The wait between games was too much for me to bare so I hounded by cousin to schedule the next game. My cousin was working on it but not wanting to be bothered as much and to entertain me handed me the D&D Basic Player’s Handbook revised by Frank Mentzer published in 1983. This book constituted the majority of play in my first few years in the form of a solo adventure, but was usually eclipsed by the much more exciting time when my cousin DMed.
I must of played through the solo adventure dozens of times. Probably in the high 20s or 30s. It starts off as a series of scripted encounters designed to be an introduction to the terms and definitions of the game and the second part becomes a choose your own adventure.
Having played that I must of made dozens of characters from the third section which had rules on character creation. I came up with the idea of testing them in the choose your own adventure section. I think for me only classes that survived were the fighter, cleric and dwarf. The halfling, thief and magic-user all perished having too few hitpoints (HP).
I have so many fond memories just playing by myself, dreaming of playing with a larger group one day. I didn’t have to wait that long but playing through the solo adventure was what I did in between the longish waiting times to sate my craving for wonder, battle, and quest!
Paper, Dice and Plastic 