Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Core Rules 2.0

by Wizards of the Coast

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00002SX0K
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: 1998
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,341 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Create player and nonplayer characters and update them using the rules in the Player's Handbook or Skills & Powers. Many rules can be overridden to support the many special cases that occur in real-life AD&D games.

MapMaker II has been redesigned from the ground up. View overland, city, and dungeon maps, then print them in full color, flat color for ink and bubble jets, grayscale for laser printers, and black and white for dot-matrix printers. Maps can range in size from one piece of paper to a massive five-foot-by-five-foot poster.

Character sheets have been redesigned to be more paper efficient. Customize character sheets to specific user requirements. Create custom races, kits, psionic powers, spells, weapons, armor, equipment, magical items, monster, and more.

The interface to the program has been redesigned, taking user feedback from the first Core Rules CD-ROM into account. Directly access specific screens in character update.

Extensive online help is available at the touch of a button. Simply right-click on almost any item, spell, ability, or race to bring up details.

Product Description

"The Essential Software For All AD&D Players and Dungeon Masters! * Complete text of nine key AD&D rule books - reference over 2,000 pages of interactive rules. * Character Generator includes all PLAYER'S OPTION rules - create, maintain, and print fully detailed characters. * Map Maker II and Campaign Mapper let you create and link detailed overland, city, or dungeon maps in full color - even link map locations to monster and treasure databases. * Dice Roller software automatically rolls and totals all kinds of dice rolls. * Generate treasures and encounters automatically and link them to maps - and customize the tables to suit your campaign."

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 Stars with a lot of qualifications, March 2, 2000

By 

Karen Pitts (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Core Rules 2.0 (CD-ROM)

After deciding to get back into D&D after a long layoff I went to a store to see if there were any new books I might want. I got this (AND the expansion) instead. As a DM, I can't get over how much time it saves me. It is great for generating NPC's and encounters, as well as maps. Since all the basic D&D books are available, looking up stuff (if you know where to go) is handy. And maintaining characters and printing out new records after going up a level (or other significant changes) is really wonderful (especially for my kids who aren't so good at keeping records). I am able to develop and maintain a much more detailed adventure world in a lot less time. And another big plus - there are quite a few web sites with stuff that can be downloaded and imported (npc's, monsters, magic items, maps, etc.). Doing it is easy.

Now for the drawbacks: First, it is pretty buggy. I downloaded the latest patches and upgrades from the web, and that helped a lot. But there are several places where it crashes, or does dumb things (like generate 2000 mind slayers for a random encounter).

The documentation is pretty useless. Most of the stuff is so straightforward that documentation is hardly necessary, but not so for Campaign Mapper. I can now say I like CM, but it took quite a bit of experimenting and correction of mistakes to get the hang of it.

This is NOT a game. It is simply a tool, primarily for DM's.

There aren't enough character portraits. You can add your own, or perhaps find some on the web to download. But given that most characters start young, there are scarcely any portraits of youth.

I have this vague feeling that it should do more. It doesn't really do anything that I can't do without a computer. But it sure does it faster and neater!

For quality, I'd only rate this 2 stars. I'd have been pretty embarrassed (I'm an applications developer) to put something out with this many bugs. I'm going to be checking their web site with some regularity for patches (and upgrades, hope, hope). But as to overall value to me as a DM, definitely 5 stars. It could be a lot better though, so if there were competing products I'd probably have to rate it 3 to 4 stars.

Signed, Karen's hubby

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A tool with potential but little pay off., November 9, 1999

By 

Matt Burleigh (Batavia, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Core Rules 2.0 (CD-ROM)

It is excellent software for creating characters, but good for little else. The information in the accessory books is all but unusable do to the lack of hyperlinks and the map creating software is very limiting due to the lack of tools and icons available. Part of the problem being, their example maps were created by another piece of software (that they want you to buy) misleading your expectations for this software. It seems if you are willing to shell out more cash for the expansion kit that they fix some of these problems.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you're into AD&D this software is a must have, November 5, 1999

By 

Ernst A. Stabinski "mercenaryx" (Vista, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Core Rules 2.0 (CD-ROM)

This Software for AD&D is a real must have. The first thing about this software is the ease of installing and use. Making Charters and editing them has gotten better in this one. Futher more Making monsters, NPC's, and simple maps with the map maker does get easer with use. There is one draw back though. The campain map maker is a bit diffacult to use and the Tutoral doesn't work in some of the early verisons, like the one I have, and you must download a patch to fix that problem.

Of course, in the expantion for 2.0, they rectife the problem.