The History of Original Dungeons & Dragons

Note: This was a revised version after the original was taken down on a copyright notice. The video has been edited to resolve the original claim and hopefully prevent a future takedown. New videos to come!
In this episode we introduce another new format as we discuss an entire D&D system and it's history. This episode focuses on the original edition of D&D, the one that is often referred to as edition zero. Come learn about the origins of many early D&D concepts such as levels, classes, and THAC0.
Music: Telengard (Avalon Hill), Ultima III: Exodus (Origin Systems)
Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:27 Chainmail
6:53 White Box
20:41 Supplements
33:52 Conclusion
Random Clips: Sci-Fi Channel (Masters of Fantasy), Dungeonmaster Mark (60 Minutes), jason dandy, David Pretty, KallistraLTD (Agincourt), Grim2 (AD&D Commercial), GamersOnGames (Basic Commercial)
Video Game Clips: ProJared (Order of the Griffon, Pool of Radiance), Ben102938, Mmrrggll (World of Warcraft), StoneMonkWisdom (Final Fantasy I), RPG Limit Break (Final Fantasy II), XepaLP (Final Fantasy X), shiranaivideo (Final Fantasy IX), SeijinMahoutsukai, TF Squad (Final Fantasy Tactics), MrRokWar (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance), VixyNyan (Shadow Over Mystara), TASVideosChannel (Super Robin Hood), Official Best of NES (Ultima III: Exodus), WorldofLongplays (Warcraft III), MrLlamaSC (Diablo II), Beat em up Master (Tekken 3) rock962000 (Skyrim), Winsilator (AD&D: Treasures of Tarmin)

[@iapetusmccool]

"If there are exactly 300 bandits there will absolutely be a magic user". Good to know bandits have such well-organised and precisely defined employment structures.

[@NathanTarantlawriter]

It's in the contract.

[@epochinfinitysedge5008]

Iapetus McCool - by "reenactment/ miniatures" standards, war gamers HAD to have absolute "numbers" for- numbers grinding. Exact measurements, a must. Just like Officers were a must for a unit, there MUST be a magic user for "x" amount of bandits.

[@eldergroan]

the first time i played D&D was with a buddy of mine named Mark in the early 80's. he had the game because his mother was creating maps for this company called TSR.

[@jgarrison1309]

The originals would be worth something now, and worth sharing. If you can, please do. :-)

[@verablexitasap858]

Omg, really?!! Oh f'ng coollll!!!

[@SeanJTharpe]

That is *EPIC!!!*

[@theurbanshaman6285]

Wow

[@kl8455]

someone that would become 1 of my best friends introduced me to the game in 1981. we played at the end of the school day in 6th grade. RIP Todd. miss you bro.

[@mr.e1944]

D&D was my life in the late 70’s. I had no money. I always wanted the blue box set (loved looking at the the cover at the store) which was before the basic red box set. I just memorized everything I was told about the game. I would sometimes find a way to get some change and would go to the hobby shop and buy a cheap lead figure. I think like 25 or 50 cents. These were in a glass shelf and you had to tell the shop owner which number you wanted. I could never be able to afford a 15 dollar giant. I was lucky at one time to be able to get the Tom Meier elven archer with the star belt buckle, so cool (long gone now). I had no dice or anything so at recess at school we would just talk roll play. The dm would just say yes you defeated the monster or no you didn’t. I spent time after school copying pictures that were copies by other kids from the books, that I would borrow (that is, I would just get to borrow their drawings not any book). At the time I didn’t even realize life was bad but looking back, being poor sucks!

[@joebob914]

thank you for sharing! Love stories like this.

[@mr.e1944]

@@joebob914 Your welcome. I remember making a character and I was told to roll 3d6 times 10 for the number of gold pieces I could spend. I remember buying from the equipment list some spikes and hammer and a 6 foot pole in my list of items. I never used them because everyone was playing adnd by then. No one was spiking doors open or using a wooden pole to test the black liquid on the floor anymore. Not knowing the rules, later I thought to myself, what the heck did I buy these things for? There was a lot of confusion about the game in those days!

[@humanfromearth9671]

Mate, I have a very similar story from England lol. I found out there were ways to calculate 6-sided die rolls to fulfill d-4 d-20 d-8 results from a magazine. Did you ever play the books? Turn to page whatever based on your decision? Warlock of Firetop Mountain was the first one, I think. This is a game that really gets your brain working and I'm chuffed to bits it's still around

[@HonestDoubter]

I think the best thing about DandD is that poor kids could play as much as they wanted. All they needed was friends and some dice.

[@gw10758]

Sure wish I had kept all of my pewter and lead figurines I purchased for D&D... Played in the 70's with friends and we took turns being the dungeon master for each game, which often lasted for weeks.

[@johnarmenta2199]

And to think, all this was being developed BEFORE "Personal Computer" was even a thing. I still have all of my D&D and AD&D books from the late 70's and early 80's. I still have a number of modules, and TON (figuratively) of dungeon dice. They are my treasures! . . . p.s. - I am 54 years old. Still a kid at heart!

[@davidmiller9485]

we are about the same age, one of the greatest mistakes/wonderful things i ever did was sell my deities and demigods (i had the version with the melnibone along with Cthulhu mythos in it) and while i still wish i hadn't, i don't wish to hard because the money from that allowed me to move to where my, at the time girl friend was living. She's now my wife of 23 years. Everything else i left to my daughter. Edit: spelling is hard sometimes.

[@hughjassman8632]

I started at the same time. Ordered my books through the Sears catalog. I think I'm 54, I'd have to do the math. First world map I bought was Greyhawk.

[@kenredington4988]

Not the only old timer here, just a few years older (59). Never got the white box but still have ALL the other little books. Still have my early printed 1st ed books (minus the spines on the 1st 3 which peeled off after MANY years of playing) . Needless to say have all the hardbound books for first ed including Deities and demigods (WITH the extra bits they censored later), a huge chunk of 2nd ed stuff, and even dabbled in 3/3.5. Wont even go into modules except for some of the good mono color cover ones (B1, B2, all the D and G series, Tomb of Horrors and village of Hommlet. Good thing about being a packrat is also saving over 200 Dragon mags starting in the lat 30's/ early 40's, Finias treasure, Best of Dragon Vol 1 thru 5, and Dragon Tales...Oh yeah, and the Snarfquest magazine. Hmmm...really need to think on what to do with this stuff some day so it does not get tossed. I am glad to see it making a comeback though, once the virus runs it's course may even start up a 1st ed game at the hobby shop.

[@davidmiller9485]

@@kenredington4988 do it. It would be good to see the old games taken up by younger players. The newer D&D editions have lost their way in terms of the games structure. Gygax was adamant that the game you played was yours, the rules were to be guides. These days rules lawyers are everywhere and if you don't play it "by the book" your doing it wrong. It's one of the things that has gotten lost as time has past. Being a good DM was just as much about the world as it was how the world worked. Some of the best games i DM'd has classes that aren't in any books. Like my dwarven mage-smiths. Either way it would be good to see those early editions played and continued. :)

[@H457ur]

I still have my AD&D books, including the copyright infringing Dieties and Demigods (which is a treasure). I wouldn’t consider running a game though -- it was really clunky. Early on I switched to Runescape (I think that’s what it was called) and the Elric game. I didn’t return to Dungeons and Dragons until third edition. I’m 53.

