Out of Character discussion:

@dominion451: Yes I'll post the magic spell list for any magic types tonight after I get off work, or first thing tomorrow. Also, I think I'm good with everyone starting out with their max HP at 1st Level.

Also, I screwed up... There's a Barbarian class, I just realized I didn't post. I'll post that tonight if anyone wants to change their character.

Awesome thanks much!

Thanx dominion451 for showing how to include my character avatar by your example. I added that to mine now.

Sure thing, I assume you also know about the avatar on the character sheets that lets you post as your avatar instead of as your default picture? When you make a "custom" character sheet on this site and paste your character info into it there is an avatar link in the top right corner of the sheet and you just upload your picture there.

I've posted a list of all Cleric Spells in the Character Creation thread, but since clerics don't get a spell at first level, I haven't posted the full description of each spell yet. I did the same for Magic-Users, but since we have two elves, which get to add 1 1st Level spell to their spellbook at Level 1, I posted a full description of all 1st Level Magic-User spells as well, in order to help you choose.

Of the seven invites I sent out based on interest in the IC thread, we have five full characters ready to go right now, and the seem to be a pretty well rounded group, covering a little bit of all the bases. I'm thinking maybe we'll give it a couple of more days before we get started for everyone that has a character ready?

I thought as per reading that we got two magic user spells for our spell books, but we could only memorize one spell for casting? Is this changed? Can we pick any two level 1 magic user spells rather than you assigning them to us?

I don't think anything has changed. Here's from the original Moldvay Basic Rules:


But, as to your other question: I prefer you pick your own PC's spell, which is an optional B/X rule.

From Dungeon And Dragon Player Manual (Red Book) (Mentzer)

Spell Books:

Your Medium (1st Level magic-user) starts with a spell book, containing two First Level spells. Your Dungeon Master will tell you what spells your character starts with. The spell book is a large bulky thing, and cannot be easily carried. A spell book is about 2 feet square, 2-6 inches thick, and weighs at least 20 pounds. It will not fit inside a normal sack of any size, but may be carried in a
backpack or saddlebag. (I assigned 200ec)

That is my confusion. This is what my files show.
Moldvay Basic Rules was printed in 1980
Mentzer Basic Rules was printed in 1983
Homes Basic Rules was printed in 1978, but doesn't say how many spells you can as it lets have as many I believe as you make an understanding roll for.
The Classic Dungeon And Dragon: Rules and Adventures Book as printed in 1994 doesn't even touch the matter. LOL.
Dungeon and Dragon Rules Cyclopedia was printed in 1991 doesn't even touch the matter.
Dungeon and Dragon Rules for Fantasy Medieval Wargames was printed in 1974 and doesn't touch the matter.

Smiles. That is all the copies I have... Generally speaking when I do pickup the rules books it shows the Mentzer one to be current.

That’s all good with me,

@GeneCortess: Yes, everything you pointed out seems correct. And the Mentzer rules are the most current "Basic" D&D. But Mentzer's D&D wasn't B/X D&D; it was BECMI. Basically the Modlvay rules (1980) contained just two boxed sets of rules: Basic, and Expert (hence "B/X"). A few years later, in 1983, they re-did the books and the art inside, the layout, etc., and the full rules were presented in five boxed sets: Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, and Immortal (hence the acronym "BECMI").

While the system itself is more or less the same and compatible (as I understand it), there were some notable differences in Mentzer's rules. Most striking is probably that in Moldvay's B/X, 14th Level is as far as a character can progress (some classes max out at even lower). In Mentzer's BECMI, character's can advance to Level 36+. There's other things like experience progression for different classes, or as we see here, the number of starting spells for Magic-Users and Clerics start with at 1st Level (clerics don't start out with any spells at Level 1 in B/X).

There's definitely things I find interesting in BECMI based on what little I know of the books, and definitely some handicaps starting PCs have to overcome in B/X, but we're doing Moldvay's B/X because those are the books I have and the system I've run in the past.

When I DM for B/X or Basic games I always gave wizards two spells at the start but one of them was always Read Magic and the other was the players choice. Without Read Magic a wizard has little chance of gaining new spells from adventures, not to mention it seems thematic that a mage should learn to read magic before anything else.

Is the Original Dungeon and Dragon Supplements I, II, III and the Original Dungeon and Dragon Vol I, Vol II, Vol III all are BECMI? or these something like chainmail? Guessing they are not B/E.

Obviously Basic Rules & Expert Rules by Mentzer is BECMI as is Companion, Masters, Immortals.

Basic Rules & Expert Rules by MoldVay are B/E. How about the Rules Cyclopedia?

Sorry for the late arrival however I don't have a Character Creation thread yet

@Tuatete: I jeez, I'm sorry. I'll post one up for you right now.

I could be wrong, but I believe the Rules Cyclopedia was published later and is just all of the BECMI stuff compiled into one book, instead of having everything previously scattered around in five different boxed sets. Like they came out with the five BECMI boxes, and then later decided, "Let's just put all of this in one book."

I'm not familiar enough with Original Dungeon and Dragon Supplements I, II, III and the Original Dungeon and Dragon Vol I, Vol II, Vol III to answer with any sort of certainty, so best answer I can give is an "I don't know".

But I don't mind @dominion451's and @Aldrusian's thought on allowing two spells, as long as one is Read Magic. If anyone is playing a Magic-User/Elf, and would like to start with two 1st Level spells in your spellbook, I'd be down with that, with the caveat that one has to be Read Magic. The other would be Player's choice. Does that sound fair?

Chainmail was more of a Battlesystems predecessor, large scale miniature combat on large grid maps. You can check it out here:

Chainmail 2nd Edition

And yes, the Rules Cyclopedia was a late arrival amalgamation of all the BECMI modules. Different author from the earlier B/X modules. Much more of a complete system really.