Getting Started with OD&D

Preamble

So, it's 2023, and you're interested in OD&D. (Hey, that rhymes!) Or maybe you're reading this after 2023, and couldn't care less whether OD&D rhymes with the year or not.

Maybe it was a comment or link that you came across on the OSR subreddit that mentioned "Delving Deeper," "FMAG," or "Iron Falcon." Perhaps it was a mention of "FMC" in a flurry of Discord messages. Or you stumbled on some blogs that were more downright fascinating and theoretical than they had any right to be about an elf game. You began to hear whispers of Scribes of Sparn and heard about something called a Judge's Guild.

However you found your way here: welcome. You've found the glory that is original Dungeons & Dragons, also known as OD&D or 0e, and your interest was piqued enough to seek out a blog post, but not quite enough to give the game a try. I'm here to help you get started.

Why OD&D?

Before we dive into how to get started and what retroclones are out there, it's worth briefly discussing why one might turn to OD&D when so many other tabletop role-playing games exist in this day and age. Why play OD&D when other rules-light games exist, even toolkits for creating your own campaigns?

The first is that OD&D is simple. While I would not classify OD&D as a rules-light game, per se, it is certainly much easier to learn than the world's greatest most popular role-playing game. OD&D is relatively straightforward because it leaves so much up to the players themselves and less so to strict rules that must be adhered to. It's liberating. Compared to picking up a game like D&D 5e, Pathfinder 2e, or whatever else, OD&D is fast to teach and play.

OD&D is also cheap. The retroclones that you'll find below are free or generally printed at cost, so the entry threshold is quite low compared to those shiny new hardcovers you'll find in your local game shop.

OD&D is basically the ground zero of the hobby and therefore carries lots of historical interest. If you're interested in seeing where the hobby evolved from, there's probably no better place to start than here.

And with that historical interest comes lots of fantastic blog posts (get it?), theorizing, and pontificating in all the weirdest and most wonderful ways. OD&D has a strong community surrounding it still after nearly 50 years, including a strong DIY culture that carries the faintest scent of the early days of the OSR that has long since been lost to fancy Kickstarters and Exalted Funeral. Below you'll find a list of some of the best blogs out there for the game, and then some.

Getting Started

So, first things first: you need to decide whether you'll just use the LBBs or go LBBs + supplement(s).

Um... what?

LBBs refers to the Little Brown Books, or the three little brown booklets that comprised the original game. They make up the 1974 version of the game. Many OD&D players prefer to play with the original booklets and nothing else because they feel that the supplements begin to pull the game farther and farther away from its wargaming roots that are so central to its early appeal, add various (unnecessary) complexities, and ultimately—some would say—make the game begin to feel like the redheaded stepchild of future, more fleshed out iterations of the game.

Others, however, prefer to play with the supplementary material because it's in those very supplements that we find the foundations for what TTRPGs would become today -- at least, in the OSR space (such as variable weapon damage, for instance. That's right: when you're playing with the 1974 rules, you'll be rolling d6 for every weapon). They also add several classes and options that really flesh out the game into something juicier, with more to sink your teeth into. It may be a much easier sell for new players than the comparatively light options found in the first three core booklets.

Once you've made that decision, it's time to decide which version you'd like to play.

Choosing a Game

There are several options for playing OD&D in 2023. 

The Originals

The original booklets are available on DriveThruRPG for a handful of bucks. This is for you if you want to play with the original, untarnished, honest to God rules. The editing and layout are atrocious by modern standards, but this is the "real deal."

Delving Deeper

This retroclone, created by Simon Bull, attempts to hew extremely close to the LBBs. It came out about a decade ago and has been a staple in OD&D spaces since. It pulls from sources like Strategic Review to make sense of confusing/vague rules, and in so doing, cleans up the game to make it more immediately playable, cohesive, and parsable. This includes not assuming players have access to Chainmail or Avalon Hill's Outdoor Survival (granted, Delving Deeper does suggest utilizing a book of mass combat rules like Original Edition Delta's Book of War). The layout is old-school inasmuch as it features hefty paragraphs and only three pieces of artwork (stunning artwork, though -- some of my favorites in the OSR. Seriously). No index, though, unfortunately. It's $5 on Lulu or free over at the author's forums. Check out this review by captcorajus on YouTube, or this upbeat video on why you might want to give Delving Deeper a go. There are a couple versions of the game out there; just stick with the one on Lulu or the v4b PDF on the author's website. And join the forums.

