What that all adds up to is that there were a ton of D&D-related releases that I not only didn't experience or play but also never even heard of till much later. "Black-box BECMI" was one of those. Again, as I mentioned, I was into AD&D2 pretty hard and then left D&D, so BECMI was not something I paid attention too. Fast forward to the mid-late 2000s I started to discover these boxed sets. In some ways they seem so retro; a boxed set with board-game like pieces in a world edging towards glossy (and thick) hardcovers.
At a +Games Plus auction I was able to pick up these,
They are a ridiculous amount of nostalgia and I REALLY want to use them some time as the start of a pure BECMI campaign.
Well today we got two new releases in this line on DriveThruRPG, The Dragon's Den and The Goblin's Lair.
I have no idea how the scans are. The box interiors have quite a lot of pieces.
So it will be interesting to see how they scanned all of this. At $5 a piece, that is not too bad of a deal really. The "Black Box" is not available on DriveThru yet, so you will need to use the Rules Cyclopedia for these.
I don't have a campaign in mind for this at all, outside of knowing I want to use Quest for the Silver Sword as the next adventure after these. I am always a sucker for a haunted house adventure.
I miss Games Plus. Even though I'd only go there once or twice a year while passing through Chicago.
ReplyDeleteEach time I'd spend at least two hours poking around their old merchandise looking for buried treasures, and I'd come away with a good haul.
Now I'm just too far away.
Black box D&D was one of the first three games that I ever owned. My mother bought that, HeroQuest, and The Lord of the Rings Adventure Game all at the same time. It was a good start to a hobby that has been going strong since. Having a family, buying a house, etc. did cut into my gaming a bit though. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that they did a crap job on the scans. A lot of bad crop jobs, and a few bad renders on the files. Several of the standie sheets got there ends cropped off, loosing part or all of the end figures. Just bad.
ReplyDeleteI scan stuff from my collection, for my own personal use, all the time. And I would never do the half-ass job that who ever did this did.
Games Plus is the best game store there is. Really.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the crappy scan quality though.