D&D 2E [COMPLETE] Looking back at the limited series: Player's Option, Monstrous Arcana, Odyssey, and more!

[Alzrius]

Exactly one year ago today, I started a thread wherein I waxed nostalgic about AD&D 2nd Edition's "leatherette" series. It was a lot of fun, generating a number of great insights, entertaining anecdotes, and excuses to crack some truly awful jokes. And of course, it gave me a convenient excuse to pull those old books off of my shelves and flip through them again.

After that thread reached its natural conclusion, I've been wondering what line of old products to give the same treatment to. Since I'm sticking to materials which I have physical copies of, and wanted to overview entire series, that cut down on a lot of my options; while my library of print RPG products is pretty vast (totaling some 1,750 or so at last count, not including individual issues of RPG magazines, RPG-specific novels, etc.), there are a lot of holes in my collection that have yet to be filled. While I could have gone for a few of the old campaign settings where I've managed to get all of the various print products (e.g. Ravenloft, Spelljammer, etc.), I wanted to stick to something a little more generic, simply for the sake of keeping a wider appeal.

Following quite a bit of thought, I decided to change my approach, and instead go over the "limited series" of AD&D 2E.

In this case, I'm defining "limited series" as being those books which were released under a secondary heading (but not that of a campaign setting). In that sense, they're "limited" not in terms of how many were produced, but because they were released under a label which simply didn't have many entries, such as the various "Tomes" or "Odyssey" products, though I'm also folding in multipart entries of a single product, such as Encyclopedia Magica. That covers a lot of ground, as there were several of these, and so allows for a nice variety of products. And, of course, I'm going to cheat in several places, just because there are a few other books that weren't actually published under a secondary heading, but which I personally think of as having one. As any experienced DM knows, half the fun of making up your own rules is bending them.

As before, this isn't going to be a "let's read" or even a series of proper reviews. It's just me going on about each particular product, and inviting others to join in as they feel inclined. Amusement is the order of the day here, with actual information being a distant second.

Going through my collection, I'm going to cover the following books in the order listed:

"The Expanded Core"

1. Legends & Lore
2. Tome of Magic
3. Book of Artifacts

Option Series

1. Player's Option: Combat & Tactics
2. Player's Option: Skills & Powers
3. Dungeon Master's Option: High-Level Campaigns
4. Player's Option: Spells & Magic
5. The Gates of Firestorm Peak
6. Campaign Option: Council of Wyrms Setting

"Magical Directories"

1. The Magic Encyclopedia vols. I-II
2. Encyclopedia Magica vols. I-IV
3. Wizard's Spell Compendium vols. I-IV
4. Priest's Spell Compendium vols. I-III

Tomes

1. The Rod of Seven Parts
2. Return to the Tomb of Horrors
3. Axe of the Dwarvish Lords

Odyssey

1. Tale of the Comet
2. Jakandor, Island of War
3. Jakandor, Isle of Destiny
4. Jakandor, Land of Legend

Monstrous Arcana (sourcebooks only)

1. I, Tyrant
2. The Sea Devils
3. The Illithiad

"Strongholds"

1. Den of Thieves
2. College of Wizardry
3. Bastion of Faith

"Apocalypse Adventures"

1. The Apocalypse Stone
2. The Dungeon of Death
3. Die Vecna Die!

There's no particular time-frame attached to when I'll be posting these; if history is any guide, I'll end up writing one every week or so. Each listing will be linked back here for ease of reference. And with all of that out of the way, let's kick off another trip down memory lane!

Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.

 

[Alzrius]

Kicking things off is the first in what I’ve come to call, in my head I mean, the “expanded core” series of books: Legends & Lore.

Taking a moment to go into that particular grouping a little more, this is something I came up with because I couldn’t help but notice the symmetry between the fact that there are three titles in the traditional Core Rules (i.e. the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monstrous Manual, since I wouldn’t go back and get the original Monstrous Compendium volumes until years later) and these three supplements: Legends & Lore, the Tome of Magic, and the Book of Artifacts.

Now, to be fair, that’s largely an issue of the trade dress more than anything else. Like the Core Rulebooks, these three were hardbacks whose spines were black with white, capital lettering (and no world logos, unlike Forgotten Realms Adventures or Dragon Kings). At a glance, they looked like they were of the same series as the Core Rulebooks, and so I couldn’t help but think of them that way. Even today, the six all sit together on my shelf, together as a greater whole.

In the case of Legends & Lore, the book partakes in another tradition of the Core Rulebooks: taking its name from that of an earlier-edition iteration, though in this case it’s namesake, the Legends & Lore book of AD&D 1E, has the dubious distinction of simply being a renamed Deities & Demigods after the Cthulhu and Melnibonean mythoi were cut. Given that I already have the unexpurgated version of that work, I never saw a need to pick up the AD&D 1E L&L, since so far as I know it has no new content that makes it worth picking up (besides the new cover art).

