“Wayfaring warrior Soul – still wild…The archer stands

Arrow measured to the goal – sing of…Strong and living man

In his mind there is a vision wand’ring…Through the forest town

Telling of riches only given if through…The woods the way is found”

~ Dream of the Archer … by Heart ~

Many thanks to you, my friend, for taking the time to read my very first blog post and enduring the ramblings of an old school gamer… So please kick back and join me on a nostalgic trip down memory lane as I look back on and unbox the Dungeons & Dragons™ Basic Set released in 1981!

My sojourn into the magical world of fantasy role playing games began back in the summer of 1981. My brother had just returned home from his enlistment in the Air Force and…out of the blue one day…asked me if I would like to play D&D™. I know I must have stared at him like he had lobsters coming out of his ears because he started laughing and quickly (and excitedly) began to explain the game to me. Dungeons and Dragons™, or D&D™ as he called it, was a game in which a player could take on the role of a haughty elven mage, a dour but incredibly tough dwarven warrior, a gallant and noble knight, a man of the cloth that heals his allies during great battles, a powerful wizard that could throw deadly bursts of fire….or even a sneaky pickpocket who wouldn’t think twice about stealing from his own mother! I wasn’t just interested in the game…I was completely caught up in my brother’s excitement and became enthralled as he began to tell me stories of the adventures he and his service buddies went on with their characters. I called a few of my friends and the next thing I knew I was knee deep in a two year long campaign to find and recover the Sword of Damascus….a mystical weapon being held deep in domain of an evil wizard!

Our group didn’t have dice or books for the first few months we played. Instead we relied on what my brother remembered of the rules…and his uncanny ability to “wing it”! Our twenty sided die was basically twenty little homemade, numbered, cardboard squares that we drew from an old coffee can. We also swiped all the d6s we could find from our old boardgames…and that was it. Before long, we were battling wizards and giants, eating junk food and staying up till the wee hours of the morning gaming while listening to awesome music like The Sylvan Song or Dream of the Archer from Heart.

Later that year, my awesomely cool Mom handed us a treasure that is still etched into my memory to this day….The Dungeons & Dragons™ Basic Boxed Set….complete with rules, an official adventure and most importantly DICE! All kinds of weird little dice made from what looked like the same kind of cheap plastic that our army men were made from…but our dice were yellow…not green. I remember holding up the blue crayon that came with the dice and asking my brother, “What the heck am I supposed to do with this?” He started laughing and showed us how to color in the numbers on the dice. We even made the “20″ red just so it would stand out when we rolled it….funny how that rarely happened for me.

So here I am, 30 years later… Rules have gone through countless changes and the Grand Master of all gaming, Mr. Gygax, has moved on to a realm where only natural twenty’s are rolled.  I have no idea where all of my old D&D™ stuff has gone but out of all of it, I miss that wonderful set of cheap, plastic, yellow dice the most. So many great memories centered on the numbers those little dice generated. So a few years ago I began a quest to find another set of those original dice, but I had no idea just how hard that was going to be! Over the years I searched eBay, Craig’s list and always kept an eye out at any yard sales my wife and I happened to hit. Sadly, I always failed my search roll. BUT….a few weeks ago I happened to come across not one but TWO basic sets online. The first set I found came with a set of what we used to call “mud” dice…they were made from a mottled brown plastic and came with a yellow crayon for filling in the numbers. I was pretty stoked with the find…but I was really hoping to come across a set of the yellow dice I had as a kid. Then it happened…a few days later I struck gold! I found a Basic Set in near mint condition….and in the box was set of those wonderful cheap, yellow, dice and the original blue crayon…still in the little plastic bag! In my excitement I called my Mom to tell her what I found….and, I’m kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I got a little choked up when I was explaining to her how lucky I was to have found this set. My Mom, my wonderful Mom, ordered the set for me as a birthday present. She surprised me by explaining that it was only fitting that those little yellow dice should be a gift from her….just like the first ones. How cool is that?

