Were Old D&D Boxed Sets Better? (Retro Reaction)
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- Опубликовано: 31 май 2024
- Nate opens up the Intro to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1995) - maps, minis, a CD, and more!
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0:00 - Intro
1:16 - DScryb
1:55 - The Box!
3:01 - Minis & Dice
5:35 - DM Screen
6:37 - Dungeon Maps
7:50 - Characters
8:43 - Old Player Notes
9:30 - The Books
13:30 - Flyers/Ads
14:09 - Audio CD
19:25 - My Take vs. 5E boxes 
Игры
This video is like a time capsule of the past of dnd. Nice to see how people played back then. Really awesome video Nate.
I got a little teary eyed seeing that the original owners old notes were still in there! What a cool piece of history! Makes me wonder what those kids are up to nowadays.
This is the D&D set that I started with in 4th grade. The idea that there was a game where my characters could do anything a person in the real world could do blew my mind. Even then I knew the CD was cheesy, but that really helped. Too this day I think it's great advice for DM's and players to ham it up just enough to feel a bit silly.
ahh, the kobolds, just as I imagined them sounding, thanks for this!
Oh man! This brings back memories for me! Amazing GW find for $3.00! Nice video
Your face was pretty much the same as mine during that amazing intro. Made me laugh and had to hit like already
This was the re-release of "FirstQuest," exactly same contents, different art. Good stuff. I remember running my buddies through it over the summer back in the summer of '93 after it had first come out. Good times. :)
Ah! That makes a lot of sense. When I was looking into the audio CD I did see First Quest come up as well. Thanks for that info!
yes the best starter first quest
I still have my version of AD&D first quest, though mine comes with a players map of the under dungeon and a map set in space too. Dont know if it was a re-revision. Can dig it out and send pictures if you'd like
First Quest was my first dnd product back in like 96 when I was 11
@@andyduvall7090 Black Box Basic set/Rules Cyclopedia was my gateway back in '92 at 12. :)
FirstQuest was a great success in Brazil and responsible for introducing many players to the hobby. I still have the CD, miniatures and the DM screen
This was my introduction to DnD hearing the cd again was pure nostalgia
My first set was the black box with the red dragon on it, released in '90 or '91. My mom was like "If I see you doing any of that crazy evil crap I see on TV, it's in the garbage!!" Never happened, but that set started my addiction to D&D.
That was a great box. I think I still have the little cardboard standups from it.
Someone's probably mentioned it already but that voice is... Matt Merc... I mean Chris Perkins.
The miniatures are recycled player pieces from TSR's Dragonstrike board game (which was an attempt to follow the trend set by Heroquest). THAT set came with its own VHS which "explained the rules" but was really more of a dramatization of a possible scenario in the game and that can easily be an entire video in and of itself (you can find it on RUclips but it's really best experienced with The Spoony Experiment's riff). They are definitely crude minis, but with their charm. (it also followed Heroquest in that the elf was an Elf, not a ranger or a fighter/wizard)
Funnily enough the player pieces look nothing like the characters presented in the VHS (where American Gladiators' Malibu played the Fighter).
"Feeling brave tonight? How brave? Brave enough to do battle with hideous monsters? Hmm? Brave enough to sneak around dank castles in the dark and chance being the next victim... of a Dragon Strike?"
Can I play the Wizard??
I use the minitures from Dragonstrike when I run the Intro to AD&D boxed set adventures 😂
They got used for a bunch of beginner products throughout the 90s.
The RPGA was the precursor to the Adventurer's League that they have now. A way to have consistent modules/adventures. The "Living" title meant that the settings were affected by the player's actions during conventions, etc.
Nice!
My late step-father was an avid gamer back in the 80's and 90's and its awesome to look back in time at stuff that he probably also looked at or even had back then. He was the one who convinced my mom to let my try D&D for the first time when I was 15. Lots of memories from that great guy, thank you for what you do.
I had this somehow when I was a kid but I didn’t understand what it was at the time. It’s bringing back a flood of memories. Great video man
About the thief holding the cloak: in historical martial arts, there was actually a "rapier and cloak" fighting style. And I started in 2e, and seeing this kind of stuff is really cool. I never saw this starter set before. Nowadays, when it comes to D&, I'm more into B/X, BECMI and OD&D, but I still really love the setting books from AD&D 2e.
