Player's Handbook Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (2nd Ed Fantasy Roleplaying) Hardcover Author: David Zeb Cook | Language: English | ISBN:
0786903295 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: TSR Inc.; 2nd edition (April 25, 1995)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0786903295
- ISBN-13: 978-0786903290
- Product Dimensions: 1 x 8.8 x 11.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
First off, note that there are in fact two versions of AD&D- there's the original version penned by Gary Gygax, and the new version written by the TSR staff which really has little to do whatsoever with the Gary Gygax version aside from keeping a similar theme and keeping a few ideas in place here and there (mostly spell descriptions, really). This item page is for that second edition, even though a lot of reviewers (and sellers) are still confusing the two editions.
How can you tell it's the second versus first edition? First off, the artwork is different. The old one is from the Gary Gygax era of terrible pencil sketches (even if I do still love the old art style), the second edition is a vastly higher-quality book with tons of color, where they actually hired good artists and printed on glossy pages. The first edition used arbitrary tables for... everything. How do you know if your fighter can hit a skeleton? Take all the numbers involved, find the appropriate tables, and roll versus the difficulty you get from the lookup. Second edition actually tried to include some formulas wherever it could, so you can do a lot without having to crack open a book every time.
On flavor, the editions are not really comparable. Gygax's book is extremely old-school, steeped in literature like The Lord of the Rings and Conan the Barbarian. There's nudity in the art, and tons of the genre's inherent sexism from those days. Male characters are advised to have higher strength, and so forth. It's not that Gygax himself was sexist, it's that his system was brutally honest in recreating the old works. The new edition first of all throws out the nudity and gender differences (mostly) in favor of reaching a broader audience.
I thoroughly enjoy a good change. Change IS good. At least with regards to this revision of the 2nd Edition Player Handbook. If you are an old pro, this book will expand on the information contained in previous versions, clarify some of the old rules, provide a correction or two, and occasionally make a rule modification (which it will clearly point out!). For the beginner, this book is full of information and advice, and is required material for any AD&D (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) player and/or DM (Dungeon Master/Game Master). This Players Handbook gives you all the rules, as well as some helpful hints, you will need to begin a life time of AD&D adventure with a group of players. It is not a 'How To' book. It is only a Guide, and a very good one at that. This book provides the necessary framework from which you can play endless AD&D adventures. It does not teach you 'how to' role-play, though it will provide some advice in this area, as any good guide should. (Remember, the AD&D game is a product of the mind, not books. Adventures begin and end in the imagination. Guide books only lend some structure through rules and suggestions.) To sum up the good points, this Player Handbook provides all you need as a player in the AD&D game.
There's only one bad point. Too much of the art work is amateur. Some of it is very good, but there are enough sad looking drawings to make you wonder why they were included.
That is the only reason this book gets a 4 star rating, instead of a five.
As other reviews have mentioned, a DM will also require a 'Monstrous Manual' and an 'AD&D Dungeon Master Guide'. I also strongly suggest another supplement, the Dungeon Master Screen/Index.
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