The first edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons opens up a new world for those willing to spend the time reading it.

This work is an essential companion to the 1st Edition AD&D Players Handbook. It gives you combat charts, rules for followers, average sale values for magic items, general advice on how to run a game, several pages of artifact descriptions (fascinating descriptions that give amazing depth to the objects), random monster encounters for different environments and dungeon levels, random dungeon generation tables and even several pages of monsters from the monster manual in abbreviated form. This book is packed with great information from cover to cover. An almost total lack of political correctness, from the nudity in the artwork (the topless mermaid on page 180) to the descriptions of various disgusting diseases and forms of insanity, it gives you a raw, gritty version of the game full of style and flavor. Unfortunately, this is something the Dungeons & Dragons game will never likely see again. It is very readable and Gygax's vocabulary and understanding of what makes for good fantasy is of highest merit. The Artwork is excellent. Highlights include classic illustrations, using monsters as PCs, assassins and the use of poison, tribal spell casters, magic items with XP and GP values, old school psionics, the original "down to the last hit point" monster XP value charts, building NPCs and evocative dungeon settings the "Gygax way," player creation of spells and magic items, and more.

A complete listing of monsters for use in the game, the book ensured that every DM could craft an adventure that had new and exciting monsters to be vanquished, and the special powers peculiar to some creatures suggested story lines that were ripe for the picking. This also set up for the first time a way to rate the strengths of various mythological creatures against each other. Can a Troll kill an Orc? Can a Dragon defeat a Water Elemental? How many Goblins does it take to make a fair fight against a Pegasus? Gygax carefully considered these questions and gave us a version of familiar fantasy figures that was grounded in concrete numbers.

This includes exclusive information on the most intriguing aspects of Greyhawk. It includes the 12 clerical orders of the most popular deities, all with unique powers and spells, including the Priests of Iuz; 13 great monsters unique to the Flanaess (the Greyhawk Dragon, and the ever-notorious Swordwraith); the Free City of Greyhawk, the Valley of the Mage (with stats and history on the Magus himself!), the Scarlet Brotherhood, over 100 Archmage spells (Bigby, Rary, Otto, Nystul, etc.), 95 magic items unique to Greyhawk (Red Dragon Armor of the Hellfurnaces, Cheetah Cloak of Amedio, Black Arrow of Iuz), 15 pages on the most intriguing geographic locations of Oerth, including the secrets of the Sea of Dust (at last!), lots of mini-adventures in Greyhawk, plus: beginning a "veterans-challenge" campaign with zero-level characters!

Dragonlance Adventures by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis, is "the AD&D game source book for continuing adventures in the world of Krynn." While it does have its own errors (the timeline, in particular, is considered erroneous), many fans feel it captured the essence and flavor of Dragonlance. This book provides an overview of the world of Krynn and its history, with a focus on how to run an AD&D campaign in Ansalon set after the War of the Lance. There classes specific to Dragonlance such as the Knights of Solamnia, Tinkers, Wizards of High Sorcery, and Holy Orders of the Stars (includes information on the 21 gods). The Races of Krynn, includes information on the Krynn specific PC races and subraces such as Kender, Gnomes, Elves, Dwarves (and Gully Dwarves), Irda, and Minotaurs. Creatures of Krynn includes monsters unique to Dragonlance, including Draconians and Krynn Dragons. As well as information on Krynn Pre-Cataclius, including a Map of Ansalon, a timeline, NPCs, and ancient magical items such as a Dragonlance, Device of Time Journeying, Staff of Magius, Hammer of Kharas, Bloodstone of Fistandantilus, Orb of Dragonkind, etc. And information on Krynn Alt-Cataclius, including a Map of Ansalon, a timeline, political conditions, climate, NPCs and PCs of the Legends Trilogy (post-War of the Lance).

This is the final piece in the puzzle that is the AD&D rules, Gary Gygax's last major contribution to the game system. There are the dark races (such as the Drow, Duergar, and Svirfneblin), and the advanced classes (such as the Hierophant, Acrobat, Cavalier and the Barbarian), there are new weapons, hundreds of new spells, hundreds of new magical items, the deities of the demi-humans, and much more. It's sure to add an entirely new level to your campaigns!

Here's the most valuable compendium of advanced and extra-planar monsters in existence for AD&D. Gary Gygax's last major contribution to the menagerie includes many old favourites, most of which were expurgated or "toned down" in the later, politically correct version of the game. You get dozens upon dozens of demons, devils, undead, demodands, daemons, dragons, giants, and more; if it's evil, and fun to kill, it's here! Lots of classic illustrations, too.

A rather wide range of creatures exist in the Monstrous Manual, all the standard D&D creatures are here, along with various monsters from the Forgotten Realms, Al-Quadim, Planescape, and Dark Sun campaign settings. It isn't entirely comprehensive, but it's pretty darn close. All the basic information to use the creature in a campaign is listed at the top of the page. There is just enough information present to make the creature easily useable, but not enough so that you have to search for anything. All creatures in this manual get a "Frequency" stat, describing how often they are found in their normal climate or terrain. Every monster is either uncommon, rare, or (most often) very rare. Even the races that players can use as characters, such as the dwarves and elves, are listed as "uncommon".

This module is the stand alone adventure that introduced Strahd Von Zarovich and the land of Barovia that eventually grew to be the entire Ravenloft campaign setting. This module introduced gothic horror to the Dungeons and Dragons game and formed the basis for the entire Ravenloft campaign setting. The artwork, maps, and accessories are all first rate. There is emphasis on character interaction rather than hack-n-slash fighting, and the use of cards to randomly determine key elements of the plot insures that the story will be different every time you run it. And remember, the mists of Ravenloft know no bounds, you might just end up invited to the House of Strahd as a dinner guest.