As a break from writing about wine or food I have recently written a RPG (role playing game) for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, known as AD&D for short.
This was a craze that I got caught up when I was at school and college. Back in the day, (very early 1980’s) 1st Edition AD&D (there have been many editions since) relied on nothing more than pen, paper, numerous odd shaped die (dice) and imagination. This was before computer games and it took the World by storm. With the advent of computer games AD&D was obviously, in its pen and paper format, rapidly seen as out of date. However just like vinyl records and other such things, after a while these half-forgotten inventions become fashionable again. Now AD&D is seeing a massive resurgence. Not my words but the BBC news, who of course are always right, aren’t they? Check out the link, kindly sent to me yesterday by a friend, whose children are now falling under the spell of AD&D, thanks to me. {Just blame this all on Gandalf and Tolkien, I think they started it all!)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42874044
Anyhow, all the old kit you need to enjoy AD&D 1st edition is still lying around out there if you trawl Amazon and Ebay and elsewhere. But, it comes at a price… an “as new” copy of the essential rules “The Player’s Handbook” is on Amazon for an eye-watering £900 and a second hand copy for £150.05 . (Why the five pence?!) Well, when I put aside AD&D because other things were demanding my time, such as a job rather than college, I threw away my players handbook. (Fool of a Took! as Gandalf would say.) whilst the father of the younger folk, who I have now introduced the game to, wisely kept his player’s handbook on a book-shelf and lo and behold a player’s handbook appeared, with the ease of the casting a first level spell by a high level wizard.
Thankfully, I did find some suitable rulebooks on Amazon at a sane price but of slightly later imprints that have the same content but a less awesome cover. Multi-sided die (dice) are also easy to buy. (4,6,8,10, 12 and 20) do the job quite nicely, not that the rules are complicated, they’re just imaginative. And that is the key word for AD&D. It all comes down to imagination. It’s a great deal of fun for two or more people, probably up to eight though max, I’d say. Everyone assumes a character, except one person who is called the Dungeon Master and it is he or she who creates a dungeon or a scenario for an adventure and describes everything the characters encounter along the way.
Anyway, adventures were sold as modules that you bought and came with all the details of what lay in store for the adventurers and these can still be bought but they are pretty pricey. Out of print, supply and demand, it makes sense. So anyway, for fun, I thought I’d write one. It was very enjoyable for me to do as it enabled me to combine my love of writing with my enthusisam for AD&D. A young Wizard at map making created the cover for me and curtesy of Amazon you can now buy it and the price is just 1 silver piece and 2 copper pieces, which translated into stirling or euros or dollars, is a bargain.
