D&D 2E Wizards of the Coast releases the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game, the AD&D 2E quick-start set, for free on DriveThruRPG (Update: free no longer!)

[Orius]

Interesting. I used the Fast Play rules as presented in Dragon 251 to introduce my sister's kids to 2e, and it wasn't too bad. I think I'll grab this even if I don't use it much.

Book of Regency had been a free PDF originally, so I'd be annoyed if WotC stuck a price tag on it. Doesn't really matter too much because I still have the original file I downloaded BitD.

The other products might be worth a look, though Wrath of the Immortals has the problem of being very high level rules coupled with a very railroady adventure that has an ending with no player agency and a world shattering event that I don't agree with. Then OTOH, Mystara is kind of a mess to begin with.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I guess the strategy about this is like the demos of videogames. If you like it then you are willing to buy PDFs. Is not a good idea?

 

[Orius]

The Trail Maps aren't very good scans at all, no wonder they put them up for free. The Dragonlance one is slightly better, it looks like one side was a poster map of Ansalon, while the other side had a collection of maps which I believe are from the Dragonlance atlas. I'm not too impressed with that because many of those atlas maps were included in the Tales of the Lance box, which I have, so that's nothing particularly new. The box also has a poster map of Ansalon, but it's a different one.

The Eastern Countries map looks like the original copy had been water damaged or something. Unfortunately, it doesn't cover the really classic parts of the Known World area of Mystara which would arguably be Karameikos, Glantri and Darokin.

Wrath of the Immortals is a pretty rough scan from what I can tell. Still, I suppose for the fans of the old Rules Cyclopedia, it's worth picking up since it updates the Immortals rules, though it's questionable if a campaign will ever progress far enough to need or use them.

The Adventure Game is a pretty good introductory product for 2e.

 

[Alzrius]

UPDATE: The price for this has just jumped up to $9.99! It's not the only product to experience a sudden price jump either, with the Deluxe Character Sheets (affiliate link) for D&D 3.5 now costing $12.99 as well. So far no other free products have received a price increase, so grab them now if you haven't already!