Troll Lord Games

I'm new to Castles and Crusades, and actually have very little role playing experience. As a teenager, I played a few 2nd edition D&D sessions. I've recently tried to get back into role playing (thanks to C&C). I am trying to get a hold of some 1E, and possibly use it in C&C. I have noticed from browsing online that later printings of the 1E core books had totally different covers from the classic covers. Does the inside content differ as well in terms of layout and artwork?

No. They are actually better because errata was added/fixed. But as far as I remember no true differences occurred.
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The Ruby Lord, Earl of the Society

Next Con I am attending: http://www.neoncon.com/

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If you're referring to the "orange spine" books, they do have different covers, but not much else. There are reports of them not being the greatest of bindings (I've never had a problem with any of the 1e books, aside from Unearthed Arcana...) and they are much easier to locate, making them cheaper (not that the original covers are all that hard to find - they do tend to be slightly more expensive, though, especially very early printings, naturally.)

lucidpudding wrote:
I'm new to Castles and Crusades, and actually have very little role playing experience. As a teenager, I played a few 2nd edition D&D sessions. I've recently tried to get back into role playing (thanks to C&C). I am trying to get a hold of some 1E, and possibly use it in C&C. I have noticed from browsing online that later printings of the 1E core books had totally different covers from the classic covers. Does the inside content differ as well in terms of layout and artwork?

Your best bet is ebay. Although the quality ranges from the dubious to the mostly new, and the price ranges from the cheap to the ouch!

AD&D is long out of print.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

I have to have a bit of nostalgia here- Yeah, the covers and errata might be different, but come on! The idol and the dead lizardman! The efreeti with the City of Brass on the back! The only way to fly.

Sometimes you get lucky, I recently won a couple of ebay auctions in which people threw in extra books, including original PHBs in both, and one looked like it was new off the shelf. The other looked a bit used, but not too bad.

Not like I didn't already have two of these already.
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Deserve has nothing to do with it, if you think you're entitled. You're not.

--Stephen Chenault

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

J. R. R. Tolkien

I ended up with the "new" cover when I reacquired this.
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Laudir Agus Mir

Some of us liked the Elmore and Easley covers a whole lot more.
But hey, who am I to quibble over artistic preference.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

gideon_thorne wrote:
Some of us liked the Elmore and Easley covers a whole lot more.
But hey, who am I to quibble over artistic preference.

I thought the red dragon and flying horses evoked the swords and sorcery "feeling" rather well, also.

We owned the PHB and DMG (with the original covers on them) prior to them. Then, my brother came home from shopping with our parents holding the MM. Our collection was complete and we ran upstairs to our room to play after dinner. Good times...
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AD&D, Amish Dungeons & Dragons.

"Galstaff, ye are in a cornfield, when a moustachioed man approaches. What say ye?"

"I shun him."

-----

"Knowledge, logic, reason, and common sense serve better than a dozen rule books."

-- E. Gary Gygax

It doesn't matter to me what the cover picture is as long as the material within is mostly the same. With one exception: Deities & Demigods. I have a 1st print so I don't need to worry, but the loss of the Cthulhu and Melnibonan mythologies made the work less enticing.*

A brief note regarding AD&D errata: the Players Handbook never had any errata incorporated into it. The Monster Manual gradually had errata put into it with each subsequent printing. The DMG had all the errata incorporated at once, in what became known as the revised edition. So go here to get the PHB errata.

*Of course, that work never had Hyperborean mythology in it like the older Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes. So even while complete, it was incomplete.
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Traveller wrote:
A brief note regarding AD&D errata: the Players Handbook never had any errata incorporated into it.

Its probably not hard to understand why. The layout of those early books was all done with typewriter and paste up. I know first hand what a pain in the ass that process is. Putting in errata, before the advent of the computer/word processor, would be an endless insane amount of work.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

Wow! They did an awesome job with the PH to have so few errors! Wish books were still done so well the first time out.
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The Ruby Lord, Earl of the Society

Next Con I am attending: http://www.neoncon.com/

My House Rules: http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic ... llordgames

Treebore, check early Dragon mags....there was quite a bit of errata. Though the vast majority were just typos or word skips, nothing major and very little to do with rules per se.

LP,

Welcome, and if you don't want to play the ebay auction game go to nobleknight.com and they have the 1E books for anywhere from 10-20 dollars, depending on how the condition is.

If you're just looking for "play" copies instead of collecting, don't be afraid of the "Fair" label for condition. 99.9% of the time this is cover wear and not spine breaks or lost pages; though Aaron (head of Noble Knight Games) will tell you if that's a problem. Those 1E books were built to last!

Well, except for Unearthed Arcana. I've never had any trouble with it, but I've heard a lot of people had cases of spine seperation and loose pages.
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Always remember, as a first principle of all D&D: playing BtB is not now, never was and never will be old school.- Tim Kask, Dragonsfoot

gideon_thorne wrote:
Some of us liked the Elmore and Easley covers a whole lot more.

Yep!

The art on the newer covers is better. No question.

The original takes me back to my early days of roleplaying, since that's the one I bought when it first hit the stores. It's a nostalgia thing.
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Laudir Agus Mir

I agree that it is nostalgia with the original covers, Trampier does the best inside pictures (and may still be unequalled) but not the best colour work. However, those new covers, maybe while technically better, gave off the whiff of coming change, oh sure it took a few years, but then the 2e juggernaut came out.

Classic AD&D covers all the way for me. Safe, secure and comfortable.
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Deserve has nothing to do with it, if you think you're entitled. You're not.

--Stephen Chenault

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

J. R. R. Tolkien

*chuckles* A world without change... I can't imagine anything more disturbing.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

I prefer the original covers, as well. That is not to say that the later ones weren't good.. I just like the imagery of the originals, more. The idol. The efreet. Of course, I also really like the cover of The Arcanum, too, which is very simple. The second 1e book covers are "too busy."

gideon_thorne wrote:
*chuckles* A world without change... I can't imagine anything more disturbing.

Hey, a little stability in a crazy world helps preserve the sanity. Nothing wrong with change here and there, but some things are fine as they are. Innovation and change aren't always for the better.
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Deserve has nothing to do with it, if you think you're entitled. You're not.

--Stephen Chenault

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

J. R. R. Tolkien

I have found amazon has most 1st edition AD&D books for 3-5 $ + shipping and they are in great conditiion. No bidding like ebay either.
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To crush the PC's

See their character sheets piled before you

And to hear the lamentations of the players

-Conan the dungeonmaster

I have the original covers but I want the orange spines as a compleation thing. I do like the newer covers better. The cover of the DMG was very nice and inspirational.
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The Lord of Ravens
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I'll be getting my 3rd Rules Cyclopedia and a copy of Deities and Demi-Gods (with the Cthulhu, etc...) tomorrow! Won 'em on eBay.

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Happiness isn't having what you want; it's wanting what you have.