[@darlenehoover6577]

My husband started playing in 1982 on the old Gagax rules. I started playing 1st and 2nd edition in 1990. We got our kids into it and they now play with friends every Sunday.

[@keithrosario6498]

F A M I L Y G O A L S

[@whitebreadplease9559]

God damn I wish my family played with me

[@rogermwilcox]

When you say "The old Gygax rules", do you mean 1st Edition AD&D?

[@ni4ni775]

Lucky!!!

[@epochinfinitysedge5008]

@@rogermwilcox I believe she may be referencing Gary's original base rules.

[@blockmasterscott]

In the late 70s and early 80s D&D gave me an outlet from life. I cannot overstate just how much Gary Gygax saved my sanity.

[@williamrice1622]

agree

[@thomasgross8289]

Same

[@davidcosta2244]

This game spawned World of Warcraft, and really is the computer version of D&D. The online D&D pales in polish to Wow.

[@Francois424]

Agreed. If anything it allowed me to find some like-minded friends (in person as there was no internet back then), although life did a number on that original group, it expended into another group which I still play D&D with ( mostly 5th ed, but 2 of our group prefer 3.5ed, sadly I'm the only one that wants Advanced 2nd edition, so can't really play it) and some gurps too for some other settings. I don't know where I would've been without such great friends. Helped a ton thru the harder part of my life as well.

[@davidcosta2244]

@@Francois424 The internet was started by the DoD contracting 2 universities to create a self routing network to maintain communications in case of a nuclear attack in the 1960's.

[@TheMonkePrince]

I really want another one of these videos for every past version

[@MrRourk]

Especially Holmes D&D and Warlock

[@Muzzlepaint]

There are other versions?!?!

[@Dehalove]

I prefer the variety of this channel to some static format

[@thisaccountdoesnotexist7142]

@@Muzzlepaint every so often they release a new version of the game, called editions. Think of each edition as like a new Pokémon generation; Same game, but with new stuff and various changes made to how the game works. The newest one as of now is 5th edition.

[@Blondi115935]

The day is finally here where we get a video for AD&D.

[@johnkarper5021]

I started playing D&D in the late 70's when my brother wanted to try this new game he found. It was him, two friends, my girlfriend (now wife of over 30 years), her brother, and me. He was the DM and we took turns as "Caller". Over time, I played with a lot of other players, and I still get together weekly with friends to play. A couple of those friends are from the beginning years, and many more were met along the way. I have had the gamut of DMs, from the "killing the party early and often" type, to "the world is benevolent and wants them to survive" type,. There have been Monty Hall dungeons full of magic and treasure, to magic is so rare the third level fighter is sometimes using a dagger because it is the only +1 weapon in the party. Some nights are more screwing around and Monty Python references, while others are really focused on teamwork and taking out that dragon or cult harassing the nearby town. The odd numbered D&D versions always seem to be the better versions, with 2 and 4 being weak eutered versions of the previous versions. (Anyone want to run a Druid after they became clerics with a bad spell list and no decent armor in 2?) We have tried other D20 versions (Pathfinder, etc.), and other types of games, like Superheroes and others, but always seem to come back to D&D after a bit. I always laugh at the "geek" motif attributed to D&D players. Some of our early players were military - marines, army rangers, air force, etc. Some of our players have masters and doctorates and run a college English department, while others created their own companies including construction and concrete businesses. Some are now retired and still have a blast. Our imaginations (and Gygax' crew's imaginations) have lead to lifelong friends. If you have not tried D&D, get some pizza and try it with a seasoned DM, and see if there is a new world of friends waiting out there for you!

[@McPickleness]

And some soccer mom's are BDSM dominatrixes. So? Anybody can be a geek, even if they "own a concrete business".

[@urdaddywingnut7820]

Gotta love up on those keeping up with the Jones' soccer moms who are totally unsatisfied at home and can never find the right washing machine setting!

[@wustrkr]

@@urdaddywingnut7820 gotta love finding a random funny comment

[@DHRGrafix]

I first played D&D at the Science Fiction, Horror & Fantasy convention in L.A. in 1977. TSR was there promoting their new game. They were giving demos to people at the convention that wanted to sign up and learn to play. I was with 2 friends that had played before. I never had. We signed up to play. As luck would have it the DM was Dave Arneson himself. I got to learn how to play from one of the creators of the game which at the time really helped. As the video said the original 3 books were more of an outline. It helped to have somebody that knew the game fill in the gaps.

[@Rose_Arcana]

WOW... Really Cool!

[@epochinfinitysedge5008]

Dave DM'd differently than Gary did, I can tell you that. I played at Gary's house regularly. When I played in a game Dave ran, much different.

[@GrandPoobahRoc]

@@epochinfinitysedge5008 How so?

[@epochinfinitysedge5008]

@@GrandPoobahRoc Dave was more war gamer than Gary. He Needed the rules to all make sense and always a finality to and with the numbers, i.e. dice rolls. There was very few "fudging" the roll with Dave. He was a kill or be killed DM plain and simple. That's how tabletop war games were for him. Logic. The play was secondary for him. Sure, he could weave a tale but it was not the tale that was his game it was the numbers action. It was the winning as him against the players. One could see in his eyes, he wasn't the neutral narrator, he was The Master testing you.

[@natfoote4967]

In those days the Dungeon Master had final say, not the books. It was his world, and he was just using the books to run it. The D&D experience was an exercise in interactive storytelling, with the DM being the narrator and the antagonists and the Players enacting the individual parts of the protagonists. Getting into your role was the focus, not arguing over tables. Gygax even addresses this in his introduction to AD&D.

[@ineptwizzard]

The DM or GM still has the final say unless you're mad. Regardless of what system you play.

[@Unregistered.HyperCam.2]

@@ineptwizzard Even if you're mad, the DM has the final say. You're afforded a single right when you sit down to a table as a player: the right to leave the table at any given time. Anything else is a privilege afforded to you by not the Dungeon _Manager,_ or Dungeon _Moderator,_ but Dungeon *Master.*

[@user-cx7kg6ok9b]

In the old books it even stated that the books were meant to be guides, not hard and fast rules. They expected people to homebrew their own games, since that is what Gygax and Arneson had done. That's why Blackmoor and Greyhawk were so different.

[@loenk2651]

Luckily, none of that has changed.

[@user-qd8yy9lc4g]

Its not like the books had much to begin with. Adjudications were inevitable.

[@VixyNyan]

It's very late, but it's an honor to have a clip of mine appear in such a well-written quality video. Thank you.

[@IMHendle1]

This brought back a lot of memories. I started playing in 1976 when my two little nephews came up to me on Christmas morning and asked if I would help them play a new game they received for Christmas. The white box cover said for players 12 and up. I had just turned 13 and my nephews were 9 and 10. We went of to a corner of my sisters house and I began reading the rules. My first game was as a DM and I was hooked ever since. I remember countless hours drawing maps on graph paper and filling rooms with monsters and treasure.

