LL and BECMI

[Tizun Thane]

I was wondering in what small ways does LL differ from BECMI?

Thanks

EDIT: Also, is there any difference between the two LLs below? I ask because lulu specifically mentions 'revised' whilst the other doesn't.

Lulu
Gameslore

[kipper]

I was wondering in what small ways does LL differ from BECMI?

Thanks

Here is a (short) thread from the old forum, comparing LL to B/X. (B/X is largely similar to the Basic and Expert books from BECMI, with some noteable differences, but that is a different subject !): http://www.freeyabb.com/goblinoidgames/viewtopic.php?t=691&mforum=goblinoidgames. Aside from the things mentioned in that thread, the weapon & armour lists are expanded, and there are differences in the combat tables (LL smooths them out, but there are other minor changes). There are probably other minor differences too.

EDIT: Also, is there any difference between the two LLs below? I ask because lulu specifically mentions 'revised' whilst the other doesn't.

Lulu
Gameslore

These books should be identical. All of the B&W cover art books are the same "Revised" version (AFAIK).

[Tizun Thane]

Thanks very much!

[Goblinoid Games]

These books should be identical. All of the B&W cover art books are the same "Revised" version (AFAIK).

True that!

[Dyson Logos]

The post linked above is a comparison to B/X, not BECMI.

BECMI includes a lot of stuff not covered in B/X:

Skills
Weapon Mastery
Character Levels 20-36
The quest for immortality
A lot more (high level) monsters
Dominions
Mass combat (War Machine & Siege Machine)
Artifacts
Mystic class
"Advanced Classes" for name-level characters (Druids, Knights, Paladins, etc)
Oodles more magic items

Also, once you have the CMI part of BECMI, the thief abilities get nerfed. In BE they have the same abilities as B/X thieves, but the tables got rewritten in the Companion set and thief abilities go back to sucking even worse. Because obviously thieves were overpowered and needed to be nerfed.

[rabindranath72]

Also, once you have the CMI part of BECMI, the thief abilities get nerfed. In BE they have the same abilities as B/X thieves, but the tables got rewritten in the Companion set and thief abilities go back to sucking even worse. Because obviously thieves were overpowered and needed to be nerfed.

It depends which version of Mentzer expert you use. There is a revised version which is built to smooth the progression to Companion and beyond. If you use the original Mentzer expert, the progression is equal to B/X, and then the progression to Companion makes no sense at all.
The idea was not to "nerf" the thief, but to soften their advancement to 36th level. Otherwise, by the old progression already by 20th level you would get more than 100% in all skills.
In any case, the differences between B/X and revised Mentzer are not that drastic. They diverge starting on 5th-6th level, levels at which the character is already quite "robust." A thief would have needed higher chances at low levels, when every trap can mean death. It would have been useful to have a progression like the one in AD&D; or perhaps get more thief skills, like hinted in the Cook Expert.
Luckily LL stays closer to AD&D in this respect, and with AEC you also get a bonus to skills for high Dex.