Every so often, I get the desire to get a few more of the old AD&D and Basic D&D books and adventures that I still don’t own, and so onto ebay and online 2nd hand stores I wander…
The results of my latest set of purchases is now sitting on my table, and includes such items as
Dungeon Geomorphs – I actually owned a copy of these back in the 80s; no idea where they’ve wandered off to now. So, I’ve now got a new copy. Not really the most useful of products, but as I have trouble with maps at the best of times, these can be useful whenever I need some quick inspiration for a megadungeon…
AD&D Player’s Handbook – Believe it or not, this is the 5th copy of it I own. Will come in useful once our AD&D campaign gets underway next year as I can lend these to players.
OA2 – Night of the Seven Swords – one of a handful of Oriental Adventures published for AD&D. Oriental Adventures was a misconceived and problematic product, but I’d like to pick up all the adventures for AD&D. (I’m getting there). I only owned one OA adventure in the 80s, I’m now up to 4.
Original Dungeons & Dragons – at very, very long last, I own copies of the very original form of D&D – the three little brown booklets (sans the box, alas). Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure and The Underground and Wilderness Adventures are where it began, and the bones of D&D can be seen in them. However, trying to play a game of D&D with just those books would be pretty difficult, as they rely heavily on the Chainmail rules for a lot of things (like initiative and combat sequence!) The copies I have are of the 5th edition, and so retain the references to Hobbits, Ents and Balrogs.
M5: Talons of Night – the last of the Master series modules for levels 26-36 for the BECMI D&D game, which means I now own all 5 of them. Talons of Night was fairly expensive to acquire, but the copy I got was in fantastic condition. (Let’s see how it survives my shelving!)
I’ve also picked up a few late 2nd-edition era Greyhawk supplements which I didn’t have before. Although I’m a big fan of the World of Greyhawk, really I’m a fan of the Greyhawk of the 1983 set and the adventures of that time. The Greyhawk of the 2nd edition and 3rd edition eras I’m much less a fan of. I might steal ideas from the later books, but mostly the Greyhawk I run is the invention of my players and me, based on original concepts by TSR. And that’s how it should be.
My collection of old D&D is looking pretty good at present, though.
What am I missing? Well, there’s a few titles that I’m probably not going to try getting: the “R” series and “RPGA” series in particular, as they go for insane prices. Of the other AD&D/OD&D adventures, it’s still a list longer than I’d like…
B9 Castle Caldwell and Beyond
B10 Night’s Dark Terror
B11 King’s Festival
B12 Queen’s Harvest
CA1 Swords of the Undercity
CA2 Swords of Deceit
CB1 Conan Unchained
CB2 Conan: Against Darkness!
CM5 Mystery of the Snow Pearls
CM7 Tree of Life
CM8 The Endless Stair
CM9 Legacy of Blood
DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor
DA2 Temple of the Frog
DA3 City of the Gods
IM3 The Best of Intentions
N4 Treasure Hunt
N5 Under Illefarn
O2 Blade of Vengeance
OA5 Mad Monkey vs the Dragon Claw
OA6 Ronin Challenge
OA7 Test of the Samurai
RS1 Red Sonja Unconquered
X7 War Rafts of Kron
X10 Red Arrow, Black Shield
X11 Saga of the Shadowlord
X12 Skarda’s Mirror
X13 Crown of Ancient Glory
So, 28 adventures to go! Some of them really won’t be hard or expensive to find, but there are a few there that came with counters, maps and big combat scenes (which is why they had counters and maps) and thus go for premium prices. And a few that are just rarer.
Although I started D&D with the black box/red dragon Basic Set and only really played properly with 3rd Edition, I own a few 70s/80s D&D things myself and am indeed running AD&D right now. Great minds must think alike. 🙂
My copy of OD&D is just a printed version of the PDF back when it was on sale, alas. It is bizarre seeing them and their heavy dependence on Chainmail – a very embryonic incarnation of D&D, and yet the DNA is clearly present.
When you run AD&D would you plan on using many pre-made adventures or is this just a collector thing? When I’ve played AD&D it’s just been for a couple of weeks at a time and there’s been an intentional plan to use one of the classic adventures, but that’s me viewing AD&D as a “holiday destination, not a home” if you will.
George Q
Night of the Seven Swords is excellent – I ran all the OA modules apart from OA7 and most were pretty good. We probably got the most fun out of OA4 which was more of a mini-campaign.