[@vonslagle]

I’m getting back into it after 40 years. I went to the legendary D&D Camp at Shippensburg University in the Early 80’s. Gary Gygax was there and spoke to us eager children

[@aa-tx7th]

So much of our culture was created by Tolkien and DnD. Our world would be so different if it werent for LotR.

[@athora4271]

If it wasn't for Germanic mythology*

[@hadeseye2297]

@@athora4271 I find many creatures from other mythologies as well. Greek or Slavic for example.

[@athora4271]

@@hadeseye2297 Can you give an example?

[@hadeseye2297]

​@@athora4271 Just look at the monsters and you will have plenty of examples. Minotaur, centaur, chimera, dragon, lycanthropes, dryad, pegasi, griffons, djinn, medusa, mummy, basilisk, vampire, gorgon, manticora. All in original Monsters & Treasure from 1974. D&D authors threw everything interesting into one pot. Later monster manuals feature creatures like Rusałka - Polish which means Slavic as well, Baba Yaga yet another Slavic creature, but this time Russian/Belarusian in origin. And there are more of those. Also don't forget that same creature had different names in different regions. This also applies to Gods, or Deities however you want to call them. For example: Zeus - Greek, Thor - Scandinavian, Perun - Slavic. Poseidon - Greek, Aegir - Scandinavian, Neptune - Roman. Hades - Greek, Hel - Scandinavian (also a Peninsula and city in Poland), Weles (pronounce w like v in vendetta) - Polish/Slavic. D&D at its base is just an amalgam of everything European. No wonder it was primarily based on Chainmail. Medieval - checked. European Mythology - checked. If you pick B/X or AD&D you can play God of War campaign. War of Troy, or How I Stabbed My Best Friend Julius Caesar one. Hell, there were even books written with this in mind. To help referees run Greek, Roman, or Scandinavian campaigns. The AD&D 2nd line added Al-Quadim to that. So you are even secured with Middle Eastern, or Persian background if you want to put those in your stories. As a side note. One of the funniest things that many Witcher fans are not aware of, is that Andrzej Sapkowski was a DM himself. Cleric/Paladin = Hexer. I use word hexer as it is the name of Geralt's profession picked by the author himself. He picked it because of hexer - German word - for casting curse at someone. He also wrote his own rpg system. But that's another story.

[@grazzitdvram]

Eh, maybe. It would probably just have a more Arthurian flaire.

[@blacrow7]

Fighting-men was a name that was taken from the old name for Foot Solders in the medieval times.

[@patrickholt2270]

Gendarmes? Men-at-arms?

[@blacrow7]

@@patrickholt2270 man at arms was also used as well during the medieval times.

[@darthkek1953]

I like the fact that Magic User actually made it through the series, not Mage or Wizard.

[@flashfm7456]

@@patrickholt2270 A man-at-arms usually meant a heavily-armed cavalryman, for example a knight or lancer.

[@MrRourk]

Read the book A Fighting Man of Mars

[@idunno...someguy3252]

I ran an OD&D campaign with some friends after our DM, who was running 4th edition, ended the game very suddenly. I can say that is was a lot of fun and gave me a great deal of experience DMing. We only ran with the base three books, which were my grandfather's when he was in the army in the 70s.

[@aiden_macleod]

I remember running a game based of the film Phanstasm II. It was hilariously fun watching the group being chased by Spheres and the grand showdown with The Tall Man and his army of undead dwarves. Good times, good times.

[@DolkkarToyznstuff]

D&D has such a rich origin story, thank you for taking the time to share it.

[@Brass_Heathen]

I loved the redemption arc in there. 😏

[@danielinthewolvesden]

It does, but this is not it. Chainmail had little to do with D&D. That is the Gygax myth.

[@TheRandomDave]

man, some of those illustrations really brought back memories of playing dnd in the 1980s. great video.

[@warpath6666]

I was always the DM because I had all of the books and I was always working on new adventures and such. One time I decided to create an in-depth "critical hit" chart that worked both for and against my players. Those poor guys LOL!!! We decided to no longer use that chart as my players were hobbling around with missing limbs, eyes, ears, etc ... 😄 I still have that chart 🤣

[@countrymonkOSB]

It cracks me up to see the drawings from my first set of D&D rulebooks in this video. I haven't seen those images in 45 years! I was the first D&D geek in my middle school in 1977-8. Too funny. And now I'm rocking out on Baldur's Gate 3. My, how times have changed!

[@adzi6164]

1:46 Medieval combat so realistic it even featured EARLY FIREARMS.

[@joshuahicks8511]

They clearly did their homework I’m so tired of people calling tolkiens work medieval fantasy

[@philsurtees]

I still remember going over to a friend's house - Matt Taylor - in the 1970's, and his family played D&D down in the basement, and it blew me away. My uncle had been a game collector so we were big on board games in our family. I bought D&D, then bought the AD&D Monster Manual when it came out, then the Player's Handbook, and finally the pièce de résistance, The Dungeon Masters Guide. I live in Australia, so we had to go to this tiny 'shop', which was actually an office space, in some office building in Sydney city, to get the books and the campaigns. I introduced my friends at school to it, and then we got into some other games too, like Traveller. I wish I had held on to those original books and campaigns; the hours I spent, at night, going through them all, page by page, my imagination running wild. Good times... I got into video games because my father worked in computing, and I went into computing too, in the 80's, when people would look at you like you were a serial killer when you said you worked with them, because they had no idea what you were talking about. Funny how, nowadays, these things are everywhere and everyone knows what they are. Some of the video games now are incredible, and it's a shame that it probably has reduced the call for games like D&D. Has is? I don't know ... how popular are role playing games these days?

[@devekut2]

I just like seeing all the old crappy artwork again.

[@kevinsullivan3448]

The newer art is definitely worse. The new artists are professionals? More like they are the idiot cousins of the compan's owner.

[@jazzmaster909]

@@kevinsullivan3448 edgy

[@ZeroBudgetProductions]

I actually prefer it

[@mistergrool3941]

I really like how the 8-bit music, black and white artwork in this video creates an atmosphere of an early DnD dark age, when the rules were still being formed and anything was possible. Great atmosphere for a great video!

[@ppellacani]

Mister G Rool me too! Where is this music from?

[@CaptCook999]

My first experience of D&D was watching some guys play with the 3 book set and using the Arduin Grimoire rules for Critical Hits. Some of my friends played D&D and I heard them talk about it so I decided to watch them and knew I had to play this game. I even played the basic box set as a class in high school. The Caves of Chaos was one great adventure and I learned how to play a thief which became my favorite class of character from then on. I'm 59 years old now and just wish I had the time to play D&D like I used to.

[@calvinhobbes7504]

Concurrent with "Chainmail" and maybe slightly before, there was Tractics .... a great WWII simulation with miniatures. Gary Gygax was a big part of the design team. You could play it on a carpeted navy barracks floor (ask me how I know). Table legs and bed linen made excellent cover until we decided that a round from a German Tiger II could penetrate a navy blanket with little trouble. :)

[@rregen8198]

Grew up in Illinois and the book store I hung out at, Toad Hall, (R.I.P. Mad Ruthie) played D&D from the beginning. Our play had some impact on development of the regular rules (damage allocation, anyone?) and I found this to be and excellent overview. Jeff Perren was a regular at the store and due to the fallout he had with the creators, would not play in our campaigns. He would, however, hold Napoleonic War games in his basement. Life was more fun back then.

