D&D 2E Blast from the Past - AD&D 2E Core Rules 2.0 (with Expansion)

[PHATsakk43]

It was made during the early return of Jobs, but also during the PPC MAC era.

The CD will load on a PPC Mac (I’ve got an old G5 PowerMac still working) and you can fiddle with the files, but the executable will not work.

 

[Hiran87]

I don't know if it's the nostalgia, but i start a new project (maybe a therapy for me) recently to translate the Core Rules 2.1 to my language, and convert in a Tiddlywiki (an HTML file used to note taking). I include the Forgotten Realms too and deep intertwined with the core rules.

 

[PHATsakk43]

I don't know if it's the nostalgia, but i start a new project (maybe a therapy for me) recently to translate the Core Rules 2.1 to my language, and convert in a Tiddlywiki (an HTML file used to note taking). I include the Forgotten Realms too and deep intertwined with the core rules.


View attachment 385086View attachment 385087

What is the scope of this work?

Did you effectively port the Core Rules database into something else?

 

[hoffrg86]

Anyone have a primer, insight on getting into the backend db of core rules 2 ? Wouldn't mind taking a look, might have MS Access on this machine.. i seem to remember poking around a long long.. long long time ago or that may have been the 3.x version by the monkies.. or both idk anymore

 

[Stormonu]

I think it was the 3E version that used an Access database. I'm not sure what the 2E Core Rules uses.

 

[PHATsakk43]

Anyone have a primer, insight on getting into the backend db of core rules 2 ? Wouldn't mind taking a look, might have MS Access on this machine.. i seem to remember poking around a long long.. long long time ago or that may have been the 3.x version by the monkies.. or both idk anymore

I found a thread on this or another forum from 2010ish where the author said they had developed an API to use the CR2.0 database but with a more modern front end.

Unfortunately, the links were dead.

Personally, I’ve fiddled around with the stuff on my old PPC Mac and was able to see more of the material in the data files than on my PC, but I’m not by any means a software engineer to do anything with it.

 

[Hatmatter]

Does this happen to bring back any memories for anyone?

I pulled the old AD&D CD-ROM Core Rules 2.0 / Expansion disks out of storage and installed it on my PC to assist with helping my players make 2E characters (and along the way, rediscovered some old rules I forgot - for example, that Halflings couldn't have 18 Wis...).

Spoiler

View attachment 272541

It came with a lite version of Profantasy's mapmaking software with which you could make overland maps or dungeon maps

Spoiler

View attachment 272542

Besides being able to make Characters, NPC and Monsters (and having all the monsters from the Monstrous Compendium included, with color pictures), it also had all the "Complete" line of books available in RTF & HTML format (& CHD Help format*)

Characters (& NPCs) can be made with the standard rules (including option from the "Complete" series), or using the Player's Option rules for even more options.

Spoiler

View attachment 272543

List of included books:

• Dungeon Master's Guide
• Monstrous Manual
• Player's Handbook
• Arms & Equipment Guide
• Tome of Magic
• DM Option: High Level Campaigns
• Player's Option: Combat & Tactics
• Player's Option: Skills & Powers
• Player's Option: Spells & Magic
• The Complete Bard's Handbook
• The Complete Druid's Handbook
• The Complete Fighter's Handbook
• The Complete Paladin's Handbook
• The Complete Priest's Handbook
• The Complete Ranger's Handbook
• The Complete Thief's Handbook
• The Complete Wizard's Handbook
• The Complete Book of Dwarves
• The Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings
• The Complete Book of Elves

The best news? It still works with Windows 10/11!

* Which, unfortunately, is the only format that doesn't work on PCs newer than Win 8) ... along with the website links to the various companies...

Super cool...thanks for sharing. Boy, I just love that Complete series of books and, especially, the related historical series. A couple from the historical series are instrumental to my campaign (5th edition of D&D) today.

 

[PHATsakk43]

Super cool...thanks for sharing. Boy, I just love that Complete series of books and, especially, the related historical series. A couple from the historical series are instrumental to my campaign (5th edition of D&D) today.

I ran a 2E era (game era) campaign in 5E for many years by just converting old stuff on the fly.

5E isn’t my favorite system, but I’ll be damned if it’s not a good balance of crunch and speed.

I love to run 2E, but it’s definitely a labor of love. That said, most of the fiddly stuff was handled extremely well with the CR2.0 software. Inventory management, character development, and access to all the tables across multiple books with automated outputs greatly helps play.

The only problem with it is it’s difficult to update and customize. The other upside is that basically everything that TSR put out was added to custom DBs by the fan community in the early 2000s, so the bulk of the “hard work” is done. It’s just a complete PITA to use the OE program to import custom files.

The character generator is also excellent, however, it is somewhat limited in that it effectively only allows two paths for character development, either PHB core or PO:S&P full options. Making this slightly more a la carte would be nice.

 

[Hiran87]

What is the scope of this work?

Did you effectively port the Core Rules database into something else?

It's to make a more practical file to use in a future campaign, it's just an html file that can be opened in any browser.

But i expand the three principal books: Players Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster's Guide.

For example, when i describe the Fighter Class, i show all the kits that have in the Fighters Handbook and in the Fighter and Wizards of The Realms Book.

Another example: I add to the Armors Equipment Lists the description that exist in the fighters handbook.

Here another image to show this, if i click in 1 they open the tiddler 2 (it's the name of the information in tiddlywiki). Inside i have the Armor's table, if i click in the blue link 3, they open the tiddler with information about Full Plate and so on.

I don't effectively port the database, but i rewrite manually all of the Core Rules Expansion 2.0 section's to a tiddlywiki using Markdown and wiki text (it's a hell of a job). But it's a job in progress...

I added recently the option to comment any tiddler (If a player have thinked in something brilliant, they can do this in his personal copy), and trying to make a interactive tour to show how to use the Tiddlywiki.

The beautiful in Tiddlywiki is, every piece of information can be opened in any sequence, and can be reused in others places (We can transclude one text inside other etc)

 

[PHATsakk43]

So, I dug back through my history to find the stuff I mentioned earlier:

An old file that supposedly allows editing of CR2 files from PlanetADND: CR2Edit.zip (download link) I've never gotten this to do anything.

A somewhat promising discussion from Fantasy Grounds where someone managed to extract the books from CR2.0 into FG: AD&D Core Rules CD Importer for HTML files

Link to the poster, celestian's stuff on Github: FG--AD-D-Rules-Core-Importer

And, of course a discussion of CR2.0 can't be complete without a link to the old Fantaseum site on the Wayback Machine: Fantaseum Core Rule's Library