Tuesday, June 4, 2019

AD&D First Edition Collector's Books Print on Demand

Speaking of print on demand, I got something else in the mail this week.


The Holy Trinity of AD&D from DriveThruRPG Print on Demand.

These are of course the newer collector's edition covers and honestly, they look great.  As you can see from the pictures these are glossy covers and not the matte finish of the ones you could get in the stores.


Also, there is no ribbon bookmark, no embossed covers, and no gilded pages.




But these POD versions are also slightly bigger than the reprints and the paper is a bit thicker.


The price was great with the sale and I ended up paying about as much for these as I did for my originals back in the 80s.



I was getting these to give as a gift to a friend and I wanted to see how they would turn out.
In truth, I am very, very pleased with these and find I want to keep them! (but I won't).

You really have to hand it to WotC and DriveThru, it has never ever been easier to get books and materials for ANY version of D&D you like.

I would not mind seeing a softcover version of the Player's Handbook to be honest.  Something like the Fiend Folio softcover they have. A little bit cheaper to buy multiple copies of to have an AD&D 1st Ed Start-Up set.  A DMG, a Monster Manual and five PHBs for one price. 

For some reason, I forgot to get a copy of Unearthed Arcana, so I ordered it now.

You can get yours here:

6 comments:

Timothy C. Schenks said...

This Unearthed Arcana is better than the original 1985 edition. It has all the addenda and corrections from Dragon magazine.

Patric Rogers said...

Those prices are extremely reasonable, especially for hardcovers

Glenn Robinson said...

Thanks Tim. What's the quality of the text reproduction like? The shading of my cyclopaedia reprint was variable and the text a little fuzzy.

Tom H said...

I've been considering DriveThru POD for a couple of things, can I ask what you think of the binding/manufacture?

Timothy S. Brannan said...

@Tom, they have been great so far. Really impressed with the quality.

Basara549 said...

Timothy: All but ONE of the additions/errata. And that one has a major effect on one of the UA classes.

IF you actually read the Dragon Magazine UA Errata article (instead of just pulling the 2 sheets out to paste in), the article itself contains a bit that didn't end up in the paste-in sheets, that the Thief-Acrobat would continue to gain in Some of their Thief abilities until they reached (DEX-10) level. The minimum Dex for a T-A would result in the skills gaining for at least 1 more level than as in the book-as-printed, and some (mostly elves, without magical assistance) might keep gaining in the skills until they hit 9th level (with a 19 dex).

From the Dragon #103 article (reformatted, since pasting from acrobat reader deleted hyphens & quotes, and kept the old column width):

"Nobody brought up the issue, but we decided to do something to help out thief-acrobats. First of all, every thief-acrobat can and does achieve 6th-level skill (not just 5th)
in pick pockets, open locks, and find/remove traps.
Second, a thief-acrobat does gain the ability to 'decipher magical writings and utilize scrolls' at 10th level, just as regular thieves do (see Players Handbook, p. 27).
And for virtually every thief-acrobat, advancement in the above-mentioned thieving skills does not stop when they split away from the main profession to become thief-acrobats. A thief-acrobat with 17 dexterity acquires 7th-level ability in pick pockets, open locks, and find/remove traps when he reaches 7th level as a thief-acrobat; one with 18 dexterity can gain 8th level ability in these skills at 8th level, and a 19 dexterity allows 9th-level ability when the character reaches 9th level. (Since the minimum dexterity for a thief-acrobat is 16, these benefits apply to the majority of all characters who could qualify for the class.)" Dragon Magazine #103, "Arcana Update, Part 1" by Kim Mohan.