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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bullgrit" data-source="post: 5657387" data-attributes="member: 31216">AD&D publication datesPlayer’s Handbook – published 1978Dungeon Master’s Guide – published 19791978: D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth – levels 9-14D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa – levels 9-14G1-3 Giants series – levels 8-12S1 Tomb of Horrors – levels 10-141979:S2 White Plume Mountain – levels 5-10T1 The Village of Hommlet – levels “Introductory to Novice” [1-3?]1980:A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity – levels 4-7C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan – levels 5-7C2 The Ghost Tower of Inverness – levels 5-7Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits – levels 10-14S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks – levels 8-121981:A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade – levels 4-7A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords – levels 4-7A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords – levels 4-7I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City – levels 4-7L1 The Secret of Bone Hill – levels 2-4U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh – levels 1-3Looking over this list, I find a few interesting things:You can’t play AD&D without both the PHB and the DMG, (all the charts for running the game is in the DMG), so you can’t technically play AD&D until 1979 or later. Now, I realize that many people bought the AD&D PHB in 1978 and filled in the rules gaps with OD&D for a year until the AD&D DMG was published. But Gygax and others often made sure to explain that AD&D was a completely different game than OD&D and BD&D. So it is strange that there was a year gap between publishing the first half (PHB) of the game and the second half (DMG) of the game.And then there were six AD&D modules published in 1978, before the game system publication was complete. (These were all billed as “ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS” modules.) Those first modules published for AD&D were for high levels – 8-14. The first module for 1st level characters was published in 1979, (right on time with first being able to actually play AD&D), but the next wasn’t until 1981. Between those two, there were several adventures published for levels 4-7.There was B1 In Search of the Unknown for 1st level characters in 1978, and B2 The Keep on the Borderlands in 1980, but they were for Basic D&D – see above about the separation of BD&D and AD&D.This publication pattern seems odd:Publish some major adventures for a game system that can’t be officially played yet. Published high level adventures first. And then later published almost exclusively for the mid-levels instead of a wide range of levels. The whole publication process for AD&D in the first few years looks completely backwards. With a couple of exceptions, it looks like TSR should have started with their 1981 line up and worked backward to their high level adventures.Bullgrit</blockquote>

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