Tell me about these older edition products [old list]

[Knightfall]

UPDATE!!!

Wow! I had a great day of trading and buying today. I went to Whyte Knight to trade for the D&D Basic Set and ended up coming home with it and the AD&D 2e module Swamplight and the Champions of Mystara boxed set! The Basic Set looks like it has never been used. The dice are still in the plastic baggie and it has a TSR catalog in it! (*)

I paid $30 and traded away my copy of City State of the Invincible Overlord (not in good condition) plus a marked up City State map, my worn out copy of the Conan RPG boxed set plus a Conan module, the D&D 3e Stronghold Builder's Guide, and a Dragonskin plastic book cover, which wouldn't fit over any of my 3e books anyway.

Plus, on my way home I stopped off at the Wee Book Inn used book store on Jasper Ave and got the DRAGONLANCE module DLA3 Dragon's Rest for less than $8 bucks!

*My next post will be for pictures of the Basic Set!

 

[Knightfall]

D&D Basic Set

Info from The Acaeum...

Ninth printing

• Magenta box with a green dragon fighting two adventurers; box artwork by Erol Otus. No Product Number on back cover bottom right.
• 64-page rulebook: White circle around the "1" in the upper left, ISBN on back cover bottom center, and the index page is in black ink.
• B2 Keep on the Borderlands (Fourth print, no shrinkwrap).
• Six uncolored dice in a small poly bag and a dice crayon.

 

[Knightfall]

I just updated the Master List and removed the "comments" from the other lists. Commentary is now only on the Master List.

I'm still looking for opinions on the products listed in the second (post #65) and third (post #100) lists, BTW.

Either that or people can simply look through the Master List and comment on anything listed there. There are few other products that have found there way onto the Master List that weren't in the other lists. The Master List will get updated regularly from now on and there won't be a Fourth List.

Cheers!

KF

 

[Knightfall]

p.s. I think I might post some photos of the Champions of Mystara boxed set here as well. It makes this thread more fun for me.

 

[amethal]

EDIT On rereading post 100 this post is completely pointless. I leave it here as a monument to how much of an idiot I am. May others learn from my mistakes!

If you are still interested in Dragonlance Otherlands, check out the WotC PDF.

Previous Edition Dungeons & Dragons Downloads

Its some way down the page, in the Dragonlance section. WotC PDFs are a bit scarce recently, so enjoy!

PS I bought the Champions of Mystara PDF from Paizo months ago. I couldn't remember if I'd backed up my WotC Paizo PDFs or not, so had a frantic downloading session the other day.

 

[amethal]

Pre-1993
FORGOTTEN REALMS City System
RAVENLOFT Islands of Terror [RR4]
SPELLJAMMER Lost Ships [SJR1] (recommended by Silverblade)
SPELLJAMMER Skull & Crossbows [SJA2]
DRAGONLANCE Dwarven Kingdoms of Krynn
SPELLJAMMER Space Lairs [SJR8]
RAVENLOFT The Nightmare Lands
RAVENLOFT Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani
AL-QADIM Reunion
BIRTHRIGHT Campaign Setting [hardcover version]
Bastion of Faith

City System is a bit disappointing in a PDF. I'd love to have it in paper form, as there's lots of maps.

Islands of Terror is a standard Ravenloft gazeteer. I'm kind of biased against it, because when I read it I was already familiar with its contents from other Ravenloft products. (The perils of reading things in reverse order!)

Lost Ships is fine.

I quite like Sull and Crossbows. Its simple and straightforward, and ideal as an early supplement for a new product line. Obviously, its no use if you don't have or play Spelljammer.

Space Lairs, however, struck me as pretty unimaginative. Get it only if you are a Spelljammer completist (which I am).

Dwarven Kingdoms of Krynn had nice maps (unless I am getting it confused with something else) but was otherwise not very memorable.

Nightmare Lands was plain weird. I suppose you can use it if Ravenloft is getting a bit stale (!)

I hate Van Richten's guides, but I'm not familiar with the Vistani one. In general, the fluff is completely divorced from the game mechanics, half of it is pointless story telling anyway, and where there are mechanics the 3rd edition ones are normally better. I am a big fan of the Children of the Night series, which covers much the same ground only are much more useful.

I don't have Al-Qadim Reunion; I imagine it is on a par with the other AQ stuff. Great fluff, and adventures which seem more appropriate to a White Wolf product than a TSR one.

Birthright Campaign Setting. Buy it. If by some bizarre quirk of fate you don't like it, I'll take it off your hands at cost plus postage to the UK.

Bastion of Faith - I don't have it, but I've heard good things about it.

 

[Dimitri Mazieres]

Here's my opinion on the books I have from your list:

RAVENLOFT Islands of Terror [RR4] - An interesting accessory for new Ravenloft domains: Nidala, Wildlands, Scaena, I'Cath, Saragoss, Timor, Pharazia, Stauton Bluffs and Nosos.
Given that you already have Domains of Dread, its usefulness would be reduced to a bit more (if somewhat dated) information on domains that you mostly have access to, and a couple of new one (Wildlands, Staunton Bluffs).
I wouldn't place it among my top options, if I were you.

