Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ZeornWarlock 01-23-06, 12:50 AM	I like many others around here have been playing this game since the red box, but my best games were definitely in the AD&D 1st edition. Anyhow, I like the rules of the core books of today for the d20 roll higher thing, skills and feats. (Best thing in the game!) Thought, one thing that I would love to see is a remake/update of the 1st edition books updated to 3.5 (Including the ones like the old Oriental adventures, Wilderness Survival Guide and so on...) Since Wizards need to sell books to keep going. (And they need us the buyers to keep selling them too, so I hope they read the threads once in a while!) :P If the idea is tempting... Please WotC, don't take away from the old races and classes and classic creatures, just add to them if so you need. (Assassins, theif-acrobats, cavaliers, ninjas, yakuza, grey elves, mountain dwarves, original drow, demons etc... The core original classes, races amd creatures were the good old days! Man the original ninja was one bad dude!) :) Eventually not everything can stay the way it was... Alignment languages and the similar silly stuff. But I definitely think it could be possible to make a remake/update for us old dogs. :) Eck, even some of the old modules got their remake/update! So why not the original Core books too? ;) ZW.
Link182 01-23-06, 01:47 AM	I've been playing for 20+ years. I think the Wilderness Survival Guide, Dungeoneers SG, have been reproduced with 3 environment books (FRostburn, etc), and well, you could look at FR's Underdark for all things underground. Though they could theoretically do an generic environment book for the Underdark but it'd be mostly reprinted material from the FR book. Oriental Adventures was a disaster and Kara-Tur needs to be redone, but that'd be FR specific. they redid Unearthed Arcana. Not sure what's left.
ZeornWarlock 01-23-06, 02:20 AM	Link182, I own most of 3.0 and 3.5's books. (Thought the new Unearthed Arcana didn't stay long on my bookshelf as the rules and small things were already in many other books. To me that was one bad book if you compare its content to the original one!) :( Actually what I meant was the exact content of the originals, updated to 3.5! My old AD&D books are falling apart and a update to those would be really useful. ZW.
Link182 01-23-06, 04:11 AM	Oh. I think they'd view the 3.5 stuff to be an "update".
Sir Knight 01-23-06, 11:01 AM	Almost everything mentioned by the OP has been updated to 3.5e. Assassin and Thief-Acrobat are back as Prestige Classes as well... not sure what else you want them to do. Your enthusiasm is excellent though! :)
ZeornWarlock 01-23-06, 05:49 PM	Sir Knight, Yeah, but the original books had the assassin as a core class, not as a prestige class. The same goes for the rest. In the original Unearthed Arcana all races had their subraces in just one book, not to mention each respective deity. Or maybe a 1st edition reprint would do just fine! :P The reason I ask is because I play with AD&D 1st ed. with a couple of groups and I play D&D 3.5 with an other one! ZW.
Gopher 01-27-06, 07:38 PM	Off-topic: What did the "A" in the original AD&D stand for? Just a curious newbie.
speeblefreak 01-27-06, 07:57 PM	^Advanced.
mhacdebhandia 01-27-06, 10:30 PM	Originally, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was sold alongside a different, simple game called Dungeons and Dragons and referred to as "Basic D&D" by many players. Both games were first published in 1977, three years after the original Dungeons and Dragons game. The original D&D "Basic Set" was really an introductory product to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons; it only covered levels 1-3. It wasn't until 1981 and the new Basic Set written by Tom Moldvay that D&D became a truly separate game from AD&D; even then, the rules published only took you to level 14. In 1983 Frank Mentzer revised the D&D rules for the "red box" Basic Set (levels 1-3), the sequels to which (the Expert (4-14), Companion (15-25), Master (26-36), and Immortals (37+) Sets) really fleshed out the rules to cover the same level range that AD&D did. Long before TSR collapsed, Basic D&D was cancelled; the last iteration of that game was 1991's Rules Cyclopedia (which covered levels 1-36) and the Wrath of the Immortals boxed set (which provided rules for higher-level play). When Wizards of the Coast bought TSR and decided to revised AD&D, they called it D&D because there was no basic game to be "advanced" from anymore.
Licínio Miranda 01-28-06, 09:50 AM	Well, D&D 3.5. is already a revison. But yes, Wizards could publish the original 1st Edition(Along with Unearthed Arcana stuff) Core books in just one big book. Maybe tocelebrate 36 yrs of D&D. But I think that wont happen, because maybe it could cause some confusion along players, I dont know...
YellowKing 02-06-06, 09:44 AM	Originally, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was sold alongside a different, simple game called Dungeons and Dragons and referred to as "Basic D&D" by many players. Both games were first published in 1977, three years after the original Dungeons and Dragons game. Actually, the original creators split up and made AD&D2nd Edition (the second edition is what many of the "old dogs" on this board are most familiar with). The falling out between the core creators led to the 2nd Edition title and it was over financial and development differences. Later, after TSR put out Spells and Powers, Birthrite and 5th Age WoTC purchased the British company and released plans for a game that "You want to play a 5th level sorcerer/barbarian half orc? No problem. DnD3.0 NO LIMITS" I was there, at the hallmark launch of the new game (and I playtested it as a Judge) :) 3.5 has taken the game to a new and I believe better place. I do agree with the original poster, however, WoTC is doing a good job releasing books, but it would be nice to see some familar titles come out. The environment books are good (stormwreck is the best by far) and Unearthed Arcana (both versions) -is- pretty much like the original.
rbodine 02-06-06, 06:57 PM	I'm not sure how much of a market would exist for what you're asking; however, there would probably be a large enough market for 3.5 conversions of 1st edition modules. That's something I'd like to see (S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks!!!), but I once contacted Wizards and was told they have no current plans to do so. Living Greyhawk is now including a sequel to the A1-A4 series. The drow have always been popular, so G1-G3 : D1-D3 : Q1 would be a decent seller. It's a great idea, but don't hold your breath.