[@epochinfinitysedge5008]

Rockford game bookstore, I remember you. There's number rules, for tabletop "War Gaming" and then Gary. Gary always said he rolled the dice because he liked the sound of them. To each their own. But I always find the numbers squeezers are so boring and just unhappy in life in general. Rule quoters are not really "role playing". The "Play" comradery is what it is all about.

[@flamingshortsflamingshorts1633]

The answers you need may very well be in here drive.google.com/file/d/1QYqK_MY-SlMe304qT8kMxj42_S2gnS1V/view?usp=share_link Join the discussion t.me/bognbobn t.me/bognbognchat It might not look like the channel is about Aspergers but it is. Get your old family albums. Watch their fingers. Be prepared for a shock.

[@majikos]

It could be argued that wargaming is even older than H.G. Wells with a wargaming scenario described in Laurence Sterne's Life of Tristram Shandy from the mid eighteenth century

[@kevinsullivan3448]

Wargaming goes back to Napoleanic times. The rules were just based on actual military experience, not what armchair commanders think war is like.

[@Inari007]

@Sepher Agon You might want to check out Kriegspiel this is where the Game Master was invented and Check out the incredible dice that were made for this. This was the early 1800's!

[@thepun3721]

modern wargamming can be seen as far back 200 or so years, wargamming in general have been around for centuries, even the roman army soldiers would play a type of wargame on their downtime

[@joshjames582]

I would argue Fighting Men have one ability that makes them OP in OD&D - they're the only class that, running the game by the book, can use magic swords, which are broken AF in OD&D and can possibly make you a one man wrecking crew.

[@MrRourk]

Nothing says killing like a Lamentations of the Flame Princess Fighter. My LOTFP group the mages are now in awe of the 7th level fighter. The fighter player killed a pair of demons. The mages could not even scratch the demons.

[@aiden_macleod]

That's why Intelligent Weapons were invented.

[@rikk319]

@@aiden_macleod That's why you can clearly see the influence of Michael Moorcock in Gygax's game creation.

[@STNeish]

Man, it was so nostalgic hearing the music from Telengard.

[@josephjames259]

I played beginning in my preteen years (early 1980s), so this is a great experience to see all of the early material again. Thanks for making this video.

[@jameslyons6655]

I remember tagging along with my older brother to his gaming group (they played those war games on maps with little cardboard counters, looked boring to me) but we ended up playing chainmail. It was almost like a pamphlet that had been xeroxed or something. I liked it. A few years later I had my own group and we played D&D with the first edition books for years. Now my son plays with his friends, weird to see it make such a big comeback.

[@perryshaffer8358]

I bought the white box in '77 or '78. Monsters and Treasure still had the % liar (sic) column. I followed the iterations and now my nephew plays as well.You're right, it is weird to look at it now. But very cool.

[@LogHewer]

My favorite game...ever. The lack of hard rules for every little thing allow creative DM's and players to do anything they wanted without spending ages flipping through a book to find the appropriate rules. Just make a ruling on the fly and play on! I'd definitely enjoy more videos like this one. The game has such an interesting history. Thanks for making it! :)

[@The_Real_DCT]

You do know that there is no such thing as "hard rules" in D&D or most systems. It even states such in just about every version of D&D rules since the beginning from OD&D and it's later offshoots/revisions Basic, B/X and BECMI D&D to AD&D and 5th edition there is always some form of "these are not Hardline rules to be followed to the letter, they are just guidelines" or in the case of 1e AD&D a giant wall of text on page 230 from Gary Gygax saying the same thing.

[@MrRourk]

Have you seen Iron Falcon or Planet Eris?

[@TheSmokingMustache]

​​@@The_Real_DCTYes, but some DM's and players absolutely REFUSE to play any other way than by the book with the rules being treated as hardline. I've dealt with more than one such DM and it was incredibly irritating in certain circumstances Edit: I just noticed that the video and the comment are 3 years old lol, no idea if my reply will even be seen XD

[@jasonmartell4022]

Does anyone remember gamma world ? We played the crap out of that game . They had flying squirrel type characters! Good times . Also played tons of basic d and d and made my own streamlined rules over the years that included all of advanced D&D plus stuff I made up to make it more fun! Game on my homies

[@Thurgosh_OG]

I remeber playing it but only vaguely.

[@wwiiinplastic4712]

I had both Gamma World and Metamorphosis Alpha.

[@ejgoldlust]

Still have the guidebook

[@Michael_Smith-Red_No.5]

What about Gammarauders? I miss you Blip, the Teleporturtle.

[@davidbauer1485]

Gamma World and Top Secret were an awesome change of pace from AD&D .

[@davidgreen7392]

You speak earlier about the original artwork being childish, etc., but really, the professionalism to come, in many ways, turns it more into a lifeless, professional product.

[@rogerdunn5932]

What a well-constructed and edited video!! That looks like a lot of work, love, and TLC. I had a break from D&D for years when I realized I was an addict in college. I quit cold turkey and threw everything away. Decades later, I found D&D again in version 5 and have loved it. I get together with my friends a few times a month. I ended up buying the premium versions (green cover) of those old AD&D books, but just for nostalgia's sake; not to actually use them. It is now a hobby, not an addiction, and my well is pretty balanced. It is just such a great game. And who knew Gygax didn't like Tolkien's most famous works?

[@FaustinaFalcon8]

22:39 lmao "which is a huge buff for this class since fighting man is a dumb name"

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

I mean, it is. It sounds like a nickname for the dude that goes to the pub just to have a scrap with people.

[@growsomeplace9987]

I seem to remember a pink box, of D&D, 41 years of playing and still love the game/hobby

[@phredbookley183]

I always thought that halflings 'were like' hobbits....but dang. That's pretty direct. ( See 16:33 )

[@mitchellslate1249]

Yeah, no, its bad...Should have stuck to your guns, Gygax. Didn't even want it, yet stole it... Now Beholders...A player made that, gave it to TSR, and they published it. Very Original...And, yeah, creepy...The whole concept looks very Original, though it could have some Lovecraft influence, yet we would be tempted to just describe it as original Cosmic Horror not knowing what did or didn't go on in the creators head. It is pretty scary, especially the old Sun, Moon Face it had...

[@suziechapstick8236]

It was the very early 80s and I was maybe 10 or 11 when my aunt bought me the D&D red box because I liked the Hobbit and there was a dragon on the box. I'm certain she had no idea what it really was and neither did I, though I enjoyed the artwork I failed to realize that it was an actual game until I dusted it off several years later and started playing it with some friends, kickstarting my lifelong RPG hobby. Now its 40! years later and I'm still playing whenever I can. My lovely aunt probably had no idea how much that gift would end up meaning to me, and I never got a chance to truly thank her.

