Scott Mob started a "Do you own a Holmes box set" poll/thread over on ODD74. The poll options are Yes, Nyet, or Just the rulebook, no box. Feel free to answer here or there.
http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/13154/own-holmes-box-set
(you need to be a member and logged in to see this part of the board now)
http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/13154/own-holmes-box-set
Here's my answer --- I have 3 boxed sets these days. My original box from childhood is long gone, although I still have the remnants of the rulebook (I use the cover on my DIY DM screen), and the B2. So the sets I have now were all purchased in the last decade or so.
ReplyDeleteThe first box is a Wizard Logo, with a 2nd edition rulebook and B1, and the second box is a Lizard Logo with a 3rd printing (May 1978) rulebook, M&TA and Geomorphs. Both of these came with the dice.
For many years this is all I've had, but just this past summer I rescued another set from a local game store. So now I have another Wizard Logo set, but with a 3rd edition rulebook with the chits still attached inside the rulebook. Missing the module, but I have a few copies of B2 to go with it.
I'm not a proboard member (DF is the only forum I'm on, no time to track any of the others; G+ and FB groups scratch my other gaming itches) so I can't take the poll.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I still have my beloved original Holmes set (wizard logo) that started me on my lifelong gaming hobby. Recently, I picked up a lizard man logo set - not so much because I needed another, but because that lizard man logo is dang cool.
I have my original dice form 1978.
ReplyDeleteI have since acquired a couple of boxes, two (or three?) rule books (I know I have the early and late versions covered), and the B1 & B2 modules.
Rule book and box, I don’t know if they are from the same printing or not. I started with Holmes in 78 but never owned a set until a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteRule book
ReplyDeleteMy original should still exist. I gave the squashed box and contents to the younger of my two brothers when I went off to college. It had the monster sheets. No module. It may have been the lizardman logo. When I visited my brother I looked in the last place I knew he kept it in the basement. He had a stroke and has issues with stairs so doesn't go in his basement. My nephew wasn't sure where it was. I meant to buy it back from him, if he'd sell it. It survived the water leak that wiped out most of my now re-built AD&D 1e collection. I suspect one of my nephew claimed it. They still play 1e, and now 5e. I did keep the dice from that set, I don't recall using chits.
ReplyDeleteFor nostalgia, a couple years ago, I bought a Wizard logo in a well used box, still functional though. It has the B1 modules and intact/unpunched chits. This is the one I got Tom Wham to sign at Gary Con 9 and he didn't think he had any art in it until he saw the picture.
Back in the day, I had a Holmes box set (B1 & dice) that my dad got me at a garage sale.
ReplyDeleteIn my 'restored' collection I have one of that configuration, as well as a B2 & chits. The completist in me would love a Geomorphs/M&T/dice Lizard Man set, but I haven't found one at a price the cheap side of me will pay. :D
I think the link didn't work to odd74 because of the whole hidden login thingy. I own one box set complete. And 2 spare rulebooks with lizard and magic user. Found one last Eve going thru a shelf😁 prices seem to be rising on eBay especially for lizard man era set in nice condition
ReplyDelete...trying to reg there now...
ReplyDeleteIf u have issues registering there is a thread there that discusses the process. Zenopus is also a moderator I believe so he could assist if needed likely. It's a fun board and very informative.
ReplyDeleteCan't access that, but my answer would be "yes."
ReplyDeleteJon Wilson Approved your registration
ReplyDeleteAnyone else who wants to register, this is the link --- login.proboards.com - ProBoards
ReplyDeletePost a reply here after you register and I will approve you.
Thanks, Zach!
ReplyDeleteThe first D&D rulebook I actually ever saw and held in my hands was Holmes. In the early days of Seventh grade (late '86) a friend of mine who was into D&D wanted to DM a game for some of us and brought to me his older brother's copy of Holmes. It was missing the cover and title page. Thus, what he handed me was an only-paper booklet with the lizard-man riding the giant lizard staring me in the face. Heh.
ReplyDeleteHe loaned it to me for purposes of me getting acquainted with a game I'd heard a lot about and almost-kinda-sorta knew how it was played. But of course, all I did was scan the text and wonder over all the awesome illustrations. It didn't matter. I knew I wanted a fighter character and I knew I wanted to play this game!
