1974 review of D&D

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Sat Feb 22, 2003 7:47 am

This has made the rounds of tons of sites already [Wil Wheaton - yeah, that one - submitted it to Slashdot ;-)] but it's still relatively interesting. It's a 1974 review of Dungeons and Dragons.

One thing never changes: gamers always bitch about the price of books. ;-)

MooCow · Post by **MooCow** » Sat Feb 22, 2003 2:53 pm

That is indeed interesting. It's probably a good thing that apparently no one put too much stock in it.

Lord Death Hand · Post by **Lord Death Hand** » Sat Feb 22, 2003 3:40 pm

I'm assuming this is for D&D 1st ed. (Talk of pamphlets made me think this). How many years after 1st ed. did 2nd ed. come out? I mean if it was't long after this article maybe the developers did put some stock into these guys opinions.

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Sat Feb 22, 2003 6:29 pm

From Wikipedia:

D&D has gone through several revisions. The first edition featured just a few character classes and monsters. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) was published between 1977 and 1979, and greatly expanded the character classes, monsters and spells. In 1980, Dungeons & Dragons was republished as a simplified version of the game. During the late 1980s, AD&D Second Edition was published, which revised the rules again, consolidating the character classes, and revising the combat system somewhat.

Szechuan · Post by **Szechuan** » Sat Feb 22, 2003 8:55 pm

Nice to know where we come from, Adam. Kudos.

Jackal · Post by **Jackal** » Sun Feb 23, 2003 2:48 pm

So this is how "wargammers" see us "roleplayers".

MooCow · Post by **MooCow** » Sun Feb 23, 2003 3:15 pm

So this is how "wargammers" see us "roleplayers".

Well..... In 1974.

Quick historical fact for those who never thought about it before.... the point systems, grid systems, etc that minitures games use were originially developed by the US Military War College.

I remember the first time I played Battletech, and my dad says "Yeah, I remember using that system in 1964".

Jackal · Post by **Jackal** » Sun Feb 23, 2003 7:05 pm

They had battlemechs in 1964? Damn, the govenment is better at keeping secrets than I thought.

FlakJacket · Post by **FlakJacket** » Sun Feb 23, 2003 8:21 pm

Well they had what, 17 years or so since the Roswell crash to figure out and start reverse engineering that alien tech.