In which I'm going to pretty much post a list of what's on my (now mostly in storage) AD&D bookshelf, and then (and in between items) I'm going to talk about it a fair bit. If that's not your thing, stop now, before things get ugly.
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AD&D - First Edition:
1978 - Player's Handbook (1st Edition)
1985 - Oriental Adventures (1st Edition)
1986 - Dungeoneer's Survival Guide
1986 - Wilderness Survival Guide
The 1st Edition PHB is pretty much the book that started me in this hobby. I found my brothers' old copy right about the time I was really getting introduced to fantasy literature in a big way (Thanks for the Eddings stuff, Jason), and I basically said "Wait. You can make...characters? And play them? Kind of like in Might and Magic and Wizardry and Ultima? This sounds great!" Lack of money and rulebooks put a stop to that for a (brief) while, but the seeds were planted, right about the summer after 6th grade.
The 1st Edition OA is one of my favorite sourcebooks, being the avid Shogun reader and fan of Japanese culture that I was and am. Samurai? Awesome! Ninjas? Cool! It had lots of interesting cultural stuff and DM aid stuff in it too, which is why I still keep returning to it. Also, I searched many, many book shops for it, once I figured out such a thing existed.
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AD&D - Second Edition
1989 - Player's Handbook (2nd Edition)
1989 - Dungeon Master's Guide (2nd Edition)
1989 - Dungeon Master's Screen (2nd Edition)
1991 - Tome of Magic
1993 - Monstrous Manual
The Monstrous Manual was the first thing I ever picked up with my own money for AD&D, and I still have fond memories of walking into Papa's Pizza, getting my mother to order me a pizza, and then essentially ignoring her to read it. It's still the most complete monster book TSR/WoTC have ever done, and while it has its share of dud monsters, it stands in marked contrast to many later monster books (All the 3rd edition monster manuals, I'm looking at you here) in how many of the monsters don't suck. As I came to find out later, that's a pretty rare thing.
I read a lot of the Tome of Magic over pizza, too, except this time in school during the 8th grade. I used to bring my books to class a lot, and read them when class was boring (as it frequently was). For some reason, this went over badly, and I eventually got told to stop doing it. It was fun while it lasted though.
1989 - Battlesystem Miniatures Rules (2nd Edition)
1991 - Battlesystem Skirmishes Miniatures Rules
I picked these up because I always wanted to run mass battles, and what better way to do so than to get the official rules for doing so? Yeah. Highly complex, took a lot of conversion work, and it took for bloody ever to actually run a battle. It's a cool idea though, and I definitely want to revisit it some day.
1989 - PHBR1 Complete Fighter's Handbook
1989 - PHBR2 Complete Thief's Handbook
1990 - PHBR3 Complete Priest's Handbook
1990 - PHBR4 Complete Wizard's Handbook
1991 - PHBR5 Complete Psionics Handbook
1991 - PHBR6 Complete Book of Dwarves
1992 - PHBR7 Complete Bard's Handbook
1992 - PHBR8 Complete Book of Elves
1993 - PHBR9 Complete Book of Gnomes and Halflings
1993 - PHBR10 Complete Book of Humanoids
1993 - PHBR11 Complete Ranger's Handbook
1994 - PHBR12 Complete Paladin's Handbook
1994 - PHBR13 Complete Druid's Handbook
1995 - PHBR14 Complete Barbarian's Handbook
1995 - PHBR15 Complete Ninja's Handbook
And here is the reason I'm never going to buy another D&D class book again. I mean, good fuck, look at all those! And while some of them were actually quite good (we'll return here in a sec), there were plenty of duds as well, and as a group they introduced so so so many rules issues. I don't miss those days at all.
That having been said, as an elf fan, PHBR9 was awesome. A whole 128 page book about ELVES. While it was filled with its share of ridiculousness, it did have really cool stuff, like bladesingers and a whole lot of great fluffy lore.