Oh wow. That’s interesting about the fighting style.
This set and the Dragon Mountain box set were what I learned on. It was a hell of a thing back in the day. Tomb of Damara and House on Harrow Hill are still things I run, complete with audio CD, at times for the sheer cheese of it all.
It’s so cool to see you excited by finding original player artifacts. That is gold for historians.
My cousin would love that box set. They started playing 2e when it came out. He still prefers it. Our group as a whole just shifted to 3.5 the last few years.
There’s a lot of value in playing older stuff. Cutting edge is overrated, though admittedly I’m a fan of 5E.
@@WASD20 I'd like to try 5e, but convincing my older cousins and uncles is a chore.
Love that old style.
Never had this, but did have the D&D 2ed Ravenloft adventure Light in the Belfry came with a CD and all the jazz and I(and my group) loved it. By todays standard, it(like this box) would be like a cheesy "B-movie" equivalent but for its time was awesome.
Oh man. I’d love to track down that one.
Haha, that was brilliant! The CD made me laugh so much 😂Thanks Nate for this blast into the past and the D&D of my youth! Who needs WotC when you have TSR eh?
The Pathfinder 2e box set color codes their dice too and that's so cool. I started with a friend's 5e homebrew and he loaned me a rainbow set of dice so he could call them by color and that was so helpful
If you want more of this type, check out the rest of the FirstQuest series based in the world of Mystara. Each of the major nations had their own boxed set with adventure and audio CD. It also had lots of ties to the original D&D settings.
Nice! Thanks for the info.
only 2 nations (and a region) had the audio cd treatment. The line was killed slightly after the WoTC take over. the 2 AD&D Mystara boxed set were "Karameikos: Kingdom of Adventure" and "Glantri: Kingdom of Magic". the last product for the line was the "Red Steel" box which was set in the Savage Coast of Brun on Mystara
I loved 2nd edition AD&D! That’s where I cut my teeth. I had no interest in other additions but when I got back into playing 5e was out and sounded nice for my kids to learn with. I may go back to that edition actually.
Funny enough that is the time Options Skills and Powers was released which is the Second Edition revamp 2.5 ed and 5 years from the launch of 3rd. The Options set is what taught me a lot about homebrew and balancing classes. Each class got fixed points and you could buy what you wanted from your class down to what schools of magic or domains (like schools of magic for cleric) you can cast from.
The good old days! Just look at that art from the books and the dm screen.
I completely agree that there should be more deluxe box sets. With the fifty three million different starter decks WotC puts out for Magic you would think they would do more of that for D&D. But I guess that's just how it will be until they find a way to sell Theater of the Mind booster packs.
As I started playing way back in 2nd Ad&d. Lol the only time I shuttered was when you said "UnderMountian"
Now that was epic.
That and the bliss of walking down memory lane.
Awesome find
I would love to find some old AD&D stuff
Nice notes
Very cool
Yo Nate I just want to say that your vids have helped me out a lot! This week I'm going to be DMing my first game with some buddies and my dad and my brother (Who have not played before) And your vids helped me out a TON! I just want to say that your the best DnD youtuber out there and your vids have helped so much. Keep making vids my man they are awesome!
Thanks Levi! That means a lot. Happy gaming!
It is a cool set, sadly the new boxed sets of today are lacking compared to 2nd ed products IMHO. THACO to hit armor class zero...in a nutshell ...subtract the ac of your foe from your thaco number ...ie thaco 19 vs ac 6...you need a 13 to hit.
I played through "A Light in the Belfry". It was fantastic.
Playing First Quest right now with some friends and having a blast!
I love this CD, it was even translated to Brazilian Portuguese (my language) back in the days. The Karameikos Kit was also translated.
RPGA was an ancestral version of Adventurer's League in the 80s and 90s, but different in that it presented shared, persistent worlds where, in theory (I never played official RPGA stuff), actions taken by one group could alter the setting for everyone else. Burned down the Drunken Boar tavern? Well, now that tavern has been burned down in everyone else's game. RPGA was only played "officially," so records were kept, there were rules and paperwork for DMs, etc., and I think RPGA events generally only happened at cons or FLGSs, so in a world without internet, that's how things were tracked.
