REVIEW: TSR Mail Order Hobby Shop Catalog--Summer/Fall 1986 Edition. :)

Yeah, i remember those little booklets. And i LOVED the Endless Quest books. By some fluke of fate, i was able to collect all 36 of the original series, starting with...um...crap...Dungeon of Dread? There were even a couple Gamma World Endless Quests in the series, and maybe a Top Secret and Star Frontiers.

Actually, Return to Brookmere (1982) is the cornerstone of my early D&D experience when i was 10 years old, long before i was actually able to play the games. I remember there was this one room your elf could wander into where the mist would just dissolve you to nothingness.

I never owned the original basic D&D sets. Unfortunately.

CharlesRyan said:

$15 in 1980 is equivalent to about $40 today (you can google inflation caluculators for a more detailed look). Given how much production values have improved, I think it's hard to say the value or affordability has changed all that much.

If anything, I'd say game affordability has stayed about the same, but value has really improved.

(This issue recently come up in another thread.)

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That's only if you think the new games are better than the old games. Though I've never played Boot Hill, in general it seems to me that the new games are inferior to the old games. That's what I've found, anyway (having originally embraced the new wave with open arms). So to me the value has gone way, way down.

Even on the physical side of things, I find this to be true. I hate glossy pages and I can't stand WAR's art.

Fifth Element said:

LOLZ.

D&D: The Gathering!

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for realz! 2e wuz nothin' but a card gaem, amirite?
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Archive: Cardmaster Adventure Design Deck
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Archive: Monster Cards: Set 4
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Archive: Wizard Spell Cards
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Archive: Deck of Priest Spells
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Archive: Deck of Magical Items
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Archive: Deck of Psionic Powers
[note: no image found for the encounter cards]

Just found my 1989, 1990, and 1991 catalogs in my parents' basement! I didn't even realize this was a TSR product at the time (I was 12), let alone all the great other companies carried in here that I wasn't interested in at the time. Ah, how cheap those Call of Cthulhu games are!

Fascinating to see all the extra stuff like boardgames and books that stretched out the definition of RPGs.

Does anyone know if this was a mail order warehouse operation by TSR? I'd be curious what their terms with other companies were!

The '89 one had a bunch of ewok-like anthropomorphic bear adventurers clambering over a giant bear statue in an homage to the old Player's Handbook. I had never seen the original source, but the homage was fascinating!

Since we didn't live near a hobby store, all of my friends and I gathered together to place an order which eventually arrived. It was like a gaming birthday for everyone!