The History of RPGs - Dungeons & Dragons [1974] Part 1

[@Carlphish]

Several years late to the party here, but doesn't seem like anyone has answered your question @42:00 about Clerics using only blunt weapons; This is in reference to Bishop Odo who fought alongside William the Conqueror and in the Bayeux Tapestry is shown wielding a club instead of a sword. The scholarly consensus of the time was that the reason for this was because of Genesis 9:6 "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man." caused fighting clergy use non-edged weapons as a loophole so they could still kill someone, but maybe not "shed their blood"

[@BTsMusicChannel]

1:15:32 This bit about "whether or not witch capturing a player will turn him into a swine or keep him enchanted as a lover" seems to be a reference to the story of Odysseus and his crew landing and Circe's island.

[@stevevondoom4140]

the movie willow had a witch turn an army into pigs as well...

[@Jimalcoatl]

@@stevevondoom4140 Willow came out long after original D&D.

[@CaptCook999]

My first experience with D&D was watching some people play using the original rules as well as the Arduin Grimoir rules. I didn't start playing until the Basic D&D rules came out. One of the most exciting days for me was when I finally had enough money to buy the AD&D Players Handbook. I read through that whole book over and over learning everything I could.

[@sethkinle2254]

There is now a character in my novel who repeatedly uses the phrase, "it says here,"

[@nowthenzen]

And since it is a fantasy novel the object referred to talks back saying "I can speak for myself! And I'm not an It!!"

[@RipVanWinkleXX]

I love your reading of the original books. Thank you for this :)

[@virgillevinger]

Best line is "If you say so, Gary." lol

[@raymondanderson3624]

"color me intrigued"

[@kyrnsword72]

I love OSR Redbox D&D. I liked playing D&D, DCC, Dungeon World and 4AD and the RPG that I love now combines in someways all these is called D100 Dungeon by Martin Knight!

[@FaustCrowley]

OK, so VERY late to this, but...without having played this version of D&D, I suspect that the reason people would not always carry, say, a dagger, (since all weapons did 1d6 damage) is the parry and breakage rules you mentioned earlier.

[@FlyingAxblade_D20]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJK4dp2nh56ol6s

[@tasfdbyhdygsdbnjsrae]

Loved this video. Looking forward to watching part 2, hope to see part 3 and 4 soon!

[@stevevondoom4140]

mini's help because some rules do state " any creature that you can see/can see you" which is easier to determine if things have a face... even a penny can work since facing forwards can be ascertained pretty well.

[@byleevans4275]

tremendous job bringing ODD History back to life for future generations to RELEARN the BEGINNING

[@johnr7279]

Great video and love D&D history as a subject. Around 1:07 or so you're talking about dice. I think that for the most part, and also taking into account how ambiguous Gygax could be in his writing, that dice implies a d6. Back in '74 anything other than a d6 was exceedingly rare and I'd guess that we have the current sets of polyhedrals we have now solely because of D&D.

[@vontool]

I'm not angry just disappointed. I ran dungeons back then to me this is not a look at history of RPG just someone criticizing the play of people who helped develop the game he was lucky enough to inherit. He draws conclusions without research into why something was presented a certain way. It makes it look like his point here is to show he is so much smarter than Garry or any of us who played back then. (but I think the narrator did not intended that. He is just frustrated by the lack of editing in early TSR products) We were kids experimenting with something new and had to develop it as we went along, not knowing where it would lead. I'm not going to be an old fart and say you can't understand because you were not there. It's not that. It was a different time, we did not have 45years of previous experience to guide us. But if you want to make a history documentary ask someone who was there it will give you perceptive. I don't know if he ever did run his game or got to frustrated by the rules as written but i hope he did. I did meet Gary and played with him at a convention. A very nice man. In defense of our narrator here, I had questions about the rules like he did, and Garry told me to use his rules as a guide lines, and we should run the game the way we wanted. Our imagination was our best tool. Back then we had to use more of it. Not that we don't have imagination today but because the rules today are much better written, and the vast access to pre-made dungeons, campaigns and outdoors we are not force to use it as often. To all I wish you all great fun in your gaming and to the narrator thanks for trying and sorry you got so frustrated in trying to understand the game we played then. I do like a lot of your conclusions and the style of play you like that I observed by your comments and the imaginations you seemed to have. It's stuff DMing then and now, so good for you my friend.

[@edwardwallace3599]

Ready for future editions. Love your work.

[@grahamcomplete3663]

Part 2 is out now!

