30 Years Of Adventure Book - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

30 Years Of Adventure Book

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zombiegleemax
May 08, 2005 10:49:12 Is this worth getting? Are the TSR years well documented? Anything neat about it?
#2
Elendur
May 08, 2005 21:17:50 Well, firstly I'm not sure this is a on-topic discussion, since the book isn't out of print. It's definitely off topic if it leads to more history of TSR discussion like the thread that just got locked.

That said, I'll give you my review of the book, which I have.

There is a very broad overview of the history of D&D which I found interesting. There are many short essasy from various people about their experiences with D&D, which was generally interesting.

There is lots of beautiful artwork and pictures of wierd D&D memorabilia.

However the editing and general layout is horrible. I mean really bad. Like they had given all this great stuff to a high school year book staff. That might even be insulting the year book staff. It's not really possilbe to mess up a painting by Brom or Larry Elmore, but they tried really, really hard to.

So my recommendation is, look it over in a book store first.
#3
zombiegleemax
May 09, 2005 10:27:22 I personally think the book gives short-shrift to the first half of D&D's existance. It's treatment of the OD&D and the early days of 1e take up about 50 pages. It makes some wierd choices as to which products to cover. There is very little in the way of 'old-school' art (i.e. pre-Elmore, Parkinson, Caldwell, Easley).

I don't think there's much in there for fans of 1e and OD&D.

EDIT - Oh, and I agree 100% with what Elendur said about layout and editing.

R.A.
#4
zombiegleemax
May 09, 2005 11:21:17 Thirded on the layout/editing issue. BLEAH. Someone needs to read a book on basic paste-up and editing jobs. Terrible, terrible job. It's like some sort of "joke book" you'd put on your coffee table and hope somenoe would get all dizzy when they tried to read it or something. It couldn'tve been worse if they'd put tightly-wound spirals on each page.
#5
zombiegleemax
May 16, 2005 9:51:56 i bought it. but i don't recommend it.

nice to see harold johnson get some time.

but 80-90% of the other "famous" people .. i had no clue who they were.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax May 08, 2005 10:49:12	Is this worth getting? Are the TSR years well documented? Anything neat about it?
#2 Elendur May 08, 2005 21:17:50	Well, firstly I'm not sure this is a on-topic discussion, since the book isn't out of print. It's definitely off topic if it leads to more history of TSR discussion like the thread that just got locked. That said, I'll give you my review of the book, which I have. There is a very broad overview of the history of D&D which I found interesting. There are many short essasy from various people about their experiences with D&D, which was generally interesting. There is lots of beautiful artwork and pictures of wierd D&D memorabilia. However the editing and general layout is horrible. I mean really bad. Like they had given all this great stuff to a high school year book staff. That might even be insulting the year book staff. It's not really possilbe to mess up a painting by Brom or Larry Elmore, but they tried really, really hard to. So my recommendation is, look it over in a book store first.
#3 zombiegleemax May 09, 2005 10:27:22	I personally think the book gives short-shrift to the first half of D&D's existance. It's treatment of the OD&D and the early days of 1e take up about 50 pages. It makes some wierd choices as to which products to cover. There is very little in the way of 'old-school' art (i.e. pre-Elmore, Parkinson, Caldwell, Easley). I don't think there's much in there for fans of 1e and OD&D. EDIT - Oh, and I agree 100% with what Elendur said about layout and editing. R.A.
#4 zombiegleemax May 09, 2005 11:21:17	Thirded on the layout/editing issue. BLEAH. Someone needs to read a book on basic paste-up and editing jobs. Terrible, terrible job. It's like some sort of "joke book" you'd put on your coffee table and hope somenoe would get all dizzy when they tried to read it or something. It couldn'tve been worse if they'd put tightly-wound spirals on each page.
#5 zombiegleemax May 16, 2005 9:51:56	i bought it. but i don't recommend it. nice to see harold johnson get some time. but 80-90% of the other "famous" people .. i had no clue who they were.