[@emrek99205]

I was the same age at the same time and also got the redbox from my aunt. She thought it was a board game and when she realized it had no board she sold it to me for a quarter at a garage sale. It was literally my first experience with anything fantasy. Even the dragon on the cover didn't make sense but I'd heard of the loch ness monster so figured it had something to do with that. The fighter on the cover also seemed like it would fit in UK history. All the gold and the wizard was unknown to me, but then again I was only 11 and those things only existed in thick books that I wasn't interested in reading.

[@tricycle7274]

Instead of an exorbitantly expensive international school where English was the only language used, it was the weekends I spent with English speakers playing D & D that really helped me get through speaking the language. Not to mention it was a fantastic amount of fun!

[@annwagner5779]

Boy, this brings back memories! My friend Matt Russell taught my brother and me all about wargaming when Matt and I were in junior high. We got that original Chain Mail rule book, with the silver cover, and then the d&d white box set. I still have the first advanced hard covers. We had such fun! Then had fun again with a group of friends after I got my MA. It’s all a long time ago now. I’m glad people are still playing, not just going over to computer games.

[@Occult_Detective]

The retro clone “Hero quest”was a must for all the figurines and props in dungeon generation... Before the modern dnd miniature production started.

[@kainshannarra2451]

@Sepher Agon I like doing that too, theater of the mind makes for much more interesting combat, as it's easy to add wuxia features, or throw in some suspense or comedy as needed.

[@1freethinkr388]

Oh my gosh, this brings back sooo many great memories. I learned to play when I was in the Navy (aboard the USS Blueridge) from a friend (Lon Obrian) and have never given up the game since then. I've played every version from BasicDnD, AD&D, 3rd edition, 3.5, and 4th (which I still cannot stand), and then I switched over to Pathfinder. I'm still running games (ever since '78) and have started a new group on DnD 5E. This game I believe really helps people develop social relationships, boosts their imagination, and is a lot of great fun as well as long as everyone remembers this simple philosophy (including the DM) "if it's not fun, why are we doing it?". May all of your games be cherished events with your players, your friends, and maybe even your family as well.

[@nickandres7829]

4th seems to be the most divisive. People think it's either the best or worst.

[@trodat07]

I played with the first edition rules once and it was a nice experience, mostly thanks to the kind and wise DM running the game.

[@rikk319]

The quality of DM made all the difference, and still pretty much does, since they guide the shared storytelling of a tabletop RPG experience.

[@joep9759]

THAC0 brings back such great memories.

[@joshjames582]

I'm really glad this video is back. I was looking for it just yesterday and was surprised to see it gone.

[@jontnoneya3404]

I was in middle school (6th, 7th & 8th grades) when I was first introduced to AD&D. This was '79-'81 timeframe. My older brother had the white box and we scrimped and saved to get the Players Handbook, DMG and MM. ALL of my friends played and we'd spend so many hours playing over the weekends. It was so fun and a much cheaper alternative to computer games which we also loved. So many great memories.

[@ronalddrozdick4105]

The magic system of D&D seems based on the 1950's book, "Dying Earth" By Jack Vance. You could memorize a limited number of spells depending on your level, which were gone after used and would have to be re memorized.

[@rikk319]

Gygax explained that he took the idea directly from Vance's book, yes.

[@midnightmosesuk]

I got into D&D in the early 80's but that was only because I'd started role-playing after getting into Traveller, I was a real sci-fi nerd and fantasy didn't really interest me that much. One night at my war gaming club the GM for our game didn't turn up. The other players wandered off but I stuck around and eventually got invited into a D&D game. That was that, I was hooked. One of the main things I remember is how much animosity there was between the war gamers and the role players. I don't know if it was like this at other clubs but the club had existed before RPG games and many members believed that role players were not war gamers and had no place in the club. They made it very clear they had no time for us with our strange rule books and DM screens! Funny thing was, after a few years, some of the guys who were dead against us would end up playing rpg's as well.

[@wwiiinplastic4712]

I never got to play much Traveller as the guy running that game was a jerk and would force scenarios on the players; never allowed any decision making that might stray from his prepared material. When Striker came out I would spend hours designing new vehicles and weapons. I ended up selling all my original materials but I have the Far Future Enterprises collections of all the books, games, and supplements that came out in 2000. I did keep my map of the Spinward Marches that was given out at a convention decades ago. Call of Cthulhu was my other favorite.

[@midnightmosesuk]

@@wwiiinplastic4712 All my Traveller stuff has gone too except for my collection of 15mm Ral Partha Traveller figures. Actually, I think I might still have striker too. I'll have to look. I was deeply in love with that game, I used to enjoy making new sectors and populating the planets. I never used any of them though. Call of Cthulhu came out in the US before the UK and I was really stoked to try it. In fact, so much so, I had a box imported! I probably had one of the first copies in Britain. No boast. I was initially disappointed, the advertising gave me the impression it was going to be like Indiana Jones, it wasn't. The more I read though, the more I came to appreciate it. Then I read some actual HPL and suddenly I had a new obsession. I ended up being known for my CoC games for the next 30 years.

[@epochinfinitysedge5008]

@midnightmosesuk That "animosity" you hit on the head. Original war gamers, as I remember from my first attendance, are pure numbers, logic, facts and results people. Role play requires at least a bit of fantasy imagination . The "what ifs" in war games is changing factual unit placement. "What if Lee had done this instead of that, how would the battle have ended then. That's as far as war game imagining goes. Factual imagining or altering unit placement, decisions of commanders, etc. "Real world" battling. They only want to do their "Turn', the action, not act out how the separate participants - act. Much like how computer and entertainment game systems - games are now. Press the button to do the action and move on. It's difficult, at best, for war gamers to interact with actual Role Players. It's -"illogical" to them.

[@midnightmosesuk]

@@epochinfinitysedge5008 Exactly, you put it far better than I did. At the club I was attending at the time, it got so bad that at the annual general meeting one year, one bloke pulled a sheath knife and started waving it around. He'd proposed that role-players should be expelled from the club and assisted in setting up a club of their own. His proposal was voted down and an enormous argument broke out, that was when the knife made an appearance. It scared the living shit out of me, I was only 13 at the time, I think. As it turned out I ended up setting up a club exclusively for role playing on the back of this incident. I just wanted a club without all the damn politics, it lasted about 15 years.

[@epochinfinitysedge5008]

@@midnightmosesuk 👍Nice! - Deja vu- that actually happened in the club - I - went to also. (Minus the knife though 🤨:O ) I wonder, DID that happened in Every Miniatures/War Games Clubs that adopted/inducted rpg type players?

[@AdamSuperAC]

IM 50 and this brought back my teen age years, I cut my teeth on the TSR RED BOX. Very well put together.I enjoyed this. Cheers from Australia!

[@jeffreyweir6553]

I grew up playing DnD Basic. Then very rapidly transitioned to Ad&d. This was back in the late 70's/early 80's. I have many great memories of the game and the various groups I was honored to play with. I went to GenCon in 1991 and again a few years following, as well as numerous othergamingconventions. I probably DM'd more campaigns than I have played. I still have much of my Ad&d books and some notes from when I was active. My daughter now plays 5th ed and she's wanting my grandchildren to play soon too (9 and 10 yrs old). I still love the game and thoroughly enjoy watching games being played. I don't play anymore as I don't know anyone who plays close by that I can relate to, but I watch KZbin videos for that. Thanks for the video. I remember so much of the history of DnD, but it was nice to see your presentation.