It's worth mentioning that the author has been working on an annotated version of Delving Deeper that has literally hundreds of footnotes explaining Delving Deeper's relationship with its source materials. It has been in development for several years and will hopefully come out before I die, because when it does, it'll not only be a landmark release in the OD&D sphere, but in the OSR in general. I'm not exaggerating, here. This will be right up there with the works of Gavin Norman, Anthony Huso, Patrick Stuart, Matthew Finch -- the modern giants. The author's website includes a link to some quiet forums and the latest rendition of the game in PDF form, including some handy player reference sheets. Play this version if you want a set of rules that is extremely close to the LBBs but tidies them up ever so slightly to make the game more playable, with no real tinkering required from the get-go. Approved by Odd74.

Iron Falcon

This retroclone, created by Chris Gonnerman of Basic Fantasy RPG game, clones the LBBs plus the first supplement, Greyhawk (hence the name, Iron Falcon. Grey Hawk. Get it?) The first supplement introduced the Thief class and variable weapon damage, which have remained two staples of D&D ever since. The layout, like Delving Deeper, is old-school, and it does little to nothing to clean up the original rules. As such, it's quite close to the LBBs + Greyhawk, and has many a grognard's nod of recognition. It's free over on the Iron Falcon website, and available on Lulu/Amazon for less than $10. Play this version if you want OD&D with some of the gameplay additions that made D&D much more recognizably a "role-playing game" by modern standards.

Swords & Wizardry

This retroclone was one of the first in the OSR, created by none other than Matt Finch of OSRIC fame. The game has gone through several iterations and versions that I will not expound on here, because the version in print today is the one that everyone means when they refer to the game. That version clones OD&D and all the supplements. In so doing, it presents the game as it was played in 1978 on the eve of AD&D's release. As such, it includes faaaaaar more content than the other games listed here. Swords & Wizardry makes some changes to the core rules, most notably having one unified save compared to the several different saves in the LBBs as well as including Ascending AC. The latest version of Swords & Wizardry, which had a wildly successful Kickstarter earlier this year, carries a polished layout, lots of artwork, and best of all, Finch's explanations for his rationale behind changes he made to the original game in S&W, including the original versions of those rules for players to pick and choose from if they want. The website is here. Play this version if you want the most feature complete version of OD&D on the market in an attractive, modernized layout.

White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game

Also known as White Box FMAG, or just FMAG, this game by Charlie Mason attempts to update an earlier version of Swords & Wizardry, simply known as Swords & Wizardry White Box, created by Marv Breig. FMAG keeps Swords & Wizardry's changes to the LBBs but fleshes out the original retroclone considerably, including an optional Thief class. It carries a great, modern layout, but above all else, this retroclone is exceptionally easy to understand and parse. It's as if it were designed to introduce new players to OD&D. It is arguably the best version of the game for a table where everyone is new to old-school RPGs, or OD&D more specifically. It's available on Amazon or for free over on DriveThruRPG. Play this version of the game if you're looking for a clean, modernized introduction to OD&D that's easy to understand and get to the table right away.

Fantastic Medieval Campaigns

Also known as FMC, this retroclone is hot off the presses, having just come out this autumn. As explained here by its author, Marcia B., what sets FMC apart from these other clones is that it does not make any attempts to clean up or polish the LBB rules in any capacity, but rather, opts to leave in all of the ambiguities and confusions that the original rules presented. FMC also includes Chainmail, Gary Gygax's wargame that was included with D&D and which was referenced in the original rules, among several optional rules from the supplements presented as appendices (so as to make it extremely clear where the LBBs end and the supplements begin). FMC includes multiple indexes, a modernized layout, lots of cute artwork, and a Creative Commons license. Of all the games here, this is the closest to the LBBs. The game can be found here for free, or over on Lulu for $10-$25. Play FMC if you want to play a retroclone that is as close as humanly possible to the LBBs without risking a lawsuit, even if that means leaving in all the rules that are confusing, vague, and require some on-the-fly adjudications as well as tinkering to get the game going.

