Editing Dungeons & Dragons (section)

==Nicknames==
There have been a wide variety of names used to distinguish these first iterations of D&D from their successors. As indicated above, Original D&D (or "OD&D") is used for the original sourcebooks that formed the first stepping-stones between [[Chainmail]] and the BECMI set, although it can sometimes be misused for both the Original books and the subsequent Basic Edition books.

That secondary iteration is commonly called BECMI, an acronym used internally for the different box-sets that made it up, but it has many other names. One of the more common is "Basic Dungeons & Dragons" (or "BD&D"), a direct counterpart to [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] ("AD&D"). Another common name for it is "Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition". This is inaccurate, as, amongst other things, AD&D was the first D&D iteration to be explicitly divided into 1st and second editions, but because there is a much wider gap between Basic and Advanced (plus, AD&D 2nd edition ran longer than AD&D 1st edition), and all subsequent editions of D&D have numbered themselves from 3rd edition onwards, the idea of BECMI as D&D 1e remains entrenched. It's even used here on this website!

====The complete list of acronyms identifying D&D's early iterations====
'''Dungeons & Dragons''' (1974):<br>
''Original D&D'', ''OD&D'', ''0th edition'', ''0e'', ''The White Box'', ''The Little Beige Books'', ''The Three Little Books''

'''Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set''' (1977):<br>
''Holmes Basic'', ''Holmes Edition'', ''The Blue Book''

'''Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set/Expert Set''' (1981):<br>
''Moldvay Basic'', ''Moldvay Edition'', ''Basic D&D B/X Edition'', ''B/X'' (probably the most common nickname), ''Otus Edition'' (from the cover illustrations by Erol Otus) 

'''Dungeons & Dragons Basic/Expert/Companion/Master/Immortal Set''' (1983):<br>
''Mentzer Basic'', ''Mentzer Edition'', ''Basic D&D BECMI Edition'', ''BECMI'', ''The Red Box'', ''Elmore Edition'' (from [[Larry_Elmore|Larry's]] cover illustrations of the Basic Set books)