Jan 02, 2017 Part 6: Why Gary Gygax claimed Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was a different game Late in the spring of 1976, Gary Gygax started work on a complete revision of Dungeons & Dragons. In Gygax’s TSR office, he and collaborator Tim Kask cut up several old copies of the D&D rules—copies much like the one that recently sold for $22,100 on ebay. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons® Player's Handbook for the AD&D® Game. 201 Sheridan Springs Rd. 120 Church End, Lake Geneva, Cherry Hinton WI 53147 Cambridge CB1 3LB USA United Kingdom Foreword to the 2nd Edition It has been a long time getting here. I don't mean the months, perhaps even years, you. Home Groups Talk Zeitgeist. Sign in / Join; English; Help. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Tome of Magic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition 1st Printing 1991 HC at the best online prices at. Wizard's Challenge II (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 2nd Edition) by Kevin Melka: TSR 9454: Hour of the Knife by Bruce Nesmith: TSR 9456: Caravans by Rick Swan: TSR 9459: Rogues in Lankhmar (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 2nd Edition) by Wes Nicholson: TSR 9461: City Sites (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition) by Skip Williams: TSR 9464. Here is the video game “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Collector's Edition”! Released in 1994 on Mac, it's still available and playable with some tinkering. The game is set in a compilation / shovelware and d&d / ad&d themes. Advanced dungeons & dragons, players handbook: special reference work: a compiled volume of information for players of Advanced dungeons & dragons, including, character races, classes, and level abilities; spell tables and descriptions; equipment costs; weapons data; and information on adventuring.

• Advanced Dungeons And Dragons 1st Edition
• Advanced Dungeons And Dragons

'Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' is the tenth episode of the fifth season of Community, and the 94th episode overall in the series. It originally aired on March 20, 2014 on NBC. The episode was written by Matt Roller, and directed by Joe Russo. The episode marked the series writing debut of Roller.

Critics gave the episode generally positive reviews, praising the exceptional sound design and action sequences that helped evoke a fantasy world. The episode received a 1.1/4 in the 18-49 rating/share, increasing slightly from the week before.^[1] 3.32 million American viewers watched this episode, increasing from the previous week's audience of 2.77 million viewers.

Plot[edit]

At a Save Greendale committee meeting, Professor Hickey (Jonathan Banks) learns that he was not invited to his 3-year-old grandson's birthday party. Hickey becomes irate that his son, Hank Hickey (David Cross), continues to limit visiting time with his grandson, while spending all his time playing the role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons. The group then decides to help father and son reunite through a rousing game of Dungeons & Dragons.

The group and a reluctant Hank meet at Abed's (Danny Pudi) apartment, where Abed reprises his role as the Dungeon Master. Abed describes the eight adventurers arriving in the troubled realm of Galindor, where they must vanquish an evil Necromancer who rules in a dark tower across a bridge. Hank, seeing through the group's contrived plan to reconcile father and son, mixes and redistributes each character's sheet. His character is now Tristram Steelheart, a Holy Cleric; Hickey is named Tiny Nuggins, a HalflingThief; Britta (Gillian Jacobs) is Fibrosis, a Ranger; Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) is Crouton, a Half-orc Druid; Annie (Alison Brie) reprises her role as Hector the Well Endowed; Chang (Ken Jeong) is a Troll named Dingleberry; and Jeff (Joel McHale) is Sir Riggs Diehard, much to the delight of Dean Pelton (Jim Rash), who is his son, Joseph Gordon Diehard.

Hank rejects the group’s given mission and decides to head South instead. Annie attempts to lift Hank and carry him to the bridge, but Hank casts a fire spell in self-defense, dealing damage to Annie and also setting the bridge's rope supports on fire. The bridge is unable to hold the weight of the party and they plummet into a raging river below, splitting the group apart with Jeff, Hickey, Shirley, and Annie washing up on the left fork of Skull river, and the remaining party on the right. Hank threatens to quit. To prevent Hank from quitting the game, Hickey wagers that if he kills the Necromancer first, he is allowed to come to his grandson's birthday. Hank accepts, stating that if he wins Hickey will not go to the family's Christmas or Thanksgiving. The parties then go into separate rooms.

