What's New History                                                             Home Up
 


Every update to "What's New" since the site's inception in November 1999.  Presented in reverse order, without hyperlinks.


2016

June 1st:

  • Added a nice new effect when you click the thumbnail picture of any item on the site.  Try it out!

2015

February 22nd:

  • Valuations update.  All class 4 and 5 items have had their valuations updated on the Indexes, along with a smattering of class 3's.  Also updated were values for Dragon and Dungeon periodicals.  This represents a major step forward in the technology used to arrive at item values, described at length in this forum post.  In short, the Indexes henceforth will be updated monthly, and values adjusted based on compiled eBay sales.  This process is largely automated, requiring Valuation Board members to simply enter a condition estimate on each item before submitting it to the calculation software

  • Common items (class 1 and 2, and the remainder of the 3's) will have their values updated very shortly, using a modified version of the system utilized for the Rares

July 16th:

  • Valuations update, phase 2.  Updated values for all common items, which completes our coverage of items under the new semi-automated valuations system, site-wide

  • Moving forward, item valuations will be updated once a month, automatically by the system.  The value changes will thenceforth be reflective of the difference since the prior month, and should be minor for most items.  As time progresses and we collect more data points (auction sales), the values will also become increasingly accurate

  • Added the month to the Value Updated column on the Indexes.  If there are no new auctions to factor into a valuation, the Value Updated column won't update.  I set the last-updated time to Jun 2015 as a baseline for all items, with the exception of a few that I used for testing (and which are showing Jul 2015).  It may take a month or two for certain auctions to factor into an item's value; the Valuation Board member responsible for that item needs to actually grade and enter the data into the system in order for it to be computed.  The system then calculates and updates values on the 10th day of each month

  • Cover scans of (many of) the Random Events newsletters, as well as a scan of the alternate Bohemian Ear Spoon #30, and a previously-unknown REF2 in Hebrew

2013

March 8th:

  • Front page redesign!  Old one was getting a bit stale.  Along with it, new graphics site-wide, replacing those ugly 1990's-era ones.  You may need to clear your browser's cache to view the new graphics (pressing "F5" will usually clear the cache for a single page, but to clear your entire cache, you'll probably have to go into a "Tools" or "Settings" menu)

  • Index columns rearranged a bit, and added a column to the end, signifying when an Estimated Value was updated.  Dates of "2013" indicate that the item is currently being tracked by the Valuation Board; once we're comfortable with the workload, we'll gradually increase coverage to more items

  • Reprint of a 1980 newsletter article by TSR artist Darlene, examining the design and selection of the eventual TSR Face Logo

  • New information and scans on Bohemian Ear Spoon, a mention of an unknown TSR UK Hobby Newsletter, and a revamped Newsletter page

  • New scans and info on Domesday Book

  • Scans and info on two of the rarest of the class-5 Rares: Hex Sheets!

  • Reworking of the monochrome print sequence for S1 Tomb of Horrors

  • New Fourth print of Character Archaic

  • More edits and shuffling of the prints for S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.  I'm sure it's still wrong.  Please yank out your copy and confirm -- what's messing us up, I think, is folks not paying careful attention to things like what logo is on each booklet, the presence of the Product Number, blue or black maps, etc.

  • A detailed breakdown of the changes between versions of the Holmes Basic Rulebook

  • A True First print of the Basic Set detailed, along with minor clarifications and variations to later prints.  As an added bonus, I "green-itized" the changes from print to print, hopefully making the sequence easier to follow

  • A new Seventh print of the Original D&D Set.  We believe there may be more to differentiate this printing than just the catalog prices in the back of Men & Magic -- more info needed!

  • Long overdue, a clarifying of the print sequence for Dwarven Glory, taking into account multiple forum threads as well as the info on the Tomb of Treasures website.  I split the module off onto its own page, too.  Please let me know if your copy doesn't conform to the printings shown!

