exaggerated and eventually AD&D actually became a different game from D&D.”
One point I would like to make that has always been obvious to older gamers, or anyone who has talked to the forefathers in the industry, is the Dave Arneson should be thought of as the Father of RPGs (although even he got the idea from someone else, he technically ran the first D&D game). Gygax (while at the time, a better game designer, and writer) and TSR, were little more than thieves. Of course, this opens up a whole can of worms that can be argued till the end of time, and that’s not what this review is about.
That’s why there was D&D and AD&D in the days, this might clear up some confusion of newer gamers.
Basic D&D (reffering to D&D as a whole, to include Expert, companion, ect., but NOT Original D&D), for all practical purposes, was revised 5 times, before, technically, being replaced with “Introduction to AD&D”. The first edition was a thin blue cover book, that was little more than a lead-in to AD&D. The second was 2, 64 page, rulebooks (Basic and Expert), the next was when D&D exploded, and really killed itself, with Basic, Expert, companion, Masters, and Immortals (ugh!), the third was the black covered box set, which was a reprinting almost word for word of the second edition Basic, and last was the Rules Cyclopedia, a hardcover book that included all the rules from the 3rd ed. of the game except the Immortals rules (I believe).
While, I would like to say the Cycolpedia is the best version, I would be lying. It has way to much “crap” in it, some of it just silly. And while the one volume hardcover is really cool, AD&D in comparison to this book was better, less stupid rules, better descriptions of monsters (with pictures) ect.
This review is of the 2nd. edition of the Basic game, 1st edition of Expert (which went together). These are often reffered to as the “red cover” and “blue cover” even though the 3rd edition had the same color scheme. These (IMHO) are the very best edition of D&D in any form ever done, hopefully the rest of the review will explain why.
What Basic/Expert D&D is about:
D&D is about classic generic high fantasy, as if you didn’t know. The basic edition of the game oooozes with The Lord of the Rings, Conan, Grey Mouser, Elric, and other fantasy literature of the time. It also has a flavor all it’s own, which is what happens when you try to throw in everything high fantasy.
The basic set is geared tword Dungeon adventures, while the Expert set takes you into the outdoors and the “campaign”. However, andy game that includes a character generation system and resolution system (for combat and the like) lends itself to any type of adventure the creative GM can come up with. Over the many years I’ve played it (and I ran a Basic D&D campaign less than 3 years ago), I’ve found it to be the most flexible game ever.
Basic D&D is High fantasy, with no strings attached. No campaign setting (although one is added much later) or mettaplot to bog you down.
Basic D&D says take these rules and run! And run we did!
Flexibility:
The coolest thing about D&D is it’s flexibility, in fact it can be bent to incredible extremes without breaking. Many of the things we (my group) did (and I’m sure other players) much later were incorporated into the game of D&D or AD&D. Others just felt cool at the time!
For example, We thought it would be cool to play monster races, so all we did was whip up a random table of appropriate humanoids, and rolled to see what race our PC was. BALM! It was that easy! They started as first level characters, with abilities dictated by class, just like any other character. And TADA game “balance” wasn’t effected in the least!
Another Example, we were tired of low level wizards dying in combat constantly, so we incorporated the Flygia (sp?) form. All MUs could change into their Flygia for once per day for one combat! TADA! problem solved, now, when their few spells were gone, MUs could take part in the fun, and not be killed!....Effect on game balance...zip!
My point, it was VERY easy to make D&D your game, a game that the whole group could enjoy and love. You could tinker till your hears content, and because of the solid and simple framework, it was very hard (if not impossible) to break this game.
Appearance:
These 2, 64 page saddle stitched books are perfect, I challenge anyone to argue. They are so well organized and complete. They are easy to read, and don’t waste space with fluff. Of all the books I have, I’ve probably read these, cover to cover, more times than any other. They are just a joy!
The books are both set up with the EXACT same content set up. In other words, page B5 (the basic rulebook) is Player Character Information, page X5 (the Expert book) is Player Character information. Get it? It is so cool, and convenient. It also makes learning the set up of the book and any referencing you have to do in the game a breeze. (OK, all the pages don’t match up EXACTLY, but they are pretty darn close, and all the sections are the same. You can literally disassemble both books, and rearrange them in a binder so that the basic section and the expert section go together, and all the pages match up).
Another cool general feature, is that the books are 3 ring binder drilled. This was SOOOO cool! I had my 2 rulebooks, and my adventures and characters all in a 3 ring binder. Super cool, especially when your in school.
The book itself is just wonderful, the table of contents are in the front inside covers, and the index is on the back inside covers. There is a tear out reference sheet in the back of each rule book that has all the tables you will need during play (awesome). The book is black and white 2 column, with perfect sized type for reading, and to designate chapters and subsections. Super easy to read, super easy to reference.