After being washed ashore, Hickey's impatience and new-found motivation to win the game leads him to delve into the neighboring jungle alone, encountering a hostile patrol of Hobgoblins. Shirley, Jeff, and Annie follow while the Hobgoblins, alerted to Hickey's presence, charge at him with spears. Shirley uses a spell to entangle four of the charging Hobgoblins. The two remaining Hobgoblins, however, fire arrows at Crouton, fatally wounding her. Shirley blames her character's death on Hickey and leaves the apartment. Hickey's group follows the fleeing Hobgoblins to the Gob Shack and ambush them, taking two alive. Hickey interrogates the two Hobgoblins, both of whom are played by Abed. Hickey manages to wear down their resolve and one of the Hobgoblins confesses the location of the Black Tower.

Meanwhile, Hank casts a healing spell on Fibrosis, attempting to coax her into helping him. He reveals that he resents his father because he was absent during his birthdays. Hank's party then encounters giant, flying, Sky-spiders. Hank casts a spell to speak with the spiders and successfully achieves a non-combative resolution. The sky spiders fly his party closer and give them directions to the Tower. Both parties simultaneously arrive at the Black Tower and attempt to intimidate the other party into yielding. An emotional Dean attempts to defect so that he can reunite with his father, Jeff, who draws his sword. The Dean nevertheless approaches to hug Jeff and impales himself on Jeff's sword. The Dean's death breaks the standoff. The parties decimate each other in a combination of spells, sword-fighting, and Chang's loud, confused Troll noises, with only Hank and Hickey surviving the melee.

Hank and Hickey enter the Tower while still fighting each other, reaching the Necromancer's workshop. The Necromancer, however, has fled while the parties spent an hour fighting over who gets to kill him. Hank and Hickey complain to Abed over the lack of a resolution, but Abed says it is their own fault for delaying the battle by infighting. Continuing to fight with each other, Hank and Hickey attempt to divide the Necromancer's loot before following him out of the Black Tower. With only the two of them remaining in the game to work together, Jeff and the group leave the apartment saying 'that's the best most fathers and sons can do.'

The end-credits scene shows Abed angrily Dungeon-Mastering a game among four of Annie's stuffed animals. The implication is that Abed is attempting to confront his grief of Troy's loss by proxy as the fluffy adventurers arrive at the Chamber of Grief.

Added Chaos Damage Support Chaos, Support Icon: H Mana Multiplier: 130% Requires Level 31 Supports any skill that hits enemies. Per 1% Quality: Supported Skills deal 0.5% increased Chaos Damage Supported Skills have (17-170) to (26-255) added Chaos Damage This is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it.

Cultural references[edit]

The episode used the popular role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, to drive its plot. It borrowed heavily from its lore, characters, and creatures as in the first installment where the group played D&D to save Fat Neil's life. The Dean's character, Joseph Gordon Diehard, is an homage to Joseph Gordon-Levitt's portrayal of a younger Bruce Willis in the film, Looper. The character is also an homage to the film, Die Hard starring Bruce Willis, which is often referenced in the series. Likewise, the character of Sir Riggs Diehard is a dual reference to both Lethal Weapon and Willis. The Elvish song sung by Hank spoofs a similar song sung in the first installment in The Hobbit trilogy.^[2] Hank's spamming of the 'lightning bolt' spell during the ultimate battle parodied the viral video of a live-action role-playing game battle (LARP) from 2005.^[3][4]

Reception[edit]

Ratings[edit]

Upon airing, the episode was watched by 3.32 million American viewers, receiving a 1.1/4 in the 18-49 rating/share. The show placed fourth out of fifth in its time slot, behind Hell's Kitchen, the 2014 NCAA Basketball Tournament, and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland; and ninth out of thirteenth for the night.^[1]

Critical reception[edit]

The episode received generally positive reviews but was considered a less-than-worthy sequel to its predecessor, 'Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'. Emily Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club rated the episode at a 'B+,' writing how this episode had a 'high hurdle to clear' because of the standard set in the original when it demonstrated how the show does everything it does well. VanDerWerff wrote how the episode 'sort-of' measured up to the original and criticized how the episode struggled to wrap up the story. Despite her reservations, she wrote how the episode worked even in spite of these flaws because it was fun to see all the characters playing the game together. She criticized how the conflict between Hank and Hickey felt generic and given less weight when compared to the previous vital conflict between Pierce and saving Fat Neil's life. He praised the casting of David Cross (Arrested Development, Mr. Show with Bob and David) as Hickey's son, Hank, and said he liked 'the idea [of] having the two of them in the same room — even if they couldn’t stand each other — talking through their issues via the proxy of the game.' She also praised the interrogation sequence between Hickey and the Hobgoblins (giving a taste of how Hickey operated as a cop) and praised the sound effects and camera movements that depicted the action in the game. Ultimately, she concluded that the 'first D&D episode was much better at telling a compelling story about these characters and what they went through to save someone who wasn’t even one of their own.' Rather, this episode 'was better at capturing the feel of what it’s like to gather with friends and roll some dice, then laugh about how much fun something so silly can be.'^[5]

