Dungeons & Dragons Classics - Every edition available again | Hacker News Reader

Dungeons & Dragons Classics - Every edition available again

dndclassics.com

71 pointsprotomyth36 comments

A lot of this material was previously available from Paizo as pdfs several years ago, though the quality was not always great.

But Wizards changed their mind about whatever deal they had with Paizo and forced Paizo to not only stop selling the items, but to also remove the purchased items from the purchaser's libraries.

I had purchased a couple dozen of those, some of which I did not have backed up and so have lost. I am not at all inclined to pay Wizards for them again.

"I had purchased a couple dozen of those, some of which I did not have backed up and so have lost."

The biggest argument against trusting everything to the cloud. I want my digital copy naked, unencumbered, and outside the reach of the entity that provided to me.

Here's a Wired article about it, for those who can't connect: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2013/01/dndclassics/

It's pretty much a total hodgepodge of out-of-print material. You won't find 4th edition rulebooks or anything like that, but there apparently are a handful of 4th edition scenarios there.

Doesn't appear to include the original D&D set (those little books with the black and white covers), but a quick Google search indicates that PDF scans (if not originals) are floating around out there.

I searched for S3 but could not find it.

Appears to be missing most of AD&D (1e): the Dungeon Master's Guide, Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, Monster Manual II, Deities and Demigods, Rogues' Gallery. How is this "Every Edition Available Again"? I don't understand.

That's my observation as well. Perhaps they mean "something from every edition is available" and intend to dribble out the content in an attempt to make the site something gamers revisit to see what's newly re-released?

Dieties and Demigods (hardcover printing, no Cthulu/Elric) was there this morning.

Deities and Demigods w/ Cthulhu/Elric will mostly ever be a private-scan or print only version.

When the announcement of this plan was made at last year's GenCon, they were very clear that more books would be added as time went on, likely in short order. It's a pretty big catalogue.

No original editions: Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, Wilderness Adventures, Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, and Gods, Demigods, and Heroes. (Or Chainmail for that matter which is probably needed to have the faintest chance of figuring out how these "rules" were supposed to work.)

Incomplete Basic/Expert/... rules -- especially sad that the complete rulebook isn't there since, in my opinion, this was probably the least messed up edition of D&D ever created (and probably closer to D&D as people played it than the other incomprehensible rulebooks ever got).

No core rulebooks for AD&D "first edition" at all (Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual) although some of the add-on rulebooks are there (not going to pay to find out if it's pre- or post- lawsuit Deities and Demigods).

(I put "first edition" in quotation marks because when it came out it was the third version of the D&D rules, and it was "advanced" dungeons and dragons (where by "advanced" we mean "incomprehensible"). The word "advanced" disappeared as of, if I recall correctly, "third edition").

So pretty much missing most of the stuff I'd be interested in for nostalgia. I guess it would be fun to be reminded of how wonderfully awful the official modules were (atrocious artwork, bad writing, and dungeon designs that make no sense at all).

The Deites & Demigods preview includes the table of contents, which makes no mention of Cthulhu or Melniboné.

I haven't played since I was a teenager (you know, when these books were new). I have absolutely no way to justify buying any of this stuff, but I have the feeling that the feelings of nostalgia will win out.

I have a great justification, a son and nephews. Actually I have never stopped role-playing in ~35 years.

That said, Where's TOMB of HORRORS !

I remember seeing some of my classmates who were nerdier than I was (and I am fairly nerdy!) playing DnD in the library afterschool. I remember internally scoffing at them: "how uncool!"

Fast forward 10 years, and I'm hiking with friends in the Purissima Hills. One of us brings up DnD, and I mention, "You know, I've never played DnD, but I feel like it'd be a lot of fun to play." We all agree.

Took 10 years, but I guess we've gotten over our highschool insecurities :P.

Looks like they're re-releasing that one on dead tree:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndac...

Interesting that they're doing this now. It always felt like Wizards of the Coast was trying to shoehorn me into the latest edition.

