Not quite a year ago I started a Dungeons and Dragons campaign based on older books and using maps only for reference rather than tactical movement.
The game sputtered out, but we're starting it again, and this time I'm fully embracing retro-gaming by buying some of the "Gazetteers" to help me build out a setting.
This is not my first encounter with Basic D&D's campaign environment. Module X1 Isle of Dread was part of the boxed set, and I subsequently bought Drums on Fire Mountain, which was designed by Games Workshop staff when they were serving as TSR's UK licensee.
Unfortunately, by the time the gazetteers came out, I was fully committed to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, which had its own settings and modules. This was one of the oddities of TSR – the urge to compete with itself. Indeed, the company grew wild and a failure to do any kind of rational bookkeeping or properly manage the product lines eventually resulted in its failure and takeover.
In practical terms, I didn't have enough money to buy both AD&D and D&D books, and since AD&D was pushing the edge on complexity, that's where I went. Now seems like a good time to see what I missed. Just like watching old TV shows, sometimes going back to an old game opens up new takes on it, and a better understanding of how it works.
Certainly I'm much less interested in detail or complexity than I was. My game design choices now lean towards minimalism, and so using older, less complicated books dovetails quite nicely with my simplified, narrative-based combat resolution.
Chateau Lloyd 
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