Leyline Press Blog — comparative dnd

In this series of articles we'll  be exploring the differences and similarities between every edition of Dungeons and Dragons. In the last article we looked at AD&D which you can read here. In this article we look at AD&D 2E. Launched in 1989, AD&D 2E was designed to consolidate the vast range of AD&D content in a brand new edition of the game. It was worked on by a team of designers at TSR led by David Cook and aimed to be compatible with AD&D whilst advancing further on the rules. It was published in the form of the Players...

  In this series of articles we'll  be exploring the differences and similarities between every edition of Dungeons and Dragons. In the last article we looked at Basic & Expert D&D. In this article we are looking at BECMI launched in 1983. BECMI, compiled by Frank Mentzer and published from 1983 - 1986 is the ‘newest’ edition of the ‘Basic’ series of D&D rules. It’s named BECMI as it includes 5 separate sets. ‘Basic’, ‘Expert’, ‘Companion’, ‘Masters’ and ‘Immortal’  Basic & Expert would be further revised editions of the Moldvay Basic and Expert rules. The Basic Set would be split into a...

In this series of articles we'll  be exploring the differences and similarities between every edition of Dungeons and Dragons.

In the last article we looked at Holmes Basic. 

In this article we are looking at Basic & Expert D&D launched in 1981.

In this series of articles we'll  be exploring the differences and similarities between every edition of Dungeons and Dragons. In our last article we looked at 0E D&D. In this article we're looking at the Holmes Basic Set released in 1977. ‘Basic’ refers to the Dungeons and Dragons Basic rules set. The first D&D basic set was created in 1977 by Eric Holmes, a freelance game designer who created the rules set so that his children could learn to play the game. He then enquired with TSR if he could make it into an official rules set for the game, which...

In this first article we’ll be looking at 0E D&D the game that started it all. 0E Dungeons & Dragons  – 1974 ‘0E’ Dungeons & Dragons refers to the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons published in 1974. This was written by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. OD&D came in a white box set and is sometimes referred to as ‘White box D&D’. It splits into various different rules booklets. Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, and Underworld & Wilderness Adventures as well as a Reference Sheets. These cover a wide array of different rules and aspects of the game....