PHBR3, the Complete Priest's Handbook, lays claim to being perhaps the best idea that 2nd edition ever had, which was specialty priests and rules for creating them. Replacing the cleric with a series of unique classes tailored to each deity was such a fabulous idea (later carried to perfection in the FR Faiths and Avatars series of books), that I am still, closer to 15 years than not after stealing Jason's copy of it (thanks Jason), still pretty bitter about how the killed the idea for 3rd Edition. No, domains aren't good enough, you fakers.
1990 - DMGR2 Castle Guide
1994 - DMGR6 Complete Book of Villains
1995 - DMGR7 Complete Book of Necromancers
1997 - DMGR9 Of Ships and the Sea
I've always had a fascination with castles (I wanted to be an architect for a while), and so the idea that you could, with the aid of this book, design your own castles and populate them with people, and tell stories around that, really took hold of me. I still have a very firm memory of seeing DMGR2 sitting on a rack of D&D books (along with PHBR2, as it happens), and immediately purchasing it in the 3 nanoseconds or so it took for me to get it to the register. After I stopped being excited. Rather later in time, I have another memory of myself with a pad of graph paper and my Castle Guide, sitting in the shade taking a break from deck building by sketching a few towers and a wall. We've had a lot of fun over the years, my Castle Guide and I.
1991 - HR1 Vikings
1992 - HR2 Charlemagne's Paladins
1992 - HR3 Celts
1992 - HR4 A Mighty Fortress
1993 - HR5 The Glory of Rome
1994 - HR6 Age of Heroes
1994 - HR7 The Crusades
The Historical Reference series of books is probably my favorite set of books ever published for AD&D, and they've seen almost constant use in the years I've owned them. For each world I build, I peruse several of them, and sometimes even when I need Forgotten Realms ideas. Best world design tool I ever had.
1996 - World Builder's Guidebook
1998 - Dungeon Builder's Guidebook
...besides the WBG, that is. Mechanics and guidelines for worldbuilding, from the top down, or the bottom up, as you preferred. And neat 20-sided hex paper so that, when you got done with your latest map, you could cut it out, fold it up, and make your own globe! This book was the doom for many a colored pencil. You have no idea.
199X - Castles
1992 - Strongholds
I got sick one time in the early 90s, and after the clinic visit, we swung by Trump's to check out gaming stuff, as was the habit of the times. And...oh, hey, fold-up cardboard castles? Sign me up right now. You would never know I was sick, I was so busy with that project. Also, turning Castle Hart from the Castles box into a Campaign Cartographer 2/3 map is probably my longest running project ever, starting some time in the late 1990s, finishing in the early 2000s, and then continuing after a hard drive swap obliterated my files. Yes, I'm still sad about that. You have no idea.
1995 - Night Below
A Christmas gift one year, this thing looked so awesome. "A game where you go from 1st to 20th level! In the Underdark! Awesome!" I wanted to play it RIGHT THEN. More than 10 years later, I'm still waiting. Soon, I hope.
1994 - First Quest
For a brief period in the early 90s, TSR flirted with putting CDs of voices and such in their products. This particular starter version of 2nd Edition AD&D was one of them. I don't recall as how we ever used the CD, but we DID play through the adventure. And, using my Monstrous Manual, Jason went and bought some fire lizards after one particularly hard section, and then waited like FIVE YEARS to breed an army of them before taking the rest of the dungeon by swarm. Ah, those were the days. We were gamers once, and young. And kind of dumb.
1996 - Monstrous Compendium Annual, Volume Three
Which was a completely unremarkable book, except that monsters that weren't in the actual Monstrous Manual? Many of them were very very bad. Let us never speak of them again.
1995 - Encyclopedia Magica, Volume One
1995 - Encyclopedia Magica, Volume Two
1995 - Encyclopedia Magica, Volume Three
1996 - Encyclopedia Magica, Volume Four
1996 - Wizard's Spell Compendium, Volume One
1997 - Wizard's Spell Compendium, Volume Two
1998 - Wizard's Spell Compendium, Volume Three
1998 - Wizard's Spell Compendium, Volume Four
1999 - Priest's Spell Compendium, Volume One
These series seemed like a good idea to somebody at the time, including me. Unfortunately, they ended up being incredibly broken, as there was never any attempt at balancing done throughout 1st and 2nd edition, nor were any realistic guidelines established for doling items or spells out. Combine with a bunch of munchkin teenagers, and you get predictable results. I never did get either of the 3e compendiums, for much the same reasons.