You sound like an awesome father/uncle. Wish my nephew lived close enough. ;)

I loved that one.

I collected volumes of this crap and never played. If they had the campaign setting boxes for Dragonlance and Planescape I'd probably spend the money though, just out of nostalgia.

It makes a lot of sense from a business perspective.

It costs next-to-nothing to release this old material, since the product development's already been done and they already own the rights.

Unlike re-releasing old computer games, for pencil-and-paper RPG's there are no concerns about compatibility with modern hardware and operating systems. (Tangentially, a very successful startup has had success at addressing those concerns with open-source software, allowing publishers to generate revenue from ancient games [1].)

To those who say the material, once released, will be massively pirated: Two big reasons people pirate material are (1) the lack of a legal purchasing avenue, and (2) they can't afford it. This move takes care of (1), and as for (2), the main audience will probably be older players looking for nostalgia, who have a lot more disposable income than pencil-and-paper role-playing's traditional market of middle school, high school and college students.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOG.com

I think the larger concern is that by providing good gaming resources for older material, they boost that at the expense of their newer profit centers. After all, gamers have a limited amount of time.

However, I agree that this isn't really that much of an issue. The audiences who will grab the new stuff are (as you pointed out) largely different than the ones who will buy the old stuff. Also, a lot of gamers, both new and nostalgic, will buy the old stuff to read and enjoy, but not play much and will continue to buy WotC's new material.

Nostalgia. The amount of 2e and prior content that I have that are on there makes me smile, but also realize, I haven't touched it in years.

Some treasures stand out, first and foremost - Temple of Elemental Evil. Missing -- Tomb of Horrors.

Reading modules, not even playing them, was fun.

One thing they are doing well is the added value of the product descriptions from the "product historian". It was really neat to see, for example, the reasons for the delay of the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Great stuff! If you're interested in that, you may also be interested in http://www.acaeum.com/

'Mearls feels that players should appreciate the older game products, which allowed for more varied, less predictable styles of play. "Older style adventures, there is no script," he said, adding that players enjoy the "uncertainty" of the games' "element of chaos."'

What are the newer adventures like?!? From what I remember of 1st edition modules, they were mostly more tightly bound in scope than any RPG I've played since. Do you have to go through the dungeon in a particular order now or something?

Old adventures were more likely to have puzzles or encounters that required lateral thinking, as well as unexpected traps. Modern adventures are more likely to have skill challenges and encounters that can be resolved using in-game mechanics, usually in multiple ways. For old adventures, the uncertainty is that you are uncertain how or if the challenges will be met by players. "Tomb of Horrors" is kind of an extreme example of an old adventure.

Source: years of DMing every edition except 2nd.

Interesting. I certainly know what you mean by the Tomb of Horrors style, but I think of that as a particular style of older module, not the norm. Possibly just because I cut my teeth on the Against the Giants modules, which I seem to recall being pretty straightforward.

Given what you've said, it feels a bit like I'd object to both styles of adventure...

Here's hoping David A Trampier gets a royalty check out of this.

Unlikely, last time anyone tried to send him a check they were returned unopened. He appears to have, for whatever reason, decided to completely leave that life behind. No one would be happier than me to see him get money/credit, but I don't think he want's it.

http://web.archive.org/web/19990202052243/http://home.earthl...

My hopes were very high based on the title, but the site seems down :(

I got a quick look before we broke it. Looks promising but one can't help wonder the legality . . .

It is Wizards of the Coast and they are selling high quality scans of the old classic books. (So not free.)

It is WoTC's own store, so it fully legal.

I believe it's being put up by wizards of the coast. They've been working on it for a while. So I think it's totally legal.

Brutally speaking, the fact that it's down speaks to it's authenticity as a WotC site. :) They have had horrible luck with partners for their online apps, such as the character builder and online tabletop.

You're right!

In this case though. the site is run by drivethrurpg / rpgnow, who have been at pdf selling for some time. This should have a decent chance of success.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com