  • If you can't view the eBay auction links at the bottom of item pages -- or if the mChat chatroom on the forum looks messed up -- you may have an ad blocker activated in your browser!  Turn your blocker off for this site, as we don't display ads, popups, or other common annoyances anyway

2010

December 29th:

  • A new Fifth print (orange header version) of D1-2 Descent Into the Depths of the Earth (we could use a scan!), a new Second print of DL16 World of Krynn, a new Second print of Dungeon Master's Design Kit, a new Second print of FR1 Waterdeep and the North, a new Second print of FR6 Dreams of Red Wizards, and a new Second print of FRC1 Ruins of Adventure

  • Surgery to the Monster Manual print sequence.  The Third and Third Plus prints have been renamed Third Alpha and Third Beta, respectively (same for the two Seventh prints).  The Fourth print has been split into Alpha, Beta, and Gamma prints.  I've done an edit to all the print verbiage, and added green highlighting to elements that changed from the previous print.  I'd like to get positive / negative feedback on whether this makes it easier to navigate!  Also, my apologies in advance for anyone not fully credited on that page for helping out with the sequence; I realize that about a dozen of you assisted in some fashion in the various forum threads. Lastly, while I'm aware there are many more differences between the prints, I have only listed the most obvious or important changes necessary for you to differentiate between printings.  To list all the changes would needlessly complicate things...

  • Relabeled a few of the later prints of the DMG to better accommodate the increasing chaos in the sequence.  I have not yet updated the flowchart to reflect these changes, but will do so shortly

  • By popular request, a separate page for all the known header modules

  • The experimental new feature from the last update -- links to current eBay auctions on item pages -- has now been rolled out to most of the item pages on the site.  The search results are "geo-targeted", meaning they attempt to display results from eBay.com, eBay.uk, eBay.au, or eBay.ca depending on your location

  • About 70 new (or improved) scans of Dungeon and Dragon magazine issues.  And even better: Dragon and Dungeon magazine cover browsers!

  • Through the magic of the Wayback Machine, Aardy DeVarque's fantastic TSR Fonts resource saved from oblivion

  • The Eighth printing of the World of Greyhawk campaign setting is confirmed.  Please check your boxed sets against our descriptions of the Seventh and Eighth printing to A) make sure we've got it right, and B) see if there's yet another version of the boxed set out there....

  • Apocalypse!  After a good six years of ceaseless nagging by the forum membership, I've finally sorted through the evidence, hearsay, and wild guesses in order to completely rewrite the description of the First Print Original D&D Set.  In doing so, I've eliminated the much-maligned Pre-Publication printing, then merrily proceeded to split the First Print into Alpha, Beta, and Gamma prints.  See what you've wrought?

  • A cover scan -- and brief descriptive text -- of Daystar West Eye of the Dragon!  While we're at it, a scan of another super-rarity, Strategic Preview #4 (which mentions the hiring of David Sutherland, Rob Kuntz, and Ernie Gygax at TSR)

  • Mock-up scans of G1-4 Revolt of the Giants and WG7 Shadowlands

2009

November 21st:                * * HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY! * *

  • A link to The Acaeum Wiki has been placed on the subweb index.  The Acaeum Wiki was created to extend Acaeum coverage to role-playing games other than D&D, or editions of D&D not currently covered on the main site.  Like the main site, it provides images, descriptions, printing history, and price information; as of this writing, they've logged 1836 items and 4461 corresponding images!  Unlike a typical website, a wiki is built solely through submissions from, and is managed by, the public.  The Acaeum Wiki is not formally affiliated with The Acaeum, though it was created by several of our forum members.  Check it out, and please contribute!

  • Unearthed Arcana errata transcribed

  • An experimental new feature -- a link to current eBay auctions for an item now appears at the bottom of various item pages.  It's not free advertising, as I've chosen not to show individual auction titles -- just a link to basic eBay search results.  While most experienced collectors use tools such as AuctionSieve to find needed items, these links may be an assist to new collectors or casual browsers.  The A-, B-, and C-series module pages currently have auction links at the bottom; pending the results of this community poll, the remainder of the site will follow suit (or not...)

