The Frank Mentzer revision of the Classic Dungeons & Dragons rules (often called BECMI) let the game conquer a big number of non English speaking countries, albeit the translations were not always commercially successful (the Spanish version for example). And, more intriguingly, the translations not always followed the same format as the original US one: this time we will have a close look to the Norwegian edition of Set 1 - Basic Rules published by AEH in 1988. The most glaring difference is AEH using an hardback book format, a la AD&D, and not a box set with two manuals and a set of dice.
Called "fantasy role playing game basic rules", the book is a 160, black and white pages opus containing the original Player's Manual, Dungeon Master Rulebook and two more group adventures than the original DMR: "Abode of the elves" by Anne Gray McCready (five pages) and "The problem of Mylvin Vimre" byAndrew McCray (eight pages). It includes too quadrille and hex pages (two each) and advertising for the Expert Set and for the NRF (Norsk Rollespill Forening - Norwegian Role Playing Game Association). Last, there are not one but two introductions! One is, of course, the usual Frank Mentzer one and the second is by Geir Aaslid (credited as Project Manager and part of the translation team).
Having the publisher chosen to use an hardback, A4 sized book format, the interiors are different: there are two text columns, not three, and some more artwork has been used coming from other TSR products (including Expert and Companion sets). The overall results are quite good and this book is surely very durable if compared to the booklets in the 'traditional' box.
Alas, the Norwegian edition of Classic D&D did not fare well. At the end of the basic book the publisher writes "There will also be three modules in the course of 1988, there will be 3 maxi modules, entitled ON ADVENTURE, part I, II and III. The first module will be available in early May", "a solo module for those of you who have no one to play with, the Ghost of Lion Castle", a translation of The Grand Duchy of Karameikos and the translation of Set 2 - Expert Rules. Only the Expert Rules were released in 1989, then everything stopped. As you can guess, finding copies of the Norwegian edition (and the translations in various other Scandinavian countries) is devilishly hard and they command very, very high prices.