making plans for nigel

My brain keeps giving me 404s when I try to get focused long enough to write this short scary story (well, I think it's scary. It has a monster in it) in time for Halloween.

So I'm doing other things to try and trick it into rebooting the server, like cleaning up my house, playing with my dog, and wishing that I had this book again:

First_edition_dmg 

and this:

Phb_sixth_edition 

and this:

Monster_manual_fourth_edition 

Well, I'm not a lot closer to getting this story out, but I'm certainly a lot happier in general than I was a couple hours ago. Funny how just looking at old AD&D stuff can do that for me.

(Images borrowed from The Acaeum, which is a fantastic D&D historical reference site.)

82 thoughts on “making plans for nigel”

  4. I love the Fiend Folio, but this was already image-heavy, and I thought I’d stay with what I believe are truly the core books for AD&D.

  6. I was having a similar issue earlier. I have a midterm to finish up, but all my brain was giving me was an episode tag for this last episode of Castle (and I dont even write fanfic…much). Every single time I tried to focus on the midterm, my brain would just go back over this tag until finally I gave out on the midterm and focused on this story. It’s now happily sitting in a spiral notebook and Im now completely focused (well, mostly) on the midterm.
    Sheesh.

  7. If you liked it so much then, why not play now? It’s much more fun as an adult. Plus the new editions.. most, at least.. have improved on the game.
    Anyway, this does bring back warm memories.

  8. Oh, man, I loved those covers so much. They were THE reason why the priests at my school (frauds by the way, didn’t get a single heal or res the entire 5 years) kept sitting down with me and my friends one on one to warn us of the “dangers” of D&D. Funny to look back now and try to recapture that sense of doing something truly transgressive, when really we were just a bunch of kids who liked to get together and tell stories about dragons.

  10. Those AD&D books are great for nostalgia, but hoo boy, try actually reading them again and you’ll have a new found appreciation for your red book basic and 4th Ed rules. Good luck “getting the band back together” to actually play it!

  11. Good point and I do agree.
    I mentioned the FF because it has a special place for me and my RPG buddies; it was so hard to get back then in a Quebec small-ish town, so when we finally did it was cause for a celebration.

  13. Are they really that tough to get through? The red basic and blue expert rules are as easy to understand and use as I remember them.
    I don’t have as many clear memories of the AD&D books, because my friends did all the heavy lifting during those days, and I just showed up with characters and dice.

  14. Wow, memories… Favourite baddie: Gelatinous Cube. Just the concept was awesome. Worst thing to happen during a session: a scuffle between myself and a guy over who got to keep the bag of devouring – I have a scar on my chin to show for it.

  15. this has nothing to do with nothing just think ur so cute; feel like i grew up with you. ok so i’m a tad bit older so it’s like i’m ur big sister! ha! was never too much into d&d but had some friends who were, so i guess that kinda makes me kinda cool, twice removed? xoxo

  16. My dad had those books! I remember pouring over them and enjoying reading about the monsters inside. He was an old DM from the 80’s. Sweet sweet memories.

  17. Those books bring many a tear to my eye. The tinyfont… my name calligraphed on the inside of the cover… the smell of spilled Coca Cola on hex paper… the looking-at-my-friend’s-dad’s-stack-of-Playboys-while-the-other-guys-are-rolling-up-their-characters… Such good time, it kills me kindly to think of them.
    I just learned today that my wonderful pregnant wife and I are having a boy!, and one of the first things that hit me was: I can’t wait to take him through Queen of the Demonweb Pits. He’s totally going to think all those coins at the end are REAL, man!, and then, like, they’re going to EVAPORATE, and he’s going to be like, WHA??? and we’ll laugh and stuff, because he’ll get lots of XP so it’ll be OK.
    It gets into your blood, it does.
    PS: Would’ve been the same if we were having a girl, frankly.

  18. Love this man! Once again your awesomeness is showing!:) By the way, what ever became of the dog you temporarily named ‘DOG’, the Sunday you did the walk/runathon?? I just want to say you and your wife’s passion for animals is out of this world. You are the kind of owners every dog, cat, etc. needs to survive. Sorry this is off subject, but just thought I would throw that in. The best to you and your family Wil:)-Josh

  23. Saying that, I do wonder if there’s a collectibles market for D&D? I found a couple of 2nd Edition rulebooks in Haslam’s in St Petersburg and was tempted to get them. Now I’m wondering if I should keep my 4E books pristine and pencil-free!

