When I discovered the OSR in December of 2010, sometimes I found it difficult to keep up with all the acronyms in use. B/X, OGL, FLGS, and on and on. It took about a month before I knew my way around the acronym block, so it were. So, for the newbies out there in teh interwebs, here's an Old School Renaissance Acronym Glossary & Dictionary,
O.S.R.A.G.D. for short, since acronyms seems to be in fashion!
0-9
0e - Zero Editon, the original, 3 volume set of
Dungeons & Dragons, first published in 1974.
1e - First Edition, also known as
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, published between 1977 and 1988.
2e - Second Edition, a restart of
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, published between 1989 and 1999.
3e - Third Edition, dropping the
Advanced label,
Dungeons & Dragons published between 2000 and 2002.
3.5e - Three Point Five Edition,
Dungeons & Dragons revised, published between 2003 and 2007.
3.Xe - Third Edition and Three Point Five Edition.
4e - Fourth Edition of
Dungeons & Dragons, published 2008 - Current.
A
AD&D -
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
ADD -
Adventures Dark and Deep.
Adventures Dark and Deep - A retro-clone "what if" RPG, specifically, what a second edition of AD&D might have looked like had Gary Gygax not been ousted from TSR.
AEC - Advanced Edition Companion, a supplementary rule set for
Labyrinth Lord, allowing players and DM's to use characters, rules, monsters, and magical items from
First Edition AD&D.
B
BD&D -
Basic Dungeons & Dragons, a continuation of
Original D&D,
Basic D&D was published from 1977 to 1999, and had six total revisions.
Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game - A rules-light system based loosely on
3.5E D&D, inspired by the earlier versions of
D&D.
BECMI - Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, Immortal:
Basic Dungeons & Dragons version with Frank Mentzer as editor. Covered levels 1-36, plus another 36 as an immortal. Published from 1983 to 1990.
BFRPG -
Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game.
Black Box - The 1991
New, Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons Game, the fourth revision of
Basic D&D, served as introductory set to the
Rules Cyclopedia and covered levels 1-5. Sometimes used for all
Basic D&D sets from 1991 to 1999, though not all came in black boxes.
Blue Box - The first
Basic D&D set, published in 1977 and edited by Eric J. Holmes. Covered levels 1-3 and was more closely related to
Original D&D than later sets. Also the only edition in which the magic-user spell
Magic Missile required a to-hit roll.
BRP - Basic Role-Playing, Chaosium's percentile, skill-based system that originated with
RuneQuest, and underpins
Stormbringer,
Worlds of Wonder,
Call of Cthulhu,
Superworld,
Ringworld,
Elfquest,
Hawkmoon,
Elric!, and
Nephilim.
B/X - The second revision of Basic D&D, included the Tom Moldvay edited Basic Set and the Expert Set edited by Dave Cook and Steve Marsh. Covers level 1-14 and was only published from 1981 to 1982.
That's the start right now. Once I go through the entire alphabet I'll compile this into a single document or page. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!