During this, the "Mentzer era" of D&D, I pined for those volumes, I bought some AD&D stuff and photocopied a great deal of, well, anything I could get my mitts on. Not too long after another friend of mine offered to sell his D&D books for 2 bucks! I was overjoyed, but disappointed when he brought me his and his brother's battered copies of B/X...which I soon fell in love with. These were my main go-tos til the RC was released a few years later in '91...and I came right back to again and again until in '07 I discovered clones and with that, OD&D...and S&W:WhiteBox (both in '08) and now White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game.
The next time I even saw and possessed a copy of Holmes was in my early to mid 20s (about '98/'99) a good friend of mine knew I wanted a copy of the "original" D&D rules. So, for my b-day, he acquired a VERY near mint copy of a Holmes box set. It's in (safe) storage right now but I'm pretty certain it's a much later iteration. It has the non-Holmes-specific B2 and the still-shiny-and-tight book is a later 3rd printing with the chits still inside and wholly intact. It was a whole year or two later when I first learned of the ACTUAL Original D&D booklets.
In and around about '06 to '09 I purchased about four or five 'spare' copies of Holmes. A lizard logo first printing, a second printing and a three third printings. I know there are finer distinctions but I cannot recall further details.
One of the third printings I gave to my young cousin as he was right there with me being obsessed with D&D when we were kids and I made it part of a huge gift box that featured the Holmes book (with a copy of Meepo's Holmes Companion stuck inside), B/X, and Fifth Edition T&T and some printed houserules and some one-page adventures, etc.
What I do know is that back in the late 90s my friend got that gorgeous Holmes box set for 20 bucks or less and every single copy of the rulebooks I bought in the latter '00s each cost me only a few bucks each. Same with ALL of my many spares of B/X. Prices really skyrocketed nigh exponentially over the last 8 to 10 years.
Try to find a copy, any copy, of just the Holmes (or B/X) rules book for less than 20 bucks on eBay nowadays! Sheesh!
I mean, heck, in '07 I bought a near mint pair of BX off eBay for TWO DOLLARS!
In '08 I won a pretty well near mint set of the OD&D 3LBBs off eBay for $45!
Cameron DeBeers has them now (he bought them from me as a Christmas gift for his son a few years ago). :)
Yep, prices for Holmes and other old school stuff has skyrocketed the last few years as our generation started going back to that stuff thanks to a combination of renewed OSR interest and nostalgia Eric Norred. It's a good problem to have, since that indicates interest is outstripping supply for the moment.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately (for our generation of gamers) but fortunately (for people's wallets) I think we've hit "peak old school" in terms of gaming and collecting, much like when the comic collecting bubble burst in the 1990s. We're on the early years of people starting to pass on, and as time goes on our generation of gamers will get smaller. Some new folks will come in (like your young cousin) but the "old school market" will shrink over time; most stuff will get cheaper, except for the rarities which will get even more expensive as a small but rabid group of high end collectors seeks out the really rare stuff (original manuscripts, original artwork from the games, and so on).
It'll be interesting to see who it all unfolds in the years to come. In the meantime, we need to teach the young'uns to play Holmes so we don't end up like the Last of the Mohicans : )
2 boxed sets, 1 with B1 monochrome and sealed dice, 1 with B2 color. Both Wizard logo.
ReplyDeleteThe answer is "Yes"
ReplyDeletehttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/j7vtqWDNz-Muzv3ENZH_j0ioheUXr8aJPG51b2QBZ4MMPGxEyl1fodUN3hf8SCod0yFu42xfgC3aug=s0
Yes
ReplyDeletehttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/kpjoqj-i_ujDC0MMXJzjuTcv5EgIWei4Rg0iK6G35tFKK_gawWStDwrgipt6vW4JmR7wPvrYvAMq-A=s0
and yes
ReplyDeletehttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/JZ4Xezl6mvjsTXv06Webe2ETaU-PfO0JgBrsLj-Neg0y_SafkeGZRLIlhCxWQ4F92HWec3Qz9xXCkA=s0
Now we know where they all are!
ReplyDeleteBryan Manahan Looks like you have even more than stratochamp on the Acaeum. Although some of his are still in shrinkwrap. He probably has everyone on earth beat on Woodgrain OD&D sets, though.
ReplyDeletehttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Nx5LgtZ2yUpsihSjSrfF2TAXKiGTEOnFflHMUIdUgUvHjVA2CF-uU2TVjCHy_QQsFloHbNNPFPpm-NAX63rfEFWvDXwTyEMDVjg=s0
Holy crap. Yeah, that's a lot of woodies. I only have four of them myself (one 1st, one 2nd, and two 3rd).
ReplyDelete: O
ReplyDelete