Time period between PHB&DMG. How did you cope?

[Deleted]

How did you run your game between the release of the PHB in 78 and the DMG in 79?

[drskull]

I had been using Holmes Basic for everything, and when I got the PHB, Holmes was still my DMG and MM for quite a spell.

I think we had 10th level AD&D characters using the Holmes 1st level attack tables to figure hits. (I think we were even using the "Normal Man" attack line, instead of the 1-3rd level character line. Stupid kids).

Actually, it was quite awhile until I got the MM. I used the stats in the back of the DMG for monsters for a good while too.

[ffilz]

I got the PHB for Christmas of '78. The AD&D combat tables were published in Dragon #22 (Feb '79, probably purchased Jan or Feb). I started running AD&D sometime in the spring of '79. I used Greyhawk & Monsters & Treasure for magic items, the AD&D tables for combat.

White Dwarf 13 also has the combat tables, they are the best page format for the tables between all three sources. But that was June/July '79.

I do remember one warm summer afternoon at MIT running my game while some others were browsing a preview copy of the DMG. We had some question and quickly looked it up in the DMG, pretty much making me the first GM at MIT to use the DMG...

I got my DMG late in August when it first came out. I was all excited because I got it before my friend Peter who was in Europe. Except he got his about the same time. See, World Con that year was in Birghton England. His family made a 1 day visit to World Con as part of their Europe vacation. And he got his copy of the DMG there!

Frank

[crimhthanthegreat]

I'm not sure I understand the question, I mean I just kept playing OD&D the same as I did before.

Oh! Oh, wait you mean for AD&D. ;D But to answer you question, while I bought the Monster Manual as soon as it came out and used it in my OD&D game, I did not buy the DMG & PHB until they were both out and then we tried AD&D and have played it a few times a year ever since.

[robertsconley]

Played wargames until the DMG came out. We played a little Holmes but many of us didn't understand that there was a 1974 edition of the rules. Not like the Holmes rules made that clear it was AD&D this and AD&D that.

We figured that the Holmes was some kind of preview or intro version while they got the main rules done.

In the fall of 78 I remember getting the PHB, splitting the cost with a friend. I took it home first and remember calling him. "John it doesn't have combat rules or charts! It is useless until this Dungeon Master Guide comes out."

I didn't even have Dragon #22 as I didn't see the Dragon until issue #38.

While I say we were pretty hard core gamers we were also wargamers as well and without the CRT there isn't much of a game.

I suppose in the interrim I got my own PHB and the Monster Manual. Finally in late spring or early summer of 79 I remember stopping by and plunking my $25 (a princely sum for a book) and getting the DMG.

[ffilz]

Unless you found a strange cache, you must not have got your DMG until late summer, it was released at Gen Con and didn't make it to stores for another few weeks.

Frank

[joethulhu]

$25 seems awfully high. I think I paid $15 for my DMG at Sears.

[Stonegiant]

Since I didn't start gaming until 81 I bought 1 book a month during the summer :-)

[philotomy]

I remember having the MM and waiting to get the DMG (actually, waiting for my parents to buy it for me -- I was in elementary school), but I don't remember when I got the PH; I think I got it around the same time as the MM. And the dates are confusing me. I started with the Holmes sets with chits, and I thought it was in 78, but according to the Acaeum, it was probably 79.

Anyway, I used the Holmes set for tables. I must've acquired the DMG pretty quickly, because I don't remember a gap or a problem with running of the level charts.

[ffilz]

It sure is hard remembering all the details. What I know for myself:

- I got my PHB for Christmas 1978
- One guy at MIT got a preview copy of the DMG before general release, while a bunch of folks were perusing it, I was running my AD&D game, and ended up having them look up a ruling for me.
- I got the DMG in summer of 1979 when it first arrived in stores
- I started running AD&D before I got the DMG
- The AD&D play immediately preceding my first convention game included decks of many things and lots of wish abuse (wishing for more decks of many things, wishing bad effects of the deck to go away, etc.)
- I now own OCE 6th printing of OD&D plus supplements I-IV

I must have been using Greyhawk for treasure and experience when I started the AD&D campaign, but I may have been working from a photocopy of the rules, or perhaps I owned Greyhawk but not OD&D yet.

I know I was excited when we got the preview of the combat tables in the Dragon. I don't know if we got that Dragon immediately or waited a month or two (probably got it immediately). I may have used OD&D (or JG DM shield or JG Ready Ref Sheets for combat tables).

Starting after Christmas 1977, I ran a lot of Chivalry and Sorcery before starting AD&D. My friend who got us started with Holmes Basic D&D in fall of 1977 did get an OD&D boxed set and supplements before I did. I'm pretty sure I photocopied some of it, but my gut feel is that mostly I ran C&S (and also some Metamorphosis Alpha) before starting AD&D.

I've tried to figure out if the first MIT game con I attended was a Wintercon or Summercon, but I haven't found dates or other information for 1979 (I have seen some ads for it for other years). I remember it being warm, so it must have been Summercon, if it was in June or early July, things would make sense.

Frank

[robertsconley]

Aug 2, 2008 22:43:01 GMT -6 ffilz said:

Unless you found a strange cache, you must not have got your DMG until late summer, it was released at Gen Con and didn't make it to stores for another few weeks.

Frank

Getting fuzzy about the exact sequence. I remember the leaves were on the trees, it was summer light, so it may been early september or late august.

Looking over Acaeum I would say my timeline was something like this

summer 1977 watched Star Wars wow.

fall 1977 started wargaming in 6th grade.

1978 started Boy Scouts (great troop, stuck with it, didn't make Eagle tho :-()
summer 1978 teased about D&D. (Wierd yeah but I actually got teased out NOT knowing what D&D was).

summer 1978 got the Holme edition and play it with my wargaming buddy.

fall 1978 entered 7th Grade Junior High.

Nov 1978 got the Players Handbook with my birthday money (actually paid for half of it, my wargame buddy the other half). Find out that there are no combat charts :-(

winter 78-79 play D&D at Boy Scout for the first time. Winter camping in a cabin. Read the Monster Manual for the first time.

summer 79 mostly wargaming, met a lot of the people I gamed with through high school around this time.

fall 79 8th grade and the DMG Guide kicks things off. Pretty much running D&D after this as my primary tabletop/wargame

Christmas 1979 The first and only time I ever got D&D presents. T1 Village of Hommlet and G1 to G3. Hommlett was like a revelation.

Spring 1980, get my "bank" from my grand parents house. A $150 worth of change funds my D&D addiction for the next two years.

Summer 1980 City-State of the Invincible Over seals the deal as far my interest in running city-wilderness adventures over dungeons.

Somewhere I got Traveller that was several shades of awesome. It was my first non-D&D RPG.

[RandallS]

I just added material I liked from the AD&D books to my OD&D campaign as the AD&D books came out. Most of the Monster Manual got used. Much less of the PHB was used when it came out a year later. The DMG was a great idea sourcebook, but never really affected my campaign that much. At the time, however, we all thought we were converting the game to AD&D. In hindsight, we were not, we were just adding what we liked from the AD&D books to our house rules for OD&D and calling the result "playing AD&D."

[Finarvyn]

Didn't think much about it, actually. We just slowly added stuff from the AD&D books as they came out. Remember that in our OD&D games we were used to making rules up on the fly, so having things trickle into our campaign really didn't distress anyone that I can recall.