1996 - Player's Option: Skills and Powers
1996 - Player's Option: Spells and Magic
These were basically AD&D 2.5, and, like so much else in that edition, there were a lot of great ideas, badly implemented because they were completely and totally broken beyond words. Constructing your own classes by using options is something that really worked in 3rd Edition, but here, it made for unstoppable juggernaughts of unspeakable power, especially when combined with, say, munchkin items from Encyclopedia Magica. Clyos the Minotaur to the axe-shaped courtesy phone please.
1998 - Core Rules CD-ROM 2.0
1999 - Core Rules CD-ROM 2.0 Expansion
Towards the end of 2nd Edition's life, TSR came out with a set of CDs that, among other things, included a character generator as well as the core and many of the PHBR/DMGR books in rtf format. Revolutionary at the time, of course, and the whole thing worked fairly well, in a way that I'm not sure 3e efforts really did - that character generator CD that shipped with the first set of 3e rulebooks was a sad, sad thing indeed.
And yes, here at the end of the 2e section, I should note that I really did buy way too much gaming shit over the years. Thank you, being a teenager with disposable income and no bills, not to mention time to read all of that stuff. It was fun while it lasted.
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AD&D, 2nd Edition - Greyhawk
1991 - Greyhawk Wars
1998 - Greyhawk The Adventure Begins
I actually got Wars as a Christmas present before I really knew anything about D&D. As it happened, it was more of a Risk-like boardgame, with different types of monsters and such, and you could go questing for treasure. Very cool, but took forever to play. One of these days I wish somebody would write a computer version of it. That would be great.
The Adventure Begins is so totally the fault of Thomas Miller's Adventurers series. Damn you for making me actually like Greyhawk. And for wanting to be Belphanior.
AD&D, 2nd Edition - Dragonlance
1992 - Tales of the Lance
"Well, the Dragonlance novels were kind of cool, and I really liked the Elven Nations Trilogy. Maybe the setting is cool, too?" No, as it turns out. There are lots of individual elements that are really great - kender, for one, and the Solamnic Knights and the way mages work. But something just didn't speak to me about it, and so it never really got used.
AD&D, 2nd Edition - Dark Sun
1995 - Dark Sun Campaign Setting (Revised)
"Well, it's like this. It's a desert world, right? And there are all these evil god-kings. And everybody's fighting. Oh, and there's like no steel anywhere." Cool setting, but we never really did get into it much, save for that brief period where Jason ran a 3e game for Cole and I that featured my amazing leaping thri-kreen (praying mantis PCs for the win!) and a slightly drunken but now immortal conversation revolving around the phrase "chirpa clicka jihad?"
1994 - Planescape Monstrous Compendium
I never really got Planescape as a setting (lots of people love it, but it didn't do a lot for me). However, this book has awesome monsters. In fact it's my second favorite monster book ever. Because it has Hordelings. And Vrocks. Demons are cool.
AD&D, 2nd Edition - Al-Qadim:
1992 - Arabian Adventures
1992 - Land of Fate
1993 - City of Delights
1994 - Complete Sha'ir's Handbook
1993 - Secrets of the Lamp
All of this is the result of...Christmas 1995, I think, when I also picked my FR boxed set, Night Below, and some other stuff. Santa kicked ass that year.
Another in the long list of settings that was completely awesome, but never actually got used for anything because we just never quite got there. That having been said, I steal pieces of it for my own worldbuilding, and I swear that my next Calimshan game is going to have sha'irs in it. Hell, if I ever play a PC again, it may be a sha'ir.
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AD&D, 2nd Edition - Forgotten Realms
Now behold the depths of my obsession. I am a huge, huge FR fan. Huge.
