Nearly as soon as I began my re-read of Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, and after deciding to start this long series of posts here at Ye Auld Grog 'n Blog, I came upon this interesting thread over at Finarvyn's OD&D forum.
I have come to the conclusion that the term 'By The Book', the original title of the series, is potentially misleading. There are changes, clarifications and notes between my version, the 6th print, or Original Collector's Edition, and prior printings.
My main thrust here is not to actually direct anyone to play D&D 'By The Book', as it were, the title was just a way to allude to my intention of actually considering the passages within the three volumes, and then commenting upon them.
For these two reasons, the series is being re-titled before it really begins as D&D Cover To Cover, with the added disclaimer that I am using the OCE (6th printing) of D&D.
If anyone would like to FedEx me their Woodgrain First Print, I'd be willing to start over and write this series from that perspective instead!
~Sham, Quixotic Referee
Based on textual variances and certain clues in the equipment and treasure lists I have determined that the *true* author of Dungeons & Dragons was....
ReplyDeletesir Francis Bacon.
What?
LOL Max. Just an exercise in re-reading the LBB 'Cover To Cover'. I won't delve deeply into textual variances or clues to point out differences in the printings. This was more or less an explanation of the reason for changing the title, as it seems the differences in the printings might be a sticking point (per the linked thread) if I called the exercise 'By The Book'.
ReplyDeleteFunny comment, though. :-)
No need to explain, my friend. Just random brain gristle on my part in lieu of having anything to say.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to following along at home!
Ah! Well, it made me laugh. I had to read it more than once and by then the What? bit threw me off!
ReplyDelete