Going back to the good old days

I first started Roleplaying many years ago. Many many years agon actually. More than two thirds of my life have been spent on one side or the other of the GM screen. The first game I played and indeed ran was the old "Red Box" edition of D&D.

It is a simple system. No frills here. You can play a fighter, thief, wizard, cleric, elf, dwarf or halfling. Yup, elves, dwarves and halflings were classes back then. No long debates choosing which class/race combo was best. You also rolled 3D6 6 times in order for your stats and you suffered with what you got. But what the hell, it only took 2 minutes to make a new character when the old one died anyway.

D&D made no pretentions back in those days of being anything other than what it said on the box cover. This was a game thats essential parts were.... Dungeons, and if you were really unlucky.... Dragons! Simple and to the point.

So, given all the choice I have (see my previous rant about that one) what have I decided to try and give a bash at running? Yup, that golden oldie, Red Box. I could have chosen anything out of the 80+ fantasy games I own but no. Red Box wins out.

It has so much going for it in comparison to so many other games out there at the moment though. Simple, fun and it really can't be taken all that seriously. Character Generation takes minutes, if that. I mean the basic boxed set doesn't even have rules for overland adventures. You are considered to always get safely from the village to the dungeon and back again. In fact you couldn't even get lost until the brought out the expert box set with its rules for travelling overland and making navigation checks! Woot! I killed a goblin, levelled up, failed my navigation roll, got lost in the desert and died! All in less than a couple of minutes! Yee-haw! These are the things I gamed for when I was a child and now I feel like I'm coming home again.

Long live D&D, just not this new fangled complicated 3rd and revised editions. And I'll have no truck with you "Advanced" players either. Basic all the way my friends. Now all I need to do is finish reading the cyclopedia and a module or 2, find some people foolish enough to let me GM it for them and then we'll be ready to roll...

- Liam