As for the 2E L&L itself, I’ve gone on the record in my previous look-back thread about how the cultural presentations of this book’s pantheons were too strong for my tastes back when I first picked it up, and that’s true; when I first got started with D&D, I defaulted to the quasi-medieval European pastiche, but found that the various historical pantheons in this book simply had too much flavor associated with them for the bland genericness my younger self was inadvertently trying to invoke. Use the Greek pantheon, and you expect togas and fluted columns; use the Egyptian pantheon, and it’s pyramids and striped headdresses; use the Celtic pantheon, and you get druids and Braveheart quotes. All things I wanted to avoid.

But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t like what was here. Quite the contrary, I poured over this book, because as much as I found the various pantheons to carry too much cultural baggage (to reuse a term), it still had a lot of AD&D goodness to it.

For instance, contrary to popular belief, this book did have stats – or at least, guidelines for stats – for gods, as well as their avatars. It was just that these guidelines were incomplete. You wouldn’t find hit points or Armor Class listings for the actual deities, but you would find saving throws, actions per round, and magic resistance values. So while you might have a hard time trying to punch Thor in the face, your wizard could cast imprisonment on him and potentially succeed (though the odds were seriously stacked against you). Fun fact: these values received some marginal expansion in Faiths & Avatars, which noted certain magical weapons being required to hit actual deities, certain categories of spells that they were immune to, etc.

There was also a surprising amount of player-facing content in here, despite it ostensibly being a book for DMs. New spells and magic items were a big one, with each pantheon having a couple of each; I remember being uncertain if these were allowed in campaigns that didn’t use the associated pantheons, since one thing this book didn’t have was any presentation that all of these pantheons were simultaneously present in the default AD&D multiverse. To be fair, that was because the opening presentation for each pantheon was more mythohistorical than fantastic in presentation; this book was less concerned with putting these pantheons into the context of the AD&D multiverse than it was with presenting them in their own context. Not having come across “kitchen sink” cosmologies before this, I was pretty well blown away when Planescape made it clear that all of these gods were sharing metaphysical real estate; needless to say, I subsequently read and reread On Hallowed Ground many times, but Legends & Lore was what laid the groundwork for that.

Or at least, mostly. I do recall being distinctly irked when I realized that the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Finnish pantheons hadn’t been updated from AD&D 1E, but were still assumed to be around. That they never got converted over during AD&D 2E’s eleven-and-a-half year run still makes me frown. How did they never get an article in Dragon magazine? The Saxon pantheon did (issue #263), so there’s really no excuse for that oversight.

On the other hand, we did get the cast of Le Morte d’Arthur here, which I never knew what to do with. I mean, I don’t think anyone did, because these guys didn’t appear in any subsequent AD&D 2E materials that I’m aware of, but I guess it was nice…?

Still, one thing that section of the book did give us was a new character class: the pious knight. It was one of two new character classes – which even at the time I thought of as fun little easter eggs – the other being the ascetic, which I found far more interesting. Clerical hit points, wizard spellcasting (without a spellbook needed), advancing ability scores (albeit at the cost of Strength), and a number of special abilities as you level? Yes please!

Of course, the book really had far more than just those two character classes, since this is where the “priests of specific mythoi” mentioned in the Player’s Handbook, and outlined in PHBR3 The Complete Priest’s Handbook, were presented in detail (albeit often very briefly). I read through these again and again, and today I consider specialty priests to be among the most evocative and flavorful parts of Second Edition.

Really, my only major complaint about this book is that it predated the next one in the list: the Tome of Magic. Since that book introduced a number of new clerical spheres (i.e. groupings of divine spells used to determine which ones you had access to) to go with all the new spells it presented, the deities here needed an update. While they technically never got one, Dragon magazine’s “Sage Advice” column started recommending those updates every month starting around issue #198 or so.

Overall, this book is one that I consider to be flawed, but still hits far and away more than it misses. It’s an excellent resource in terms of laying the groundwork for a lot of how the religious aspects of AD&D 2E were presented, and even if you don’t want to use anything here as-is, there’s a lot that can be cherry-picked to bring to the table. It’s definitely one of the more useful books of the expanded core, and I look back on it fondly now.

Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.

 

[RuinousPowers]

I loved L&L even though I don't think I pulled anything directly from it into my campaigns. I'm sure I used it as inspiration for my specialty priests (one of my favorite parts of 2e).

I too am very annoyed that the Sumerian Babylonian, and Finnish mythos were never updated. I bought On Hollowed Ground because I heard it updated them, but it didn't give the mechanics I wanted; it only explained how they fit into Planescape's metaplot.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Gotta say I really liked the Player Option books.

 

[Voadam]

I liked the expanded information on the various mythologies in Legends and Lore and the descriptions of the individual gods.

2e did a great job of expanding descriptions of most everything, including gods and mythology. 1e for instance had three paragraphs of introductory description of the Chinese Mythos while 2e had two and a half pages. I also really like the 2e expansion to include Taoism and Confuscianism.

