On April 17, 2012 Wizards of the Coast will reprint the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks. Each book will be reprinted with the original art and content, but features a new cover design commemorating the re-release. More important, purchases of this book will help support the Gygax Memorial Fund – established to immortalize the “father of roleplaying games” with a memorial statue in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
I mentioned previously that if Wizards of the Coast was serious about supporting older iterations of Dungeons & Dragons, they would have to publish support for the older editions beyond just the 5th Edition toolkit. Their level of support would determine if 5E is truly a new direction for Wizards that goes beyond the hype.
This is a first step in the right direction. Wizards' commitment to all versions of Dungeons & Dragons means publication of these older editions can be justified as an investment in the new game. Customers will have to make that justification on their own; the Player's Handbook and Monster Manual MSRP is $34.95 and the Dungeon Master's Guide retails for $44.95.
What's next? Here's my wish list for the remaining editions of Dungeons & Dragons:
- The original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set, including the supplements published later: Greyhawk; Blackmoor; Eldritch Wizardry; Gods, Demi-Gods, and Heroes; and the rare Swords & Spells miniatures rules.
- The Rules Cyclopedia, which reprinted all of the Basic rules in one hardcover from levels 1 - 36
- A Greyhawk tome of massive size that contains all of the original material written by Gygax.
- A tribute to the other founder of Dungeons & Dragons, Dave Arneson, in the form of a Blackmoor tome
- A new OGL for 3rd Edition that opens/converts the remaining content that was promised but never released
- All products available in PDF format at some point, even if it's a year behind new releases
- Digital support for older editions
That's my wish list, what's yours?
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