Dying & Dumbfounded: How was old-school D&D FUN!?
Added 2025-06-23 04:18:32 +0000 UTC
Comments
oh that's awesome. definitely comment on the YT vid!
ronaldsf aka The Rules Lawyer
2025-06-24 06:28:47 +0000 UTCLittle kid me always included an Elf because they could cast a spell AND wear plate mail! And I didn't expect to reach Level 2 anyway so who cared that they needed more XP to level up. They were gonna die anyway LOL
ronaldsf aka The Rules Lawyer
2025-06-24 06:28:14 +0000 UTCLoving the casual era! I played red box D&D briefly as a 9 year old but I don’t remember it being quite *this* deadly. Perhaps my dad pulled punches! I do remember “elf” or “dwarf” being an entire character class concept though :) My next experience was playing as a teen in the AD&D era. I played 1e and then DMed 2e when it came out. We definitely had some character death but yeah, I fudged some rolls to prevent TPKs! Nobody wanted to be the healer but they were an absolutely essential member of the party.
Jon Winter-Holt
2025-06-23 06:07:53 +0000 UTCYour experience is exactly why I run a Red Box D&D game at conventions. I bring 20 pre-made characters and hand out 4 or 5 to each player. When one dies—and trust me, they will—their next character steps in like they were always there. I run the Red Box set because I love TTRPGs. It’s a chance to give people a sense of the hobby’s history—and to show them that THAC0 isn’t even the worst thing about early editions. While I gleefully send their characters to early graves, I explain THAC0, share how the Red Box arguably launched the entire TTRPG hobby, and remind them how this game went from “Save vs. poison or die” to a multi-million dollar industry.
An interested party
2025-06-23 05:31:14 +0000 UTC