[@willmistretta]

Here's an update relevant to modern gamers curious about OD&D: There's a new edition of Swords & Wizardry Complete that just came out and is a substantial upgrade. It has superior layout, new rules for magic item creation, new optional B/X-compatible morale rules, expanded monster stats that include number appearing and lair percentage, rules for generating random strongholds, an entirely new and streamlined random treasure generation method, some extra details on intelligent weapons, and comprehensive errata fixes, the works. More recommended than ever before.

[@chrisellsworth764]

The best history lesson you can get on D&D...hands down!

[@quantumphaser]

Telengard theme is unmistakable after 40 years. Wow

[@willmistretta]

I grew up on AD&D 1E/2E, B/X, and BECMI, but it took the Swords & Wizardry Complete rulebook to make me realize that OD&D with supplements could be the perfect middle ground between the freeform simplicity of the '80s D&D lines and the gritty edge and iconic character options of AD&D. For me, it's an amazing D&D experience. I can't recommend it enough, especially since it's a free download.

[@brkly99]

I was an original D&D player. We initially had a photocopy of draft rules one of us obtained directly from Gygax at a convention. We later had the luxury of a White Box. We eventually made up a bunch of our own rules, but still based on the White Box, Greyhawk and Blackmoor. We played it endlessly. We never got into the “new stuff” like AD&D.

[@darthkek1953]

First edition AD&D was a glorious work of madness.

[@pogeman2345]

I'd like to point out that 5e doesn't follow the Vancian magic rules. You can cast a spell you've already casted as long as it's prepared.

[@blacrow7]

Yes, they are called spell slots.

[@ZeroNumerous]

It functionally follows Vancian casting. The only change 5e makes is that spells and spell slots aren't married. You still have restricted magic, a set amount of ammo per day, and must prepare spells before being able to cast them.

[@2000TalesRolePlaying]

ZeroNumerous on the surface this is why many still think 5e uses Vancian magic but the use of slots isn’t what made the system Vancian. The system is based off the Dying Earth series where spells where literally stored in a casters mind almost like scrolls and once cast where no longer in the caster’s mind. This aspect of casting is completely gone in 5e with the only remaining mechanics being spell slots (something that was unique to D&D and not in the works of Vance and spell preparation which is now akin to studying instead of literally cramming the spell in your brain till you release it.

[@kevinsullivan3448]

The only redeeming value of 5E.

[@jazzmaster909]

@@kevinsullivan3448 sure buddy

[@taewyth4161]

Oh I was looking for this one the other day! Glad to see it back !

[@grantmillard8387]

I played with the white box rules including the Greyhawk and Blackmoor supplements at Mr. Gameways Ark in downtown Toronto in the 70's. It was an amazing time to grow up. It's amazing to see the 'art' from inside these books in this video. Quite the flashbacks.

[@Lot665musicalbox]

Great video! History & nostalgia make a great combination. I got the Basic set around 1979 with the hand drawn dragon @31:41 which included no dice and substituted cut out chicklet pieces that one turned over for their “roll.” I found that to be a pain and only later found out by the employee of the game shop at Oak Mill Mall that there were DICE I could use instead! Of course, my parents were not going to spend money on dice & I could use dice from other board games. Sigh. Eventually I scraped up enough to buy royal blue dice which I kept throughout college. When I eventually got the players handbook and dungeon masters guide, it was our favorite pastime to argue minutiae and roll a cadre of characters to pick from for campaigns. I even painted a replica of the players handbook (AD&D) for art class! Thank you E Gary Gygax for turning boring days to one’s full of adventure! My thanks to you, DM It All for taking the time to make this video!

[@TitchmarshVillage]

After all these years I still don’t know why there was a crayon in my D&D starter set?!

[@SecularOpinion]

to fill in the circles on the dice

[@danielinthewolvesden]

the D20 was numbers 1-10 twice, so color in one side for 11-20.

[@macdallanzero2145]

A lot of the dice in older sets had no colours in the number indentations. The crayon was meant to be used to fill them in so there was some contrast making the numbers much easier to read.

[@garryeckert5929]

D&D was a guide line rather than rules.

[@Aubreykun]

@@thebrutallyhonestdm That started with 3e/3.5e. That edition is so interwoven the game basically starts to collapse as you ignore rules, because there's all sorts of inbuilt world-defining rules that act as power limiters on the player characters. If you have the ability to run it entirely by the book, rules as written, it works like a swiss watch. But that requires reading all 3 core books cover to cover for the DM, and the PHB cover to cover for the players. No one wants to do a month of homework to play D&D, and if you start changing written rules on the fly it breaks the trust of the players to have a consistent world where they have agency. Additionally, lighter (usually older) versions facilitate that 'my rules' thing better - no reason to buy and have to sift thru nearly a thousand pages in full size book format if you're going to throw well over 2/3rds of them out. There's also more implicit trust in the DM, since the players don't have as many preset assumptions built on a dense rulebook.

[@Aubreykun]

@@thebrutallyhonestdm My issue is to point out that, because everyone wants something a bit different, it's highly probable for the rule set chosen to hamper rather than facilitate the goals of the table. People can also have assumptions brought from one game/system to the next which heavily impact how someone expects things to work when playing a new game or with a new DM. In my first comment I was referring to how D&D 3.5e's structure worked and how it colored the perspectives of many people who learned from it or thru others who learned from it. There's a lot of odd assumptions of how "D&D works" that stem from a weirdness you get from not reading it in order, because 3.5e's books are written to introduce and build on concepts in a sequential manner. A big example of this is the nature of alignment being treated by the rules like an actual energy that permeates reality, and this is explained ahead of the section where you're told to pick one and the behaviors are described. Without reading thru that "fluff", a lot of alignment seems disconnected and makes little sense. But this is just one example, there are loads throughout the books. I agree that changing the rules requires advance notice, I took your anecdote above to be something where the players weren't (and most likely could not have been) notified ahead of time. At the same time you have to consider the amount of mental investment someone is going to want to put together for a game, and especially a game that, these days, a lot of people expect to fizzle out 2-4 sessions in or so. It's less 'work' to have changed less rules, or to make a whole custom game booklet and not even use the commercially produced manuals. Agency is tied to players' abilities to inform themselves and make informed decisions. I was referring to how, if the world works inconsistently (a point you already addressed, just explaining my reasoning), it becomes difficult to make choices that 'feel like real options' rather than a simple roll of the dice each time. If blindsight behaves in one way, and the game has it codified as a unifying trait that interacts with various things, then it stands to reason that this modified in special cases without any telegraphing of it being special becomes a 'violation' of the game's internal logic. As I said you already clarified yourself, I'm just speaking to the concept so what I was talking about may make more sense to you. Believe me I am well aware of not needing to buy anything, in fact I'm really more for lighter systems after having tried loads and being generally disappointed by the thicker-books with denser rules over time. There are systems that have interwoven rules and sticking to some but ignoring others can result in a cascade into characters being well out of the DM's ability to truly handle over an extended campaign. I've no idea why you'd say there isn't, it's possible you just understand games well enough to see what would be disastrous or not, but most people simply go "that doesn't seem fun" and ignore bits. Which, in some cases really just means they'd prefer playing a game whose rules support what they actually want to do better. (example: Removing experience points and simply levelling characters by session or plot removes a reason to risk for reward - such a table might prefer something with a different advancement system like GURPS or FATE.) This went on way too long but I really do agree with you overall - the game is run how people want to play it at their table.

