Wednesday, March 28, 2012
AD&D Reprints Delayed
Several people have contacted me to inform me that the release date of the upcoming reprints of the original three Gygax-penned Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks has been pushed back to July 17. You can see this new release date here on WotC's website. I have no idea why the books are being delayed, though I've seen several suggestions as to the cause on various forums. Regardless of the delay, the book still are coming out, just not as soon as some of us had hoped.
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Yeah, my Girlfriend got these for me as a birthday present, and now I'll have to wait two-three months for them... But then again I've been waiting for Delving Deeper for over a year.
ReplyDeleteI've had a look at these but am unsure. If you have the old books is there any real reason to get these other that just support the memorial fund?
ReplyDeleteI don't believe, other than the cover design, there's anything different about the reprints when compared to the originals.
DeleteTo show WotC support for older ed's?
DeleteOr just to get the rules as originally published. Since they've been out of print for so long, the only way to get them was used.
DeleteClones, etc. duplicate the rules, but not the writing, correct?
If they were printed on acid-free archival quality paper with full color plates of the complete cover art, that might be a good reason. Otherwise, you're just getting extra copies with altered cover art.
DeleteI have a dim but persistent sense that the price of AD&D 1e books on eBay has gone up a little in the last year or two -- anyone else get that sense?
DeleteTo the question: no reason to buy the books other than to 'support' something or other. It's still easy to put your hands on used copies and those puppies will last forever.
Queue the conspiracy theories...
ReplyDeleteProtests from the Boot Hill lobbying group, from what I hear.
DeleteThey can be pretty yokel.
hmmm. My support might be limited to moral if that is the case!
Deletethanks
Perhaps, a larger response than expected and they wish to ensure everyone gets a copy on time?
ReplyDeleteERIC!
I would hope that's the reason.
DeleteMe too...but I fear it's not the case...
DeleteThey're waiting on the artwork.
ReplyDeleteThat means I'll have to wait -28 years before I get my first 1e AD&D books!
ReplyDeleteBook release dates get moved. Whatever-- there was probably some utterly mundane marketing, publicity or sales related reason.
ReplyDeleteI own the originals, so I won't be buying the reprints. But I applaud their publication. If I had to guess, the delay is most likely due to surprising demand and an increased print run.
ReplyDeleteI hope the delay is due to unexpected demand and thus the need for an increased print run. The only other (conspiracy) reason I can think of is that they don't want the books available during the beta test in case it divides attention too much.
ReplyDeleteDelay due to unexpected deman would be my guess too.
DeleteThey're doing it to celebrate Gygax's birthday!
ReplyDeleteIt's his 74th birthday, D&D was released in 1974...
DeleteBy default, the real Castle Greyhawk will be released in 2048... or 2086 depending on how you're counting...
DeleteGary Gygax was born on July 27th. I, on the other hand, was born on July 17th, so they must be trying to get my endorsement. ;-)
DeleteI was born on 27 July!
DeleteSo I'll be hoping for another slight delay, to my and Gary's birthday.
17's cool too though.
Or, in honoring Gygax's memory, they're delaying its release to reflect the delay of products often spoke of by the big G, i.e., Shadowlands, Castle Greyhawk, ...
ReplyDeleteMike Mearls commented on Facebook that the delay is due to the remastering process taking longer to complete than expected. Unfortunately, massive demand does not seem to be the culprit here.
ReplyDeleteHuh. I would have thought the delay was due to the fact that it takes a long time for WotC to finally overcome the urge to unnecessarily meddle with its good things.
ReplyDeleteBring back Heroscape, while you are at it, you monsters! ;-)
There are no electronic versions of those books, so they had to be scanned and converted. The resulting files must be compared word by word with the originals to hunt down all the spelling and formatting errors that creep in through the conversion process. It all turned out to be more laborious and time consuming than anticipated.
ReplyDeleteI bet it did! Those futura As and Os are hell on OCR software.
DeleteThe fact that WotC announced an original release date for these books without, apparently, understanding fully what was involved in producing them, reminds me of the debacle after the initial release of 4e D&D, which contained house ads in the back of one book touting a Virtual Table Top that did not, in fact, exist.
ReplyDelete