by Gary Gygax, Arneson
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Classic & Still Playable, 2006-07-10
The 1981 basic boxset is a revision of the 1977 set and conforms to the general layout of that former work. At this point D&D officially became a separate game from AD&D. So, what do get with this revision? First, you get a streamlined, stripped-down D&D free of overly complex rules in an easy-to-understand format. Thus, characters have only minimal class choices with demi-humans being their own class; deities are not even mentioned at all; spell and weapon choices are uncomplicated, as are monster listings and combat rules. This edition (essentially the 2nd edition) is more concise in language than its predecessors. The basic set covers the early careers of player characters, i.e. levels 1 though 3.
Even more than the 1977 edition, this basic D&D set offers up a no-frills, uncomplicated method of fantasy role-playing. It beckons one to grab dice, pen and paper, and trudge off to moldy dungeons just waiting to be explored and sacked.
Contents: A rule 64-page book, B2 "Keep on the Borderlands" module, a red crayon, and six dice.
(Note: There are three versions of the basic D&D rulebook. The first came out in 1977 by Gary Gygax and has a white & blue drawing of a dragon on the book cover. The second is a revision of this book that came out in 1981. It was edited by Tom Moldvay and has an Erol Otus painting on the cover of two adventurers fighting a dragon in a water-filled dungeon. The final version came out in 1983 and was edited by Frank Mentzer. It has a red cover with a Larry Elmore painting of a female adventurer fighting a dragon. Some listing of these books on Amazon are confusing with unclear information on which edition the book is.)
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
The Best Introduction to the Hobby, 2005-02-02
This D&D Basic Set, edited by Tom Moldvay, is the best introduction to the hobby of roleplaying games.
Firmly founded on the original roleplaying game, Gygax & Arneson's D&D, new players are introduced both to the specific D&D rules and the hobby in general in a very clear, yet not condescending manner.
The early Basic Set (edited by Holmes), while also a fine game, strays further from the original D&D rules, & hasn't yet achieved the clarity that this set will achieve.
The later Basic Set (edited by Mentzer) tries to make the game even more accessible. Anyone who is interested enough to be able to learn the game solely from a book, however, won't need the extra hand-holding that the later set provides. Plus, the extra hand-holding makes the later (Mentzer) Basic Set less useful as a reference than this (Moldvay) Basic Set.
Despite the many games that have since been intended as introductions to the hobby, I haven't found another I would choose to give to a novice as their first game.
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