Joe Matar of Den of Geek gave the episode 3.5 out of 5 stars, saying how it was 'an unabashed redux [of the original], taking the same basic premise of having the characters sit around and play a D&D game that happens to be a framework for healing real emotional issues.' He wrote how this installment did not compare as well because the stakes were lower, the characters didn't feel well defined, and there was no villain. Matar criticized the basic premise of the sequel:^[6]

'When the game was being played for Fat Neil, it was obviously a very grave situation: Neil might be suicidal. Furthermore, it was tied heavily back to one of our main characters, Jeff, who inadvertently coined the 'Fat Neil' nickname and therefore felt tangentially responsible for Neil’s suicidal tendencies. The trouble with Neil was introduced in the episode in such a way that it felt like this D&D game was an absolute necessity to avert a tragedy. Here, the group just forces the game into being when they learn that Hank is into Dungeons & Dragons. To use a Home Alone analogy (proven to be the most effective of all analogy types), it’s like how in the first Home Alone, Kevin had no choice but to protect his house, but in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, he went out of his way to lure the robbers into a house of traps. The premise is shoehorned into working rather than organically feeling like the right thing to do.'^[6]

Matar wrote how Hickey being prevented from spending time with his grandson 'doesn’t quite work because the problems between Hank and Buzz feel vague and undefined.' In the first installment, Matar wrote, the character traits (like Britta's liberalism) of each member shone through. Here, only Hickey's interrogation sequence and Abed's proclivities to act out characters in his universe were displayed, while Shirley was killed off quickly and David Cross was underused. Despite this pronouncement, Matar praised Jim Rash's performance, saying that 'his death scene is almost irrefutably the best bit of the episode.' He also praised the episode for mixing up the setting. Matar wrote, however, that the lack of a strong villain like Pierce was a severe shortcoming:^[6]

'Everybody always hated on Pierce during Season 2 when he was at the height of his dickishness, but I absolutely loved how well the character functioned as a villain, and his role in the original D&D episode was a lynchpin in how awesome that episode ended up being. Of course, it’s both wise and completely necessary that 'Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' doesn’t have the same exact setup. There’s no clear villain and, almost from the start, everyone’s divided into two factions and two separate rooms.'^[6]

Brian Collins of Badass Digest starts by saying he was disappointed with the episode 'aping one of the series' best' but then qualified his criticism by saying Dan Harmon undertook this sequel as a 'fuck you' to NBC, who hated the original episode in Season 2.^[2] Collins recounts Harmon's interview in Rolling Stone where Harmon 'admits that the episode was not organic, difficult to write, and it would be all his fault if it was the worst episode ever.'^[7] Despite this qualification, Collins said how this episode 'never really gelled' for him. He initially praised the episode for delivering on enough laughs, but said the lack of a real conflict and a lukewarm resolution soured the episode for him. He said the stakes were not high enough when compared to the original, and found it difficult to become invested in a vague conflict between Hickey and his son. Unlike many other reviews, Collins was not amused by the Dean and Jeff's subplot saying it was 'rather annoying' where the Dean 'takes his role as Jeff's son a bit too seriously.' He calls the Hickey interrogation of an NPC as a 'fun bit,' hedging that statement by saying that 'scattered moments aren't enough to overcome the fact that the episode has no reason to exist beyond 'let's do D&D again.' Despite his harsh treatment of the episode, Collins said that the episode 'LOOKS good,' praising the direction of Joe Russo, who infused the battle 'scenes some much needed energy, with his soaring and oft-moving camera giving us a few peeks at previously unseen areas at their apartment.'^[2]

