Joe Bloch's longstanding "what if" project,
Adventures Dark & Deep, now has
a Kickstarter for its Players Manual. In case you're not familiar with
Adventures Dark & Deep, it is, in Joe's words,"an attempt to explore what the world's most popular role-playing game might have looked like if its creator had been allowed to continue developing it, rather than leaving TSR in 1985" and is "based on extensive research into Gary Gygax's public statements about his vision for the next edition of the game, using the game's 1st edition rules as a jumping off point. It's not a retro-clone, but an entirely new game with a very familiar feel."
Even though I wouldn't call myself a player of
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons these days, I still find this project very interesting. This Fall, Joe released
A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore, which is a kind of "sampler" of some of the player-oriented aspects of
Adventures Dark & Deep (character classes, spells, etc.) for use with existing retro-clones like OSRIC or
Labyrinth Lord. I thought it quite well done and will probably swipe some stuff from it for use in my home campaign. I have little doubt that the full
Players Manual won't be similarly good.
