Monday, February 18, 2013

Original D&D Premium Edition

Well it was going to happen sooner or later, but Wizards of the Coast will be releasing a Premium Edition of the Original D&D.  But it's not just a reprint.  


http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/45390000


Volume 1: Men & Magic
Volume 2: Monsters & Treasure
Volume 3: Underworld & Wilderness Adventures
Supplement I: Greyhawk
Supplement II: Blackmoor
Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry
Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes

Comes in a wood-grain or faux-wood-grain box with dice.
New cover art, but all the original art inside.

Price?  $150.00.  Honestly, that is not a bad deal.  This is a collector's piece and I am sure some will balk at that price I think it sounds about right to be honest.
I have been wanting to play some Original D&D again.  Haven't since 1987 so this might be my excuse.



11 comments:

Pulp Herb said...

I owned two white boxes (later printings circa 1980) in the day and only I copy each of books 2 & 3 survived. My Supplements all survived although Greyhawk lacks a cover. I never got the original Gods, Demigods, and Heroes.

Yeah, I'll be buying this.

Rhonin84 said...

I can't see paying that money for re-prints no matter how much lipstick you put on it. This is about making money and there was no way they could do that using the same model as the 3.x and 1st edition re-prints.

Nope not going to buy and still reinforces my thoughts on not giving WOTC my money anymore.

Timothy S. Brannan said...

Of course it is about making money. They are a company after all and that's what companies are supposed to do.

Tim Knight said...

That's very nice. I can see myself investing if it's available over this side of The Pond at a reasonable price.

In my time I've own all those books and an old white box, but they're long gone and this is an "artifact" rather than something you'd actually use at your table.

Rhonin84 said...

Duh, yes but are you telling me that you are getting $150.00 worth of product there...seriously?

Anonymous said...

Why does that picture show eight booklets for a seven-booklet set?

Also, I really wish that this includes Men & Spells, Chainmail, and the Outdoor Survival Map.

Anonymous said...

Blargh, I meant "Swords & Spells."

Timothy S. Brannan said...

@alzrius, Speculation is that those are the Reference Sheets.

@Greg, It is still cheaper than the older products are going for on ebay. Value, like beauty, is in the eye of beholder.

Rhonin84 said...

Bah! IF the rules all are you want you and I both know that there are ways around that. The collector prices are not for the rules per se BUT for the fact they were produced then and by TSR not WOTC.
I have to say that you are right beauty is in the eye of the beholder but that isn't beautiful to me, and honestly the reprints haven't been either. I'll take my older books any day. Don't get me started on the prices of those reprints either...you can still find original prints in good quality for a lot less!

Timothy S. Brannan said...

Now if I could find an 1st printing original in the wood grain box THAT would be nice.

The Grey Elf said...

Rhonin84: Yes, you are indeed getting MORE than $150 worth of product here:

Consider that I could sell my 5th print plus all supplements tomorrow for probably around $500 ($300 on the low end) and it doesn't include a really nice actual wooden presentation box, plus a $15 set of premium dice. Also consider that to get all of the monsters and content therein--including all the character classes, psionics rules, deities and demigods, planar rules, etc.--you'd need SEVERAL books from 3.x or 4e (that OD&D took less words to present the same amount of stuff is really moot).

Let's examine what you'd actually need from 3rd edition (because I'm not as familiar with 4th):

1. PHB - $35
2. DMG - $35
3. Monster Manual - $35
4. Deities and Demigods - $30
5. Psionics Handbook - $35
6. Manual of the Planes - $30
7. 1 Adventure module - $10
8. Slipcase - these average $20
(http://www.printfile.com/premium-albums.aspx)
9. Custom dice from Q-Workshop: $15
10. GM Screens: $10 (this is effectively what the reference sheets are)

GRAND TOTAL: $255

To be fair, we could remove Manual of the Planes from that list as planar info in OD&D is sketchy at best. So even still, we're at $225.

If you want to be TOTALLY accurate, knock 5 cents off from each of those rounded prices above. Subtracting $0.45 from $225 is $224.55.

All that considered, $149.99 looks like a pretty good price to me.