Top 10 overwatch dmg player. Sarah Shachat from Screen Crave rated the episode 8 out of 10, praising Joe Russo's direction at expertly angling dramatic shots to 'evoke the sense of imagining a fantasy world.' She wrote how the camera shots contributed to the humor, especially in the interrogation scene where 'different angles [were] used as Hickey interrogates the hobgoblins (both played by Abed by oddly splitting his lip).' Shachat lauded the literary device of splitting-up the parties, facilitating competition, homing in 'on the father/son motivations and issues for that race.' She 'loved how completely Jim Rash committed to his filial devotion, and his dreamy sequence of trying to contact his lost father via sparrow was a great interlude. The pile of failed notes sitting in Abed’s trashcan made the gag too.' Her main criticisms came at the premise of the episode, i.e., the conflict between Hank and Hickey, which she called 'generic.' Shachat also criticized the abrupt resolution of the episode, but concluded that the show 'put together another convivial roleplaying quest.'^[8]

Eric Goldman from IGN rated the episode 8.5 out of 10, saying it was a 'solid sequel that delivers plenty of great entertainment, even if it can’t quite mach [sic] the heights of its predecessor.' Goldman applauded Jim Rash's performance saying there 'were some clear standouts though, including Dean Pelton, who was oh-so eager to embrace his role as Jeff’s son in the game ('FATHER!') in increasingly amusing ways. Jim Rash was hysterical showing all the different ways the Dean got into character and I loved his earnest 'Me too!' response to Buzz’s son’s sarcastic comment about loving being told exactly what to do while role-playing.' He also praised the interrogation sequence where 'Buzz interrogated the two different hobgoblins (both Abed, naturally)..as we cut back and forth between the two angles of Abed, as Buzz’s tough cop persona broke his 'prisoners.' He also praised the direction of Joe Russo, as well as the sound FX throughout, which he said was 'incredibly well-timed.' Ultimately he tempered his praise by saying that although this was a really funny episode of Community, the first D&D episode was a classic:^[9]

'Perhaps inevitably, it was hard not to recall what an emotionally powerful place the first D&D episode went to and find this somewhat lacking by comparison. It was the right call to not try to emulate something as heavy and big as Neil's suicidal thoughts, but it still felt like Buzz and his son’s reconciliation felt a bit undercooked at the end - there wasn’t a big enough moment to really help us see the shift that Jeff and the others saw and it felt like things wrapped up because it was time to wrap them up.'^[9]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abBibel, Sara (March 21, 2014). 'Thursday Final Ratings: 'The Vampire Diaries', 'American Idol', 'Hell's Kitchen' & 'Parenthood' Adjusted Up Plus Final NCAA Tournament Numbers'. TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 23, 2014.
2. ^ ^abcCollins, Brian (March 20, 2014). 'TV Review: COMMUNITY 5.10 'Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons''. Badass Digest. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
3. ^sexdwarf (December 22, 2005). 'Lightning Bolt!'. YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
4. ^Surette, Tim (March 21, 2014). 'Community 'Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' Review: We Did This Adventure Already'. TV.com. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
5. ^VanDerWerff, Emily Todd (March 20, 2014). 'Community: 'Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons''. A.V. Club. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
6. ^ ^abcdMatar, Joe (March 21, 2014). 'Community: Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Review'. Den of Geek. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
7. ^Hill, Logan (March 10, 2014). 'Q&A: 'Community's' Dan Harmon Takes No Prisoners'. Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
8. ^Shachat, Sarah (March 21, 2014). 'Community: Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Season 5 Episode 10 - TV Review'. Screen Crave. Archived from the original on March 22, 2014. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
9. ^ ^abGoldman, Eric (March 21, 2014). 'Community: Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Review'. IGN. Retrieved March 21, 2014.

External links[edit]

• 'Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' at NBC.com
• 'Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' on IMDb
• 'Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' at TV.com

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was developed from the Dungeons & Dragons game in the late 1970s. It allowed for more versatility in making characters and more detail and depth than the basic game had. Not to be confused with Adult Dungeons and Dragons. That would be a FATAL mistake.

• 1AD&D 1st Edition
• 2AD&D 2nd Edition

AD&D 1st Edition[edit]

D&D went all over the place. There were tons of books and finding rules for everything was sometimes a chore. Especially the options that separated race and class, alignments, and finding all the monsters stats could send you through 30 books.Gary Gygax saw fit to begin compiling all of the info into easy to search, themed books.