1990 - Forgotten Realms Adventures
1990 - FR11 Dwarves' Deep
1991 - Ruins of Undermountain
1992 - Menzoberranzan
1993 - Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (Revised)
1993 - Ruins of Myth Drannor
199X - City of Splendors
1994 - Ruins of Undermountain II
1995 - Ruins of Zhentil Keep
1995 - Spellbound
1995 - The Vilhon Reach
1996 - The North
1996 - Netheril: Empire of Magic
1997 - Lands of Intrigue
1998 - Empires of the Shining Sea
1998 - Calimport
As a whole, this series of books and boxed sets represents what I consider to be the finest body of world background written, and easily better than its 3rd Edition successors in such a way that's completely tragic if you've ever compared any of it, with the exception of the 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, which actually is superior to its predecessor, fond of that box though I am.
I've used four of these in actual games (Vilhon Reach in my current game, Empires of the Shining Sea/Calimport twice, and Lands of Intrigue more than I can keep track of), and Lands of Intrigue and Empires of the Shining Sea are some very, very fine works indeed.
1990 - The Horde
1990 - FRA1 Storm Riders
Transplanting the Mongols to the Realms was a really supurb idea, and The Horde is a really great boxed set full of great stuff I've just never had the opportunity to use beyond a couple of Tuigan caught in the West after the horde fell apart. Again, one day I will come back to this stuff.
1989 - OA7 Test of the Samurai
1990 - OA6 Ronin Challenge
1990 - FROA1 Ninja Wars
Because I think I mentioned how awesome I want Oriental Adventures to be. And I should also mention how disappointed I always end up being with most of the books, because most people just can't do it well, or at least they couldn't in 1990. Some of this stuff is pretty good (OA6 and most of OA7), but Ninja Wars is actually a comedy adventure they sold as a real one. Would the Shogun readers in the audience like to identify a bigshot general of the Shogun named Hiro-Matsu who carries his sword in one hand? How about an arogant archer samurai named Buntaro? Sound familiar to anybody? Yeah. Which is a shame, because it's actually kind of cool. It's just...ouch.
1991 - Maztica
1991 - FMA3 Endless Armies
1992 - FMQ2 City of Gold
TSR had a lot of really great ideas that just didn't work, and Maztica is unfortunately one of them. Precolumbian America is a great idea for a setting, but you sort of have to run it as its own thing, given the power differences between it and the actual Realms. But since its an FR tie-in, they used the Amnians as Spanish analogues, and created something that, while it COULD be really great, is a little hard in practice. One day, though.
1993 - Player's Guide to the Forgotten Realms Campaign
1994 - Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast
1995 - Wizards and Rogues of the Realms
1996 - Warriors and Priests of the Realms
1998 - Cult of the Dragon
1999 - Demihumans of the Realms
Most of these, with the exception of the excellent Cult of the Dragon, ranged from pretty forgettable to outright shitty products - Player's Guide to the Forgotten Realms Campaign was utterly devoid of anything useful. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. 128 pages of absolute nothing, and if you think I'm bitter about that still, buying it thinking I was getting real setting info, well...yes, actually, I'm pretty fucking pissed off about it, why do you ask?
199X - Monstrous Compendium, Volume Three: Forgotten Realms Appendix
199X - Monstrous Compendium, Volume Six: Kara-Tur Appendix
In which we get monsters. The OA ones are awesome. Some of the FR ones are awesome. Many of the FR ones are also retarded. Enough said.
1996 - Faiths and Avatars
1997 - Powers and Pantheons
1998 - Demihuman Deities
To continue what I was saying about the Complete Priest's Handbook, this trilogy is amazing. Not only does it carry the idea of specialist priests to its ultimate form, it also does the same for the Forgotten Realms pantheon of gods (which as you can see is very very large). Again, and I'm going to keep harping on this, this was something done very well in 2nd edition that was totally biffed in 3rd, where we got one book, in large type (F&A is the same size but in very very small type), which couldn't hope to cover more than the basics, and in reality we barely got more than was put into the actual Campaign Setting. Very sad.
