Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook [Hardcover]

Gary Gygax (Author), David C. Sutherland (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1978

This is the first of the series of the world famous AD & D role-playing aids. To complement the original version we've asekd new cover art. It is the ideal vehicle of imagination for intermediate through advanced players, ages 10 and up. #2010 1978 TSR By Gary Gygax illustrations by David C. Sutherland III

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: TSR Games (1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935696016
• ISBN-13: 978-0935696011
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gary Gygax is the Master., March 19, 2003

By 

FBRobertson "fbrobertson2" (SC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook (Hardcover)

I have been roleplaying for years, many many years. I have seen games come and go, I have seen the white box set of G. Gygax. I have seen games like RuneQuest, Warhammer FRP, MERP, Torg, so many games.

Yet this is the real start, the real truth of how great roleplaying can be. You might find 3rd edition more intricate, more things to do in it, but the original AD&D players manual and DM manual were the best in my humble opinion.

This book shows how to create characters quick and just start roaming the worlds that the DM makes. GET IT. and the Dungeon Master Manual by G. Gygax. You will love it better than almost anything else the roleplaying world has to offer.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Advanced D&D Players Handbook, January 20, 2006

By 

Wagner "C. Wagner" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Player's Handbook (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 1st edition) (Hardcover)

I got this book for the first time about a year ago when my girlfreind bought me the entire first edition set. What a gift! I tell you, since then I've hosted so many campaigns and enticed many freinds and aquaintances to play.

This book, "Advanced D&D Players(Yes, I can spell. First edition had no appostrophe.)Handbook," was in my humble opinion, the master work of Mr. Gygax, its creator (Sorry Gary if you preferred another version or game, but this one was my far my favorite.). It includes everything a player would need to know for successful expeditions in the worlds of make-believe. Everything from armor class, to hit ratios, character stats, race abilities, and more are preserved between the gorgeous, hardback cover.

Yes, indeed, everything a player could need to know, save what is contained soley in the Dungeon Master Guide (In which case it isn't for a player anyhow.) can be found somewhere in the painstakingly categorized and eloquently worded text.

As a book conosour who enjoys nothing more than a classic, this my friends, is a classic that you can never really "finish" reading... this is the book that once you put down, never really stays down.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gary Gygax was/is the man, November 19, 2009

By 

Michigoon "tech geek" (Mid-MI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Player's Handbook (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 1st edition) (Hardcover)

I started my D&D career with AD&D Second Edition, which I would later learn was a bastardized version of Gary Gygax's book designed mostly to take out words like "demons" and "devils" because TSR was facing one too many lawsuits from crazy religious parents back in the day. And it was good. The book was fairly hard to use, but once you learned your way around, it was a fun system with lots of good flavor.

Then came Third Edition, and immediately 3.5 because Wizards had too many misprints and imbalances in its predecessor (oh how things have changed since the days of Gygax). Third Edition improved usability a lot and tried to address balancing while opening up lots of new options for players. However, third edition had too much information spaced too widly- Dungeon Masters had to spend hours trying to fix monsters for appropriate challenge levels, looking across stacks of books trying to cobble together a campaign. Even with the update to 3.5, there were still reams of errata from Wizards' lack of quality control, making the situation worse. It's still a great game but it's just so much work for the DM.

4th Edition came along, and promised to revise and simplify these rules to make things playable. And simplify they did- 4th edition has less roleplay in it than Gygax's original supplement for the Chainmail game, a comparison which is particuarly apt as 4th edition even dropped all flavor of measurement in favor of grid-based "squares". It makes for fine fantasy miniature wargaming, but it's just not D&D. (There aren't even Tolkein-esque elves, for Christmas' sake!).

So I went way back to the roots of the game, and endeavored to write my own version of D&D. One that would have full roleplaying potential, without too much clutter, but using some of the very good ideas that did come out of later editions. I started by grabbing a copy of first edition, and found out thre wasn't as much work needed as I thought.

Okay, First Edition isn't perfect. There's no Index to quickly search keywords, and it's very hard to search for specific elements that you need anyway. The small amount of information on important systems like combat are sandwiched between the clerical and wizard spell lists, so that someone thumbing through might miss them entirely. You're stuck with the Table of Contents, really. Tables and abilities and racial requirements are also perplexingly arbitrary at times- why can humans gain higher levels of strength than half-orcs? Even Gygax himself would later admit this edition needed some spackle.

But there is a usable system in there, and anyone familiar with later editions will probably already have the tools to get this game running. There's so much flavor and advice packed into every nook and cranny of this edition-

Okay, I know the argument about Gygax gets old, but it bears repeating. This edition has a multitude of problems, but at every step of the way there's plenty of excellent flavor (or "fluff") and tons of advice from the author about why he made specific choices. The introduction portion of the book is worth digging up a copy all on its own- players frustrated with later editions will see their issues spelled out exactly in the concerns that the master sets forth himself. For every imperfection you find, there's plenty of information on changing the game to suit your play, the author himself makes plenty of notes that if you don't like a rule, throw it out!

So overall, this book is really a treasure. It's broken, it steals too much from Lord of the Rings, and frankly it's quite sexist and utterly politically incorrect in spots. But in context, it really gives the work character. The comments that are made are made because they're the truth of the genre- women heroes really didn't ever have the strength that the men did in the fiction this work steeped itself in. Nothing has been sterilized for mass audiences, and everything that's here is because the author thought they were good ideas (at least at the time). No marketing research, no paid playtest groups, just a guy who loved to play, and his thoughts on making the game happen. We'll miss you, Gary.