RPGA lasted a lot longer than that; it wasn't retired and transformed into Adventurer's League until 2014.
@@spacerx - I didn't realize that! Did they tone back the marketing during the 00s/3e or something, because I can't recall seeing anything about RPGA this side of the century.
It's cool it lasted all the way through to evolve into AL.
@@xaosbob it was huge with 3rd ed as I recall...but it was also very regional. You had to actually travel in the real world if you wanted to adventure in certain parts of the game world. If you were unlucky enough to live outside of a region where there were a lot of cool modules set it would have been easy to miss.
I've been watching this channel since 2016 and every time I did I was blinded by his bald head I ❤️ ur content Nate! Keep up the amazing work!
Lol. Thanks!
I started with a box set that was basically the same, the "First Quest" box set was different packaging but much the same content.
Even though I only played the first edition for around a year this was still a great blast from the past
This is a very good box, part of the Revised 2e core rules. I have it here in my shelf, I haven't used the CD ever, but I used its for introductory games. It lacks the percentiles for extraordinary strength for fighters though. It introduces the player to the principle of 3 core books. The minis are good enough and the different colors for dice is helpful. A party can have some great months with this box, one might even play only with this one plus a monstrous compendium/manual forever. Level 5 with class combination can take a while...
This was my first real introduction to D&D. I still have most of it, the minis are long gone along with the character cards, CD and DM Screen. I still have the dice, books, map and even though it's in rough shape the box still exists, my box is a different size though. Just a tiny bit jealous that someone found a complete one in a Goodwill for three bucks.
Me too!
I loved this kit. My cousin and I played the cd a couple of times. Loved it. Was already into AD&D but would have easily fallen for this set.
Wow. Nostalgia, man. I remember buying this with one of my first paychecks in '95 or '96.
Makes me smile picturing that youngster. Cool memory. :)
I'd already tried DM'ing in what was a very rules-light fashion. I remember being proud of how I had all of the progressions memorized for THAC0, saving throws, and the like. I sometimes miss the complexity, but 5e definitely has its advantages in terms of story emphasis.
That was really fun! That voice that was familiar was Chris Perkins. 🙂
Was it really!? That’s awesome, haha!
@@WASD20 I don't know for sure, but it sure sounded like him to me.
I was thinking the exact same thing! I believe he's been involved with the game well over 20 years.
YES, yes the box sets where so much better back then. One, no internet. Two, they better describe things. I dont remember ever listening to the cds, but the box sets ROCKED. Three, before roll20 and etc, we had BATTLSYSTEM! And man was it fun! The pieces where so awesome, for the time. (And yes, they were thieves or {a thief-acrobat!} in 1e, they became rogues in 2e). They are even talking like they are going to add something similar in One Dnd!
Had this one. Loved it. Love it. Used the heck out of it. One of my top 10 box sets I'd say get if you can get every time.
Dice associated colors helps new players for sure. I still use this style of setup for new players until they learn the dice. It can be done with new dice now a days for sure. It is still a thing. A teach and train tool or for those I'm a tired DM today... I need dice to help me be faster. Yes it works on all seats at the table.
The minis last and don't get "bent" like new age minis
DM SCREEN SCEENE ... so good. My favorite of all front face art.
Damara tomb. Loved it. Used it many a early teach and train sessions in my day.
The CD was sort of DM training or if no DM it can help players out. Works pretty well actually. Hope you love it as much as I did. Wish I still had mine. Mine took a walk. Friggin mimics.
The reason movement was so much is the combat round was based on 1 full minute. When a creature got to attack roll was based on attack speed, which added to the iniative roll. More realist, swinging a two-handed 25 lbs sword takes longer than stabbing with a dagger. But many of the miss conceptions of a combat round had already sunk in, Obviously you could swing faster, it was suppose to be the frequency you actually got an opening that could land inside of a minute.
RPGA was the grandfather to all others that came after...Living Greyhawk, Living Forgotten Realms and yes Adventure League.