Monster Manual[edit]

He started with the Monster Manual (1977), going through all of the books he could find and compiling them into one book that was usable in D&D, alphabetized, with illustrations and in hardback. The book was still usable with D&D so nobody raged at this.

Player's Handbook[edit]

Next came the Players Handbook (PHB) in 1978, which compiled all the races found in Blackmoor and Greyhawk, and all of the classes. It eased up on the default classes for non-humans. It added more options, detail and equipment, and allowed you to create a character that was technically usable in D&D. It was still compatible and there was no rage.

Armor Class[edit]

The scale went from 10 to -10 on armor class, this being a choice made to incorporate the d20 in an approximation of Chainmail's combat system. Armor class was essentially representative of a bonus to the attacker. Unarmored targets gave a 10 point bonus, Heavily armored targets gave less of a bonus, and super heavily armored (or extremely agile) targets could impose negatives to the attack roll.

Dungeon Master's Guide[edit]

The meat and potatoes of the game along with all those nifty new rules in the PHB, came in the DMG. Guidelines for creating dungeons, populating them, filling them with treasure, combat matrices for characters and monsters, and wrapped all the stuff that seemed arbitrary in the MM and PHB up into a solid RPG.

Other books, and more[edit]

Soon more books came out for AD&D: Fiend Folio, Deities and Demigods, The Manual of the Planes, Oriental Adventures, Unearthed Arcana, Survival Guides, etc.

Gameplay[edit]

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons played much like the original D&D game (not to be confused with Basic, which was not fully compatible) which consisted of playing the role of your character, and resolving actions with a chance of failure by using dice. Players first create a character using the rules found in the PHB. The Dungeon Master then inserts the characters as appropriate in his campaign, whether homemade or manufactured world or a simple module or one shot adventure.

History and Longevity[edit]

Depending on how you count, AD&D 1E came out in 1977 or 1979. It lasted to 1989, which means it lived to the ripe old age of 10-12, which is actually pretty old for an RPG (albeit, not one that costs so much, to be fair; other RPGs that offer core in a single volume are usually much cheaper than AD&D, even then). It saw many issues in that time, from being falsely linked to a boy's disappearance in 1979, being linked to a suicide (google Patricia Pulling) and being the centerpiece for the now infamous Chick Tract Dark Dungeons. Still through it all, TSR saw money come in. When issues arose in the company between Gygax and two other board members, one of the board members sold his stock to an ungrateful manager that Gygax had hired, and rather than ride a ship he thought would sink, Gygax sold his stock to the rapacious she-bitch as well. In 1989, the decision came to publish a new version of AD&D, ostensibly to limit Gygax's royalties.

AD&D 2nd Edition[edit]

This edition added a whole lot of modular rules and fluff material. The core methodology of 1E was still in place, slightly more basic in scope. It also added a huge amount of optional rules from Unearthed Arcana and the Survival Guide books. For the most part, the core books work as described above, so this is what's different:

THAC0[edit]

2E took the combat matrices and made them uniform in function. Every class or kit in the game falls under one of 4 categories, and each category has a different rate of improvement. Fighters, obviously, get the best rate, while non-physical fighters get the worst. The statistic used to implement these categories was called THAC0.

THAC0 stands for To Hit Armor Class 0 (zero); it's the minimum number you needed to roll on a d20 in order to hit something with AC 0 (which means the lower your THAC0, the better for you). To handle other armor classes, you subtracted the target's AC from your character's THAC0, and then tried to roll at least this number. DMs often did not share the enemy's AC, in which case you would roll a d20, and subtract it from your THAC0 to show the lowest AC that you could hit. wait for the DM to tell you if you hit since it's his job.

Opinions of this mechanic are divided; some say it's overly complicated and non-intuitive (negative ACs being a common argument), while others don't mind all the basic subtraction (also, thac0 progression can just be thought of as to-hit bonus, negating any math besides being able to reverse your added result in order to know what AC you hit). Others just say that no matter how retarded it is, it's preferable to rolling on a table for every attack.

Complete (insert something here) Handbooks[edit]

There are a lot of people who want to play something unique, detailed and some people who just want the various bits of fluff to help describe their characters. The Complete Series Brown books detailed limited aspects of the 2E game rules, added optional rules, and player kits to play specific versions of a class. Other resource books that used the same format followed, like the Arms and Equipment guide, Of Ships and the Sea, and others. The Historical Reference books (referred to as the green books) allowed players and DMs to approximate historical situations using the AD&D 2E rules.

