D&D General Wizards of the Coast release PDFs of World of Adventure Fast-Play Game (AD&D 2E), Quadrille Graph Paper, and Hexagonal Mapping Booklet on DriveThruRPG

[Alzrius]

Wizards of the Coast have released three new pay-for-download PDFs of old D&D products over on DriveThruRPG.

The Fast-Play Game - Dungeons & Dragons Worlds of Adventure is a twenty-page starter booklet from 1998. Priced at $1.99, its description reads as follows:

The Fast-Play rules booklet was a free module released by TSR/WotC in 1998 to provide a quick and easy entry point into the world of 2nd Edition AD&D. It included pre-generated characters and a short dungeon, as well as an open ended setting.

The rules themselves were a stripped down subset of 2nd edition rules. Each pregen and each encounter had descriptions of the unique rules and mechanics to guide players and a new Dungeon Master in using them.

By contrast, the Hexagonal Mapping Booklet (1980) and Quadrille Graph Paper (1982) - priced at $0.99 each - have far briefer descriptions, noting little more than the sizes of their respective graph rulings.

Besides these latest releases, previous PDFs of older D&D products have included Outdoor Geomorphs Set 1 - Walled City, Player's Secrets of Muden (for Birthright), The Planescape Conspectus, Midnight on Dagger Alley (AD&D 1E), the AD&D 2E starter set Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game, and the 3.5 Deluxe Character Sheets. Free releases have included Wrath of the Immortals (BECMI), The Book of Regency (Birthright), Three Dragon Ante, Rob Kuntz's To the City of Brass, and the World of Krynn Trail Map and The Eastern Countries Trail Map (Mystara).

Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.

 

[Alzrius]

Fun fact: The Worlds of Adventure Fast-Play Game is written by Jeff Grubb. Since he's due to have another release soon, is this beginning of a Grubbaissance for D&D?

 

[Count_Zero]

I'm just going to say - if you're going to sell what is glorified print-it-yourself graph paper release from a time that (on the Quadrille Graph Paper front) you couldn't go down to the grocery store and buy a pad of 1/4" graph paper, maybe bundle the two releases together and sell them at $.99 US?

The Fast-Play game is very nice to have though.

 

[darjr]

Whats the fast play game like?

 

[Orius]

If it's the Fast Play Rules that were included in Dragon #251, it's an introductory product that has 4 pregenerated characters and a short 4 room dungeon. It's written for both new players and DMs. It's connected to the Adventure Game that was released a few months ago and Alzrius has linked above. There are also two related adventures that were released in 1999, Wrath of the Minotaur and Eye of the Wyvern. I believe the DM Guild has had both of those for a while. Together, they are a pretty good starting point for a 2e game with novice players.

I'm chuckling at the quadrille pads; you can get graph paper anywhere. The hex pads I suppose are okay, but there's always this site if you need more specialized grid paper:

Free Online Graph Paper / Asymmetric and Specialty Grid Paper PDFs

incompetech.com

Just go down to the Hexagonal category and download the 5 hex/ inch pdf, that'll give you a simple hex grid on the usual scale.

The Geomorphs have piqued my interest though. Here's hoping they'll release the full set of Dungeon Geomorphs soon. That's a good evergreen edition neutral product that should be served well by a .pdf release.

 

[darjr]

Thanks! Huh, I may have to get that.

The geomorphs I want to print out to battlemap scale and use them live, randomly, some day.