|
|
Post by Paladin on Jan 27, 2021 8:57:59 GMT -6
Still got this one. I went to look at the box and found notes from a game I DM'd at 15 still tucked inside. I use the term "DM'd" loosely. Lol!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2021 7:49:40 GMT -6
New thread, now merged into the previous one:There might have been a thread about this a while back, or maybe I'm remembering a thread on Dragonsfoot. Back then it was free, but it's back up to around the ten dollar mark now. I nabbed it when it was being discussed before and didn't cost anything. This product is fascinating to me. I've read through it a few times and I'm pretty sure I love everything about it. It's like a perfect starter set and a perfect blend of old and new school D&D, rules-wise. You can tell this was around the time of the WOTC acquisition of the brand and the slow transition to the d20 system, notably in how the Thief's skills are handled. Interestingly, it's marketed as a D&D game and not an AD&D game. IMO further evidence that this was testing the waters for doing away with the two-pronged approach. However, it feels delightfully old school to me, and the art especially is very evocative and classic. Very stylistic black and white line work through most of the pdf, but gorgeous color portraits of the available heroes (including such AD&D-isms as a Halfling Thief which would have never appeared in the BECMI line) One thing I didn't see discussed last time this was brought up is that the way Saves work here is almost identical to the way they work in Swords & Wizardy. Makes me wonder if Finch wasn't inspired by this, even subconsciously. Maybe he played it once and had it in the back of his mind, or just heard about it? Essentially, each character has a single Save value, which the player adds situational modifiers to. There's a really good village map and adventure. Sort of a mini-dungeon and sand box scenario. The PDF format works really well for this because each individual player has his or her own little mini-booklet as a handout. I wonder if these weren't detachable from the main book in 1999? I wasn't actively playing D&D during the time this came out. I was in my LOTR and Warhammer miniatures phase. The newest D&D set I'd used was the black box and this was a little different. Come to think of it, this is more similar to OD&D with supplements than anything, but with sort of a 2e era style. The layout and presentation are fantastic. It's better than a lot of the "OSR" stuff coming out now. I think it's a shame people slept on this one so long. I think I'd really like to run it sometime. I think it'd work best as a "real space" game with printed out player info on glossed card stock. The little adventure zone and town zone the game comes with would be perfect for a lengthy one shot or micro-campaign. This was clearly meant to be a Mentzer style starter set that leads into a more fleshed out game, except that game apparently doesn't exist and WOTC went a different direction with the game. Makes you wonder what might have been. If there'd been a level 1-20 version of something like this, the game would have developed very differently and would have hewed closer to the original feel. Maybe the schism in the D&D fandom would have been smaller or non-existent. Makes you wonder.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2021 8:00:32 GMT -6
Found a video interview with Bill Slavicsek. Just started watching it. I'm interested in learning more about this guy and other projects he was involved in. Seems like a gap in my knowledge of D&D history.
|
|
|
|
Post by jeffb on Mar 6, 2021 9:20:44 GMT -6
Yep we had a thread on it recently. I agree with your assessment- might do a search for some additional insight. I think tdenmark may have started that thread- unsure. Slav is largely responsible for the amazing Star Wars RPG line from WEG and has a very large part in Star Wars lore and "canon" post Original Trilogy. When WEG folded he ended up at WOTC. I'm sure he had quite a bit of pull because of this when WOTC was trying to get the SW license for D20. He was head of the RPG division for many years at WOTC, and unfortunately got the axe for 4E's commercial failure. |
|
|
|
Post by Zenopus on Mar 6, 2021 10:49:35 GMT -6
I've merged @ampleframework's new thread into the previous one, and moved both threads into the "AD&D/2E" subforum, because it's pretty clear this was intended as an intro to those rules; see asaki's post earlier in the thread: ...and most importantly, the ad on the very last page: "Now that you've been introduced to the exciting world of roleplaying with the Dungeons & Dragons box set, plunge into the endless depths of the D&D game with the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master Guide. These two manuals will guide you further into the realm where the only limit is your imagination." -- and it's pictures of the "2.5" Edition books  |
