Retro Corner: AD&D Player’s Handbook
Join us as we take a look at the AD&D Player’s Handbook and marvel at the wonders contained therein…
This week, Adam Harry and I take a look through a relic of D&D’s past, the AD&D Player’s handbook. Join us as we revisit classic faves like THAC0, titles that change with your level, armies of minions, and of course all that glorious art.
One of the cool things about D&D is that, despite having been through 5 official editions (not counting the difference between basic, expert, advanced, and 3.5 or the fabled 2.5 [which was there, I know, that was my first PHB]) the game retains a fundamental shape to it. As though the various editions are outlining the edges of some kind of Platonic ideal that is D&D, and some of the core ideas shine through.
So I guess in this video then, Adam Harry and I are chained up in a cave? That…that one got away from me. But as we dug through this, you could really get a sense of the spirit of early D&D. There were a lot of ideas that had been ported over from Chainmail and then given more creativity/freedom. Reading through the book you can almost hear the conversations that were happening in the developers’ home campaigns. Incidentally those home games are where a lot of D&D canon comes from–if you’ve ever cast a spell with someone’s name, odds are good it’s one of the designer’s characters.
More importantly, you get an idea of how much fun the game can be. Like the game is full of some fairly complex (and often arbitrarily so) rules, and many editions–especially 1st Edition–have a reputation for being particularly unfriendly to ‘filthy casuals’ but for all that, the game was still fun. There are plenty of light hearted moments to be found, both in the rules, and in the art that’s scattered through the book.
It’s a nice reminder that at the end of the day we’re all coming together to play a game. And that games can be fun and serious and though you might fumble your system shock roll and instantly die just for stumbling onto something–or get your party trapped in a chamber full of evil gods hellbent (literally) on sucking the soul from your marrow, you can also cast Otto’s irresistable dance on an Umber Hulk and confront talking crayfish.
At any rate, we enjoyed going back through the 1st Edition Player’s Guide, and hope that you’ll have fun too.
“Hey where should we put this book when we’re done with it?” “It belongs in a MUSEUM!”