  • A new 10th Anniversary Combo Pack (T1/C1/I1/G-1-2-3), a new Sixth printing of Legends & Lore, a new Second print of the Official AD&D Coloring Album, and new Second (header) prints of B4 Lost City and X4 Master of the Desert Nomads

  • Details on differing prints of the boxed version (Seventh print) of World of Greyhawk -- but further confirmation needed

  • Some new info on the first two issues of the Domesday Book

  • Next to the red and green arrows on the indexes, now there's a new column: percentage change in Estimated Value.  While it was always nice to know that a value had gone up or down, it was frustrating not knowing how much it had changed

  • The usual bevy of minor corrections and additions (sometimes they take a while, but I *do* get them in here eventually!)

2007

August 19th:

  • Unveiling the second Acaeum subweb:  All Things Planar. Have a look, and help make it as successful as the Judges Guild Booty List!

  • All the "hidden" entries to MSOLO1 Blizzard Pass transcribed

  • William Altman releases his final version of Ivid the Undying. Print this supermodule out on a color printer, and enjoy!

  • New printings of GAZ1 Grand Duchy, Monster & Treasure Assortment Set 3, Character Sheets, and Set 3: Companion Rules

  • Additional background info on B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, DQ1 Shattered Statue, and R4 Doc's Island

  • The "inspiration" found for the warrior-on-rearing-horse image on the box cover of early Original D&D Sets

  • The Dragon Magazine index becomes useful again! Addition of a column showing the month and year of publication

  • Print-Run Estimate updates. Of special note are print runs for Dragon magazine through the years, which provide a unique opportunity to chart the popularity of D&D over time (remember, nearly all print-run data from TSR has been lost)

  • Lots of new additions to the Artwork Museum... including the original Monster Manual cover!

  • A wealth of new info on issues of the Domesday Book as well as some history on the Castle & Crusade Society

2007

April 1st:

  • There is absolutely nothing April Foolish regarding this update. If you see something that doesn't look right, it's most likely a genuine error, so please report it!

  • A new Third print of B2 Keep on the Borderlands, a new Seventh Plus print of the Monster Manual, a new Second print of Manual of the Planes, a new Second print of DL1 Dragons of Despair, a new Eighth print of the REF1 DMs Screen, a new Second print of B1-9 In Search of Adventure, and a new Second print of S1-4 Realms of Horror

  • New strangeness with the Second print of D1 Descent Into the Depths of the Earth. Two versions of the Second print have been confirmed -- one that has missing illustrations, and another where all illustrations are present. We'd be interested in hearing from anyone with either version, to try and get a handle on how rare each is. And while you're on that page -- we'd like to get additional confirmation from anyone who's got a Fourth or Fifth print of D1, D2, or D3. For the Fourth print, we're not sure if the version with the ISBN on the bottom right exists, and for the Fifth, we're not sure if the print exists at all! Any help is appreciated

  • New Ninth Plus and Tenth Minus prints of the Players Handbook, as well as numerous corrections to prints Ninth and later. This should (hopefully) resolve many of the discrepancies contributors were noticing

  • Exceedingly-rare discoveries: First and Third prints of Character Archaic, and First and Second prints of the 1977 D&D Character Record Sheets

  • New information on -- and a scan of! -- R5 Great Bugbear Hunt

  • A ton of new pieces of original artwork in the Museum

  • Further background on B3 Palace of the Silver Princess

  • Clarifications and corrections made to the Fifth and Sixth prints of Palace of the Vampire Queen

  • A cover insert for the Australian D&D Basic Rulebook?

  • Text of the Correction Sheet bundled with the Original D&D Set, as well as errata for Unearthed Arcana

  • Quite a few new questions -- and answers -- on the Ongoing Research page

  • An explanation of all those numbers found on a D&D product's outside cover

  • Removed the condition estimations from the registries of Lost Tamoachan, Ghost Tower, and R1-3 Pre-Pubs. We never intended to be a grading service on these copies, though that's what the registry was turning out to be

  • Five years later... State of the Hobby

  • Item valuations have been updated, but only a portion of them. We've been less than diligent in tracking values this past year, though we're going to initiate a new batch of Valuation Board members in the near future to fix this

2006

March 16th:

  • A bevy of new Estimated Values for "common" items (those of Rarity score 1, 2, or 3).  The Valuation Board has now begun tracking these, and will update these values approximately once a year, as opposed to once a quarter as with the Rarity 4 and 5 items.  Roughly half of the common items on the site are now being tracked (and since almost every tracked item has had a value change to some degree, the easiest way to tell if an item is being monitored is to look at whether the value has increased or decreased, as indicated by the red and green arrows).  Additional common items will be added to the monitoring list shortly.  For more information, please see this forum post
     
  • Values for the Dungeon Masters Guide 2nd Alpha have been decided on by the Valuation Board!  You may all rejoice and rush to purchase your copies.  Since there has been a sale -- for $562 -- the Valuation Board agreed to use this to determine the valuation for this item.  As such, this estimated value is highly speculative (as it is with all items we cover with little or no market history...), and certainly subject to wild swings in light of future sales.  Use it with a grain of salt!
     
  • What would an update be without a new class-5 rarity?  Greyhawk Reference Sheets.  Values for this have not yet been established
     

March 12th:

  • Due to new information and research, the sequence for Palace of the Vampire Queen has been expanded and reshuffled.  Most notably, the previous First and Second print definitions have flip-flopped, but this does not affect valuation.  Please check your copy of PotVQ to ensure it fits within this sequence -- any discrepancies, please let us know!
     
  • The Fourth print of the Original D&D Set has been eliminated; we believe that the previous description of this print was in error.  As a result, the Fourth Minus print has shifted up to the new Fourth
     
  • In a similar vein, we believe that the reports of a First print of Greyhawk (as a separate item from the "True First" printing) were confused, since no one has been able to produce a non-True First print.  As a result, we've removed the "True" portion of the "True First" print, making it the one-and-only First
     
  • ...and for the last of our printing deletions, the Second print of Quest for the Fazzlewood has bit the dust as well.  Since reported to us in 2000, no other copies have surfaced -- we believe the copy spotted at that time was probably a photocopy or other similar reproduction
     
  • An article by Kent Kelly on the mysteries to be found within the Official AD&D Coloring Album
     
  • A new Second print of AC5 Player Character Record Sheets, and a new Third print of T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil
     
  • An interesting "combined" foreign module: the Finnish B3 Palace of the Silver Princess and B6 Veiled Society
     
  • Moved the "Updated" column on the Indexes to the left of the "Rarity" column, to help underscore that the date listed for "Updated" refers to updated information on the item's page, and does not have any relation to when the Estimated Values were updated
     
  • Estimated Values are now present for the DMG print sequence, with the exception of values for the Second Alpha print (only one sale, for $562, has been recorded; the jury is still out on valuation of this print).  It should be noted that the Second Alpha is the rarest DMG print known to exist, and as such, should command a much higher price than the more-common First print -- but probably not a five-hundred-dollar premium
     
  • A new Google-powered site search engine.  Searches both the main site as well as the forums!
     
  • All URLs on the site have been changed to lowercase.  We apologize if this breaks any of your personal bookmarks -- but it's something we wish we had done at the site's inception.  Only recently did we find the tool necessary to make this happen, and bring the site into compliance with the Internet norm
     
  • Complete HTML-layout overhaul.  Old fragments of code, misaligned elements, and general shenanigans were straightened out.  While most of the changes are very subtle, you should find that the site pages now scale better at different browser resolutions, and things align more nicely.  Please let us know if something isn't resolving correctly on your browser
     
  • A new forum address.  This address change coincides with a major upgrade of the forum software
     
  • Finally, I'm proud to unveil the first of The Acaeum's new subwebs: The Judges Guild Booty List.  Presented in much the same style as the main site, but edited and maintained by Plaag.  Please help out with submissions and corrections, to help ensure that this repository of knowledge on Judges Guild products is the best it can be!