Box Sets[edit]

Well, 1E had box sets as well, but they really became prolific in 2E. The box sets offered new worlds, new developments in some worlds, and fluff the likes of which are hard to match even today. Masque of The Red Death, Planescape, and Dark Sun are notable campaign setting box sets.

Where's the Monster Manual?[edit]

Early in the 2E cycle, TSR decided that instead of releasing book after book of monsters, they would sell a huge binder with the basic monsters in it, and sell packs of sheets to fill it with. Each box set would have sheets with monsters specific to the setting in it, and 'galleries' of NPCs and special monsters. They called the binder the Monstrous Compendium, and they eventually released a second binder anyway. It was still much cheaper than publishing books. Eventually TSR would listen to demand and release a basic Monstrous Manual with the most common critters in it. After the cessation of the binder production, new printings of box sets would have little paperback supplements to the monster manuals instead of the punched sheets.

Advanced Dungeons And Dragons 1st Edition

Devils and Demons[edit]

After the mess from Patricia Pulling and Jack Chick, Lorraine Williams decided to have Demons and Devils pulled from AD&D 2E. The designers snuck them back in, but changed the names to Tanar'ri and Baatezu. Most players referred to them as Demons and Devils though, until the new names gained more proliferation in TSR branded novels. (Specifically, ones about a Balor and a Gary Stu munchk-assed Drow.)

At least two 2e supplements (Diablo: The Awakening, which is surprisingly a good supplement for non-Diablo campaigns, aside from the item tables, and Van Richten's Guide to Fiends) make reference to demons, however.

WHERE ARE DEM 'ALF ORKY GITZ??[edit]

Lorraine thought they were ugly. Seriously. Unpleasantness on the part of the player was nixed. It's the same reason the Assassin class went buh-bye.Half-orcs made a useless, underpowered return in the Complete Book of Humanoids. A powerful and barely changed version of the assassin shows up in The Scarlet Brotherhood.

Whoa, at least there's fluff.[edit]

If 1E lacked fluff, 2E had too much. From specific campaign setting spell books like Pages from the Mages, to the Book of Artifacts, Encyclopedia Magica and the Priest and Mage Spell Compendium series. You also had Dungeon cards, Racial supplementals, etc. The goal of many of these books was to increase the variety and help DMs create unique and interesting worlds using the examples within as a starting point to make their own. There were no real rules about creating this content due to the designers expecting people to actually think about what they're doing so it was very easy to have DMs make some absolutely broken or truly unique and fun.

OPTION BOOKS[edit]

The Option series brought in several piecemeal procedures for character and scenario creation. Due to a no-playtesting policy at TSR, many builds under the OPTION books can be horribly broken. Allow these at your own risk, DMs. OPTION Series books are often referred to as 2.5 by newbies looking for some sense of revenge after 2E fans made fun of them when Wizards released 3.5. It's not 2.5; none of the core books are invalidated or changed. The OPTIONs are broken, but they still require the 2E core books and as such are still 2E, much as it pains most fans to admit it. Although there are broken class combinations possible under the Option series assuming the DM ignores the fact that he is supposed to provide oversight (notably, it's possible by not turning the page and reading the additional rules on page 40 of S&M to make a priest character who can use Meteor Swarm as an at-will ability), the series also introduces or reintroduces balanced and archetypal classes such as the Monk, Crusader and Shaman and provides critical special abilities for level 10+ characters. Amongst the latter, the Hardiness ability, usable by fighters, paladins, and rangers, allows those characters to delay more 'unfair' attack forms such as instant death, paralysis, energy drain and mind control spells briefly, and then to sleep off the effects. Many aspects of these books, such as Combat & Tactics combat systems, and many of the options from High Level Campaigns, made it into 3e.

Longevity and History[edit]

The game had amazing product and lots of fluff. However the business plan was pretty shit. The combination of high quality materials, low relative selling cost, the glut of settings and material for them, the broken gameplay issues later on due to the no-playtesting policy, meant that TSR basically wrote its own ticket to failure. Still, the game plodded on for an amazing 11 years until Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition was released.

See also[edit]

• Castles & Crusades - AD&D flavor, 3e simplifications. Actually works.

Links[edit]

• The Purple Worm AD&D 2nd edition rulebooks from CD-ROM

Advanced Dungeons And Dragons