[@jeffkane221]

I started playing in 1972 in Milwaukee. My best friend Jack McKinty was a miniature war-gamer freak. We played, Milwaukee- La Grange -Delavan- Lake Geneva- Madison "Tolkien" ising Chain Mail. Jack sent Gary and Madison imfo from our adventures, and we would get 1 or 2 pages imfo from theirs every 3 to 4 months. Dungeons and Drugs. Good times.

[@nowthenzen]

I think it worth noting that Gary's specific Metre has often been referred to as High Gygaxian

[@rakkhnaka]

This is amazing, totally enjoyed it..!

[@grahamcomplete3663]

I appreciate that. Thank you.

[@thereluctanthireling]

This is so great, can't believe I had not found this video until now.

[@grahamcomplete3663]

Jason Kirkner stay tuned for part 2

[@MrMalimer]

This awesome thank you so much!!

[@Moxbox99]

Thank you for this! Really amazing. Great commentary too. 😎

[@cheddarcheese6474]

Can't wait for Part 2

[@grahamcomplete3663]

Its out!

[@yank3656]

thanks for sharing Graham Complete

[@captainnolan5062]

Outdoor survival was not necessary to play, only recommended. Few people in my area ever used in in their D&D games in 1974-75.

[@aceyirl]

This is great commentary. I'll be watching more!

[@grahamcomplete3663]

Joshua Cherry if this video gets 10k views I might have to make some more!

[@DrewSohl]

I have been playing DD since 1976.It has come a long way,except for 4th edition,most of it positive.I hope Gygax is happy.

[@kilgoretrout3966]

i still play original AD&D, i just couldn't get with with Wizards of the Coast....all TSR, including the DM's Screen.

[@codygouin3928]

hes dead

[@ChrisMoneymakerDHRG]

I thoroughly enjoyed this look at original D&D. It’s funny how different 2 people’s experience can be though. You said you had never known anyone who didn’t quickly through out the racial level limits rules. My experience was quite different. I worked as an assistant manager, in a game store back in 2nd Edition’s hey day. Almost everyone ran their games using racial level limits. I still use them in my 2nd Edition Dark Sun game that has been running for 25 years. Different strokes for different folks.

[@Braincain007]

*~It says here~*

[@valmarsiglia]

Maybe next there could be a cover-to-cover reading of the 1st edition Player's Handbook.

[@grahamcomplete3663]

Well, if this hits 10K views, I'll have to keep going

[@Opry99er]

You're at 15k at the time of this reply. BTW, I live about 30 minutes from Lake Geneva, WI. :)

[@scottanderson8167]

You can almost hear the author's scraggly beard full of cheeto crumbs I love it

[@armandoschneider3328]

Disgusting Soyboy you are scott

[@DaudAlzayer]

"It says here..." "It says..." "It says here..."

[@theophrastusbombastus1359]

yeah, i put up with it for 40 mins then the final "it says here..." made meturn it off. Otherwise an interesting history.

[@Dummy257]

I like it.

[@ravenclawtom]

Hardcore drinking game: take a drink everytime he says it says h - *passed out*

[@dinkleberg684]

Well if you pay attention he says here

[@alaharon1233]

"We wouldn't see Dungeons & Dragons tackle evil and good until the advanced game came out..." Incorrect. Strategic Review #6 has an article from Gary Gygax about alignment that adds good and evil, and the 5/6 point system established there was put into Holmes Basic as well

[@DTavona]

1) At 56:00, you begin to talk about hobbits aka halflings and their ability to throw missiles. Tolkien in one of the appendices pf LOTR, noted that many hobbits were farmers, and as such, quickly became uncannily expert at throwing stones at animals marauding their fields. Gygax carried that into the racial profile. 2) At 1:11, you talk about the confusing text. There was a method by which you could sacrifice points in one stat to increase them in another, though it was always at an overall loss. Physical stats were exchanged at 3:1 ratio, with physical stats being strength, constitution, and dexterity. Thus, you could drop strength by 3 points to increase wisdom, intelligence, or charisma by 1 point. Conversely, the other three could be exchanged on a 2:1 ratio; a loss of 2 points to charisma would increase strength by 1 point. Again, doing this always resulted in an overall net loss to the scores, so you could only do this once or twice without severely impairing a character on a trait. I never saw the benefits of this. Before Unearthed Arcana (UA) came out, if all the rolls were awful, we allowed the player to re-roll all the stats. Very quickly,, too, we allowed them to pick the class, and to assign the numbers in whatever order they chose. When UA came out, there was a table with several options to use. Unless they chose a different method, I allowed the player to pick the class, then use best 3 out of 9 for the prime stat, 3 out of 8 for the next stat, etc., down to a straight roll of 3 for the last stat. My rationale was that adventurers were out the norm from the get-go, so they would tend to be exceptional in some way. The choice to use that dice rolling system reflected that difference from the average member of society or creature from its brethren.

