I'm too young to really grasp the differences in early editions of D&D, but I got a questions about one of the later versions.



This box was the last D&D-product translated into Danish, sometime in the early 90s (the box says copyright 1991 & 1992) but I can't really place it on the big map of D&D editions. For example I can't spot it on the wiki about editions.

Can anyone tell the story behind this rather boardgame-looking version and its place in D&D history?

As I recall, this was put out as the introductory boxed set for the Rules Cyclopedia, which itself was a compilation of the Basic, Expert, Companion, and Master rules of the earlier BECMI iteration of Basic D&D.

As for why, that's a bit more complicated. I think the belief was that such introductory boxed sets help bring new players into the game, which I think is probably true. Problems arise when such sets are "crippleware" unfortunately, by doing things like only providing a very small segment of play, or being completely superseded by a later product. This boxed set suffered from both of those, if memory serves.

Yep. It was later cut down to the "Classic D&D" boxed set and finally discontinued in the mid-nineties.

Quote from: Bobloblah;656672As I recall, this was put out as the introductory boxed set for the Rules Cyclopedia

That's fairly accurate. I still have mine somewhere, and from what I remember it had pre-made character folios with almost no information on how to generate new characters. "Boardgame-looking" is again accurate, because of all the included components: slick maps, paper figures, etc. The 4.0 red box Wizards released last year shares a lot in common with this boxed set with regards to presentation.

I got my start with this beauty. It was the big gateway drug for Brazilian kids who could read English; the others got the peculiar but very serviceable Portuguese (non-local, imported from Portugal) translation of the good old Red Box.

Came with a big, beautiful dungeon map and fold-up cardboard minis. And of course, dice.

You were supposed to play through the dungeon solo (or rather along with Axel, an insufferable douchebag of a Chaotic Fighter NPC who tagged along as you tried to escape the dungeon) as you read the rules. And once you'd mastered them, you were to run it to a bunch of friends. Which of course I did.

Rules-wise it was Mentzer Basic/Expert capped at level 5. There were no pregenerated characters and you were supposed to roll your own, even for the didactic solo play.

Quote from: The Butcher;656682Rules-wise it was Mentzer Basic/Expert capped at level 5. There were no pregenerated characters and you were supposed to roll your own, even for the didactic solo play.

Ahhh, okay. I am confusing the set with this one:

Can't see the picture.

Quote from: Bobloblah;656685Can't see the picture.

Acaeum apparently doesn't like it when you hotlink pics from its site.

Quote from: Benoist;656688Acaeum apparently doesn't like it when you hotlink pics from its site.

Tumblr don't care...

Quote from: Brad;656684Ahhh, okay. I am confusing the set with this one:

That one is also up to level 5 with char-gen.

You might be thinking the much later "Dungeons and Dragons Adventure game" which game with character folios for levels 1 & 2. But it was more 2e lite than Basic D&D.

I remember being annoyed by the stupid rule cards and wondering why it constantly mentioned the rules cyclopedia that i had to also buy instead of just getting on with telling me the rules(i was an early-mid teen then so patience wasnt exactly my strong suit) coming from heroquest this was a whole different ballgame but worth the effort to learn in the end even if i eventually said fuck it and picked up the 2nd edition books instead.

They released a series of boxsets that each had a dungeon campaign inside as well if i remember correctly, i had one with tiamat's head on the cover that i really wanted to run but never got around to as my group of friends liked heroquest more.