2005

June 5th:

  • Mostly a "housekeeping" update -- tightening up, correcting, and clarifying many of the changes made in the last update

  • Expanded and clarified grading definitions, courtesy of Paul Tremiti

  • All relevant essays, as well as The Acaeum FAQ, have been updated to reflect the new grading and evaluation systems

  • First quarter 2005 auction results have been compiled by The Acaeum Valuation Board, and the updated Estimated Values accordingly appear on the indexes

  • Eliminated both "Poor" and "Mint" from the Estimated Values altogether. Under our new philosophy, "Poor" is still a grade, but not one that we're going to offer estimated values for (a Poor-grade item is considered not collectible, even though it may still have some value). Additionally, "Near Mint" replaces the condition previously ascribed to "Mint". While an item can certainly be truly Mint (i.e., uncirculated and completely unblemished -- "perfect"), and will necessarily command a price premium if in that condition, the vast majority (99.9%) of items should be properly described as Near Mint. Near Mint represents 100% value of an item, with lesser conditions scaled accordingly

  • A new Plus/Minus column ("+/-") where the Mint column used to be on the Indexes. In the continual quest to reduce eyestrain, this column will feature a colored arrow to denote whether the Estimated Values for that item have gone up or down since the last update: = down,   = up,  no arrow = no change

  • Historical auction sales on the individual item pages have had their conditions adjusted to match the new grading scale:

     SW conditions changed to NM/SW
     M conditions changed to NM
     NM conditions downgraded to VF
     EX conditions changed to FN

    While not necessarily accurate for all items, it at least provides consistency, and allows us to keep these older sales available for reference purposes. Also, odds are good that we've missed a few during the conversion, so if you spot any of the old grading values still in use on a page, please let us know!

  • As an additional aid for making sense of the Dungeon Masters Guide print sequence, I've composed a flowchart which should make determining your printing much simpler. Please note that we haven't had the time to monitor DMG sales on eBay with the new sequence in mind, so we've left the value of the DMG blank for now. We'll correct this in the next update

  • Two distinct prints of Daystar West Rahasia identified

  • Unofficial errata for the D&D Rules Cyclopedia

  • An interesting discrepancy with the Finnish version of AC2 Combat Shield & Mini Adventure....

  • New items added to our listings: Dragon Dice and Dragon Dice Percentage Generators

  • The Acaeum Distributed Computing Project Handbook. A dramatic name for a dramatic idea -- create and manage your own Acaeum subweb!

  • A request for donations to not only keep the site running, but to help offset the costs of a bigger, faster server. In return for your donation, we'll grant you a sizeable chunk of online real estate, e-mail addresses, and more!

February 11th:

  • Several additions to the Library section:
     
    • Monster & Treasure Assortment changes
    • Definitions of all module codes used by TSR
    • A few simple book-binding definitions
    • Estimates of print runs for various items
    • Updated Ongoing Research page

  • Hex Pad, Hex Sheets, and Hexagonal Mapping Booklet clarified. Additionally, a much more rare version of the Games Workshop Hex Sheets discovered
     
  • Many updates to the Foreign Editions Master List, but most notably, further information on the German re-release of S1 Tomb of Horrors, and a large expansion to the known number of Israeli items -- including two modules (HCM1 and HCM2) released nowhere else!
     
  • Yet another (sigh) 10th Anniversary Combo Pack: X1 / X2 / X3 / X4
     
  • Some strangeness with certain illustrations in S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
     
  • Long-lost Greyhawk information hidden in the Dungeon Geomorphs and Outdoor Geomorphs
     
  • New Second prints of T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil, City System, FR4 Magister, FR5 Savage Frontier, and FR7 Hall of Heroes
     
  • A completely re-worked printing sequence for the Dungeon Masters Guide, based on new information and research
     
  • New info on the first print of the Monster Manual
     
  • A completely new item grading scale, based on the one currently in use by the comic book industry. In short, the old "Excellent" condition has been split into "Fine" (F) and "Very Fine" (VF), and the status of "Mint" has been elevated to a truly perfect copy (most "Mint" items on the market today should be correctly adjusted to "Near Mint"). Additionally (and most importantly, for collectors), "Shrinkwrap" has been changed from "a condition above Mint" to a modifier of condition. Therefore, an item can be "Very Good in the shrink", and will priced accordingly below one that is "Mint in the shrink". All the relevant explanatory essays on this site will be changed in the near future to reflect the new system
     
  • Introducing The Acaeum Valuation Board: a group of individuals charged with the weighty responsibility of managing the estimated values of all items on The Acaeum. Hopefully, this will make our estimated values better able to reflect both short- and long-term market fluctuations. More on the Board can be found at this forum post
     