|
|
|
Post by Zenopus on Mar 6, 2021 10:51:53 GMT -6
This was clearly meant to be a Mentzer style starter set that leads into a more fleshed out game, except that game apparently doesn't exist and WOTC went a different direction with the game. Makes you wonder what might have been. If there'd been a level 1-20 version of something like this, the game would have developed very differently and would have hewed closer to the original feel. Maybe the schism in the D&D fandom would have been smaller or non-existent. Makes you wonder. In some ways the "D&D Adventure Game" is like the Holmes Basic set, in that it points the reader to a full rule set (AD&D 2E) that doesn't fully mesh with the basic system. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2021 11:56:31 GMT -6
This was clearly meant to be a Mentzer style starter set that leads into a more fleshed out game, except that game apparently doesn't exist and WOTC went a different direction with the game. Makes you wonder what might have been. If there'd been a level 1-20 version of something like this, the game would have developed very differently and would have hewed closer to the original feel. Maybe the schism in the D&D fandom would have been smaller or non-existent. Makes you wonder. In some ways the "D&D Adventure Game" is like the Holmes Basic set, in that it points the reader to a full rule set (AD&D 2E) that doesn't fully mesh with the basic system. Odd how history repeats itself. I agree that AD&D doesn't seem any more a logical extension of this game than it is for the Holmes starter rules. Both seem to suggest some OD&D style continuation instead. Not exactly that either but closer in tone, yet distinct. Also, I knew I recognized the man's name. I literally just read the WEG sourcebook and I play ESO sometimes. Odd connection with ESO... Bill took his job with Zenimax after their previous lead story writer retired. Lawrence Schick. |
|
|
|
Post by Desparil on Mar 10, 2021 23:48:01 GMT -6
This was clearly meant to be a Mentzer style starter set that leads into a more fleshed out game, except that game apparently doesn't exist and WOTC went a different direction with the game. Makes you wonder what might have been. If there'd been a level 1-20 version of something like this, the game would have developed very differently and would have hewed closer to the original feel. Maybe the schism in the D&D fandom would have been smaller or non-existent. Makes you wonder. In some ways the "D&D Adventure Game" is like the Holmes Basic set, in that it points the reader to a full rule set (AD&D 2E) that doesn't fully mesh with the basic system. As someone who played 2E for a long time, I would say that the D&D Adventure Game meshes very closely with AD&D. Most of the differences are just "pulling back the curtain," with the AD&D manuals providing actual tables that show where certain values came from - modifiers and target numbers and such that the boxed set simply gave from on high with no context. |
|
|
|
Post by asaki on Mar 11, 2022 0:18:19 GMT -6
I've never looked through this one before, but I have owned a few of the associated Fast-Play Adventures from the same year (1999) such as Wrath of the Minotaur and Eye of the Wyvern. These feature even simpler rules and all advertise the Adventure Game for further play.
I saw the ad for the Adventure Game in the back of it, and wondered if it was the same game I thought it was.
Really weird to see a starter set for a starter set =)
Kind of interesting, using 3d6 instead of a d20. Makes sense for an introductory game.
Having the "paper" background throughout definitely makes it look a lot more like a WotC product than TSR.
Were these available in print, or were they always PDFs?
Edit: Looking at Caves of Shadow, which was supposed to be a sort of 3E intro, these are both very similar.
|
|
|
|
Post by jeffb on Mar 11, 2022 7:12:13 GMT -6
asaki The Fastplay adventures from the late 2E era were available in print. They were fairly thin paper covers like a magazine and usually with the Dragon/Dungeon magazines in bookstores and thus tended to already be a little beat up, corners folded, etc whenever I saw them. Or in the game stores they were sandwiched in between hardcovers and normal (heavier paper) softcover TSR products so they got all dinged and beat up there as people took them out and put them back. This was during my collecting days, thus why I remember this (not terribly useful) tidbit of data But I'm guessing this was the marketing angle- get it on shelves with magazines, people pick it up..."what's this?" It's inexpensive, they buy it, play it, then off to the reasonably priced starter set instead of the full brunt of 3 massive hardcovers that was AD&D. There was no Basic/Expert or similar at this time period.
|
|