So in honor of my brother, Bill, who introduced me to the game….my Mom, for my first set of dice and the trips to the grocery store for Big-K cola and chips…my very first group –  Mike, Robb, Haymaker, John, Billy and Brian….my son, Jack, who is now part of my current gaming group (and an excellent role player)…Nundahl, who inspires me everyday to embrace gaming for what it means to me….and my incredible and beautiful wife who supports me in my gaming endeavors (yes…I definitely married up)…..I present to you the unboxing of my new “original” Dungeons & Dragons™ Basic set and the cool little dice that have randomly determined the fate of so many battles.

Rick did a great job with the packaging and shipping of my order. Click the image above to see all the shots.

Packaging [Pictures]:

To get started, I would like to thank Rick Tribble at Bricks and Beams for his fantastic customer service, uber fast shipping and for having the D&D™ Basic Set with the yellow dice!  Rick has a ton of great stuff like this original D&D™ White Box (already sold but fun to check out) and this great Ravenloft Box Set. The order for my set was placed on Friday of Easter weekend and was on my porch Monday afternoon. Rick did a great job packaging my order with pillow packs and bubble wrap. You can check out all the pictures of the packaging by clicking on the image to the right.

The Box and Books [Pictures]:

Dungeons & Dragons™ Basic Set with Yellow Dice & Blue Crayon. There are a bunch more pictures of the box and books...just click to image above to see them.

This boxed set was released in 1981 by TSR, The Game Wizards™. The box cover’s artwork was created by the great Erol Otus and depicts a battle between a Green Dragon and two heroes…a female Magic User and a male Fighter. The Dungeons & Dragons™ logo is prominently displayed at the top center of the box and the game description, “The Original Fantasy Role Playing Game For 3 or More Adults, Ages 10 and Up.”, is printed at the bottom right corner. The set’s product number, 1011, is printed on all four side flaps. The back of the box shows (in black and white) the set’s contents: The Basic Rulebook, Adventure Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands, a set of six dice and a crayon. A great teaser for the game is written just below the picture of the box’s contents and reads: “Fire and smoke surround you as you swing your sword and land a mighty blow upon the dragon’s head. The great creature crashes to the ground with a thud. The treasure lies only a short distance past the dragon’s body. Your eyes gleam. Riches beyond your wildest dreams await you. You race forward to claim your prize, heart pounding in anticipation. From nowhere a huge man dressed in black armor steps out in front of you, blocking your way. The treasure is no more than an arm’s reach behind him. “None shall pass!” he warns. “What do you want to do now?” asks the Dungeon Master.” Also inside the box is a 1981 TSR Product Catalog. Please click on the image to the right to see all the pictures of the box and the books.

The Dice:

Click here to see the pictures of the Yellow dice from the D&D™ Basic Set

Click here to see the pictures of the Mud dice from the D&D™ Basic Set

Comparing modern dice to those found in the D&D™ Basic Set

The dice back then definitely did not have the precision manufacturing that we see in today’s dice. When you browse through the images you will notice discolorations and excess plastic film from where the mold halves were put together and an occasional pock mark from the mold’s vent holes. I also noticed that there are slight differences in the number layouts on the older dice compared to modern dice. But for me, all these little quirks are what makes the dice so special! One of the best parts about these dice was the fact that you had to use a crayon to color in the numbers. I remember sitting down for an hour or so making sure that each number was carefully filled in. After a while we got creative and tried filling in the numbers with fingernail polish and oil based artist pencils.

The 1981 Basic Sets included the yellow dice sets and also what we affectionately call “mud” dice, which were made from a cheap, mottled brown plastic. There may have been different dice colors released in 1981 but I never came across them. I did notice different dice colors with the release of the Expert Set later that year.

Well….that’s pretty much it for the unboxing. If you’re an old gamer like me, I hope this has been a fun trip down memory lane….for the newer gamers, it’s been an honor sharing this with you. I have some fun plans for upcoming blog posts such as alternative initiative house rules for your 4th ed game & showing off some of the “swag” that Wizards of the Coast™ is giving out during it’s Encounters gaming sessions.

Please feel free to leave some comments, questions or cool stories of your own by filling out the comment form below. Also, if you liked this please share this post with your friends….there are some convenient share buttons below.

Remember….rolling a “1″ isn’t that bad as long as it looks cool when you do it!

~ The Game Hermit