The original D&D boxed set consisted of three books, the first was the largest. Four supplements were published, and the set of seven was reprinted and sold for big bucks to nostalgia seekers in 2013.

As covered in [b:Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People, and Fantastic Adventure from Chess to Role-Playing Games|15784870|Playing at the World A History of Simulating Wars, People, and Fantastic Adventure from Chess to Role-Playing Games|Jon Peterson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1350579412l/15784870.SX50.jpg|21502915], this edition was the second step away from wargames and towards the Dungeons & Dragons RPG we have today. These books feel like the rules to a large game, with the third even suggesting a board to re-use from a different game (Outdoor Survival). Later publications from TSR included the Dungeons & Dragons Basic edition (not too far from these books) and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, which put much more emphasis on role play.

The first book is the largest, spelling out how the game is played. It describes the attributes, character classes and the concepts of levels. For combat, these are spelled out in the number of "men" the character could fight as, eventually reaching "hero" and "superhero" - which connects directly to the original wargames. Nearly everything is ruled by the six sided die, and the number 6 shows up many places, including the highest spell level. Most weapons do a d6 damage, occasionally modified by 1 or 2 points, and most spells damage in multiples of a d6. This book also mentions the main venue for play - dungeons - and the third book covers this in depth.

The second book lists monsters and treasures. This is far before the concept of a "stat block" - tables at the beginning list a few important vitals, and the description of most is only a small paragraph. Men and Dragons are exceptions, with many details of the varieties, and for the latter, a large discussion on subduing them for later market sale.

The third book is the slimmest, going into detail on dungeon design - which was mostly an exercise to frustrate the party trying to draw a map. For exteriors, Outdoor Survival is frequently suggested, with water holes becoming castles. The actual battlefields were probably played out on the same sand tables used for Napoleonic conflicts, though with a different scale of one character per miniature figure. While not a "DM" book, this volume has the least information for players, who could probably get buy with just one book. These books were not sold separately at the time - I would bet the first book was passed around the group quite a bit.

These were a quick read, and really connect D&D back to its wargame roots. The first few printings of this book detailed the balrog, ent, and hobbits, then the Tolkien estate kindly requested these be removed. The 2013 reprints were of a later edition without these bits, and the cover art for all seven books was updated. Very amateur interior drawings were not changed however, and the balrog (drawn by Greg Bell) lives on at the bottom of page 13.

I recommend these books to anyone interested in the historical D&D, especially as a supplement to the research tome listed above. My gaming will continue to focus on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons branch though - I enjoy the role playing aspect more than the tactical combat and board game described here.