[@Aubreykun]

@@thebrutallyhonestdm Yea that all makes sense. By agency I mean things like if players understand that, say, "skeletons are undead" and then you have skeletons virtually unchanged, save for the fact that they're now treated as constructs - but without any mention of this beforehand. A player of a cleric would be confused and potentially upset, since his class's training in turning undead would most likely give him the foreknowledge of such a common type being unturnable. This basically is a "gotcha" moment, not fudged but the kind of thing where the DM is in more of an adversarial role rather than neutral arbiter. The Rules set up player expectations, it's up to the DM to clarify any and all differences he has made so that the unspoken, mutually-understood game world is consistent for all. Everyone starts DMing from not, and has to learn best practices along the way - having less workload is good for this. You do sound like a good DM, but it probably took a lot of learning to get what being a "good DM" means.

[@hadeseye2297]

@@thebrutallyhonestdm The idea of changing the rules is written black on white in Basic module of B/X-Moldvay-1981 edition. "Dungeon Master rolls dice for their sound." - Gary Gygax. You see rules lawyer you scream - This, is, SPARTA!!!

[@kevinsullivan3448]

@@TA-by9wv 2E had a better rules system compared to earlier editions. If only they had flipped AC back then. Everything publish by Wizards of the Cost is just an abomination designed to satiate the munchkins.

[@daviddunford8265]

My sister lived in Burlington, Wis. in the early 80's and worked at a pizza place in Lake Geneva. I stayed with her and her family for the summer when I was 13 and got to work under the table at the same pizza place. It was located literally right down the street from TSR and every now and then I'd see people come in and do weird stuff with books and dice while gobbling a piece of pizza or two. Turns out it was Gygax and crew and Gary called me over and showed me what they were doing because I was curious. I got the Basic and Expert set from him and was taught how to play the game by the master himself. While I still lived in Wisconsin, I'd go to GenCons and do D&D gaming there, occasionally catching him every now and then when he would be there to say hi. Gary Gygax was a really cool guy, and it's sad he's no longer with us. Still, I'm 52 and still playing the game, so it says something about how charismatic he could be when it came to what he loved. He got me to love it just as much. :)

[@HavocfiveUS]

Next Door Pub & Pizzeria. I had pizza there several times in the 80s. My family was from the Elkhorn/ Burlington area and Lake Geneva was 'fancy'. I only found out maybe 10 years ago that Gary lived in Clinton, Wisconsin, where I went to middle and high school, and missed having Doug Niles as an English teacher by a few years. I'm still playing at 45.

[@basicforge]

Telengard theme music! YES!

[@PurgeThunder]

This is the most comprehensive history of the origin of D&D rules I’ve ever seen and I’ve played the game for over 35 years.

[@creepystares9853]

I remember playing D&D the first time, 1980, Ramstein AFB in Germany, was a young teenager. That's a pretty far reach pre internet and cable tv, paper magazines and hardcover books printed in low quantities to get. It was a grassroots growth constantly attacked for the imagination it released.

[@allamaraine8066]

Huge thanks for this. I grew up (video) gaming with my little brother. He got into it further and I kind of lapsed due to life and free time, but never lost interest. Little bro’s heavy into JRPG’s, wanted to make the jump to more traditional American stuff, so he bought Baldur’s Gate 3 and asked me to come along for the ride. Now I’ve jumped down the rabbit hole of getting to know D&D, I’m excited and the kid’s tickled, and this was SUPER-informative. I’m still learning and a little lost, but nowhere near as hopeless as I was an hour ago. This video was a *blast*.

[@EJJunkill]

What a wonderful retrospective on the early days of d&d! I came in at the end of the White Box days and this was such a blast from the past! Very well done, edited, and narrated!!

[@markfaulkner8191]

I would love to see a video on the three versions of Basic; Holmes, Moldvay/Cook, then Mentzer. I am all OSR all the time, and B is my favorite :D

[@jimgauth]

This took me back. Well done.

[@petersanzone7183]

Really hope to see more videos on the history of D&D from you. This was very well made and a joy to watch. I wasn't playing D&D until the 2010's, so I missed out a lot on its history.

[@jarrettperdue3328]

I appreciated the thoroughness in mentioning early sources and concepts. I also would enjoy deep dives into major editions that had to be touched on only briefly in this video.

[@brianlanaghan3063]

I still have the modules and books that some of those drawings came from, that's some old school stuff lol

[@Michael_Smith-Red_No.5]

Thank you for this. Also, I love how bored that Wraith looks. Finally, in Billy Idol's 'Rebel Yell', substitute 'In the midnight Owlbear,' and you can never un-hear it.

[@epochinfinitysedge5008]

Nice 😄

[@nickandres7829]

That's like a friend told me the lyrics in I'm Blue were "I'm blue, if I were green I would die!" and now that's all I hear.

[@BladeOlson]

I grew up near Lake Geneva, WI and we would go to TSR Hobbies late 70s , early 80s. It was a cool hobby shop. My friend’s older brothers had the white box and then we got into it too and got the more common RedDragon “blue” box. I was personally way more into the idea of GAMMAWORLD. The books were so cool and the early stuff was super handmade. My friend’s dad had a huge collection of lead figurines for mock battles. That’s kind of how we got into it. They hobby shop had that. I remember really loving a module called Castle Amber. It was structured so kids like us could play and it was cool.

[@streetersoldit]

Excellent video, I was around for most of this and you dug up details even I didn't know (and I have the white box to this day). Well researched and good presentation, made me smile.

[@brucemcbain3150]

This is tremendous. No overstatement. To hear the story of the game that influenced millions of people, mostly positively, and the heroes who brought it to reality. It's an honour to hear this.

[@chrisdooley6468]

God I remember those first edition books. Every Saturday, five of us, rain sleet or snow lol. I used to think Gygax was godlike. Great to revisit this all

[@dacca6836]

loved the music you put in with credits at the end. Really took me back to the 8 bit days and also the video game clips were also amazing :)

[@orphredhair4458]

Love your videos! The presentation is always fantastic, and you're insanely informative and entertaining.

[@gabrielarantest]

1st D&D seems to had more interesting concepts, like deadly combats and not every character being a hero. Incredible video btw.

[@rikshepherd9724]

It meant you could roll up a party of three or four new characters at the start of school lunch hour, and have them all dead and gone by the start of the afternoon classes.

[@kendiamond7852]

The concept is sound. If Everyone is a Hero, then no one is. Newer Editions got some things right, but making Combat like a Marvel Movie isn't one of them.

