Alzrius
The EN World kitten
Wizards of the Coast has just released pay-for-download PDFs of three different character sheet products from D&D's history: there's the Non-Player Character Records ($4.95) for AD&D 1st Edition, AC5 D&D Player Character Record Sheets ($4.95) for BECMI, and the D&D Character Sheets ($4.95) - called the Character Record Sheets on the product's front cover - also for BECMI.
While none of these has a a product history (yet), and the blurbs are about what you'd expect for three near-identical products, there are a few notations to be made here. The NPC record sheets has a banner across its upper-left corner, indicating that it's a PDF of the third printing of the original product (released in 1981; the original printing is from 1979). By contrast, AC5 is a 1984 release meant to follow up Frank Mentzer's 1983 Basic Set. The less-verbose D&D Character Sheets follows in the same pattern, being a 1991 product that coincided with the "Black Boxed Set" (also known as "The NEW Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons Game," which came with a set of page-sized cards that walked new players through how the game worked, and was the brainchild of Lorraine Williams).
Another point worth noting is that most of these PDFs seem to have done away with reproducing the full scope of the identical blank pages their print versions had. Understandably, PDF products don't need to have the same blank sheets presented over and over, but it's still a tad bit surprising (at least to me) that these scans have cut down on how many pages are present. The 1981 Non-Player Character Records originally had twenty-four pages, while the PDF only has a grand total of six; likewise, AC5 originally had thirty-two pages, but the PDF has four. Oddly, the 1991 D&D Character Sheets - which apparently had a product code of DDREF1 - had forty-eight pages originally, with the PDF saying it has fifty-one now.
These follow the recent PDF releases of Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy and Domains of Delight.
Other recent PDF releases from WotC have been the Priest's Screen, Wizard's Screen, Wizard's Player Pack, Priest's Player Pack, Thief's Player Pack, and Thief's Screen, all for AD&D 2nd Edition, as well as Luck of the Draw (a supplement for Three-Dragon Ante/D&D 3.5), Gamma World 2e, The Complete Starter Set: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Game 2E, Blood Spawn (Birthright), the Savage Coast Campaign Setting (Mystara 2E), and Savage Coast: Orc's Head (Mystara 2E). Other PDF releases have included the Shattered Keeps map pack, the Worlds of Adventure fast-play game for AD&D 2E, the Hexagonal Mapping Booklet, Quadrille Graph Paper, Outdoor Geomorphs Set 1 - Walled City, Player's Secrets of Muden (Birthright), The Planescape Conspectus, Midnight on Dagger Alley (AD&D 1E), the AD&D 2E starter set Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game, and the 3.5 Deluxe Character Sheets.
Free releases have included Wrath of the Immortals (BECMI), The Book of Regency (Birthright), Three Dragon Ante, Rob Kuntz's To the City of Brass, and the World of Krynn Trail Map and The Eastern Countries Trail Map (Mystara).
Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.
While none of these has a a product history (yet), and the blurbs are about what you'd expect for three near-identical products, there are a few notations to be made here. The NPC record sheets has a banner across its upper-left corner, indicating that it's a PDF of the third printing of the original product (released in 1981; the original printing is from 1979). By contrast, AC5 is a 1984 release meant to follow up Frank Mentzer's 1983 Basic Set. The less-verbose D&D Character Sheets follows in the same pattern, being a 1991 product that coincided with the "Black Boxed Set" (also known as "The NEW Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons Game," which came with a set of page-sized cards that walked new players through how the game worked, and was the brainchild of Lorraine Williams).
Another point worth noting is that most of these PDFs seem to have done away with reproducing the full scope of the identical blank pages their print versions had. Understandably, PDF products don't need to have the same blank sheets presented over and over, but it's still a tad bit surprising (at least to me) that these scans have cut down on how many pages are present. The 1981 Non-Player Character Records originally had twenty-four pages, while the PDF only has a grand total of six; likewise, AC5 originally had thirty-two pages, but the PDF has four. Oddly, the 1991 D&D Character Sheets - which apparently had a product code of DDREF1 - had forty-eight pages originally, with the PDF saying it has fifty-one now.
These follow the recent PDF releases of Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy and Domains of Delight.
Other recent PDF releases from WotC have been the Priest's Screen, Wizard's Screen, Wizard's Player Pack, Priest's Player Pack, Thief's Player Pack, and Thief's Screen, all for AD&D 2nd Edition, as well as Luck of the Draw (a supplement for Three-Dragon Ante/D&D 3.5), Gamma World 2e, The Complete Starter Set: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Game 2E, Blood Spawn (Birthright), the Savage Coast Campaign Setting (Mystara 2E), and Savage Coast: Orc's Head (Mystara 2E). Other PDF releases have included the Shattered Keeps map pack, the Worlds of Adventure fast-play game for AD&D 2E, the Hexagonal Mapping Booklet, Quadrille Graph Paper, Outdoor Geomorphs Set 1 - Walled City, Player's Secrets of Muden (Birthright), The Planescape Conspectus, Midnight on Dagger Alley (AD&D 1E), the AD&D 2E starter set Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game, and the 3.5 Deluxe Character Sheets.
Free releases have included Wrath of the Immortals (BECMI), The Book of Regency (Birthright), Three Dragon Ante, Rob Kuntz's To the City of Brass, and the World of Krynn Trail Map and The Eastern Countries Trail Map (Mystara).
Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.