Intro to AD&D was $30. I have it right next to me, because I'm about to run The House on Harrow Hill LOL! It says it right on the back of my boxed set.
Nice!!
yes, thats cd made me love dnd, so cheesy but made it all the funnier
Hah saw you at the hobby shop today! I too am running Icewind Dale for my group!
No way! Should have said hi. lol. Good ol Riders.
Anyway, good luck with the campaign. :D
@@WASD20 next time I will!
15:18 - "His voice sounds kinda familiar"
15:05 - let's all listen as a humble narrator goes full Matt Mercer in a time before Matt Mercer could go full Matt Mercer.
fantastic find.
I remember that set! I never bought that one.
I'm surprised at the number of full-color illustrations included in each of the books. I don't remember that set at all-think I may have been playing Fantasy Hero back then.
I love how the "Morganth the Mysterious" character sheet is an illustration of Fizban and Tass
Nice, yeah all recycled art on those.
@@WASD20 And the thief is the Grey Mouser from (*I think*) the 1e Lankhmar book.
TSR recycled alot of the commisioned art.
Man, I really miss the simplicity of things from the 90's. So many things were more than good enough, but were often not just wild overkill. Love the layout, the simple art, the logical formats, etc.
My first time DMing was the castle Adventure finding that elf. Though it was online so no CD :(
Back then many of us players/DMs considered this box game to gimmicky and never used it in any way shape or form. Many thought this box was not considered part of the D&D boxsets line, but more of a boardgamey and not well received by the community. Many others still play it though.
the only "contact" i had with AD&D was with the Diablo 2 boardgame... and even THEN i thought THAC0 was kinda weird (i was glad that this was automatic in Baldrus gate) *lol*
but the prodcution value for a STARTER Set is kinda impressive. I mean full colour starter boxes in the 90? hell even the biggest German RPG at that time had all artwork black and white in the small books :D
THAC0, good times good times.
The Pathfinder, Pathfinder 2e and Starfinder beginners box sets are very good.
For D&D you can't beat the Mentzer Basic Set for new players then play on with Expert, Companion and Masters
That box is huge. I have product number 1134 and it fits the contents much better.
It is quite big!
Whao not heard that cd in a looooong time!!
Remember in 1995 the target audience was kids who had never played the game before. So the CD audio was also about teaching them what a character is (they didn't know) and how to speak in 1st person. There was no Critical Role or streaming game sessions to watch. Yes for those of us who have been around a while (40+ years of playing for me), it sounds cheesey, but it would have sounded amazing to young players at the time.
I can totally see that being the case. Thanks for the comment!
Do waterfalls on maps
Again this was just the "Introduction to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" which did retail around $30 USD back in the day.. the 3 Core books were about $25-$35 for them.. the plastic minis actually had "Ralladium" metal versions of them. and yes THAC0 stood for to hit Armor Class 0. Armor class was descending back then and THAC0 was the unmodified number on a d20 to hit something with AC 0 (for all first level characters the base was 20 and it lowered depending on each class level.)
"I wanna meet these kids"...why don't you come have a seat over there. J/k great vid.
Me and my friend had this EXACT box set, we were twelve and it had all the stupid jokes you expect from 12 year old boys. I remember the Adventure like it was yesterday. Somehow i bullied a kobold into servitude without knowing draconic
Amazing. :)
Kobolds weren't draconic back in the day.
@@markwilson3697 lol I went strait from this version to 3.5. shows how much i actually remember. Of course we were making too many fart jokes to take it seriously
Oh I have this old boxset 😁
How did your friend find that in mint condition for 3 bucks. Check online people are asking like 100 bucks on ebay for it. I had that box set when i was a kid. My 1st campaign & I made it EPIC.
"I heard it's a really hard game with a lot of rules."
"Everything we need is in the box."
"That doesn't address my concern!"
I still have this audio disc!
Nice! :)
I use to have the 1st Quest box set for Ad&d which looks like a repackage of this.