The artwork is very appropriate to the game, and top of the line for the time. It’s very proffesional at a time when most games had very amatureish artwork. The book lays claim to several great artists, James Roslof, Bill Willingham (who really set the tone for the D&D game!), Jeff Dee (of V&V fame) , David La force, and the one and only Erol Otus, a very controversial artist, you love him or hate him. I love him! He is responsible for the cover illustrations of both the Expert and Basic, which give the game a feeling of continuity in the fact that the artwork is both similar, and the illustrations go together (Basic has 2 characters fighting a dragon in a dungeon, Expert has a wizard viewing the scene via a spell. Super neat! Whenever I see an Erol Otus work, I think D&D and Gamma world (the Gamma World 1st edition game screen is probably my favorite piece of role-playing artwork). Overall there are just the right amount of illustrations, and they really give you a feel of high fantasy, and make you want to jump right into the game.
The Review:
Now, onto the actual review of the contents. I will review both books together, since the contents are set up in the same order (remember).
Introduction:
The basic rulebook covers what D&D is about, how to use the book, D&D terms, how to use dice, and what role-playing is all about, and does it in 2 pages. Remember, this was written for not only new players, but also the general masses (remember millions of copies of this sold to people who were curious about this new hobby for one reason or another). It’s probably one of the best introductions to role-playing, because it doesn’t try to say to much, but tells you what you need to know to get the concept. This section explained to millions of people what role-playing was, and how to roll those dice (I remember the thrill of learning how to read a 4 sided!). The Expert rulebook uses these pages to overview the expanded rules in the book, and gives conversions in case you are using it with the older (1st ed.) of the basic rulebook.
Part 2: Player Character Information:
The first page of this section in the basic rulebook gives a summary of creating a character. Very simple, very complete, and follows with a large print summary for quick reference. It is amazing how straightforward and simple this is, compared to the confusing jumble of D&D3E.
Next abilities are described. They are described simply and straightforward, without bogging you down with a bunch of rules, and situations (you can handle these situations as you play, and become an experienced player). The abilities are standard: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. They are determined by rolling 3d6. That it! None of these super powered characters of AD&D or D&D3E. You rolled em, and took em as they fell. You could raise a score 1 pt. by exchanging 2 points of another ability score. Most characters only had 1 or 2 decent ability scores, and it was a lot of FUN!! Your highest ability score would usually determine what kind of class you should play, which was cool, it gave you a chance to play everything, without getting into the rut I see most AD&D (and probably D&D3E) players get into, where they always play the same type of character. The next page has a little table for each score describing bonuses or penalties due to high, average, or low score, very neat and clean.
The next page has character class progression tables (more on classes later). The basic rules go up to 3rd level, while the Expert set expands these tables to 14th level for most classes. Since in all my days of playing, I’ve never seen a character make it past 7th level without either dying or retiring, these 2 books cover all the player advancement most people will ever need. With the Companion, master, and immortal rules set of the later editions you can skyrocket to ridiculous levels (36th I think), but I’ve never really met anyone who played at that level, so I can’t comment. The tables are (again) neat and clean, explaining level advancement by experience points, level title (something cool about D&D and AD&D that was dropped), hit dice, and special abilities (cleric undead turning, spells, and thief abilities.
Next come the character class descriptions, and here I will become highly opinionated, as this is one of the reasons I love the book, it is probably one of the reasons many people moved onto AD&D. The basic rulebook describes the classes themselves, while the expert describes playing the classes at higher levels. Here we go. There are 7 classes in basic D&D. They are Cleric, Dwarves, Elves, Fighters, Halflings, Magic-users, and Thieves. Yes, that’s right, races are a class unto themselves (dwarves and Halflings are fighters for all practical purposes, while Elves are fighter magic users), and all the other classes are humans (of course I already mentioned my own house rule, humanoid character races for these classes). While many people will argue that this isn’t enough, and the classes have no depth, I feel the exact opposite. It’s because of the way these classes are that we learned how to do some great roleplaying! For example, all our fighters weren’t cookie cutter versions of the same thing, we could have a group composed of all fighter class PCs, and one would be like conan, another, the brave night, another, a cold hearted mercenary with clepto tendencies, another, a dorky kid trying to make a name for himself, and I could go on and on. These “limited” classes inspired us to be more creative with our characters personalities so they WOULDN’T be just like another character of the same class. So while others argue how much more personality their AD&D characters have, I have to argue. In Basic D&D our characters were developed out of creativity, while in AD&D characters were created out of options, and in my opinion, our basic characters all had a lot more personality than any AD&D characters I’ve ever seen.
