Quote from: Hastur T. FannonOne that hasn't been mentioned yet

Judge Dredd: the Roleplaying Game

Player's book, GMs book, maps and cardstock counters.  Lots of fond memories, particularly as Games Workshop published loads of fantastic adventures in White Dwarf

Incidentally, was it the earliest known sighting of the snacky special ability mechanic that became known as "Feats"?

Yes, this was the first boxed set I thought of too. I still have 2 copies of it, and also the later single hardback book with all the contents of the boxed set.

If Encounter Critical 2nd Edition came in a box, it'd be my favorite boxed set of all time, even the time that is yet to come, when we have personal helicopters and robot secretaries.

Quote from: The Evil DMyup it sure did.
spicey stories were a whole sub-genre of Pulp fiction. harmless by todays standards -divorcees, fallen women, native girls, young co-eds. and always some sort of peril. murder, white slavery, abduction, a little mild bondage and torture thrown in. Remember these pulps were marketed to working class guys during the great depression- what better escape than to read about exotic south seas islands where the native girls run around topless, waiting for the brave American adventurer to save them from a man-eating tiger.

Indeed; Justice Inc was a great game and the Lands of Adventure/Lost World of Zorandar supplement by Aaron Allston included at least several of those features. Except the man-eating tiger were velociraptors...

Quote from: Casey777Call of Cthulhu 3rd Edition for sheer playability along with cool fluff (the 1920's sourcebook and the map).

I think you mean 1st/2nd edition (and they were very good). 3rd edition was the hardback book, iirc.

Quote from: CalithenaHolmes Basic.

For D&D Basic and the Keep on the Borderlands? There wasn't even dice...

Quote from: droogHmm...well, the boxed set I got the most use out of would be the RQ3 deluxe edition (which I got for half-price in 1983). I do like the Pendragon 1st ed. box, for the same reason as Pierce. And Traveller was definitely a classic. But my favourite would probably be the first edition of Trollpak.

RuneQuest Deluxe was really great, but incredibly expensive when it came out. Trollpak was a brilliant boxed set, no doubt about it (heck it took AH four supplements to redo it, right?).

Thieves World was extremely good and probably a nice big hint for people to try out different game systems. Pavis and Big Rubble were both great boxed sets and I've heard very good things about Borderlands as well.

Traveller Deluxe/Classic of course had hours and hours of roleplaying fun. Planescape is pretty evocative and with a fair bit of material. Forgotten Realms, bless its socks, was actually quite a solid bit of work as was the first version of Ravenloft. Adventures on Tekumel by TOME was pretty hefty as well...

Oh, and a quick vote for "bang for the buck" comes with those flimsy little booklets in a Heritage box that contained the Swordbearer roleplaying game....

Ultimately, it's a hard choice between Planescape, Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest (deluxe) for me.

Quote from: lev_lafayetteFor D&D Basic and the Keep on the Borderlands? There wasn't even dice...

My version (the first edition, and the best Christmas ever) came with the Holmes edit Basic rulebook (which included the Tower of Zenopus, a wonderful dungeon), dice (the five-die classic TSR set including the yellow caltrop d4 and the white d20 we painted half the numbers on), dungeon geomorphs, and a monster and treasure assortment.

There were later editions that had B1 or B2 and chits instead - the chits went in because of a dice shortage and the dice came back later - but those aren't the ones that made me so happy.

Quote from: CalithenaMy version (the first edition, and the best Christmas ever) came with the Holmes edit Basic rulebook (which included the Tower of Zenopus, a wonderful dungeon), dice (the five-die classic TSR set including the yellow caltrop d4 and the white d20 we painted half the numbers on), dungeon geomorphs, and a monster and treasure assortment.

Ahh, fair enough. That is a much heftier pack... Geomorphs and M&T? Wow, that'd be almost like having the source code for an Apple II dungeon game

QuoteThere were later editions that had B1 or B2 and chits instead - the chits went in because of a dice shortage and the dice came back later - but those aren't the ones that made me so happy.

*nods*. Thanks for the clarification..

Tough call.

It's between Masks of Nyarlthotep 1st and Parlainth for Earthdawn.

 - Ian

Lev,

If you're interested in the publishing history of D&D, which I assume you are given your spate of recent reviews on Big Purple, I really recommend

//www.acaeum.com

There's no better source.

Also, do you have an email where you can take massive files? I have an OCR of a really interesting old article with Stafford, Gygax, and Hargrave which I think you'd enjoy reading. It dates from just before you and is kind of a good bridge between my era and yours.