  • ..and lastly, the first collaborative effort by the new Board: re-vamped estimated values for all items on The Acaeum, broken down by the new item condition scale. See the Indexes for more: Misc Index Module Index Rulebook Index Rares Index . Please note that rather than featuring huge swaths of green and red highlighting, we've designated a raised or lowered value by highlighting the module code column only -- just for this update. Future updates will highlight normally. Also, as this process is still "under construction", expect that some of the values will change as more data is compiled


2004

August 9th:

  • Front-page redesign (functionally, it adds a direct link to the Forums), along with a new background texture, which hopefully improves readability
     
  • Pre-production cover scans of the never-released BX1 Islandia Campaign and DA5 City of Blackmoor
     
  • The mystery of the M&T Sets' rear covers deepens, with a new First print of the Monster & Treasure Assortment Set Two spotted
     
  • An index of UK Dragon issues (differences between UK Dragon and the corresponding Dragon issues are still  sorely needed, as well as a few scans) 
  • From the dark vaults of time, some incredible rarities:

    • the Artists of TSR portfolio

    • the Strategic Preview newsletter

    • another 10th Anniversary Combo Pack

    • the pre-publication version of the Original D&D Set

    • info on the unnumbered copies of Lost Tamoachan and Ghost Tower of Inverness

    • the True First prints of the Dungeon Masters Guide confirmed

    • the Australian Dungeon Module Pack


March 13th:
  • We are currently in the process of switching host providers.  If you are seeing this What's New entry, the new provider is correctly resolving in your area.  Please forward any problems you are having to [email protected].

2003

December 21st:

  • A significant expansion to our essays on the storage of your RPG collection:
     
    • Mold & Mildew Summary: the original article on this site dealing with the storage of your gaming supplies, and how to prevent & cure common maladies 
    • Understanding Mold: a more in-depth look at what mold is, and how it survives

    • Prevention of Mold: steps and methods used to deter the formation of the mold fungus

    • Treatment of Mold: discussion of how to combat mold should it infect your collection

    • Storage Materials: the right types of plastic bags and cardboard backers

While the depth of information in some of the articles may seem like overkill, the consequences of improper storage could be devastating to your collection. Ignore at your peril!

  • A new "cardboard hanger" module print of WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, a new Second print of Lankhmar: City of Adventure, and revised print information on the compilation version Monster & Treasure Assortment Sets One-Three
     
  • Several new 10th Anniversary Combo Packs discovered, as well as the long-sought First print of the UK Monster Manual
     
  • The mystery of WGRX Ivid the Undying is solved, but a new mystery takes its place: the "True First" print of the venerable Dungeon Masters Guide?
     

September 20th:

  • The booklets of the first three prints of the Original D&D Set, which we've previously described as "woodgrain", are no longer (this also applies to the "True First" printing of Greyhawk). The booklets' original coloration is actually very close to that of later prints; the scans we've had on the site were artificially discolored due to age. The term "woodgrain" will only be used to describe the color of the set's box
     
  • The First (and only?) Australian print of the D&D Basic Rulebook
     
  • The D&D Modules & Supermodules Level Chart, as well as an updated AD&D Modules Level Chart
     
  • Printing mistakes: strange missing illustrations from the Second print of D1 Descent Into the Depths of the Earth, the complete list of missing illustrations from the Monster Manual prints, and the replicated rear cover of Monster & Treasure Assortment Set One onto both Set Two and Three!
     
  • Several new "prints" of modules that came with a cardboard header, suitable for retailers (mainly Toys 'R' Us) to display on a hanging rack: B2, EX1, EX2, I4, L2, and S3. We're sure there's more out there -- scans needed!
     

September 9th:

  • New Second prints of FR7 Hall of Heroes, FR11 Dwarves Deep, and REF3 Book of Lairs
     
  • New First and Third prints of the World of Greyhawk campaign setting, some corrections to the information on the other prints, as well as some added scans of the Gazetteer, the Catalogue, and the Glossography
     
  • First Quest Music Album -- now on cassette tape!  Unfortunately, the lower inherent dynamic range of the trusty cassette tape somewhat limits the full impact of this score (cough, cough), but it's still a nifty collectible
     
  • AD&D Modules & Supermodules Level Chart, showing the applicable character levels for each module.  Useful for charting out an extensive campaign.  If anyone can cook up the data (preferably in an Excel table, utilizing different colors for each module series) for the D&D modules, we'll be happy to post it, too!
     