 

[delericho]

Love this idea for a series!

L&L was... okay. I have it, rad it a couple of times, but never used it much at the table. I would have preferred much more on the priesthoods and less on the stats or the avatars - more stuff that's going to see use at the table, please!

 

[Orius]

A little quibble about the list: under Tomes, The Rod of Seven Parts should come first, as it was the first published.

What about including the Sites series: City Sites, Castle Sites, and Country Sites?

Legends and Lore, this was I think considered a third core rulebook at the beginning of 2e. Unfortunately, it didn't stay in print. When I got into Planescape, not having it was kind of a problem. I hoped On Hallowed Ground would have helped to fill the gap, especially since the introduction stated L&L was out of print, but the book was all fluff. What a letdown. The book's text was finally released for free online either during TSR's final days or after the WotC purchase, so I have access to it now. Unfortunately, the file was .rtf which makes it harder to use with modern devices. I thought I converted it to PDF somewhere.

The book does a fair job of covering the Greek and Norse pantheons but beyond that there's a good number of errors and omissions. This is a problem carried over from the older Deities and Demigods and I think TSR didn't bother to update and/or correct the information but just updated the mechanical elements to 2e standards.

 

[Alzrius]

A little quibble about the list: under Tomes, The Rod of Seven Parts should come first, as it was the first published.

Thanks for catching that; I looked up the dates just to be sure I had them correct, but got focused on the fact that TRoSP came out in August, whereas RttToH came out in July, I completely overlooked that the former came out in August of 1996 and the latter came out in July of 1998.

I've corrected the listing accordingly.

What about including the Sites series: City Sites, Castle Sites, and Country Sites?

Unfortunately, I don't have those, and I wanted to stick to books that I own print copies of.

 

[Voadam]

A little quibble about the list: under Tomes, The Rod of Seven Parts should come first, as it was the first published.

What about including the Sites series: City Sites, Castle Sites, and Country Sites?

Legends and Lore, this was I think considered a third core rulebook at the beginning of 2e. Unfortunately, it didn't stay in print. When I got into Planescape, not having it was kind of a problem. I hoped On Hallowed Ground would have helped to fill the gap, especially since the introduction stated L&L was out of print, but the book was all fluff. What a letdown. The book's text was finally released for free online either during TSR's final days or after the WotC purchase, so I have access to it now. Unfortunately, the file was .rtf which makes it harder to use with modern devices. I thought I converted it to PDF somewhere.

The book does a fair job of covering the Greek and Norse pantheons but beyond that there's a good number of errors and omissions. This is a problem carried over from the older Deities and Demigods and I think TSR didn't bother to update and/or correct the information but just updated the mechanical elements to 2e standards.

The information was at least completely rewritten.

Here is the description of the Nehwon Red God in 1e:

The war god of the East, this being appears with a +4 ring of protection, a helm of telepathy and teleportation, and a displacer cloak. He uses a +3 sabre in his right hand that does 3-30 points per strike and a +4 dirk in his left hand that does 1-10 points of damage. His sabre casts an anti-magic shell around his body that does not limit his own spell abilities.
This god is very protective of his more important worshipers, and when they are in foreign lands he will occasionally come to their aid in situations that he would not bother about in the East. This aid consists of an 8th level magic-user sent to help.
The god is a massive dark-skinned man with red studded leather armor carrying a bronze shield. He is always mustachioed and wears a pointed helm. His boots and belt shine as brightly as if a continual light spell had been placed on them.

Here it is in 2e:

This is the war god of all the eastern lands. He appears as a massive dark-skinned man with red studded leather armor, carrying a bronze shield. He is always mustachioed and wears a pointed helm. His boots and belt shine as brightly as the sun. He primarily supports the horse soldiers of the east. He is a very protective god and because there are many eastern warrior spies in the eight cities, including Lankhmar, this god has been trying to increase his number of worshipers in these cities.
Role-playing Notes: The Red God is a god of warriors. He favors acts of war and battle and lends support in the form of strength of arm and courage of heart to warriors who follow his faith. He spends most of his time trying to cause new battles to test the courage of his followers. He is the one responsible for turning all of the lands of the east against the eight cities.

There are differences in the deities and heroes included, 1e has the Nehwon Rat God, for instance while 2e does not. 2e has Lao Tzu and Kung Fu Tzu (Confuscious), in the Chinese Mythos, 1e does not.

 

[Alzrius]

There are differences in the deities and heroes included, 1e has the Nehwon Rat God, for instance while 2e does not. 2e has Lao Tzu and Kung Fu Tzu (Confuscious), in the Chinese Mythos, 1e does not.

Deities & Demigods also has Camaxtli in the Central American Mythos, but he's not present in the Aztec Mythology of Legends & Lore 2E. Of course, we found out why later: he was slain by Tenebrous (i.e. Orcus) during the events of Dead Gods (affiliate link).