Hey all,
The other day I sort of lost my shit in the thread regarding 4th print
Dungeon Masters Guides and I shouldn't have. I know that it isn't like demios or anyone else is out there serruptitiously buying off good, usable prints of the thing by the pallet-load from Addall, eBay and Amazon and putting them to the torch.
I've seen some copies of the
DMG of various print in local used bookshops that I felt would have been better served going in to a land fill than a gamer's hands: books with stiffened, stuck-together pages stained from page 1 to 233 with some mysterious brown substance (spilled soda or coffee, I'd wager), or books with spines and covers so destroyed as to make the books nigh-unusable.
It isn't like the suggestion was posed that all but a few true-1st DMGs be destroyed, or anything near that. Copies like those I described above really
should be out of circulation; trying to use books in that damaged a condition is at the very best frustrating.
So my apologies for being snarky about the matter, and best of luck in the investigation. Knowing and understanding D&D, especially old, out of print versions, involves not only the rules and the adventures but the history of the company and I understand now that this is what you're striving for. I'm still not a big fan of "board and hoard" on
OOP products but ultimately the longer the game is preserved, the longer it has the potential to be played.
Bill Silvey,
TheDungeonDelver