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As you may or may not be aware, I have recently been blogging about the History of D&D.  The series is meant as an overview and is not necessarily comprehensive.  (I should also note that there is a fascinating looking documentary on this subject in the works over on Kickstarter.)

However, there is something a bit more satisfying than reading about the history of D&D...playing it.  I, Crazy Monkey, intend to take you on a tour of the editions of Dungeons & Dragons.  You will get to experience the rules and "feel" of each edition in a play-by-post campaign format, one at a time, until we reach D&D Next.    

A few notes:

1. For each stop on the tour, I would like to encourage folks who have never played that particular edition to take part as players.  When we move on to the next edition, I'd like bring in an entirely new group of players, though the previous group is encouraged to stick around for the discussions.  We will generally try to maintain a group of about five players, with a waiting list maintained in case someone drops out.

2. The play-by-post format may be new to you.  Don't worry, I will help you through both the learning process of play-by-post and the rules of the edition we are currently playing.  I should note, however, that play-by-post does tend to be much slower than a normal face to face or chat-based campaign.  The game thread will be updated most Wednesday evenings (I say most because other responsibilities may pull me away on any given Wednesday).  If there will be no update on a given Wednesday, I will post a notice to that effect.

3. We will be covering the following editions on this tour.
BECMI - Specifically the "Red Box"
AD&D 1st Edition
AD&D 2nd Edition
D&D 3rd Edition - Specifically the 3.5 revision
D&D 4th Edition

If there is time and interest, we may try to cover some of the sub-editions, such as the Rules Cyclopedia update of the BECMI rules, the Player's Option books in 2nd Edition, the pre-3.5 version of 3rd Edition, and the Essentials rules for 4th Edition.  In all cases, we will be using only the core books of each edition (the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual...just the "Red Box" boxed set in the case of BECMI) and the campaign setting resource for that edition (see point 4, below).

4. The first stop on the tour will be set in the "Known World" also known as Mystara.  For the rest of the tour, we will be exploring the Forgotten Realms, visiting each era presented in the Campaign Setting products of every edition (the original 1st edition boxed set, the post Time of Troubles era of the 2nd edition boxed set, the 3rd edition hardcover volume, and the post-Spellplague era of the 4th edition Forgotten Realms campaign setting).

5. Spectators and lurkers are very welcome.  Commentary and discussion is likewise encouraged.  Please do so in the Out of Character Discussion thread so as not to clutter up the actual game threads or the D&D Next General Discussion forum.

6. Players and the DM (yours truly) will be using the online dice roller Invisible Castle to make all rolls. 

Without further adieu, I present A Tour through the Editions: Part 1: BECMI.  Enjoy.