AD&D, 3rd Edition

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Wargamer and RPG'er since the 1970's, author of Adventures Dark and Deep, Castle of the Mad Archmage, and other things, and proprietor of the Greyhawk Grognard blog.

21 thoughts on “AD&D, 3rd Edition”

  1. Technically, what he’s doing is a violation of international copyright law.

    Personally, I think he should rewrite it from scratch and make THAT available. His mashup of the myriad rules and sources makes for an interesting version of the game.

  3. I first got linked to Chris’ work over at the Troll Lord forums. I really like some of what he’s done with clerics, but I agree that perhaps he should have chosen a different format the using the original covers, intro, and the like. But I’m not going to complain if no one else does—I’m sure it’s borne out of a love for much of the original material. You can tell an awful lot of work went into it, in any case.

  4. Oh, he’s so far beyond “fair use” you can’t even SEE it from where he is. I certainly don’t endorse it from a standpoint of legalities, but as you say, Zachary, it’s so obviously a labor of love that it’s hard to fault his enthusiasm.

    I am definitely looking forward to reading through this stuff in depth over the next couple of days. I do recignize quite a few Dragon magazine articles that I recall having used in my own campaigns at one time or another…

  5. Personally, I love his stuff. Mixing C&C and AD&D (two of my very favorite games)…it's like getting chocolate in my peanut butter!

  6. I first heard about it in the Piazza a while ago. I’ve never been a big 2nd ed fan, but I kind of like some of the decisions made with this version.

    I agree however that it was rather crass to keep the Gygax references, and cover. The word Official on the cover of the UA bugs me almost as much.

  7. Yeah – it’s not so much doing it – but posting it – that got me. I mean, I’ve been working on a similar project – a monster manual for my own homebrew – but I won’t post it and I won’t use the MM cover…but the idea, oh yeah – I think it’s okay (I really like how he’s organized things – and incorporated Dragon mag, etc – though I, too, might have made different choices…)

  8. So-o-o, a labor of love for sure. Although, going to this much effort, a mock-up “UNofficial” stamp over the “Official” cover would have been more appropriate. And a new Revision-Intro would have been more welcome instead of the original GGG with signature.
    It gets a “Wag of the Finger”, yet certainly a thunderous round of silent applause…

  10. I'm torn. On one side this is a huge labor of love. On the other…well, I worry this could impact the OS movement to make us look like pirates with blatant disregard for IP.

    The core group of those that brought us C&C, S&W, LL, OSRIC, BFRPG and others has always worked with respect to IP and copyright.

    I fear the only reason that this has not recieved a C&D from WOTC is that they haven't noticed it yet.

  11. “I also have a Holmes version hereabouts that Steven J. Ege put together.” – Matthew James Stanham

    I’d like to see that, where is it located?

  13. I met Chris at GenCon in 2000. After voicing some of my concerns with the just-released 3E, I staggered backward as Chris pumped his fist and shouted with sophomoric glee, “Third Edition rocks!”

    I knew then that the game I adored was truly lost to me.

  15. Hey all,

    First off, if my work has given anyone offense, I am truly sorry. I created the PHB and UA pdfs as homages to EGG's excellent work and hoped that I had made that clear on the website.

    The PHB was started in 2006 as a labor of love and as a way to overhaul Castles & Crusades, so that it better emulated AD&D (so that I could run the old TSR modules with less fiddling around).

    As I've noted on my website, the Unearthed Arcana document is not complete and, based on the attention it's now getting, probably will be taken down eventually (along with the PHB).

    I hope that some people find bits to cherry pick for their own games, as I'd take that as high praise and that those I've offended accept my sincere apology.

    PS: I'm not the Chris Perkins who works for WotC and, unfortunately, have never gotten around to GenCon.

  16. Hi Chris! I’m glad you found my post on your PHB and UA. I’m not sure if you’re a regular reader or not, but either way, welcome.

    I hope you didn’t take my original post as indicating that I was *offended* in any way by your work. (Other than the tackiness of leaving Gary’s name on the cover, and/or not making some sort of indication that it was a re-editing of the original.)

    I think the issue here is one of intellectual property. Now, I myself tread a fine line with my own CotMA module, but I take great pains to limit myself to using a few names (and hopefully under the doctrine of “fair use”), and also to include disclaimers aplenty both on the cover and within the text itself as to what, exactly, the work is.

    The only conceptual fault I find with your efforts is that you have blithely gone and copied other peoples’ text and art wholesale and without attribution. Looking at your books, unless I happened to recall that your anti-paladin class was the same as the one that appeared in the pages of Dragon magazine (and the others), there would be no way of knowing. It could easily have been taken as your own work. And (speaking as someone who has been published, and whose work *has* been appropriated wholesale without attribution) that is not fun for any author to see, even decades later. Ditto for the artwork; I think you made excellent use of some often-overlooked pieces (especially from the Rogues Gallery!) but when all’s said and done it is the property of other people.

    Rather than take your works down completely, I think it would be absolutely awesome if you were to redo the whole (as an OSRIC compatible work, perhaps?) and include in both an introduction and in the text itself, a firm and unmistakable indicator of what stems from the original, what comes from other authors (and who they are!), and what is your own. Ideas are not subject to copyright. Text is. Ditto the art; for next to nothing, I’m sure you could find all sorts of usable artwork. It’s a very wide web, after all.

    Hell, I’d buy a hardcover of that if you put it up on Lulu.com!

  17. Thanks for the praise (and the words of caution)!

    I do understand where you are coming from and will probably pull the documents until I've had a chance to "make them legitimate" for sharing via the OGL.

    For now, however, my time is taken up with converting the first 3 monster manuals (and a set of old-school AD&D modules) for my group's use.

    Once that's done I'll get to work on stripping out the original art and text, so that I can share my work without violating copyright law.

    If anyone out there would like to help me in this undertaking (I have too much free time but not THAT MUCH free time) I'd be happy to send the original Word .doc your way. All I'd ask is that I'd get a mention in the finished product.

    Thanks for your awesome work Joseph! The dungeon will definitely find a use in my game (eventually).

  18. Chris,

    Sorry to confuse you with the WotC staffer and 3E advocate! I haven’t seen your work, and my comment was actually veering somewhat from the subject at hand. So, please, accept my apology.

    Cheers,

    Lance

  19. wow, this is an incredible work of love. My inner teenage geek is, um, geeking out. In a way it’s the 2nd edition I dreamed of – unlike what 2nd edition actually was…

  20. I found out about the books about a year ago as well. They are great! As a fandom product, I think you should cut it some slack.

    Queasy? Upset? That seems a bit strong for something that is such a labor of love and clearly non- commerical. Why’d it take you so long to find the book anyhow?

    Love what your doing with the dungeon btw.

  21. Personally, I don’t have a problem with it at all. I think it’s a great homage and some really well-done house rules.

    I came across this a while ago and used it to play a few adventures with two people that had never played an rpg before and it went really well. I even emailed Chris a brief note to say how much I liked it.

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