Dungeons of Dread is Out

Dungeons of Dread is apparently out in some areas, although its official release date is March 19th (I think WotC has an early release program for locations which participate in their Encounters programs...or something. Or maybe street dates aren't that relevant anymore.)

Anyway, the four-module collection of White Plume Mountain, Tomb of Horrors, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth are the compiled S series faithfully recreated. These were great modules, and worth getting regardless of your preferred edition of D&D, as they can easily be ported over.

As I look through the pending releases at WotC, I am reminded that we are now only two months away from the reprint releases of the 2nd edition AD&D rulebooks. Joy! The edition I am most eager to snag, the one which provided consistent, weekly entertainment from 1989 through 2000. AD&D 2E defined the 90's for me, it was the system in which all of my "Keepers of Lingusia" campaigns took place from my first days in college right on up through my second marriage, and was the system that spawned the first lengthy (8+ year) campaign in the Realms of Chirak. Even when 3rd edition arrived on scene I continued to use the bulk of the 2nd edition campaign material in conjunction with 3E, and as 3E grew progressively more complex and demanding AD&D 2E increasingly looked like the edition that still allowed one to enjoy the game for fun, instead of work. I returned to 2E in 2007 when I decided to take a permanent hiatus from 3.5 D&D right up until 4th edition arrived on scene in mid 2008. I was further reminded of how much I prefer 2E after my recent attempt at returning to the venerable AD&D 1st edition late last year, which proved to be a less satisfying experience than I thought when I remembered that everything I loved about 2E's refinement was warped or missing from the kludgy and sometimes bizarre mechanical oddities of 1E.

Anyway....no matter which ruleset you prefer, this is a good year to enjoy older editions of AD&D.

More D&D releases now up: 2nd edition reprints, Dungeons of Dread S Series cover, and more

Wizards of the Coast updated their product lineup for 2013, so we can officially see what the S-Series module cover will look like, there are now actual entries for the 2nd edition reprints of the core rules (yay) and the first "Sundering" module from Ed Greenwood is now listed for an August 20th release.

It's interesting, as the module seems to very specifically avoid mentioning system requirements...it's just for "D&D," so I wonder if they plan to release it in a manner compatible with any of the editions that are now (or will be) back in print? Wonder if 4E will be overlooked here, too.... Either way, the fact that it doesn't specifically talk about serving as a lead-in or intro to 5th edition suggests the module will be designed for cross-edition functionality, but without actually saying that, its all just the usual conjecture and speculation.

Anyway, here's what the Dungeons of Dread S series cover is going to look like:



Nice. It's now slated for a March 19th release....so not too far away. I may have decided that 1st edition and I just don't agree with one another, but the modules are a different story, and I'll be able to use this just fine with the 2nd edition rulebooks.

Speaking of which, the three 2nd edition rulebook cover images look like placeholders--please, please PLEASE let them be place-holders, because the DMG/PHB images shown are from the black-border reprints circa 1995ish and those were some notoriously butt-ugly covers. The Monstrous Manual, however, was always a pretty decent cover so I won't complain if they recycle that one.



No cover yet for "Murder in Baldur's Gate" but read the description here. Between this module and the recent release of Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition for PC and Mac (I'm holding out for the android edition), we will be able to party like it's 1998 all over again!


UPDATE

Also, MIke Mearls is talking details about the "core" or simplest version of the game (here), on which additional rules/options will layer. It's interesting stuff, not least of which because the core rules he's describing sound about as old-school and "back to roots" as D&D can get short of the reprints...and maybe moreso, since this will be a refinement of the game that does a redux and dispenses with both the modern layered complexity to simplify its core, and also the old school complexity that arose from the stitched-together rules-bedlam that was common in the early days as the game began to grow.