My intention was to get back to doing a weekly post here, but even though had I posted last night I thought this deserved a mention. This morning Wizards announced (here) that they will be putting out a limited release of the original first edition Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual. The scheduled release date is April 17, 2012, but be warned they do carry a premium price tag - $34.95 per book. A percentage of the money is designated to support the creation of a memorial to Gary Gygax in Lake Geneva WI, although if you prefer you can always donate directly through the Gygax Memorial Fund website.
$100+ dollars for the complete set is pretty steep though. The first DnD books I purchased were of the AD&D variety (copyright 1978), although I didn't actually acquire my copies until maybe 1983 or so (just looked ... yes, I still have them). I suppose I have a certain amount of interest in older material ... maybe if I'm employed by then and I get some good discounts ... we'll see.
Wizards obviously has a profit motive here, and the Gygax donation is good PR for them as well, but with the DnDNext discussion revolving around tying the different version of DnD together then I suppose it might be a good thing to understand exactly where the game started as part of understanding how it has evolved over the years. I guess I'm curious as to whether other DnD source material is going to be made available and whether PDF versions are going to again be part of the Wizards plans. It seems like a natural tie-in.
Enworld.org has a good post on the release of the first edition books here. A first pass through the comments sections shows a very positive response to the announcement.
I still have my original 1st Edition PHB, DMG, and MM, still in their original blue Bell Labs 4-ring binders. Oh, wait ... they weren't published in 4-ring binders? I guess the IH Conflict Simulation Club wasn't too careful about copyright laws back then (nor was the IH copy center, which ran off all those xerox copies).
ReplyDelete