1999 - Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas
As a map freak, this thing is awesome. It's kind of like having Google Maps for the Realms, only back in 1999, and with lots of floorplans and such. Not every single map ever published for the Realms made it in here, but enough did. Oh yes.
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D&D, 3rd and 3.5 Editions
2000 - Player's Handbook (3rd Edition)
2000 - Dungeon Master's Guide (3rd Edition)
2000 - Monster Manual (3rd Edition)
2002 - Monster Manual II (3rd Edition)
2003 - Player's Handbook (3.5 Edition)
2003 - Dungeon Master's Guide (3.5 Edition)
2003 - Monster Manual (3.5 Edition)
2002 - Stronghold Builder's Guidebook
2001 - Oriental Adventures (3rd Edition)
I've griped a lot over the course of this over how bad a lot of the fluff changes between 2nd and 3rd edition books have been, and believe you me, they are BAD, but let us also be clear that the 3.0 rules, followed by the 3.5 rules, were an absolute revelation to us at the time about what a good ruleset could be. It solved essentially every single problem I ever had with 2nd edition (which were very many), and my main gripes now are that I still want my goddamn specialty priests, and it takes way too long to do encounters because I have way too much fun with statblocks. Considering how much 2nd edition material I have for fluff, I'm more than ok with that, but I fell sorry for those poor bastards who don't have it, although in this age of $4 PDFs, why don't you?
You'll note that the list got really short all of a sudden. Part of that's less money - I grew up somewhere in there - and part of it's I learned lessons in 2nd Edition, like "Keep the game simple, stupid. You'll be happier." Haven't quite succeeded, but I'm trying.
Note the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook. Not the Castle Guide, but it tries, and does so well. I can't quite love it like I do its older brother, but I have my affection for it, after its fashion.
I can't really say the same with OA 3, though. They got it about half right, and James Wyatt obviously has some enthusiasm for the thing, but the class balancing choices were ridiculous, and we're all still wondering - why the hell did you ditch Kara-Tur for Rokugan, which not only has its own game, got its own d20 support not long after? What a waste.
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2001 - Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (3rd Edition)
2001 - Monsters of Faerun
2001 - Magic of Faerun
2004 - Player's Guide to Faerun
2004 - Serpent Kingdoms
2005 - Lost Empires of Faerun
Again, you will note how many less books I have now than in days of yore. One reason is that are simply way less books - I have about half of everything that's been published, and the other is that for the most part, the books are crap, and in places I don't care to run a game in any case. God book? What do I care, I have Faiths and Avatars. Waterdeep? I've got the City of Splendors box. The exceptions are Serpent Kingdoms, which was actually NEW all the way around (and cool because it has yuan-ti, who rock), and Lost Empires, which was actually good. Everything else, I have because its essential for trying to run a 3e/3.5e FR game.
Again, I exclude the FRCS from this, because it really is an amazing book. For once, unfettered by page counts, the best people in Realmslore combined to produce what is the defenitive overview of the geography, the people, the cultures, the classes... Lots of great stuff got started in this book, like regions. The only bad thing I can think to say of it is that the map sucks when you compare it to the poster maps of old, but then, all of 3rd Edition had shit for maps, so its not surprising, and again, I have all my old 2nd Edition stuff to back me up.
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Final Thoughts
We'll see what this ends up meaning for me and 4th edition. Bad things, I suspect. I'll be getting the core books, of course ($57 on Amazon right now, which is something like getting one book free), and I'll probably pick up the 4th edition FRCS when it comes out, but...enh. If the rules are good, I'll probably switch, but I'm worried about what WoTC's setting reboot on FR is going to mean. I'll keep watch, but I'm going to guess none of this will matter to me for a while. Everyone I know wants to play 3.5, and my FR is still in what's essentially the 2e timeline anyway.
I'm done now. Who made it this far? Who even cared?
Posted by Dwip at May 28, 2008 7:55 PM