I am playing stars wars saga edition rpg and I am wondering if you can do a video on where I can get some mintures for it
I wish dnd starter set came with minis
"13...eh" dude in AD&D a 13 is almost a perfect roll XD
Lol! I’m clueless! :)
@@WASD20 Back then most rolls for skills weren't D20+Prof+Skill+Attribute it was simply a percentage and if you hit the percentage number or lower (1 being perfect in range 100 being a complete fail) you succeed. If you rolled a 1 then you would initiate your crit roll and that was a whole other nightmare.
@@GremlinHunter Interesting! Thanks for the info.
THAC0 was the best. Things never felt right since they reversed armor class.
I learn how to play with those boxes.
The new ones dont help new players like that.
I really want to do a reetroclone with material similar, minis, maps, etc...
The CD sounded like it was voice acted by the same people on the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.
Oh wow. Yeah, that wouldn’t be too surprising.
Com toda a certeza!!!
3 dollars, I saw this same box in a book store locked case 2 weeks ago for 100 bucks no lie lmaoooo
Wow!
Nowadays this is standard practice for intro to the game.
THACO= To Hit AC 0. Until recent editions, AC STARTED at 10 and went DOWN all the way to negative 10 or -10. If you knew the die 20 roll to hit AC 0, then you could subtract numbers to get what would hit 10 thru 0 and add to get the d20 number for -1 thru -10. So if the monster's THACO is 12, on a 10 or better he hits a character with armor class of 2 (Plate and shield) or a 14 or better to hit AC -2 which would require magical armor to get that good. You could roll your dice and tell the DM your result and THACO and he could tell you if it hits or not without telling you the monster's actual AC. Also, 2e was the first to acknowledge the fact most players were rolling their own dice by this point, as compared to you just telling the DM "I will hit it with my sword" or "I cast fireball!" and the DM doing all the dice and math to tell you if you hit it, what you killed, etc.
I LOVED
They are similarities between this and first quest.
Man I remember learning with those ugly dice
Three bucks my butt, it's priceless. Wot a steal!
This just underlines the half assery wotc handles DnD with
babe wake up, WASD20 uploaded
If this is a conversation that ever happens, it makes me feel very warm inside. Lol
@@WASD20 I love your content and every upload gets me so hyped.
Why is this called 2nd edition D&D when it is in fact AD&D 2nd edition and D&D second edition had it's own introductory box in 1991 called "
The New Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons"?
How do you not know what THAC0 is?
Never played second edition. Fifth edition was my first.
i want it
🤗
Old is I am that's as old as I am
I was in 8th or 9th grade! :) But was not into D&D back then.
@@WASD20 I was 23 lol and had stopped playing 3 years before ,i started playing again 3 years ago with my son using 5th ed.Ive never seen that before but the 2nd ed campaign box sets were really good,its a shame they dont do similer with 5e
I started playing with 5e, but my god, the old DM screens blow the boring ass reincarnated one out of the water. Even the first 5e DM screen is 10000x better looking and has that old school feel to it.
"Not much detail on these"
No, no, no, the game was actually just a lot simpler back then. It's hard to imagine, but WotC only simplified the rules schema, not the rules. There are way, way, way more rules now and thus way, way more detail needed on a character sheet.
I don't think I had a single character take a 4th page of writing in 2E, including multiclass spellcasters.
I have a hard time getting a 5E martial to fit conveniently on a 2 page format for more than a few levels with all of the text-heavy rules that get added as you level up as anything these days. Much more if I'm trying to do a multicaster.
My mom would’ve thrown a fit to find out that box comes with a CD…..
If there was ever a CD with “satanic” audio on it, it would be that one 🤣
Haha! Totally!
I had the First Adventure version. Pretty much the same but with a spell jammer adventure (and extra monsters by the look of it) and another double sided map.
Such bad voice acting. I wonder how many people were put off playing D&D by the sheer cheesiness of that disk (the same cheesy style was later used in the D&D online MMORPG). If people thought that that is how a typical session sounded then that would explain the derision that the game recieved. I don't think that I could play with a group that sounds like that.
YOU GOT THAT FOR 3 DOLLARS it's 425$ on ebay
Yikes.
Or they could spend like 20$ and get Labyrinth lord and have a good time.
At this stage, you are clever enough to know there are simply better systems out there.
I like 5e, dang it! I’ve played tons of other games, and it’s still my main, lol.