2 Warps to Neptune

That’s the D&D Expert Set, you’ll notice. In ’83 TSR released the revised Basic Set (red cover) and Expert Set (blue cover), followed in ’84 by the new Master Set (black cover) and in ’85 by the Immortals Set (gold cover). Each consecutive set was geared for higher level characters, but it was super confusing because Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was going on at the same time and had different rules, so if one of us brought the Expert Set to the party, and someone else brought the AD&D Player’s Handbook, the shit really hit the fan.

Not that it mattered in the end. Sometimes we’d get a game off, but mostly we’d just roll characters for a couple of hours, draw some viciously perilous dungeons that not even a Conan-Christ multiclass would survive, chase Ding Dongs and Twinkies with several tall glasses of ice cold Pepsi, and pop Alien (or something more lascivious) into the VCR after the parental units went to bed.

(Image via Big Lee’s Miniature Adventures)

I found this great shot at a Muscatine High School Class of ’88 reunion site. That’s a Dragonlance module on the right. We played one of those at camp in junior high. My mother dragged me to see Cats a year or two later, and I remember bringing Dragons of Spring Dawning with me. I was much distressed when the lights in the auditorium went down and I was no longer able to read my book. My distress sharpened when people dressed up like cats danced onto the stage and started to sing.