Dungeons and Dragons. TSR Silver Anniversary Box Set.

We are about to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons, but I would like to look back almost ten years ago, when Wizards of the Coast, owners of the TSR that bring us the original game by Gary Gygax, released a box set with a reproduction of the basic set of the first version, many modules that where instant classics and a book featuring the story of the game, the company and the Gen-Con.

The D&D rules book was an edition of the “Blue” instructions. The writers were Gary Gygax (the creator of the rules set) and Dave Arneson. It was intended to be played with “paper and pencil and miniature Figures”. This reprint take the second edition of November 1974.

The character creation rules was really hard on us players. Three dice and the Ability was recorded. No turning back. Being what we now acknowledge as an average character where far from the common character back them. But having followers were easier.

Classes where less extended than now – Fighting men, Magic-users, Clerics and thieves – and rules where easier (only eight pages). After that, the spells (being a fighting character were difficult, but being a magician were almost suicidal). You can cast a single spell per day, use a die to resolve if your spell does any effect and then the opponent saving throw. It was a waste of time being a magician at low levels.

Combat was direct and tables easier to understand (only four pages!) and we were presented with the monsters list and the treasure tables. The Dungeon Master has only two paragraphs and an example of play. That was all. Not much role playing and a lot of fighting miniatures game.


That’s all for the rules set. Let’s now comment the story of TSR, to me the most important part of this box. Acompaining this words, the three volume set that was the original D&D. The game that started all. RPG did not exist back in the early seventies. It was like that. Only a game lover, Gary Gygax, that developed a miniature war game into something else could bring us the original and most popular Rol Playing Game of them all.



From the game “Castle and Crusade” (C&C), Gygax thought of a game were the player took control of a single character instead of a battalion. Gary Gygax writes in the introduction that the game was finished in 1973 (50 copies of the manuscript). It was the origin of the Game and the most popular game of the new company, Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association. And the Gen-Con of August 73.


From this humble beginning to 500! Copies in no time. And then 10,000 and then millions. The creation of Gygax was a success that transformed his little company into a big entertainment company that ruled the world of RPGs for nearly two decades.



Not many people knew the game until it was really popular. The first version (showcased in the box) was something for Wisconsin gamers at Lake Geneva town and people that attained the Gen-Con from 1973 to 1978.



New editions of the basic rules book where a necessity to expand the game and make it recognised, but the real impact came when the TSR company released the Red Cover Basic set. New wonderful art accompanied the rules set and many people noticed the game.



In this picture we can see starter sets, some of them are the first thing D&D played. The first time I played the game was in 1988, but the Fast-play that could be seen at the bottom of the image was the first modules that I DMed. I simply love them.
This is a picture of the original household of TSR. As you can see, it is a house. A common house. There the pioneers created new product, discussed new options and sell the resulting books. And of course, they play-tested his inventions and let new customers and fans get accustomed to the game.


The first developed version of the game consisted of only a book. The three books that we all know is part of the last version of the basic set. A book for everyone that plays the game, a book for the DM and a Monster Manual. And of course, polyedric dice with the now famous D20 as the king of all of them.

The story went on and on. They rise to the stratospheric sales to several crisis. Until Wizards of the Cost, the company that created the other most popular game, Magic The Gathering, bought TSR, incorporate it to his own stuff, and then it was bought by Hasbro. Wow, what a story!



The modules sold for quantities that were really impressive. More than a million of this little “carnets” were sold in several printings and reprintings. To many of the players that enjoyed the game at that early stages (1978), this were the first adventures their character experienced.


Giants were the original treat. Dragons were so much to chew. The adventures went on to more dangerous places, with more advanced characters and the idea of real Rol-playing was expanded, with the first give away. Pages of the module to be photocopied to let the players guess what the adventure was about.



The mythic adventures were at their original stages, like Keep on the Borderlands, a common place to enjoy the company of party members ready for action.



Modules grew into a more complex addenda to the game, like this adventure set into the caves, another way to present a dungeon. It was a module for Advance Dungeons & Dragons. More on future post about AD&D.

There is also a copy of the original Ravenloft module, where the characters went by accident to the realm of Count Strahd von Zarovich. Oh, boy!

The box set is completed with an illustration that modernized the cover of the Red Basic Set.