Recently, I came into possession of the 1991 D&D boxed set: this was in a double-sized longbox, like a boardgame, but it contained the normal rulebook, a system of DM reference cards, a DM screen, and a poster-sized map.

My son had a friend over this weekend and they wanted to try it out so I downloaded Palace of the Silver Princess from RPGNow and we went for it.

Here's what I learned:

1) Making characters was really quick. Even equipping them was quick, because there are so few choices.

2) A player can control more than one PC per player fairly easily. We didn't emphasize roleplaying that much, but my son and his friend did it naturally anyway- little things like 'pretend arguing' over treasure or whatever. They each made a few characters, and played 2 each. Looking back at the Ron Edwards attempt to play D&D 3 I can see where he would get the idea that its a good idea to have players control more than one character. It was totally valid in 1991.  

3) We made straight by-the-rules characters: 3d6 in order.  These were brutal! Many characters ended up with 7's and 8's. But we also had one guy with a 17 Intelligence, and a couple of guys with 15's and 16's in strength. It was kinda fun rolling stats first and then seeing what they would best be suited as.

4) The elf is ridiculously overpowered (he gets armor, hitpoints, special abilities, and spells). His only penalty is it takes him longer to level: 4000 Xp to go to 2nd level. They made one elf each, and one 'other'. My son replaced his magic user with a fighter fairly soon, though.

5) hit points were beyond nerfed: fighters get 1d8. Thieves get 1d4. clerics get 1d6, and no spells until 2nd level... It became necessary to house rule death in order to avoid having to continually make up new characters. So we decided that 'losing all hit points now counts as either dead or unconscious (players choice).' And we further ruled that 8 hours of rest heals you up one full hit dice.

6) Gold is XP, as per the rules. This turned out to be neccesary! Because you fight say.. skeletons. Worth 15 xp each.  If gold doesn't count towards XP, you will need to fight 133 skeleons each for an average party member to level up. And elves will need to fight around 233 skeletons. That just seems wrong. So gold=XP.

7) The basic rulebook emphasizes on interesting point: "actions that take place outside of the dungeon are not covered in these rules." Players were expected to use towns to heal up and re-equip but not to be bound by the rules so much when doing so. Wilderness encounters and such came in later, I guess.

Despite the fact that it's kinda perilous, we really liked it for it's simplicity and emphasis on action.  

9) the battlemap was not necessary, although the rules are there. We started out using it, and eventually dropped it. There's not much of an advanatge to using a battlemap over simply describing the action. My son and his friend tried a few things like- when they opened a door to a room full of zombies they waited outside the door to have all four of their characters engage one at a time. Or once when they fought a giant rat, they ran outside, waited for the rat to follow and then tried to squish the rat with the door.  

After playing this, and after a very cool encounter with the bard in the Palace of the Silver Princess, I ebayed a copy of the Cyclopedia for $40. Then , less than an hour later, I found the pdf of the cyclopedia for $5.95. It's worth a download!

links:
D&D Rules Cyclopedia for like $5.95 on pdf

Please  be smart and shop from Paizo-mart:

4$ http://paizo.com/store/downloads/wizardsOfTheCoast/classicDAndD/rulebooks/v5748btpy7mvs

Quote from: SettembriniPlease  be smart and shop from Paizo-mart:

4$ http://paizo.com/store/downloads/wizardsOfTheCoast/classicDAndD/rulebooks/v5748btpy7mvs

Thank you! Even better than my link. That rules.

Good clean fun!  

However, I'm not familiar with the box set you describe.  What levels did it cover?  I assume that it was meant to be a lead-in to the RC.

Quote from: AkrasiaGood clean fun!  

However, I'm not familiar with the box set you describe.  What levels did it cover?  I assume that it was meant to be a lead-in to the RC.

It only covered levels 1-5, but it seemed very focused on beginners. I think this was called the "big black box" version.

RPGnet review here--> http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_1491.html

It had a flyer for the Rules Cyclopedia "Coming Soon!" inside. So I guess it predates it by only a little.

I have a suspicion that we tend to view our retro-gaming experiences with rose-colored glasses. That being said, I tend to enjoy the simplicity as a respite from some of the Forge-type productions that are so popular now.

Quote from: mattormegI have a suspicion that we tend to view our retro-gaming experiences with rose-colored glasses.

Exactly. It was eye-opening remembering how we used to do stuff. It certainly wasn't perfect, and I think a lot of criticisms that get tossed around were valid in some ways. But a lot of it is way off base:

Here's something, though:

Okay, we're playing Palace of the Silver Princess. Written in 1981. Two 9 year old kids (each playing 2 characters, so a party of 4). I'm the GM.

There are no rules for roleplaying but theyre doing it anyway, but it's not all intense or anything. Then, they encounter 'Rowena' this ghostly bard who, deep in the dungeon appears in her former chamber as the players are exploring it. She explains that they have to take her crystal harp and play a sequence of notes to shatter the Eye of Arik, and lift the curse that traps the palace. The players immediately started asking her questions in character.

This turned out to be a great roleplaying scene, as good as any I've been in. And even though we had to end the game soon after that, I think they both really got into it.

I played the '91 boxed set not too long after it came out.  We were all players of varying degrees of grizzledness and had an absolute blast.

Quote from: Abyssal MawThis turned out to be a great roleplaying scene, as good as any I've been in. And even though we had to end the game soon after that, I think they both really got into it.

Seeing or hearing about new players  having fun always rocks, for a few sessions my DM let his son play with us and it was cool. His son is no longer allowed such due to behavior problems unfortunantly, but will be back to it in time I am sure. (and when it was my turn to dm I let him run the goblins when I had a pile of them going after the party. he had fun, but was disapointed when his goblins were slain.)

Man, that big black box was the first RPG I ever played!  It was a situation just like you describe: parent as DM, kids all running PCs.  Some of the most (and least, in that good way) fun I've ever had around a table.

Very cool, AM.

Good Job helping to bring new blood into the hobby, Abyssal Maw.  I love hearing stories such as this.

Quote from: joewolzGood Job helping to bring new blood into the hobby, Abyssal Maw.  I love hearing stories such as this.

Got to agree. It's a cool story AM, especially that bit about the ghostly bard and how she inspired the youngsters to start playing in character. It's nice to be reminded that it doesn't matter how old something is, if it's new to you, then it'll be exciting. Cheers.

Keep in mind that for some of us this isn't "retro", both in the sense that we lived through it the first time around (those were the good old days), and in the sense that we still play with the RC D&D rules regularly and not for retro kitsch value (earlier this year I finished a two-year campaign with my players having started out level 1 and ending up as Immortals).

RPGPundit

I find that when I'm drawn to "retro" games, I'm enticed not by their 'kitsch' value but by the freshness of their feel.  When D&D was new, gaming was new; it was fresh, exploratory, simple.  Anything goes. Figure it out as we go along.

A lot of those older games are so very open, so very inviting.  I'm drawn to their  "We're All New At This" attitude.  I loves me some HERO, boy, but now and then I just wanna grab a little notecard, write down "Detached Scout, 9AB765, 3 Terms, Pilot-3, Rifle-2", and away we go.

OMG Traveller Reference!