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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iosue" data-source="post: 9171604" data-attributes="member: 6680772"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/Vd0ohucXcpbXfvrt4PYifw__imagepage/img/av2A_ouEDlihQY7pdkzBqqVNQUg=/fit-in/900x600/filters:no_upscale():strip_icc()/pic567878.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/lDsi9gvDHNOKRRs9QFAraQ__imagepage/img/zjEfGD8zZ8I68MfzbHr6EMx9I6k=/fit-in/900x600/filters:no_upscale():strip_icc()/pic541772.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />In the course of another thread, I was comparing AD&D and AD&D 2nd Edition. 2nd Edition holds a unique place in my heart. After playing D&D from 1987 to 1991, in 1992 I used the money from my first summer job to buy the core books for 2nd Edition. The original AD&D books left me a little cold; they were interesting reads, but I just wouldn't be using the majority of the rules. We played AD&D characters using D&D rules. But when I got 2nd Edition, it spoke to me. I loved the artwork, I loved how they had cleaned up and streamlined many of the abstruse AD&D rules. It was a game I wanted to play. But as I paid for those books at the Source Comics & Games in Falcon Heights, and then eagerly read through them at home, I had no idea that my playing days were behind me, at least for a while. Our group got busy with school, and work, and the general business of growing up. We always intended to play again. We even kept buying books. But we never got around to it. But it had a tremendous impact on me. To this day, I see D&D in my head as Elmorean Realism. I still think 2nd Edition has the best initiative rules of all D&D since 1974. I thought it would be fun to read through the rules, and share my thoughts with you guys.I'll be reading printings with the above covers. Let's start with the prefatory matter of the Player's Handbook. I would be remiss if I did not point out the grammatically correct title, unlike 1st Edition, which eschewed the apostrophe S for...adjectival plurals, I guess? The title page shows a black and white reprint of the cover illustration by Jeff Easley, although "Player's Handbook" is colored in the dark-ish blue so heavily used in these printings. Beneath the illo is "The revised and updated Player's Handbook for the 2nd Edition of the AD&D® game," again in that characteristic blue. A banner of that color runs through all the subsequent pages, giving 2nd Edition a very bright and professional feel. Having come up with Mentzer's D&D line, I appreciated it, but I imagine many of those who liked the darker art and style of 1st Edition were put off by it.Page 2 opens with Special Thanks To:, acknowledgments written by an anonymous person. (I think it was David "Zeb" Cook, but he is mentioned in the third person.) After of course acknowledging the work of Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the author makes special mention of Zeb Cook, Jeff Grubb, Tracy Hickman, Kim Mohan, Douglas Niles, Jim Ward, and Margaret Weis as authors of the other AD&D hardcovers prior to 2nd Edition. After that, a veritable laundry list of people are mentioned. It looks like just about everyone who had worked at TSR or was TSR-adjacent is mentioned.Then come the Credits. Design is credited to David "Zeb" Cook, with Steve Winter and Jon Pickens credited for development. After that come yet more thanks for the "hundreds of players" who playtested the game, as well as "anyone who has ever asked a question, offered a suggestion, written an article, or made a comment about the AD&D game." Finally it notes that 2nd Edition is a derivative work based on the AD&D PHB and DMG by Gary Gygax, as well as Unearthed Arcana and other materials by Gygax and others.On the facing page 3 is Cook's Foreword to the Second Edition. With all due respect to Zeb Cook, I don't have much to say about it. It again notes that 2nd Edition was the result of input by many, many people, and not the work of just Cook himself. Perhaps most notable is the expressed design goals of "make it easier to find things, to make the rules easier to understand, to fix the things that did not work, to add the best new ideas from the expansions and other sources, and, most important of all, to make sure the game was still the one you knew and enjoyed."One thing I was a little surprised about was that Lorraine Williams was nowhere mentioned. Of course, normally one would not expect the CEO to be mentioned, but there was the precedent of Mentzer's Companion Set being dedicated to Brian Blume. Given the momentousness of the occasion, I thought she might at least be listed in the long list of names in the Special Thanks section.Pages 4-6 are the Table of Contents. The major chapters are: Welcome to the 2nd Edition AD&D® Game, The Real Basics, Glossary, Chapter 1: Player Character Ability Scores, 2: Player Character Races, 3: Player Character Classes, 4: Alignment, 5: Proficiencies (Optional), 6: Money and Equipment, 7: Magic, 8: Experience, 9: Combat, 10: Treasure, 11: Encounters, 12: NPCs, 13: Vision and Light, and 14: Time and Movement.One major departure from 1st Edition AD&D is the inclusion of the Combat rules in the Player's Handbook. Of course, players had long had access to the combat rules since Holmes, and Moldvay and Mentzer reinforced this, so it was a no-brainer for 2nd Edition to follow their lead.Page 6 lists the Appendices: 1: Spell Lists, 2: Notes on Spells, 3: Wizard Spells, 4: Priest Spells, 5: Wizard Spells by School, 6: Priest Spells by Sphere, 7: Spell Index, and 8: Compiled Character Generation Tables. Finally, there is an Index.The bottom half of page 6 is a handy page listing of all 67 Tables in the book.2nd Edition, it seems, often gets the bad rap of being backward and confusing (descending AC, THAC0), but also lacking both the particular charm of Gygax's AD&D, and a strong design ethos, a la 3e and 4e. We'll see how that goes, but I have to say, the PBH is a superbly organized book. The addition of a Spell Index strikes me as super helpful, as do the compiled character generation tables, and page listing of all tables in the book. A player should not need to engage in much flipping through the book to find a needed table, rule, or spell!We end with a big of iconic art by Larry Elmore. It perfectly captures the feel of a 1st level party achieving their first victory, while not promising overmuch regarding what the prospective players' characters would be able to do.<img src="https://aetherealengineer.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/dragonslayers.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></blockquote>

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