I found this to be interesting, and thought that I would
share it. As far as I know a list like this has never been published on the Web
before, I had to look it all up, namely from Amazon and old issues of Dragon
Magazine: when the two did not agree, I always went with Dragon’s release date.
I had been mistaken that The Complete Thief’s Handbook was an 89 release
as well, but my original source was incorrect; it was actually released in
early 1990.
1988
1989
2104 Monstrous Compendium Volume 3 (loose leaf) December
MC3, a monsters appendix
for the Forgotten Realms setting, mysteriously isn’t available on PDF, and I
think that the Monstrous Compendium actually works best on PDF. It would be
nice to get all of them on file, but alas, as far as I know, this product does
not exist.
It was a strong year! While many dismiss the 2
nd
edition as a bastard, I stand by my stance that a second edition was needed,
and I think that it was released not just to save the company from financial
failure, but to provide an improved product. They had set specific goals for
2e, the biggest being to cut down on the books required to play, and they did
that. While prep can require a lot of books, if you are properly prepared for a
game, you only need the DMG and PHB at the table, with these two books a DM is
prepared for anything! The system was also sanitized for political reasons,
however all of that stuff can easily be put back into the game if the table
wishes it. Overall, I think that 2e is the stronger ruleset; it cuts down the
drama and arguing about what a player can or can’t do, but it is still freeform
enough that a DM hasn’t been reduced down to simply an organizer of material.
When Gygax published AD&D, his original goal was to
create a universal system that would be played the same regardless of what
table you were sitting at, while this never actually happened, it was always
something that could be recognized as AD&D and I feel that 2e succeeded at
this goal. It is definitely Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: It plays well, it
stays true to the original source material but organized it and revised it into
a much stronger product which allowed more to be done quicker. The DM still has
the freedom to make specific calls, he can alter the core system without
breaking the game, and even playtest new ideas without having to worry about
what will happen if they just don’t work out.
Once there was enough 2e source material available, TSR
successfully convinced people that the game was no longer compatible with 1e by
publishing articles in Dragon Magazine specifically for those who either couldn’t
afford or just had no desire to move on. This was the last year that 1e was
supported, and I would like to say that this was the only time in history that
it was ever recommended to combine two different systems. Even today you get
better results if you do combine the two. By taking what you love from original
AD&D and carrying it over to the second edition, you get a very complete
rule system that you can always fall back on.
In the years to come, TSR would write entire books based
upon a single chapter in 1e, or even
just a table in one of the books, and while it was expanded, one can ask if it was really
necessary. By the end of 1989, TSR was
making money again, and not just making money, but actually earning it! While
the quality of the modules suffered, the 2e reference guides during
this year, were far superior to anything else out there at the time. Not to
understate the work of Gary Gygax, he created something from nothing. He
invented a brand new medium which we could use to express ourselves. Gygax,
while fun to read, wrote contradictions and personal feelings to his work, and
these were removed. I think that Cook was a stronger writer, but then again, it
was all based upon the work blazed by its creator.
This industry has always had two faces, the face that wants
to give you the resource that allows you to create, and the other face which
seeks to convince you that they can create better adventures than you can. If
TSR hadn’t changed their business practices, and catered to those incapable of
finding their own voices, AD&D would now be gone. A game played by old men
until the license went into the public domain, and then, maybe . . . maybe it would
be active again. Once the market was created, there were lots of games out
there, but none, in my opinion, as well done as AD&D. They were simply
clones and copies that never had the pop culture status of the original which
had allowed the AD&D system to mature, rather than be thrown away at the
end of the 70’s when the videogame markets were taking huge bites out of the
entertainment industry.
2e was successful enough to still be a valuable property
when TSR shut their doors. I am not sure if that would had happened if it was
still under the control of Gygax, he was so convinced that a movie deal would
fix everything that he was blinded as to what he should be doing, and history
tells us that a movie deal fixes nothing at all! TSR did end up making a fatal
mistake along the same lines, but at this point; in 1989 they had laid a new
foundation over the old one, and with these books, were able to begin building
a stronger empire that would better weather the test of time. For a new
generation which includes myself, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd
Edition IS D&D, for better or worse.
It was a strong year! While many dismiss the 2nd
edition as a bastard, I stand by my stance that a second edition was needed,
and I think that it was released not just to save the company from financial
failure, but to provide an improved product. They had set specific goals for
2e, the biggest being to cut down on the books required to play, and they did
that. While prep can require a lot of books, if you are properly prepared for a
game, you only need the DMG and PHB at the table, with these two books a DM is
prepared for anything! The system was also sanitized for political reasons,
however all of that stuff can easily be put back into the game if the table
wishes it. Overall, I think that 2e is the stronger ruleset; it cuts down the
drama and arguing about what a player can or can’t do, but it is still freeform
enough that a DM hasn’t been reduced down to simply an organizer of material. 
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