Episode 10: Holmes Basic Dungeons & Dragons

It’s the grandaddy of Basic D&D, the blue book edited by Dr. J. Eric Holmes! This little gem from the late 1970s brings us the question of trying to sell RPGs in mass market stores. It also begs other questions, such as how many ogres you need to mug to level up, why unicorns blow, and what vampires are doing in a game that limits players’ characters to levels 1-3? All this and more will be answered on this episode of Save for Half!

No ogres were harmed in the making of this episode, not even the ones with 500 gold pieces in their bags.

Links mentioned in this show:

Holmes compares his D&D to Moldvay’s update
http://swordandshieldrpg.blogspot.com/2011/07/holmes-compares-his-basic-d-boxed-set.html

J. Eric Holmes site
http://www.holmeswest.com/

Manicorn (follow link at your own risk, and don’t say we didn’t warn you)
http://rlfcomic.com/toyetic/

Top 10 Ogre Colors
https://www.thetoptens.com/ugliest-colors/

Zenopus Archives: Holmes Basic D&D Blog
http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/

Don’t forget to drop us an email at saveforhalfpodcast(at)gmail.com to give your opinions of the show!

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4 Responses to “Episode 10: Holmes Basic Dungeons & Dragons”

  1. My friend had a villain in his Champions campaign named Earwig. He was pretty tough.

  2. Mike Lingefelt says:

    Great show. Love the OGRE Economy of scale to explain everything Holmes. I was inspired so much by your ogre-fu that I started working up a exp chart based on the ogre economy. So far to get a party of four core adventures all to third level it would take 43 Ogres and 43 sacks of gold( avg 350 gp ). I’ll put it in a pdf and share the charts when I’m done. Love all your podcasts old and new. Keeping the old ways kicking for everyone to enjoy. DM Mike

  3. Chris Holmes says:

    Fun and sometimes touching show. Thanks for noticing Dad’s style of writing, which was what made him a great teacher and dungeon master. The orgre economy could be the germ of a Boinger and Zereth story.

  4. Steven W says:

    I enjoy the show, but I don’t think a gold piece weighs a gram. At a 10th of a pound, a gold piece is 45 grams.