Share your Dungeons and Dragons memories.

[Werewolf]

Here's an excellent LJN D&D article by Plaid Stallions. It's interesting that the article mentions Mego competed with LJN for the license. I love the LJN line but I still wonder how Mego would have done it. I'm guessing not 8 inch scale. It probably would have been too expensive and difficult to do with the level of detail the clothes and armor the character's had.

http://www.plaidstallions.com/ljn/dd.html

The sad thing about the toy line is it didn't do better. While it came it the height of D&D's popularity, it was also at the height of controversy over the fantasy themes. There were so many characters that appeared in the story books and other merchandise that didn't make it to the action figure line. It's so disappointing this line has never been brought back and Hasbro does nothing with the characters. Popular characters like Warduke, Strongheart, Kelek and Mercion didn't even make it into the Kre-O line.

[Werewolf]

We played from around 1974 unntil maybe around 1982 fairly heavily, then occassionally through the 80s.

Neat! You had the original white box D&D. My first D&D was the 1981 Basic D&D set with Keep on the Borderlands and the TSR Dungeon board game. Which is still my favorite board game.

[jayraytee]

My Uncles were in the military and brought the original D&D home with them from overseas. My whole family was pretty much made up of guys, my Mom had three brothers, I had three brothers and two guy cousins. We played from around 1974 unntil maybe around 1982 fairly heavily, then occassionally through the 80s. We had all night pizza party adventures in my grandma's basement, it was a huge amount of fun.

By the mid-80's my brotehrs and cousins switched to PC role playing games; Ultima, Wizardry, Bard's Tale, etc. And then in the 90's we switched to Everquest. I still have my Everquest characters, but almost never get online anymore, maybe once every few months. I was for a time a Guide on that game and also was part of a lot of the BetaTests.

[Werewolf]

It really helps when you play with cool, fun people. Not so much when get a strict rule fetishistic jerky type of player or DM.

The game could be brutal with a mean spirited DM. When I played the game as a kid it was just me, my mom and my sister. So, it was more about the story and enjoying the quest then trying to kill off the party as quickly as possible. When I DMed I also placed good treasure and weapons early on in a quest to make the adventure go smoother. Otherwise it would be nearly unplayable with a small party.

[GordoCrisp]

I loved the game for a few years, ended up getting burned out. Loved the Magic User characters as well. Loved the variety of monsters too.The High Fantasy stuff was a blast.

It really helps when you play with cool, fun people. Not so much when get a strict rule fetishistic jerky type of player or DM.

You may already know, but there was a recent book written about the history and impact of D&D: Of Dice And Men by David Ewalt.

I recommend that to any and all D&D fans.

[Werewolf]

Dungeons and Dragons is a classic game (and toy line) which doesn't get talked about too often here. So, I thought I'd start a topic where people could share their memories of D&D. The games, toys, cartoon, etc.

I have a huge amount of affection and nostalgia for the early editions of D&D. The recent release of D&D's 5th edition got me thinking back over the early editions of the game and how it has changed over the years. Like, originally character races like Elf and Dwarf were considered a class like Magic User or Fighter. For example, you couldn't be a Dwarf Wizard or Cleric. You were a Dwarf and they were all fighters. That was it.

The game was also very, VERY, VERY hard for starting level player characters. The player characters were weak and under geared going against very tough monsters. Several of which had magical instakill attacks which could only be countered with saving throw roles. It was especially tough for Magic Users because they had very low hit points, armor class and had to lug around a large spell book. A level one Magic User also had a limited choice of weak spells to pick from and from those you could pick only one spell. To make matters worse you could only use it one time per adventure. So if you used your one magic missile or sleep spell early on in an adventure, you were pretty much toast for the rest of the quest. You wouldn't last long against mobs of Goblins and Bugbears wearing a cloth robe and wielding a small dagger.