Musings on OD&D's 50th Anniversary

Late January of 1974 marked the first printing of Dungeons &
Dragons. I've seen various dates, but the last week in January seems
to be commonly cited. I was six at the time - a bit too early for me
to have been aware of it - but it was still widely available in
hobby shops when I started playing AD&D in 1979.

I had an Original Collector's Edition (OCE) "white box" set at one
point back then, along with Greyhawk and the other supplements, but
I didn't really get into 1974 OD&D (3LBBs) until the OSR and
retro-clone movement gained steam and brought me back into the
hobby. It was Swords & Wizardry White Box that really made me take a
closer look at OD&D when the former was published in 2009. Since
then, I've played or run more hours of OD&D or OD&D clones than any
other RPG - it's far and away my favorite iteration of the game.

Wayne Rossi called OD&D "lightning in a bottle" [0], and I think
this is the most accurate phrase I've seen to describe the 3LBBs. It
brings to mind the open-ended nature of the game, the ability the
3LBBs give you to create something unique and fun from the framework
presented in the booklets. Not that other RPGs are or were not fun
to play, but many have been forgotten, while just reading the little
OD&D booklets to this day, 50 years later, still inspires me to play
it (by the way, Wayne's compiled "OD&D Setting" posts [1] are a neat
look at the implied world as presented in the 3LBBs).

What I love most about OD&D is the simplicity of the "alternative"
combat system, the detailed exploration rules, as well as the
relative unimportance of ability scores to PC class
choice. Everything is simple and play is fast - game prep can be
minimal. Role play and exploration trumps the character sheet, and
in my experience, when the referee and players embrace that play
style, great things can happen.

The OD&D PDFs are available in a nicely formatted omnibus [2], for
sale in the original PDF format [3], or by creatively searching
online. If you haven't at least read them, I encourage you to do so,
if nothing else for the creative inspiration.

[0]: gopher://gopher.smolderingwizard.com/0/phlog/3rdparty/odnd-there-is-no-substitute.txt
[1]: gopher://gopher.smolderingwizard.com/9/rpg/player_and_gm_resources/odnd_setting_rossi.pdf
[2]: gopher://gopher.smolderingwizard.com/9/rpg/player_and_gm_resources/odd_sve_greyharp.pdf
[3]: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/28306/od-d-dungeons-dragons-original-edition-0e