Next we have alignment. In Basic D&D we only have 3. Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic. For some this is a gross oversimplification. For me (and others) I’m sure it worked just fine. There was no messing with all the “grey areas”, goody two shoes were Lawful, while the blackhearted were Chaotic, and everyone else was Neutral. Very easy without bogging down your characters actions, and at the same time, giving some guidelines. After all, as I’ve already mentioned, our characters had already developed personalities that dictated the way we acted to an extent, and we stayed in character far more than any restrictive alignment would have have done.
Next we move onto equipment. Another section I really love (and another that my opinion is arguable). The basic list is short, with meat and potato items, the Expert rulebook expands on this , especially in the area of outdoor travel, and fortress building costs. My favorite part is the Weapons list. There are 19 melee and missile weapons in the game. How on earth could I like that?? Well, to me, a dagger is a dagger, I don’t need 25 variations on dagger’s causing different damage. If you want your character to have a Cress or Katan (sp?) fine, it’s a dagger, 1d4 pts. of damage! The weapons list is simple, yet complete. As a DM, I love having a grasp on things, being able to memorize a simple list is always a plus, it speeds up game play, and makes on the spot decisions easy. There is a generic representation of every weapon you could ever want on the list, compete, simple, cool! The Expert rulebook has a page describing some basic equipment.
The Basic rulebook now includes a character sheet. It is a classic, and very quick and functional, although, I’m sure most players just wrote their characters on a normal sheet of paper, or made up their own character sheets. One cool thing worth noting is the little trapezoid box for writing Hit points, and the shield shaped box for writing in AC (armor class). These are so cool, and identifiable, I used them for every D&D, AD&D, and now D&D3E character I’ve ever done. I wonder if any other old timers do this?
Our next section covers spells for MUs and clerics. The Basic rulebook only gives 1st level Cleric spells, and 1st and second level MU& Elf spells. The Expert rulebook expands up to 5th level for Clerics, and 6th for MUs and Elves. Spells are cast pretty much the same as all versions of D&D. Your allotted a certain amount of spell slots per day, MUs and Elves have a spellbook, Clerics can chose from the entire Cleric Spell list. The spell selection is limited, and once again, this is a reason many people moved onto AD&D (MORE MORE MORE), and once again, this is one of the reasons I like D&D. There are enough spells to be very functional, but not so many that a GM cant remember them all and have a really good grasp on how they all work. There are 8 spells each for 1st and 2nd level for clerics, and 6 per level beyond that. For MUs and Elves, there are 12 for each level. They are very useful cool spells, none of those goofy spells you’ll only use once in your lifetime.
Part 4: The Adventure:
Here is another section where Basic D&D really shines. This section is basicly, the rules of play other than combat, covered very completely, and simply in 8 pages between both rulebooks. Basic covers basic methods of actually playing, beginning an adventure, organizing a party, miniatures (if you want to bother), mapping, ect. Some things really stick out in their simplicity and playability.
Dungeon movement, for example, is handled in a few paragraphs, and is very straightforward, and functional if you want to use it. When we began playing, we tired it once, it was fun, keeping track of how far we could move before stopping to res, eating our meals at actual timed intervals, regaining Hit Points, and sleeping. However, it got pretty tedious after a while, and was dropped, however, it worked, and was simple, even for us newbies to comprehend.
Encumbrance was also handled as efficiently. The coin used to be the standard weight unit (probably because everyone wanted to know how many gold coins they could lug out of a dungeon at one pop!). It was very easy to figure out how much you were carrying with this system. Of course this was replaced with standard lbs. in most games, but I think the old “coins” system worked much better. Of course this is another optional rule that is quickly dropped when you get bored with keeping the paperwork.
The Basic set covers all those typical dungeon things, like searching for secret doors, smashing indoors, infravision, ect. While the Expert rules cover outdoor travel and the like. Funny how Basic D&D did this so completely and effectively with a few pages, while D&D3E (or any new RPG for that matter) needs chapter upon chapter to do the same thing).
The last thing covered in this section is awarding experience points. You got XP for killing monsters and getting treasure, that was pretty much it. What can I say, I like all the artsy fartsy playing today, and awarding experience based on good role-playing, but hey, this worked. I can’t remember killing monsters JUST for the XPs, or stealing treasure JUST for the XPs. And there was never any lack of XPs to go around, so all-in-all, it worked.
Part 5: The Encounter:
This comprises 10 pages between the 2 books, and covers combat as completely as I’ve EVER seen it needed to be covered. I also think that it’s cool that this section is called, “the Encounter”, Rather than “Combat” although I don’t really know why.
Combat really hasn’t changed much, and despite expanded sections in AD&D and a ridiculously HUGE section in D&D3E, combat still plays out pretty much the same as in these 10 pages :).
Roll a d6 for initiative, roll a d20 to hit, cross reference your class/level with the AC of the opponent to hit. There, I just summarized 200 pages of d20 combat in 1 line, he he.