June 22nd:

  • The Acaeum Forums are back online now, after the recent hacking incident. It took much longer than expected, since the phpBB software has numerous bugs in it that were preventing restoration of the database.

Unfortunately, the last backup was May 11th, so all messages (and user registrations) since that point were lost. We promise to be more religious in backups, so future database crashes will be less catastrophic. Apologies for the inconvenience!


June 18th:

  • The Acaeum Forums were hacked last night, and deleted from the server. The good news is, the only messages that were lost were the ones since the last backup. The bad news is, the last backup was one month ago. We will be back up shortly, once we're sure that the recent messages can't be somehow retrieved from the server. We apologize for the inconvenience.


June 15th:

  • Added "Auction History" columns to all the Indexes, which list average auction prices on eBay and eBay UK. These values are culled from the two main eBay web sites using software specifically designed for The Acaeum by Olav Riediger. More information on this software, and the culling process, can be found in The Acaeum FAQ and in the How to Use This Site essay
     
  • In conjunction with the addition of the Auction History columns, many of the Estimated Values on the Indexes have been adjusted accordingly. Most of the changes have, thankfully, been only minor
     
  • New Tenth and Eleventh prints of the Players Handbook. Also, the mention of perforated or non-perforated reference sheets has been eliminated from the print listings; it was causing too much confusion, and nobody really cared anyway!
     
  • Dark & Hidden Ways and Wild Things receive their own page, and have been moved to the Miscellaneous Index


June 7th:


Appreciate everyone's patience in the lengthy interim since the last update -- as you can see, we haven't been idle, and we hope you enjoy all the additions and changes!

  • Just when we thought we had them correctly sequenced: a new Fourth Minus (hybrid) print of the Original D&D Set, and new Fifteenth and Eighteenth prints of the D&D Basic Set
     
  • A new Fifth print of the DMs Screen (which slides the old Fifth print down to "Fifth Plus"), new Third and Fourth prints of the DMs Adventure Log, an interesting new Third print of the UK-version Players Handbook, and three new prints of the Official AD&D Coloring Album
     
  • The Silver Anniversary Collector's Edition boxed set, and a new 10th Anniversary Combo Pack
     
  • The long-lost Second print of Eldritch Wizardry has been found! Everyone who thinks they have a First print had better check this out....
     
  • Due to popular demand, two major improvements to the Indexes:
     
    • A new compact design, with highly-optimized HTML code for faster loading. This was especially necessary since we combined all the Miscellaneous and Module index pages onto single pages
    • The Module Index is now organized by both module code and module title -- the sorting is toggled via the buttons at the top of the page ("By Code" and "By Title")
  • The Artwork Museum is now online, showcasing original D&D artwork in collections worldwide. If you've got a piece of original TSR artwork that meets our submissions guidelines, please forward info and a scan our way!
     
  • Several interesting updates to the Ongoing Research page
     
  • Info and scans on several TSR newsletters of the late 1980's and early 1990's: Fantastic Adventures, Fantasy Worlds, Game World, and TSR Worlds. To go along with these, a re-vamped Periodicals Index as well
     
  • Module WGRX Ivid the Undying is now available in our Library section. While released as a very large text file to the public domain some years ago by Wizards of the Coast, this particular version has been extensively edited and re-formatted by William Allman, and is most likely very close to what the published module may have looked like. Additional information on the possible existence of a pre-production version of WGRX Ivid the Undying (with cover artwork!) can be found on the Ongoing Research page


February 16th:

  • A new Second print of WGR1 Greyhawk Ruins
     
  • Upon finding a third copy of the First print Players Handbook that has a white (not orange) flyleaf, we've decided to delineate it as the "True First" print
     
  • Confirmation of several Hebrew 1st Edition xD&D products, as well as scans of many of the Finnish items
     

January 11th:

  • Due to a bug in the forum software, some browsers (notably, Netscape) may have trouble with the registration activation sequence. Once you register with the forum, an e-mail will be sent to you with a hyperlink that looks similar to this:

http://www.acaeum.com:/phpBB2/profile.php?mode=activate&act_key=<activationcode>

When your browser attempts to digest this URL, you may get a "malformed request" error. The problem is the extra colon (":") after "acaeum.com"... delete this colon, and the process should work for you. Unfortunately, we're not good enough programmers to fix this bug in the actual code; hopefully a new version of the forum software will rectify it.

