AD&D 1st Edition Reprints Previews

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Jun 7, 2012

• #1

WotC has been previewing excerpts from the upcoming AD&D 1st Edition reprints, slated for release on July 17th. So far, they've shown us "Economics" (a section from the Dungeon Master's Guide) and "C Monsters" (a section from the Monster Manual) and their treasure types. Part of the profit from these releases will go to the Gygax Memorial Fund. These premium versions of the original AD&D rulebooks have been lovingly reprinted with the original art and content, but feature an attractive new cover design commemorating this re-release.

• Economics
• "C" Monsters

You can read about the original announcement here. The covers of the books were previewed a while ago. It was also recently announced that these reprints would now be available outside North America (originally it was a geographically limited release).

 

Attachments

• 
  1e_phb_reprint.jpg

  31.7 KB · Views: 368

log in or register to remove this ad

TerraDave

5ever, or until 2024

• Jun 7, 2012

• #2

Original 1E DMG & MM previews

They have started the preview excerpts.

The first is 4 pages I have read many times. And enjoyed reading again.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/excerpts/excerpt_1edmg1.pdf

 

Echohawk

Shirokinukatsukami fan

• Jun 7, 2012

• #3

I was curious to see that the layout of the excerpt wasn't exactly the same as in my copy of the original DMG, and the font also didn't look precisely the same. So presumably, WotC had the text fully OCRed and reformatted to match the original as closely as possible. Which also means that they could now easily sell (or otherwise make available) high quality digital versions of the AD&D core books. Good to know.

Aside: I wonder if the reprint includes the DMG errata or not? Ditto the other two books.

 

TerraDave

5ever, or until 2024

• Jun 7, 2012

• #4

I was impressed at how close it came.

But full PDFs or ebooks of these...that would be excellent.

 

mach1.9pants

Hero

• Jun 7, 2012

• #5

Shivers of nostalgic joy! Bring on the prostitute table, will it still be in the book at this totally over-the-top politically correct time?

 

jodyjohnson

Adventurer

• Jun 7, 2012

• #6

I'm beginning to wonder whether I should buy books that my vision won't allow me to read. Especially dead tree versions over electronic.

 

AeroDm

First Post

• Jun 7, 2012

• #7

This is going to be really cool for a lot of gamers that weren't around to experience it the first time around. Kudos, Wizards.

 

TerraDave

5ever, or until 2024

• Jun 7, 2012

• #8

mach1.9pants said:

Shivers of nostalgic joy! Bring on the prostitute table, will it still be in the book at this totally over-the-top politically correct time?

Click to expand...

I will bet you the tip for one slovenly trollop that it will be.

 

Last edited: Jun 6, 2012

Man in the Funny Hat

Hero

• Jun 7, 2012

• #9

Echohawk said:

I was curious to see that the layout of the excerpt wasn't exactly the same as in my copy of the original DMG, and the font also didn't look precisely the same. So presumably, WotC had the text fully OCRed and reformatted to match the original as closely as possible.

Click to expand...

Yep, looks that way to me. Struck me immediately that the font was quite close to the original but actually clearer, easier to read. I've OCR'd the 1E core books myself - strictly for my own uses - and it was a tedious process simply because OCR software has such a difficult time distinguishing certain letters in the original font. a, e, and o were repeatedly mixed up as were the l, I, and 1, and so forth. So I got very familiar with the original font and could easily see how there just wasn't enough legible distinction between many letters in it.

Of course, if you change the font you automatically alter spacing between many letters which affects how many of the same words in a different font will fit on a line which means they MUST have reset the entire books.

I've got one early printing of the DMG and one that is a later revised printing but this sample section doesn't show any difference between the original printings, but neither precisely matches the sample either. It's only off by a half-sentence or so at the bottom of each page.

Which also means that they could now easily sell (or otherwise make available) high quality digital versions of the AD&D core books. Good to know.

Click to expand...

COULD being the operative word there... I'm not holding MY breath in anticipation of that.

Aside: I wonder if the reprint includes the DMG errata or not? Ditto the other two books.

Click to expand...

They'd be pretty foolish not to, especially since some of those errors can be quite key - (e.g. monks attack as clerics, not thieves is one that leaps to mind from the PH).

 

MerricB

Eternal Optimist

Supporter

• Jun 7, 2012

• #10

Man in the Funny Hat said:

They'd be pretty foolish not to, especially since some of those errors can be quite key - (e.g. monks attack as clerics, not thieves is one that leaps to mind from the PH).

Click to expand...

I wouldn't characterize it as "foolish"; it might be problematic with layout, etc. (After all, TSR never corrected a lot of the things they noted, particularly in the Players Handbook).

It would be nice, but it might also offend some of the purists!

For reference:
Monster Manual Errata
Players Handbook Errata
Dungeon Masters Guide Errata

Cheers!