One of the coolest things about Basic D&D as opposed to AD&D was the fact that the “to hit” table” was on one chart, instead of a sperate chart for each class, again, very nice and clean.
All those goofy little situations are also covered very nicely, like fire, oil, holy water, cover, unarmed combat, lance combat, and magic items in combat, ect. Again, it does so all so completely and simply in just 10 pages! It gives all the rules a strategist might want, and all the simplicity and flexibility a rule-light person could want.
Also covered in this section are saving throws. These are Death ray or poison, Magic wands, Paralysis or turn to stone, Dragon Breath, and Rods staves and wands. These go up with levels. If there is one thing D&D3E did right, it was re-doing the saving throws. The d20 saving throws would have been so useful in the day (of course we used ability checks, roll your ability score of less on a 20 sided).
Another really REALLY cool rule, that I don’t think was included in any other version of the game was Moral scores for monsters. Each monster had a moral score of 2-12 (higher is better). You would check for morale when the first combatant on their side died, and/or when the monster (or group) is down to half strength. If you rolled greater than the moral score on 2d6, the monsters would attempt to retreat. Cool beans, makes a lot more sense than all the “fight to the death” combat I see in AD&D and now D&D3E. Monsters are people too!
Part 6: Monsters:
The biggest section of both rulebooks is the monster section. There are more monsters than you can shake a stick at. The stats provided are also less than AD&D, in other words, they included stats you might ACTUALLY use! Most typical creatures of high fantasy are included, vampires, unicorns, goblins, orcs, trolls, ect. Along with some more unique creatures, and some that are trademark D&D, Carrion crawler, owlbear, ect.
This section is very functional, however most of the (sorta brief) information provided for each monster is descriptive of how they look and how they fight in combat. Of course, the same could be said for the AD&D 1st edition Monster Manual.
However, it is worth mentioning that the sheer volume of monsters pretty much assures you that you will never run out of new things to throw at the PCs.
Part 7: Treasure:
This next section could be described as magic items, since that’s 95% of what it is, although monster Treasure types are also cover (a random generator for what treasure a monster typically carries).
A funny picture worth mentioning is on page B47, were 3 MUs are fighting over a magic item, ahhh, how true it is!
In any case, like the monster section, there are a ton of magic items, and more than enough to keep your players happy for many MANY adventures. Magic items are a bit more “generic” that in AD&D or D&D3E.
Part 8 : Dungeon Master Information:
We finally wrap up these huge tomes with the DM section. This is a very basic, How To section for the GM. It pretty much describes how to make it all work. You WON’T find all the artsy fartsy how to be a GOOD GM information here, like in all modern role-playing games, still it is everything a starting GM needs to know to get started.
The basic rulebook has a step by step outline on how to create a basic dungeon adventure. Not as colorful as the D&D3E version of the same thing, but covers the same stuff in a fraction of the page count. Also included are the famous Wandering Monsters lists. I never did bother with wandering monsters, I had a story to tell, and plenty of planned monsters to kill and eat my PCs without throwing in unexpected variables.
Also included in the Basic rulebook is a sample dungeon, The Haunted Keep, which is a 9 room dungeon that brings tears of nostalgia to my eyes every time I read it! This adventure is solely responsible for making a generation of dungeon delvers look up when they enter a room to make sure green slime isn’t lurking there! My first D&D character ever went through this dungeon (and died of course, F***ing green slime!!), as did my second. I also went through it as an NPC with my sister,Mom and Dad (DMed by my there sister). Yes you read that right! When this version of D&D came out, everyone wanted to know what it was about. This was probably the closest D&D (and role-playing) EVER became to becoming mainstream.
The Expert rulebook included solid information on taking the adventure into the wilderness. The information was good, but not as good as the dungeon information (probably because of the amount of information needed for the outside). You also get more advanced DMing tips in the Expert set, for handling situations that commonly arise in the game. Very useful. You also get a map and a few descriptions of a sample wilderness area, The Duchy of Karameikos, that later becomes part of Mysteria, the official Basic world, and later an AD&D world. The Expert book raps it up with notes on ships and water adventures. Cool stuff that really makes the beginning DM think about the unlimited possibilities.
The Basic rulebook wraps it up with the classic, Sample Dungeon Expedition (an example of actual play). I love these little reads more than anything else in a rulebook, and this one is very fun, and again, brings back feelings of nastolgia.
Conclusion:
What can I say, I love this game. I think it is the perfect example of a role-playing game. Short, sweet, simple, but very complete. Flexible, but with sound mechanics to cover every situation. Generic, with a definite feeling of, “make this YOUR game!”. Perfect for beginners, and enough to keep experienced gamers entertained.
Writing this review makes me want to drop the 3E campaign I just started, and pick up Basic again.
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