Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set

• 1. The 1977 Holmes Entry

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  In 1977, TSR hired outside writer John Eric Holmes to produce the Basic Set as an introductory version of the D&D game. This rulebook was intended for characters of levels one through three and explained concepts in terms accessible to new players ages twelve and older. The original boxed set featured artwork by David C. Sutherland III and included polyhedral dice plus supplemental materials like geomorphs and monster lists. A period in 1979 saw a dice shortage that forced TSR to include two sheets of numbered cutout cardstock chits instead of actual dice. These chits functioned in lieu of dice along with a coupon for ordering dice from TSR directly. The rulebook also contained a brief sample dungeon with a full-page map inside the package.

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• 2. Royalties And Module Swaps

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  Jon Peterson highlighted that Dave Arneson sued TSR over Basic Set royalties in 1977 because he received payments only for the rulebook portion. Arneson was not paid for the cover price of the whole Basic Set which included other components. As his lawsuit loomed, TSR made a pointed substitution to the contents of the Basic Set by rotating out Dungeon Geomorphs booklets. They replaced those booklets with Mike Carr's In Search of the Unknown module which became a good idea to target beginning dungeon masters. Previously when Arneson sought a 5% royalty on the whole contents he effectively asked for money going into Gygax's pocket. Now he would instead be asking for money earmarked for his friend Mike Carr who received royalties for the module sold alone or included in the set. After the September 1979 disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III sales rose dramatically from 5,000 copies per month to over 30,000 copies per month by year end.

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• 3. The Moldvay Redesign

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  After the release of the AD&D game the Basic Set saw a major revision in 1981 edited by Tom Moldvay. The revised version included a larger sixty-four page rule book with a red border and color cover by Erol Otus. This edition also contained the adventure B2 The Keep on the Borderlands plus six polyhedral dice and a marking crayon. The book came drilled with holes so that it could be used in a three-ringed binder while off-white dice arrived in heat-sealed bags with wax crayons for coloring numbers. With this revision distinct rulesets for higher character levels were introduced as expansions to the basic game. Immediately following the Moldvay version was an Expert Set edited by Dave Cook with Steve Marsh supporting levels four through fourteen. Peterson noted that because Keep on the Borderlands shipped with the Moldvay Basic Set at the height of the D&D boom in 1981 it became one of the most widely known modules selling 750,000 copies a year.

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• 4. Mentzer Color Coding System

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  In 1983 Frank Mentzer revised the Basic Set again and redubbed it Dungeons & Dragons Set 1: Basic Rules. The set included a sixty-four page Players Manual and a forty-eight page Dungeon Masters Rulebook alongside six dice and sometimes a crayon if unpainted. Between 1983 and 1986 the system expanded into five boxed sets including Basic Rules with red covers and Expert Rules with blue covers. A Companion Rules set followed with teal covers supporting levels fifteen through twenty-five while Master Rules had black covers for levels twenty-six through thirty-six. Immortals Rules completed the series with gold covers for characters who transcended standard levels. Instead of an adventure module these rulebooks included a solo adventure and introductory scenario run by the Dungeon Master. The presentation overhauled into tutorial form to make the game easier for younger players to learn compared to previous iterations.

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• 5. Black Box And Card Learning

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  TSR released a new version labeled The New Easy-to-Master Dungeons & Dragons Game in 1991 nicknamed the black box. This version was principally designed by Troy Denning and made few changes to the core game mechanics. It supported characters up to fifth level instead of the third-level limit found in prior versions. The rules appeared twice once in a 64-page rule book and again in the Dungeon Card Learning Pack containing 48 cards. Each card front featured discussion of a single facet like non-player characters or initiative rolls while the back described brief scenarios illustrating those rules. The set also included a Dungeon Master's Screen doubling as a folder for cards plus fold-up cardboard pawns and a color map sheet. TSR published the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia the same year compiling rules from Basic Expert Companion and Master sets to allow continued play beyond the black box limits.

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• 6. Decades Of Critical Praise

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  In the 1980 book The Complete Book of Wargames game designer Jon Freeman reviewed the 1977 edition and gave it an Overall Evaluation of Very Good. He noted that Basic Dungeons & Dragons is only a starter set but effectively obsolete a few weeks after starting a campaign. Freeman praised this edition for being written by someone outside the TSR establishment who knew nouns from verbs unlike the original D&D set which he called illiterate display of poor grammar. Clayton Miner reviewed the 1981 version for Pegasus magazine #1 stating the book was a vast improvement over earlier versions with better organization. Anders Swenson and Douglas Law reviewed both Basic and Expert Sets for Different Worlds magazine recommending them as smooth introductions for new players. Games magazine included the Basic Set in their Top 100 Games of 1981 noting it tells how to create adventures in magical fantasy worlds.

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