OravennasBrother 02-08-06, 11:15 AM	Later, after TSR put out Spells and Powers, Birthrite and 5th Age WoTC purchased the British company and I may be wrong, but I recall TSR as being from Lake Geneva Wisconsin. As for reprinting the original books; there may be legal problems which make such a solution impossible. The other possibility is that they have so much published which would either conflict with or be identical to 3.5 updates for the material from those books that it would make publishing impractical from an economic standpoint. Regarding the expressed desire to see "Assassins" etc. as core classes instead of prestige, I can only remark that it is allowed for a DM to create new core classes for his world. A DM is also allowed to accept only core classes or even some subsset of those classes. Thus publishing what would amount to another set of optional books would not make them core, and hence not available in all campaigns.
weasel fierce 02-08-06, 06:40 PM	I'd be interested in seeing a faithfull reprint, with original artwork. As for "updating" AD&D books to D20, Im not sure Im seeing the point. The games have almost nothing in common, and AD&D is better at being AD&D. Releasing more of the old modules though, would be awesome. Some of them can be very hard to find, especially with maps and such.
DM Dave 02-09-06, 12:07 AM	I may be wrong, but I recall TSR as being from Lake Geneva Wisconsin. As for reprinting the original books; there may be legal problems which make such a solution impossible. The other possibility is that they have so much published which would either conflict with or be identical to 3.5 updates for the material from those books that it would make publishing impractical from an economic standpoint. Regarding the expressed desire to see "Assassins" etc. as core classes instead of prestige, I can only remark that it is allowed for a DM to create new core classes for his world. A DM is also allowed to accept only core classes or even some subsset of those classes. Thus publishing what would amount to another set of optional books would not make them core, and hence not available in all campaigns. Ok, Ok, the really old dog will now pipe in...lol. The History of D&D Yes, TSR (which originally stood for Tactical Studies Rules) was based in Lake Geneva Wisconsin. Gary Gygax orginally formed the company to publish the "Castle and Crusade Society's" fantasy war game "Chainmail" which was a medieval miniatures battles game that incorporated "fantasy elements" into the rules. In 1972 this was a first (well before Warhammer). Anyway, Dave Arneson picked up the rules set... looked in the back and low and behold he found rules there for "man to man" combat. That is... one miniature against one miniature. Normally, the rules called for a 1 to 20 or 1 to 10 scale to represent large battlefield contigents. This feature made Chainmail unique... but in reality the feature almost seemed to be added as an afterthought! Anyway... ...what Dave Arneson did was create a little game for his friends (in his medieval wargame group the Twin Cities Club) whereby they could search ancient ruins for treasure each of them taking just "one man" instead of whole armies as had previously been done... and with careful play with a referee (Arneson) could advance thier man (fighting man or magic-user) and whalha! Role playing was born. Well Arneson's game became quite popular within his group, and started spreading to others... and it wasn't long before Gygax got wind of it. Well, Gygax took Arneson's notes... put the whole thing together and TSR printed the white box set in 1973. This was followed by four paperback pocket book sized supplements, each a year apart: Greyhawk(introduced thieves and "Hobbits"), Blackmoor (written by Dave Arneson and included the "Temple of the Frog" adventure), Eldrich Wizardry (which actually had a naked girl chained to an alter on the cover and introduced Psionics), and Gods, Demi-Gods, and Heroes (which included statistics for Conan the Barbarian!). At this point, the rules were scattered between the three "core books" and four supplements and a bunch of issues of Dragon magazine. Obviously, an update was needed... and here's where Gygax and Arneson parted ways. Interestingly, races were a seperate class in the early editions of D&D. It wasn't until AD&D came along that you could mix and match classes and races. Gygax had the vision for the hardcovers and what D&D eventually became, Arneson just wanted to keep printing supplements. The original rules as written however were rife with "gamer speak" and horrendously edited, thus virtually unuseable by the uninitiated. Gygax thought that D&D could have a broader appeal than just the wargamer set... Arneson did not. TSR originally printed a "blue book" with a dragon on the cover as an introduction to AD&D (which hadn't been released yet) in 1978 (the Monster Manual was printed in 1978, and the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's guide in 1979). Well Arneson made a stink and threatened legal action, so "Basic D&D" was born. And you will notice that the races are still seperate classes in that version of the rules... as well as other conventions held over from the original rules set, and the first "red basic" book was published. AD&D incorporated a significant amount of material from the Greyhawk supplement as well as Eldrich Wizardry. So, AD&D was Gygax's way of "getting around" Arneson... as it was a completely seperate game system (technically)... and the rest is gaming history.