Blueholme

Alright, this one's a bit of an oddity here. Blueholme was created many years ago as a "what if?" retroclone and expansion of the Holmes Basic box set. What's interesting about Holmes Basic is that it was created by Dr. John Eric Holmes after he played OD&D and felt that it could use a better introduction to make it easier to grok for new players. Holmes Basic, which served to introduce players to OD&D, came out on the eve of AD&D, so Gygax inserted references to AD&D throughout in order to help sell AD&D once it launched. Thus, Holmes Basic's raison d'être was short-lived, and was supplanted by later versions of the game pretty quickly. The rest is history. Why do I recommend Blueholme? Because it's still firmly in the OD&D camp, but it includes far more rules and onboarding to help ease new players into the OD&D sphere. It's a brilliant neoclone that carefully clones Holmes Basic and expands it all the way to twentieth level. It's easier to grok than most of the games I listed above, and is a fantastic game in its own right that is sadly overlooked! It's available over on Lulu or DriveThruRPG.

Alright, I chose a game. What's next?

Play, you fool! Pick up some dice, pencils, paper, and JUST PLAY!

...where do I find players? Where's the scene at?

Yeah, this one's a bit tough. The OD&D scene is unfortunately pretty fragmented online. If you're not able to find an in-person group, here are some options for you:

Forums

• The OD&D subreddit.
• The OSR subreddit.
• The Odd74 forums. The original OD&D forum. This is a gated community, and you need someone to vouch for you to be able to get in. You won't find more knowledgable discussion anywhere else, though. The place is a goldmine for all things OD&D. Being such a gated space, it's sadly a bit quiet. As the years go on and more people go to Discord, forums like these become ghost towns. There's still some life left in this one, though. This is where Delving Deeper emerged from.
• The Ruins of Murkhill. A forum I know nothing about, other than it has some OD&D discussion.
• Dragonsfoot forums. There's an OD&D sub-forum here. It's the premier AD&D website. Even less activity than Odd74 or Ruins of Murkhill. For AD&D 1e discussion, though, nothing else comes close.

Discords

• The OSR discord (general OSR)
• The NSR Cauldron (see the #classics-and-retroclones channel; lots of activity)
• Clerics Wear Ringmail (associated with a podcast)
• Bandit's Keep (associated with a podcast)
• 0e Den (general OD&D)

Next Steps and Further Reading

• Check out Philotomy's Musings, which is part house rules, part theory about OD&D. It's as it says on the tin: "musings." It's one of the most widely-recommended OSR readings out there alongside Principia Apocrypha or Old School Primer. It's magical and probably does a lot of work to help  explain why OD&D is still being played in this day and age.
• Read this blogpost on d6 damage.
• Check out Delta's D&D Hotspot, along with his Wandering DMs YouTube channel (author of Book of War).
• Check out Bandit's Keep podcast, YouTube, Discord, blog...
• Check out Necropraxis's blog.
• Check out Bat in the Attic's blog (author of Majestic Fantasy Realms and Blackmarsh).
• Check out Traverse Fantasy (author of Fantastic Medieval Campaigns).
• Check out Clerics Wear Ringmail. (Discord linked above)
• Check out Chicagowiz's blog and podcast.

My Recommendations

1. Grab a retroclone from the list above.
2. Grab some d6s, d10s, and d20s. (Unless you select Swords & Wizardry, in which case, a standard set of polyhedrals).
   
3. Begin listening to the Bandit's Keep podcast.
4. Play a few rounds of combat on your own to get the gist of it.
5. Embrace the liberation from lots of rules and get comfortable with ruling on the fly to keep the pace of the game going. As long as your players are on board for that type of experience, you're all going to have a good time. I promise.
6. Hit up the NSR Cauldron Discord or any of the others for any questions you have.
7. Have fun!

Thank you to Jenx on the OSR Discord and folks on Odd74 for their suggestions and corrections.