[@ElementsRook]

You glossed over a couple of interesting things like the Arduin Grimuiors as well as Myers developing the core mathmatic formula responsible for the Level progression, weapon speed, and a few overly math heavy aspects of 1e

[@dracoreiver5175]

By any chance do you recall Myers first name? I want to say it is Seth, but I could be wrong.

[@markj702]

Wow! I had literally forgotten the element of "roll dice to determine attributes THEN pick a class". How DID we cope back then? The blissful innocence of youth :D

[@Istari68]

I enjoyed this very much; thanks for putting so much work into this.

[@weseld1]

If this message seems to have already appeared, it is because my cat walked across my keyboard and either erased - or sent - the unfinished previous copy. SO maybe I repeat: HI! You've misspelled my name (most people do) My ancestors came from Bohemia (the modern Czech Republic) rather than the UK (like the Methodist Wesleys). This is a really good explanation of the OD&D rules and D&D supplements before AD&D. You do give too much credit to Chainmail as the "ancestor of D&D" following Gary's view: "D&D is just adding role playing to Chainmail" rather than David's "We tried to use Chainmail for combat in Blackmoor, but it worked badly, so we gave up on that pretty quickly." OD&D is sometimes disorganized because each author insisted on including parts they liked over the objections of the other. Gary was a Conan fan, who could say "Players will always want to be sword-swinging human superheros. Other classes and races exist only to give the players enemies to defeat." Arneson was a fan of Lord of the Rings: "Players will want to form teams of characters with many different skills, and win through cooperation, with each other and with other characters they meet." I was around while they hammered out OD&D, which became a sort of "Twisted Damascus" product, composed of many layers, which has held up very well for strength, sharpness, and of course, the KEAL test. ;-) - David A. Wesely

[@dracoreiver5175]

Thank you for adding that point of view. It kind of makes sense now with some of the things I kind of remember growing up. Hope you are alive and doing well in 2022 and if you are greetings on behalf of Mr. Skeie.

[@weseld1]

@@dracoreiver5175 Thanks. My e-mail is rather slow and unreliable, so it took a while for me to get your message. And Hello back to Mr. Skeie.

[@jgarrison1309]

Well done everyone. It makes me want to open up my blue box and run Keep on the Borderlands one more time!

[@Ge1Ri4]

Just now stumbled across this video - this really takes me back to the days of my misspent youth! I'm an old geezer now, but this video brought up the memories of those delicious D&D campaigns as if it were yesterday. Thanks for the awesome trip down memory lane!

[@steverogers2603]

Asked for and received the basic box set for Christmas 79’. The Village of Hamlet scenario came with it. The two guys in the town you wanted to hire were Rufus and Byrne. They were like 5th level fighter/magic user and seemed like gods starting out with no experience. My friends and I quickly transitioned to Advanced and would play every Friday night, often all night, watching the sun come up. This went on for years. It wasn’t what the “ cool “ kids did, but it kept us out of trouble and we had fun with it. These videos bring back many memories. I haven’t thought about D & D for many years.

[@HunterMayer]

If you want to go deeper check out the documentary "Secrets of Blackmoor" great interviews about gygax and arneson crews. Focusing on the inception of the RPG genre.

[@doctorlolchicken7478]

Thac0 was not all that confusing. If you need 18 on a d20 to hit AC 0 then to hit AC 5 you roll a d20 and add 5. Or, if basic math is not beyond you, to hit AC 5 you need to roll 18-5=13.

[@MrRourk]

A lot of us use Delta's Target 20 now. So elegant and simple.

[@kevinsullivan3448]

They should have flipped the AC back in 2E to make the game less confusion, but that might have shrunk their RPG Peens a bit to admit that THAC0 was unneeded.

[@kenredington4988]

Basic math being beyond you..yep, got it in a nut shell these days. Was easy to understand and simple, but a bit limited for later expansions and skill rolls down the road.

[@kainshannarra2451]

@@kevinsullivan3448 So you prefer d20 style 'bigger is better'? I personally prefer the old Thac0 system where loaded dice can be as much a hindrance as a benefit.

[@kevinsullivan3448]

@@kainshannarra2451 Math wise they are exactly thew same. But counting down from 10 is bass ackwards and only confused new players.

[@shawncarter7188]

I enjoy listening to these so much. It's as close as I can get to going back in time and discovering these things again

[@kickballjedi]

Great history. I am curious why you skipped over Basic and Expert D&D though. They were a great transition from the white box to 1st ed. The "Red Box" and "Blue Box" were awesome. I remember opening the boxes as a kid and being thrilled by the books and dice inside.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

This is a great video, which I will be rewatching MANY times. Why did Rangers get bonuses against Giants? Feels like that was plucked out of nowhere.

[@Kevsweets]

These are great! I'd love to see some others like Villans & Vigilantes, Top Secret, or Boot Hill. My parents & cousins played original D&D/AD&D, so they introduced my brothers & I to RPG back in the 70s. We played, as teens, AD&D with Rolemaster as "to hit & crits" (Spell Law & Claw Law/Arms Law) for affect. They also played Panzi-leader(?) WWII era) & Star Trek type RPGs as well. Now my daughter & husband play 5th edition with us & their friends. A real great way to teach IMAGINATION. Which is kinda lost in video games.

[@jasonmartell4022]

Kevin Kerr was the Star Trek type called gamma world?

[@Kevsweets]

@@jasonmartell4022 Nope it was this I believe: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Fleet_Battles

[@GC-wj6ni]

Kevin Kerr I had that back in the day,about 87/88 I think,i couldn’t get to grips with it though.it was ship to ship battles but I’m sure there was a role playing game released too.

[@kenredington4988]

Panzer Leader was a Avalon Hill War Game , the West front version of East Front Panzer Blitz. Yep, still have em.

[@cammobus]

Christmas 1978 - Holmes Basic and the DM's Guide Started My Journey

[@dsvet]

I believe it's very important to know this history and tradition. Not only are pen and paper role playing games based on this but video games as well. Thank you for this in depth documentary.

[@edwardyoung8241]

It's funny how many sources conflict on who came up with HP and AC, Gygax or Arneson. I think you have it right. Great video, although I find it a little weird that you censor cartoon still frame torso nudity, seems a little prudish

[@Nolinquisitor]

Interesting. The description of the Cure Serious Spell seems to suggest that Hit Points were used in reverse (i.e. You took 6 hits so far. Remove 2 hits.).

[@trum853]

Similar to its wargaming roots, you receive wounds, healing removes wounds. HP is a measure of how many wounds you can survive.

[@mitchellslate1249]

Yeah, what he said...I still see the Wounding and removal systems to this day...Interesting to learn it is that old though...Always assumed it was a new wave realism thing...

[@Qweekdraw]

Great video! I recognized a lot of the artwork and it was fun to take this stroll back down memory lane.

[@blueduchessvi]

Thank you for confirming my hazy memory of my first D&D experience being a boxed set board game (1980-ish). The 3 friends I convinced to learn to play found out in their first orc encounter that they could just run away from the monsters and our gaming experience collapsed from there. Things got better later on with 1st Edition, but that first board based game is still an entertaining memory.