[@VhaidraSaga]

Love that concept!

[@carlossifuentes2413]

The second video in the playlist is private...

[@agilemonk6305]

I would love to connect. As I played back in the original days.

[@MalkavDraconic]

THAC:0 based ptsd kicked in there for a bit. I used to play wizards. The comment: dungeons being littered with level 1 wizard corpses was very true! Back when the wizard weapon options were staff/dagger/sling.

[@Opry99er]

Subscribed.... excellent content!

[@KrisM189]

cool

[@kilgoretrout3966]

DM since 1978, if that is of any use.

[@FlyingAxblade_D20]

sorry I thought I was talking to lord of gnolls, sorry Orcus

[@mikewilliams4443]

It says where?

[@bt8593]

here

[@TheIndieOcean]

Interesting; good work!. Are you still planning to do more of these?

[@grahamcomplete3663]

Part 2 is out now!

[@DavidAllenRose]

So where is Grahm Complete these days? Did he abandoned the channel?

[@grahamcomplete3663]

kzbin.info/door/JLEVp4JWhJPzt1ct70VgGgvideos Bigger fish

[@ididthisonpulpous6526]

Listening to this from away from the computer, your accent makes you sound exactly like Danny Mcbride, imagining that made me crack up.

[@grahamcomplete3663]

I looked him up. When you're right, you're right.

[@fuzer909]

@@grahamcomplete3663 Told by many in my life that I sound like a younger Sam Elliot. I grew up out west so I see it now too.

[@worldme8153]

When will part 2 come out?😭

[@grahamcomplete3663]

Well, if this reaches 10K views, I may have to

[@SigurdKristvik]

@@grahamcomplete3663 It just did, soon passing 11K views. I'll subscribe for that video :)

[@grahamcomplete3663]

It's out now!

[@bradpotts1747]

1:07:03 the wizard gaylord-....... as soon as you read that you where like "whuuuuuuuut"

[@lcmiracle]

So I assume part 2 is on valve time?

[@grahamcomplete3663]

It’s coming. I swear.

[@grahamcomplete3663]

It's out now!

[@arphod]

Mr. Anderson....

[@thothheartmaat2833]

elves can be fighting men or magic users and switch to and fro but cant be clerics.. but doesnt that mean they SHOULD be clerics?

[@FlyingAxblade_D20]

lol i have new keyboard today. 14 year big keys. Fourteen years of big keys. _Yup, I can still miss these small keys!_ DC save 13...laughing out loud... 14 years...one handed with 1 ten key pad/ +20 years typing 2 stories every week with afull time job and playing Shadowrun nearly everynight, newkeyboard (today) is NOT _like familiar keyboard._ the keys are flat no testure...granted I was (spacebar sux like primus...but even Primus is physically better) only2 coptanksin 6years n NC. Really good for me. I have a Rottweiler ....cops are so much nicer to me now! _no kind man, I don't answer questions_ WHATCHUMEAN YOU DON ANSWER QUESTIONS? _did you hear how you just "said" that?_ his partner, older than him, younger than me. Older cop was 10 years younger than me...i'm 50 doing no harm///older cop 36 to 41, younger cop on the get go,,,27 maybe? lol, me, rottweiler... lol! it's okay to laugh...the older guy could see I'm strapping like sailor...he just stood off, ready to go. Goodarmyboi. I took him to my church across the street...he didn't take notes, no questions...so i volunteerd who I am & why 'm a trustee at that church & frustrated deacon. in maybe 20 seconds. _dyu know why a deacon rates the title of "Frust" not Faust, because we read Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis_ I hope that hit him hard.

[@TheGoraesh]

Where part 2 go?

[@grahamcomplete3663]

It’s coming soon. I swear.0”

[@grahamcomplete3663]

Its out now!

[@TheGoraesh]

Hell yeah ! Thanks man ! This is such a good documentary.

[@Shakkarz]

As little kids living in Boston Massachusetts my older brother and I playing Dungeons and Dragons 80s he was much more into it the game

[@thomasking4031]

It says here

[@azmendozafamily]

That's $62 in 2022

[@markcorrigan3930]

9:36

[@briankeys5941]

it says here... u no dat nigga gots hi, right

[@democracymmmk]

It says here this reminds me of biblestudy.

[@apokolips71]

10cc

[@rexmundi3108]

0:24 That's not Gothic text. This bodes ill.