TSR 5 Fun Facts about the 1991 D&D Black Boxed Set

Great write up!

I remember playing and subsequently owning this. Good times.

DMsGuild/D&D Classics just released the "Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game" rule set, the 1994 revision of the black box. The file is currently missing the map and two of the tokens, but they've already noted it the description and have requested an updated file (however long that takes). Hopefully they'll release the Black Box scans at some point, too. I'd played one Red Box session for my first time playing, then got my hands on a 2E Player's Handbook (original cover with the Gold TSR logo), tried to cobble together an understanding of the rules between that and the 1E books I managed to get through inter-library loan, then got the Black Box for Christmas that year, finally getting a real start playing D&D - to this day, I feel that the Black Box (and the revised Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game) offered an introductory experience to character creation and role-playing that hasn't been offered since, but that may still be a more effective approach, despite the more complex core system compared to the streamlined d20 system framework.

While I started 1e/2e in 89/90 I bought this when it came out and always wanted to run it. None of the 7-8 people I played w/would try it. They only wanted AD&D 2e. A friend of mine got the RE and had a slight interest but w/out any other players just would not give it a try.
Luckily I still have both (my box & my friends RE) so that once my 3yr is ready we can play!

Interesting! I don't think I'd realized that this even existed – five minutes ago, I would have said that the Rules Compendium was the next Basic rules publication after BECMI.

Ten-Seventy was condensed and recycled twice, with the tan-box "Classic D&D Game" in 1994, and a yellow-er version in 1996. The Dragon Card learning pack was condensed and interwoven into the Rulebook. The cardboard monster and NPC standees were still there, as well as the foldout map of Zanzer's dungeon. Plastic minis for the heroes were the only thing added to the (much smaller) box.

Alzrius said:

Recently, I've been working my way through the 2004 book 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons as part of a personal desire to read everything I could find about the game's history. While I've found the book to be something of a slog to get through, it does have a few gems tucked away in its pages.

One of those is that it spends several pages talking about The NEW Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons Game boxed set from 1991, better known to most fans as "the black boxed set."

While the section talking about this particular product is uncredited (30 Years of Adventure is written by several authors, not including the guest pieces sprinkled throughout the book), several preceding parts of the book – giving an insider's perspective on products that were produced around the same time – were written by Steve Winter, so I'm fairly confident that he's the one who wrote the section on the black boxed set as well. And in doing so, he reveals a number of interesting tidbits about it. You might have heard some of these before, but they're all worth reiterating here. So here's the inside scoop on this all-too-often overlooked piece of D&D's history!

#5: It was the original D&D Fifth Edition

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Yes. Our 5th edition should correctly be called AD&D 5e.

I knew it existed and sold 600k or so.

3 Basic boxed set sold close to 3 million copies almost double the 1E phb.

Individually the 1E phb out sold them.

I wonder if one of the reasons that the Black Box/1070 is so much less well know these days is that it doesn't scan to PDF well. It's "toyetic" aspect of cards and such seems very cool, but also it's easier to lose bits and piece I suspect.

Of course I bet the main reason it's less well known is that the core of the OSR tended to have gotten their start playing long before it came out and so when they were looking to play old games tended to look to OD&D, B/X, AD&D, 2E or even 3E first...

I should find some copies of those starter "kit" adventures to read.

Gus L said:

I wonder if one of the reasons that the Black Box/1070 is so much less well know these days is that it doesn't scan to PDF well. It's "toyetic" aspect of cards and such seems very cool, but also it's easier to lose bits and piece I suspect.

Of course I bet the main reason it's less well known is that the core of the OSR tended to have gotten their start playing long before it came out and so when they were looking to play old games tended to look to OD&D, B/X, AD&D, 2E or even 3E first...

I should find some copies of those starter "kit" adventures to read.

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Interestingly, I did find a PDF of it, and while some of the box set bits (like the DM screen/card box and cardboard figures) are a bit funky to deal with, the cards themselves are fine if you go into 2 page mode and fiddle with the left/right alignment directly.

Of specific note, the Rule Book portion is laid out really well. It's still DAC and gives the adjustments to the DM instead of the player, but the players to get to know their saving throws without referencing elsewhere in the book.

I found a copy of the set on ebay that looks like it's in great condition, and have spent money on this. It should arrive within a couple of weeks.