  24. Hey man… don’t hate me, but I still have my original DM Guide. Its in my bookshelf and I’m looking at it while I type this.
    🙂

  28. Yeppers. If I even attempted to bring any of those books to school with me, they’d be trying to perform an exorcism on me. Yeah. Catholic school survivor, as well!

  30. This bought a smile to my face; posted on the same day I got my first 4E DM Reward in the mail! I just hope WOTC convert the rest of The Temple of Elemental Evil, as I have fond memories of playing through that campaign in college.
    A group of friends and I played it during a 44 hour, non-stop gaming session, for charity, and raised a load of money, unfortunately not from the guy who thought we were a bunch of nerds, made a “joke” (so he said, later) sponsor pledge and ended up weaseling out of paying us £90!

  31. Generally the later (more recent) stuff is not valuable since there is so many of them. Keep them though because in 50 years maybe Wil’s grandson will need some copies to relive the old days.

  32. D&D was way simpler than AD&D, the red and blue sets especially. It was weird to have two separate systems from the same company, although I must say that when they came up with the Gazetteers, it made D&D far more interesting to me.
    God, I’m such a geek. I’ll be quiet now.

  33. I have those. Well, I have the reprints of them. I also have the Dungeoneer’s Survival Guide, The DragonLance and Greyhawk rules, and the original Oriental Adventures book. They even smell like books still.
    And yes, they are very text and rules dense. Never play a Cleric/Assassin in 1st edition. Yeesh.

  37. I played D&D. No bloody “A”, no bloody… wel… just the “A” I guess.
    Sure, sure, I took a bit of heat for not being one of the cool uncool kids for not being quite as advanced as they were, but I didn’t care. I understood the rules and they were good enough for me.
    My main memory of AD&D was charts. Lots and lots of charts.
    Although it wasn’t nearly as bad a some other game I played once — it might have been Warhammer. That had tables that told which part of the body you hit and had descriptions for what the damage looked like.

  38. A man came to the Lutheran church I attended in my youth with a great stack of these. He proceeded to warn us if the evils of D&D. I had never seen such things before, but I was fascinated. I tried to steal them. He spoke with my parents. Later, at the library, I was curled up with The Hobbit when I was approached by a member of the only roll playing group in town (very small town. pop 3k) and invited to the next game. MERP! Excitement! I could hardly speak! But then my mother found out and I was no longer allowed to spend time with those “undesirables” as she feared for my immortal soul. She has since figured out that it’s really just stories about dragons, but the 14 year old in me still wants to play.

  39. My husband and I have two full sets of those, including one of the first-edition Deities and Demigods with the Cthulhu Mythos and all. 🙂 🙂 🙂 Unearthed Arcana, Oriental Adventures, all the Spelljammer stuff…we even wasted money on the two Survival Guides.
    Our son cut his teeth on those books, and now he are a DM hisself. Granted, his crowd goes with the more recent releases, but that’s just how kids are, right?

  40. Will (and everyone else)hullo, love the blog. Been reading for a few years, couldn’t resist an AD&D post. Had to comment. You should check out the Old School Renaissance stuff that’s about, and some of the OGL retro-clone rules. I think the AD&D retro-clone is called OSRIC.

  47. I don’t have my originals but I have copies found in local used books stores. I’ve been thinking about playing ever since I started reading the blog Grognardia and discovered the “old school gaming” movement. As Lee said, they have been republishing versions of original D&D, Basic/Expert D&D and AD&D using the Open Gaming License. For a really concise, clean version of AD&D check out OSRIC as a PDF or in print from Lulu.

  49. Oh no!!!!!
    I just went and pulled mine out and my old AD&D Player’s Handbook is missing!!!
    Do you know how hard it is going to be to find out who I lent it to 20 years ago, track them down and get them to give it back to me?
    I smell an Epic Quest……….

  50. They’re not that bad. I have all my originals (personalized with my name & address). My 11 yo son loves reading them and can quote the rules to me – and knows what most of them MEAN.
    The covers are the best. Plus I can still open up the books to just the right tables after all these years. I actually find the latest editions a pain to read, too much clutter on the page and behind the text.

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“The library is a safe place.”

In order to survive, I disassociated for much of my childhood, but I clearly remember the books. That's where I found comfort, companionship, inspiration and validation. It's where the imagination that powers everything I do creatively in my life today was born. And it all started in that library, with that librarian. She was one of the first people I can remember asking me, "What do you like? What's important to you? What do you want to know more about? How can I help you find it?"

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