From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set After the release of the AD&D game, the Basic Set saw a major revision in 1981 by editor Tom Moldvay. The game was not brought in line with AD&D but instead further away from that ruleset, and thus the basic D&D game became a separate and distinct product from TSR’s flagship game AD&D. The former was promoted as a continuation of the tone of original D&D, while AD&D was an advancement of the mechanics.