Holmes Basic Dungeons and Dragons: The Blue Book box set

The "Holmes Blue Book"....Basic Dungeons and Dragons! For many this was the introduction to RPGs....lets set the WABAC Machine to the early 1980's again & give this early gem its proper respect!
Just for the record....I didn't own this early D&D book "back in the day"...I recently purchased mine off Ebay...a 1978 2nd edition! A couple of the guys in the group I played D&D with back in Middle School owned "The Basic Book". They both had the later boxed set....that came with the early D&D modules...

Had the colorful box, a module & a set of "Dragon Dice"! I remember my friend having "The Keep on the Borderlands" with his...great intro adventure!
This is the version of D&D that was intended for younger players....as opposed to the more complicated "Advanced D&D" that was just around the corner in '77. It was a streamlined version of the original D&D that had been released a few years earlier in small book form....and this version still carried both the names "Gygax & Arneson!

I remember liking how this book made the "rules" and game play easy to understand....something that AD&D didn't always do...at least to my "Tween" mind! Just role up those characters & off to explore the dungeons....and loot & kill of course!

Less Character classes, less rules....right in our wheelhouse! Who wanted to spend countless hours agonizing over which character to play? Elves, Halflings & Dwarves were classes in the Holmes book....player friendly and lots of room for expansion by the players & DM.
Another thing I love about the Holmes version of D&D is the art work...

Great drawling of battle by the late David C. Sutherland III....Magic user & Fighters taking the fight to a band of Orcs! Classic stuff!
And of course the Holmes book introduced many of us to the artist I consider to be the absolute KING of "D&D ART"....the late GREAT DAT....aka David A. Trampier!

Just the best, in my humble opinion, of the not only the early TSR artist...but my fav of any D&D artist! Tramp's works are simply Iconic!

If you continue to follow this blog you'll find that I really favor the early artist....Dee, Willingham, Sutherland, Otis....but Tramp is the guy who's works are closest to my heart.
     Other great artist who's work is in the Holmes book include Tom Wham! Always found his stuff entertaining!

 DCS III's work, including the fantastic cover, always displayed a great deal of action! The busty Harpy's popped a few adolescent eyeballs! 

And this small drawing in the back of the book, though a bit crude, displayed his love of "fighting scenes"....gotta love the surprise attack of the skeletons!

The Holmes book also had a trial Dungeon included in it...the 1st many of us (mine was another, which I'll cover in a future post!)ever adventured in!

Rooms with letters instead of numbers...to each his own but it got a kid pointed in the right direction as far as creating an underground adventure world!

I dug(and still do!) this "sample cross section" of a Dungeon....giving the novice player a visual idea of how the various levels of a dungeon stacked over each other...as well as a basis for creating our own such layouts!
The Holmes book even had the "tear-out" page in the back with reference tables for aspiring DM's...

Maybe not necessary for a book this size...but a great idea that would culminate in the DM Screen that would arrive in 1979.
     Now for myself, and the groups of guys I played D&D with, the Holmes book wasn't "D&D lite" or "D&D for kids"...even though we were! We had the Holmes book at the same time as the Molday & Cook books....and the Advanced D&D books too....we just used the Holmes book as a speedier version....when we didn't want to hunt through the more complex tombs...and integrated them all into 1 system....as for my enduring love for the Holmes book? I'll leave you with a pic of a t shirt I picked up on line a few year back....always gets a "Great Shirt!" comment in public....until next time....light the torches & down the stairs!