RAVENLOFT Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani - Excellent accessory! One of the best VR Guides, IMO, along with Vampires, Ghosts and Fiends. It takes the basic concept of the VRGuides (describing a monster in detail, and adding new options to surprise your players with), and applies it to the Vistani race, describing the different tribes and powers associated to them. If you like the Vistani, or the idea of mysterious gypsies for your campaign, it's an excellent choice.
Btw, if you like the Van Richten's Guide line, you could consider hunting down the Van Richten's Hunter Compendiums, which compiles all 8 original guides in three tomes, with an entirely new guide on witches (hags, witches and warlocks).

RAVENLOFT Champions of the Mist - Another excellent Ravenloft accessory, which I really welcomed back in the 2e days. As already said, it provides Ravenloft-specific player kits which, while some of them are underpowered, they all convey great flavor. It also has NPCs entries for many good or neutral aligned well-known characters, which can be used as allies (a nice change from the typical antagonists entries found on RL products at the time).

RAVENLOFT The Shadow Rift - Great, weird adventure in the Shadow Rift, the land of the Arak (Shadow Elves - but not those from Mystara/Hollow World). I really like it, and it has a final battle of epic proportions (and maybe consequences!). I would recommend getting also the adventure Servants of Darkness, which can be used as a prelude for this one (there are a few recurring characters).

RAVENLOFT Carnival - I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's just plain excellent, even if only to read through. It details the secret society known as The Carnival (which doubles as a, well, carnival ) as recounted by three (IIRC) different NPCs from it, with appropriate sidebars for game information. It's only shortcoming is being just 64-page long. Really, really awesome.

Btw, if you need further information on other Ravenloft products, you should check the Fraternity of Shadow's Reviews page.

 

[Dimitri Mazieres]

I hate Van Richten's guides, but I'm not familiar with the Vistani one. In general, the fluff is completely divorced from the game mechanics, half of it is pointless story telling anyway, and where there are mechanics the 3rd edition ones are normally better. I am a big fan of the Children of the Night series, which covers much the same ground only are much more useful.

Well, actually, the Children of the Night series was designed to be a companion to the VR Guides, providing short adventures set around NPCs created using the rules detailed in those products, so even if you don't like the fluff, you miss some of the mechanics used to create the NPCs.

 

[Knightfall]

RAVENLOFT Van Richten's Guide to the Vistani - Excellent accessory! One of the best VR Guides, IMO, along with Vampires, Ghosts and Fiends. It takes the basic concept of the VRGuides (describing a monster in detail, and adding new options to surprise your players with), and applies it to the Vistani race, describing the different tribes and powers associated to them. If you like the Vistani, or the idea of mysterious gypsies for your campaign, it's an excellent choice.

I had a few of these guides back in the day (i.e werebests, ghosts) but I didn't hang on to them. I stopped buying Ravenloft products shortly after the revised boxed set came out, so I never had the Vistani guide; although, I think I might have bought the Fiends guide. I can't remember.

Btw, if you like the Van Richten's Guide line, you could consider hunting down the Van Richten's Hunter Compendiums, which compiles all 8 original guides in three tomes, with an entirely new guide on witches (hags, witches and warlocks).

Ahh, I'd forgotten about those. Thanks for the reminder.

RAVENLOFT Champions of the Mist - Another excellent Ravenloft accessory, which I really welcomed back in the 2e days. As already said, it provides Ravenloft-specific player kits which, while some of them are underpowered, they all convey great flavor. It also has NPCs entries for many good or neutral aligned well-known characters, which can be used as allies (a nice change from the typical antagonists entries found on RL products at the time).

This one really interests me. I like accessories with unique NPCs in them.

RAVENLOFT The Shadow Rift - Great, weird adventure in the Shadow Rift, the land of the Arak (Shadow Elves - but not those from Mystara/Hollow World). I really like it, and it has a final battle of epic proportions (and maybe consequences!). I would recommend getting also the adventure Servants of Darkness, which can be used as a prelude for this one (there are a few recurring characters).

RAVENLOFT Carnival - I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's just plain excellent, even if only to read through. It details the secret society known as The Carnival (which doubles as a, well, carnival ) as recounted by three (IIRC) different NPCs from it, with appropriate sidebars for game information. It's only shortcoming is being just 64-page long. Really, really awesome.

Thanks for the information. I'm fairly certain that I'll get Shadow Rift, if I can find it. Carnival sounds intriguing. How well do you think it would work in another setting?

Btw, if you need further information on other Ravenloft products, you should check the Fraternity of Shadow's Reviews page.

I think you pointed out that reviews page once before but it didn't really register at the time (*). I'll try to remember to look through the reviews later on today. I have an assignment that I need to do for my night class so I'm going to go down to the college to work on it today.

[EDIT]
*Actually, it was Thanael.

 

[Knightfall]

EDIT On rereading post 100 this post is completely pointless. I leave it here as a monument to how much of an idiot I am. May others learn from my mistakes!

No worries.

PS I bought the Champions of Mystara PDF from Paizo months ago. I couldn't remember if I'd backed up my WotC Paizo PDFs or not, so had a frantic downloading session the other day.

It is a great resource for Mystara and the maps and deck plans in it are great. I had it once before, so I'm glad I was able to get it once again.

WK's copy of Ruins of Undermountain is likely next on my list to reacquire. I have the 3e hardcover version, but it's not as complete as the 2e box set, IMO.