RPGPundit Reviews: The Advanced Dungeons And Dragons Reprints

This is a (sort of) review of the AD&D reprint books, released a couple of months ago by Wizards of the Coast as a kind of commemorative edition.

This isn't really going to be a review, not of the AD&D system that is, since its pretty well the most famous RPG in the world and really needs no reviewing.  Instead, I'm just going to comment on this specific printing.

I was lucky enough to receive all three books as a complementary bonus to my gig as an official Consultant for the currently under-development 5th edition of D&D. These books were a very welcome arrival indeed; since by this point my own AD&D book collection was in pretty pathetic state.  My PHB and Monster Manual were both long gone, and while I still had the 1e DMG, it was quite literally falling to pieces from decades of use and abuse, to the point that I cringed any time I had to try to remove it from the bookshelf where it lives.  So it was the perfect time to obtain a replacement.

These new books are absolutely majestic. Hardcover of course, with a gorgeous colour, and texture too; the thing has bumps! All the little decorations around the central cover image are three-dimensional. There's beautiful gold foil in the corners; and the central image of each book is a recreation of a key part of the original cover image, jutting out from their encapsulating circles as though moving to life. Its beautiful.
Each book also has a sewn-in bookmark; blue in the case of the PHB and MM, and red in the case of the DMG. The binding of the books is really astounding and they have all the appearance of a product made to last the ages (or at least the next two or three decades of heavy use I plan to put them through).

The interior of the books are absolutely unchanged from the originals, nothing added or taken away.  Contrary to some concerns, the margins are just fine and totally legible. The interior artwork is fantastic as always, though some images have come out slightly darker than the originals were. That's probably the worst thing I could say about these books.

I suppose I can't really finish a review about the reprints without saying something, at least, about the AD&D game itself.  Getting the books provided an opportunity to re-read the AD&D rules, something I hadn't done in quite a while (I've always been more of a Rules Cyclopedia guy); and while some of the material in there seems clunky by modern standards, some of it downright goofy in its excesses of detail, I couldn't help but be struck by the richness of material in the AD&D rules, the quality of the game itself that has stood the test of time, and its potential value beyond the game itself in terms of a cornucopia of inspirational material that can be readily borrowed or stolen for any number of other games.  The AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, in particular, is a magnum opus of an absolutely awe-inspiring amount of both rules, advice, flavour and setting material.  I couldn't help but imagine how, when it first came out, it would have been the RPG-hobby's equivalent of an atomic bomb: nothing like it had ever existed before, and it would have absolutely changed the game for anyone who bought it.  Even to this day, anyone who hasn't ever read it really should; and not just glance over it, but make the effort of reading it section by section to uncover all the amazing hidden gems it contains.

I pray to all the gods of creation that the main writers of the 5e game will bother to do so.

RPGPundit

The books are very good, no doubt about it. They're amazingly well-made artefacts. Some of the gold has worn off my page edges on the DMG, but really... that's a trivial concern. The books are more than worth their price.

Quote from: RPGPundit;580643The AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, in particular, is a magnum opus of an absolutely awe-inspiring amount of both rules, advice, flavour and setting material.

Those random-generation tables. Amazing.

There's a lot of great stuff in there. I think the wordiness of the books works against it, though - Gygax doesn't use five words when ten will do, and that obscures some of the quality of the content. What there is, is excellent, but without the waffle and flowery prose, you could probably double the amount of actual content.

Quote from: Ladybird;580654Those random-generation tables. Amazing.

There's a lot of great stuff in there. I think the wordiness of the books works against it, though - Gygax doesn't use five words when ten will do, and that obscures some of the quality of the content. What there is, is excellent, but without the waffle and flowery prose, you could probably double the amount of actual content.

i have to say, i think the writing style works because it is warm and engaging. Gary has his own voice, which works for him, but might not work for other writers. These days too many game writers in my opinion lose their voice in an effort to abide by style guides and the latest writing tips from writer's digest. They are affraid of bad habits or the dreaded passive voice. The DMG in particular is refreshing to read for this reason. My only real criticism of gary's prose is the organization. You take out those superfluous letter words and you remove part of its spark.

Quote from: RPGPundit;580643I suppose I can't really finish a review about the reprints without saying something, at least, about the AD&D game itself.  Getting the books provided an opportunity to re-read the AD&D rules, something I hadn't done in quite a while (I've always been more of a Rules Cyclopedia guy); and while some of the material in there seems clunky by modern standards, some of it downright goofy in its excesses of detail, I couldn't help but be struck by the richness of material in the AD&D rules, the quality of the game itself that has stood the test of time, and its potential value beyond the game itself in terms of a cornucopia of inspirational material that can be readily borrowed or stolen for any number of other games.  The AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, in particular, is a magnum opus of an absolutely awe-inspiring amount of both rules, advice, flavour and setting material.  I couldn't help but imagine how, when it first came out, it would have been the RPG-hobby's equivalent of an atomic bomb: nothing like it had ever existed before, and it would have absolutely changed the game for anyone who bought it.  Even to this day, anyone who hasn't ever read it really should; and not just glance over it, but make the effort of reading it section by section to uncover all the amazing hidden gems it contains.

I pray to all the gods of creation that the main writers of the 5e game will bother to do so.

RPGPundit

I completely agree with all that.

On the subject of the prose of Gary Gygax, I think the style actually participates to the quality of the DMG. It's basically a text you have to read. Not skim through. Not "I'm just going to read this paragraph diagonally" or "I'll just use this or that table and not bother with the text" and "run the thing from there". It's something you have to read, make a conscious effort at understanding and owning to come to your own rulings. And that, in time, makes you a better Dungeon Master. It teaches you to think, to make your own mind about things... it teaches you to fish, in other words: you know the phrase, "teach a man to fish..." well that's basically the purpose of the book, and the tone and style participate to that dimension of the work IME. It's not a manual for a toaster oven. It's a conversation from one DM to another.

One thing I would add to the DMG is an Appendix Q that would be another, complementary index compiled specifically to use the DMG in the game. With the benefit of 30+ years of existence of the DMG and DMs running games with it, it would be much more detailed than the index already there (which would also remain), and get straight to the meat of various rules burried in the text one would need on a moment's notice. That's about it.

Quote from: Benoist;580707On the subject of the prose of Gary Gygax, I think the style actually participates to the quality of the DMG. It's basically a text you have to read.

Yeah, that seems right. It reads like a book that, if you properly understand it, will teach you how to run a great game. It's got a totally different style to a lot of rule books.

I can totally see why people wouldn't like AD&D, though; it would be really easy to get a bad game out of it, if you didn't properly understand what the book was saying, or how it all came together, or what you do and don't need to worry about.

That Appendix Q would be great for players who've got past the first stage of understanding the book, but I think you'd really have to go through it at least once, the hard way, to get the best from a summary.

Quote from: Ladybird;580768That Appendix Q would be great for players who've got past the first stage of understanding the book

What I'm finding out is that that personal sense of understanding and discovery is never quite over for me. I've been reading through the DMG for years now and I still find tons of stuff in there that I either forgot from one reading to the next, or somehow completely overlooked, or read under a new, different light with each particular reading. It's quite amazing in that sense, to the point I wonder if I'll ever put the book down and be able to say I truly mastered its contents, to be honest.

If you haven't tried it in a while I challenge you to: pick up the DMG and start reading it again with fresh eyes. You'll see a shitload of stuff there you had not noticed before, stuff that'll make you think about the game in new and (I think) interesting ways, especially when compared to some of the most recent works out there. This aspect of the DMG still blows my mind to this day, actually.

Yup, its a "magical book" alright.

RPGPundit