Greyhawk defined the genre.
Greyhawk was only partially populated, so we could easily insert our own cities, adventure areas, kingdoms, whatever. We could make it our own.
The map (except for the hexes) had the feel of early mapmakers
Mine is fine. No problems so far for the other 4 books in our game. Of the roughly copies we have sold, only one has come back with the binding issue. ( I won't give numbers, but that is way under 1%)
Did they change that for the Rise of Tiamat and the DMG, because the PHB, MM, and HotDQ were all printed in the USA, as stated on the credits page of each.
Have a reason for the town to exist. Is it a particularly fertile area for farming, maybe for a money crop that only grows in special volcanic soil? Is it supporting a local mining operation? Is it a fairly new settlement of refugees?
Now, what could have happened to stir up some monster...
I prefer emphasizing the modifiers, but I believe all at the same table should do it the same way.
And neither way is the "Correct" way or the "Wrong" way. (Except when the DM or group decides what is right or wrong at his/their table)
It depends on what is meant by bringing back THAC0. If it is reversing the numbers for armor, leave it out. If it is attack bonuses vary depending on class, I'm interested.
You need to ask yourself several questions.
1. What does that $20 represent to you? Is it a few drinks at Starbucks? Or is it a couple days groceries?
2. Do you want to be sure you get a copy without the smudged pages (pp140-141? If you buy it in-store you can check it out.
3. Do you want to...
We were notified by WotC today that some of the Monster Manuals have a printers error that caused smudging on pages 140 and 141. They seem to show up in batches, so it looks like there will be some shortages as some stores discover they have many books with the problem.