As someone who started out with those three beige booklets in the white box, Original D&D as I've long considered it, I have to take issue with the "beta version" view!!! When it was published, there were NO OTHER RPGs of any sort. Nobody even knew then (mid-late 1970s) what RPGs WERE! And I speak as someone who spent a lot of time explaining to others back then what I thought it meant ?

To these three were added four more supplementary RPG booklets, Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry and Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes. After these, the Basic Set was released while TSR were working on AD&D, as a sort-of stopgap, as the three main AD&D rulebooks took a couple of years to all appear (1977 to 1979 according to Wikipedia, which tallies with my recollection; the Basic Set was published in 1977 apparently - see this page).

I don't think this Basic Set was the same as the later (1981) Basic and Expert Sets, however. I don't know personally, as I went down the AD&D route, because that was closer to the version of the rules the expanded white box set + supplements provided at the time, and by the early 1980s, I was moving-off into other systems, including my own D&D variant anyway. Back in the late '70s, the idea was the Basic Set would guide beginners into AD&D; I was never sure how well that worked, as only one person I knew back then tried it, and found it a little limited.

That desaturated, almost "dried blood" look for the built-up areas might have interesting possibilities for those wanting to map in the expanded Ravenloft setting recently published for D&D too...

Thanks very much everyone - especially Monsen for adding it to the Atlas so swiftly! Glad you liked it!

I agree with Monsen, on both counts - Mercator Historical was THE reason I bought the first Annual, and diversity of options for everything else (as well as thinking beyond simply mapping styles sometimes, in discussions of mapping tools, for instance).

Something I wanted to do, and which remains in-progress, is trying out different styles from the main programs and the Annuals in preparing maps both for myself and especially the Community Atlas project. It's easy to fall into a pattern of familiarity with styles that feel comfortable, and not look beyond those, which is something I'd prefer to avoid. Luckily, the options in the Annual issues provide a large pool of options to explore ?

Thanks very much Jim!