Dungeons & Dragons Original Collector's Edition (White Box)

 History

The original Dungeons & Dragons, first published in 1974, by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, published by Tactical Studies Rules (TSR), was a small cardboard box that contained 3 digest-size booklets and a few reference sheets. There were 10 distinct printings from January 1974 through the end of 1979.

Rules

At a very high level:

• Assumed players knew wargaming and miniatures rules (Chainmail is a combat option)
• Blended tactical combat, resource management, and cooperative fantasy storytelling
• Classes: Fighting Man, Magic User, and Cleric
• Races: Human, Dwarf, Elf, Hobbit
• Stats: Shifted focus from army or unit stats to individuals: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma
• Armor Class: Descending - derived from naval wargames where "First Class" armor on a ship is the best option, "Second Class" is less good, etc. NOTE: No official "THAC0" yet.
  
• Dice: d4, d6, d8, d12, d10/20 - Creative Publications originally, drove demand that was later filled by Zocchi (Gamescience), TSR, Koplow, Armory, Heritage, etc. See: Identifying the Dice of the 1970s
• "Lethal and Loose" - relied heavily on DM rulings where rules did not exist.

Printings

Full details are available at The Acaeum. But for a quick way to determine which version you have:

• Wood-grain box, horizontal grains - First Alpha or First Beta - worth $5,000 - $20,000
• Wood-grain box, vertical grains - First Gamma, Second, Third, or Third+ - worth $4,000 - $18,000
• White box, no starburst - Fourth or Fifth - worth $300 - $2,300
• White box, with "Original Collector's Edition" starburst - Sixth or Seventh - worth $250 - $1,300

Reprints & Retroclones

You can download a pdf and/or buy an official reprint at: DriveThruRPG.

There are many retro-clones, some abandoned, here are a few:

• Swords & Wizardry: The most popular clone of 1974 OD&D. It comes in WhiteBox (just the core three booklets), Core, and Complete (including all early supplements like Greyhawk).
• White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game: A streamlined, highly concise retro-clone of the original 1974 white-box rules.
• Delving Deeper: Aimed at purists, it precisely mirrors the original 1974 text structure while using contemporary publishing layouts.
• Iron Falcon: Replicates the original 1974 booklets combined with the Greyhawk supplement rules.

My Memories

I first encountered Dungeons & Dragons as a pre-teen, when a friend of my older brother brought his copy of the game on a family camping trip with us. It was at Breckenridge Campground in southern California. My parents had taken us camping in order to see the Perseids Meteor Shower away from all the city lights, and we were trying to stay awake until midnight or later to get a good view.

I was young enough that I don't remember details of these books, beyond flipping through them and seeing the drawings. My brother's friend had also brought along his Holmes Basic book that we were actually playing from. I do remember him saying that the other books were more for adults, and the Holmes Basic book was easier to start with, so we were playing that version. As we played that night and in future games, I would occasionally glance through them, but I never actually played that version.

Regardless, that night in an old army canvas tent with flashlights playing D&D and listening to Oxygène by Jean-Michel Jarre on tape on a Walkman was transforming to me. The wonder and exhilaration that comes with making up our own story as a group was just amazing, and that night is burned in my memory.

Looking back now, it is hard to place the exact date that this occurred, but my guess is August of 1979.

My Copy

I played D&D well into my teens, into the late 1980's, but abandoned it as my interests and priorities changed. I never did play once I moved away from home to go to college, in 1989, so I never played anything beyond First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It was really just prior to Covid when I happened to see a copy of the AD&D Monster Manual in a glass case in a thrift store that nostalgia hit me hard. My copies of all of my D&D books were all lost at that point, and all I had left were a few Moldvay dice in a ziplock bag along with other miscellaneous dice and board game pieces.

I checked with my parents to see if they had any of the books at their house, but there were none to be found. I started down the path of obtaining PODs from DM's Guild first, then discovered just how many original books were available on eBay and from other resellers.

I had been watching for an OD&D set for quite some time when I finally saved enough and found the box set I wanted to buy. I purchased my White Box set, which included a copy of Chainmail, the Greyhawk, Blackmoor, and Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes supplements from an eBay seller on May 21, 2023, for $893.

This is one of my favorite collectibles, even though there are still many of these box sets around and this one is the last printing (Seventh). The booklets themselves are all in near mint condition, with crisp white pages, no rounded corners, and no staple rust. The reference sheets are not as pristine, they appear to have been slightly creased and then flattened back out at some point. The box is only marred by a slight indent from one corner toward the middle, most likely because something heavy was stacked on top of it at some point.

I'll review the supplements and Chainmail in a different post.