My cousin Christopher taught me how to play D&D, he gave me the context to digest the text. Without that starting point I would have been lost. I imagine that today this is still the case for new comers to the hobby.
Last year (?) in my exploration of the OSR RPGs of today I stumbled on the concept of solo RPGs. This looked like a good way to explore the roots of my hobby without the complexity of organizing a face-to-face game.
Selecting Ruins of the Undercity for my first effort I was surprised to read that I would use whatever core rules I desired to play this game. As I wanted an experience as closely aligned with how the game was original played, I selected the 3 little brown books that started it all.
So I set about drafting a summary of these rules that would allow me to better understand the core mechanics and refer to easily during play. 12 little pages that I should now print on brown paper (which I’m very proud of) you can find them here.
I haven’t yet returned to Ruins of the Undercity, or my exploration of solo RPGs, perhaps one day.
On the Tabletop 
I’ve been trying to learn a new system (Neoclassical Geek Revival) and it’s been moving slow. Between the Holmes control panel in your last post and this one I’m now convinced I should try to create something similar. Not only as a structured way for me to get more comfortable with the system but to have a resource to provide players (particularly for ad-hoc online games) who likely aren’t going to invest in reading all the things ahead of time.
Good stuff!
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Haven’t heard of NGR – did just look it up on. Looks very interesting and would be great if you can share whatever reference you come up with.
Will say that creating this type of reference is a great way for me to learn something – and then recall it weeks / months / years later. Too many rules / games kicking around in brain to keep it all straight.
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Great post! I’m enjoying you sharing your journey.
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Great pic! And thanks for the LBB summary.
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Ha! My early days of d&d for sure. The LBB summary was an interesting project. Hope you find it useful if only from a historical perspective.
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