Tag Archives: BECMI

D&D Rules Cyclopedia Finally Available in PDF

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The D&D Rules Cyclopedia is now available in pdf from DrivethruRPG/RPGNow/DNDClassics for US$9.95. This is the compilation of the rules from the D&D Basic, Expert, Companion, and Masters boxed sets by Frank Mentzer (from the 1980s) into a single handback set of rules by Aaron Allston. It is probably the best one-volume version of D&D ever written. The artwork leaves something to be desired compared to the art in the original boxed sets, but it isn’t terrible. The rules themselves are very good, although you will want to download a free copy of the fan-produced errata from here. The D&D … Continue reading →

Beefing Up the Fighter Option II

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As I mentioned in my Beefing Up the Fighter — Option I post on February 26th: Many people seem to think the D&D Fighter class is too weak, especially at higher levels. While I think this is less true in TSR versions of D&D, many people disagree. I’ve come up with two simple options for beefing up the damage a Fighter does, especially at higher levels. Neither has been playtested, but both look good on paper. If you feel the fighter needs beefing up, you might want to give one of these options a try. Both options are designed with … Continue reading →

Beefing Up the Fighter — Option I

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Many people seem to think the D&D Fighter class is too weak, especially at higher levels. While I think this is less true in TSR versions of D&D, many people disagree. I’ve come up with two simple options for beefing up the damage a Fighter does, especially at higher levels. Neither has been playtested, but both look good on paper. If you feel the fighter needs beefing up, you might want to give one of these options a try. Both options are designed with old school D&D in mind, they would probably need modification to work in 3.x and might … Continue reading →

Blackmoor’s Temple of the Frog Available as a PDF

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It looks like WOTC has released this week’s PDFs. The first one to catch my attention is DA2 Temple of the Frog (for BECMI). TSR lured Dave Arneson back in the mid-1980s to co-write four Blackmoor-based modules, the “DA” series. All for were excellent adventures that did a good job of bringing Blackmoor to live. The second module, DA2, revisited the Temple of the Frog. It was the first adventure TSR published, in about 20 pages of the Blackmoor supplement to original D&D. It was the first published dungeon many early players of D&D ever saw — myself included. The … Continue reading →

TSR Interviews: Bruce Heard, Frank Mentzer, Steve Winter

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Random Wizard has done a set of three very interesting interviews with former TSR employees Bruce Heard, Frank Mentzer, and Steve Winter about TSR and the projects they worked on while at TSR. Bruce Heard Interview Frank Mentzer Interview Steve Winter Interview The Brown Box/Wee Warriors Cancer Fund Drive is on. 12 giveaway items (including a third printing Brown Box D&D and Wee Warriors items are available. High Donors will get get six (their choice), the rest will be raffled off with each $10 donating giving you one chance. You can see the complete list of 12 items and read … Continue reading →

Review TSR Era PDFs in the RetroRoleplaying Forum

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WOTC is releasing TSR era products as PDFs again on DNDClassics/RPGNow/DriveThruRPG. To review these games there, you have to buy a copy there. This helps to prevent fake reviews. However, it also prevents the large number of gamers who already own these products in TSR era hard copies from reviewing them. I’ve set up boards for reviews and comments on these products on the new RetroRoleplaying Forum (a renamed and redesigned version of the Microlite74 forum). New products threads will be added as my time allows, but I already have most of the Classic D&D (B/X and BECMI) and first … Continue reading →

B1 is FREE for the opening week of DnDClassics.com

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The classic module B1 – In Search of the Unknown is available for free for one week to celebrate the opening of DNDClassics. Module B1: “In Search of the Unknown,” forms a complete adventure for use with Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set. It is especially designed as an instructional aid for beginning Dungeon Masters and players, specifically created to enable new Dungeon Masters to initiate play with a minimum of preparation. In addition to descriptive and situational material, this module also includes special informational sections giving background history and legends; listings of possible monsters and treasures, and how to place … Continue reading →

Classic D&D PDFs Available Again!

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DriveThruRPG/RPGNow has classic D&D PDFs available again on a new site, DNDClassics. There are about 80 items available now (from all versions of DnD through 3.x) and more will be added each month. However, if you purchased D&D PDFs from DriveThruRPG/RPGNow before WOTC pulled them a few years ago, you will be able to download the newly updated D&D PDFs for free in the My Library section of the My Account page as they are re-released by WotC. You can log in with your DriveThruRPG/RPGNow account. More later.

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New Microlite74 Forum — Join Now

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We haven’t had a lot of luck with message boards. I get too busy to do the software maintenance and spammer management, so our boards eventually die. One of my players, Al (who plays the infamous Snarley in my Microlite74 Wilderlands campaign), has volunteered to do the software maintenance and spammer checking on a Microlite74 forum. In fact, since I gave him an account on the server Sunday, he’s setup a SMF forum with some nice mods (including one to supposedly automatically block known spammers). I’ve created some boards for the various Microlite74 games (including the upcoming Microlite74 Plus project) … Continue reading →

Microlite74 Plus Edition: Work Begins

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I’ve started “work” on the Microlite74 Plus Edition. At the moment, this work consists of dumping open game content that might be useful into a document with the Microlite74 3.0 Extended and Companion I rules. The document dumps have some lite editing to try to catch most trademark issues, no other changes (not even fixing formatting issues). Of course, not all of the material being dumping in will end up being used and much of what is used will require minor (or major) changes to fit the Microlite74 rules. I currently have open game content spells, monsters and magic items … Continue reading →