  • A rumor surfaces of a fantastic rarity:  Vampyr
  • Several additions and corrections to the UK-version Monster Manual
     
  • A new 10th Anniversary Combo Pack
     
  • The hidden entries to MSOLO2 Maze of the Riddling Minotaur revealed!
     
2002

December 6th:

  • Flipped the First and Second prints of the Second Edition of Chainmail, due to new information concerning the addresses of Guidon Games
     
  • Some insight on the rarity of the Fourth print Original D&D Set: 25,000 copies were printed, in contrast to the 3,300 copies of the Third print
     
  • A new Second print of the Games Workshop (softcover) version of the Players Handbook, a new Fourth print of the Games Workshop version of the D&D Basic Set, a new Fifth print of B1 In Search of the Unknown, a new Third print of L2 Assassin's Knot, a new Fifth print of T1 Village of Hommlet, a new First print of the Art of the AD&D Fantasy Game, a new Eighth print of the DMs Screen, a new Second print of X5 Temple of Death, and a new Second print of X3 Curse of Xanathon
     
  • Added a new Third print of the World of Greyhawk folio, and completely re-worked the sequence in bullet format (and included additional information). Please double-check your folios against this new checklist, and see if we've got any discrepancies!
     
  • While several people have promised a scan of the super-rare City Geomorphs, none have come through (or they've mistakenly submitted Outdoor Geomorphs Set One: Walled City scans instead). In light of this, we're beginning the believe that City Geomorphs doesn't exist, and we've accordingly relegated it back to the Ongoing Research page
     

November 4th:

  • Front page redesign, mostly for esthetic purposes -- but also reflecting a small change in the organization of some sections
     
  • The Acaeum Forums -- meet and interact with the D&D collecting community
     

September 15th:

  • Ghost Tower of Inverness: the personal copy of author Allen Hammack comes up for sale at GenCon, setting a new public-auction record for a D&D module in the process
     
  • Additional background info on Chainmail and the orange B3 Palace of the Silver Princess
     
  • Four products originally intended for the Living City module series
     
  • Dozens of new entries and scans in our Foreign Editions section, including the addition of a series of accessory modules only released in Japan: the ACJ series
     
  • Re-worked the Monster Manual and Players Handbook printing descriptions into bullet format. Additionally, merged the Fourth+ and Fifth prints of the Monster Manual into the Fifth print and merged the Third and Third+ prints of the Players Handbook into the Third print
     
  • A new Second print of TSR Hex Pad


August 12th:

  • A new (rather, a newly confirmed) Second print of A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity, a new First print of Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits, a new Seventh print of Legends & Lore, a new Fourth Plus print of the Monster Manual, a new Second print of AC6 Player Character Record Sheets, a new Third print of Dungeon Geomorphs Sets 1-3, and a new Fourth print of L1 Secret of Bone Hill
     
  • The rumored First printing of T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil was just that... a rumor. We've deleted it, and shifted the sequence accordingly
     
  • Added the Silver Anniversary prints of modules B2, G1, G2, G3, I6, S1, and S2, as well as the Silver Anniversary print of the original D&D Basic Rulebook. These items were all released in 1999 as part of TSR's 25th anniversary celebration, and appear nearly identical to modules originally published twenty years ago -- thus creating some confusion in the marketplace
     
  • Sixty AD&D modules published by TSR that we bet you've never heard of... the Adventurer's Guild series
     
  • Some more fascinating background on Deities & Demigods
     

July 1st:

  • A complete re-tooling of the printing sequence for T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil, a new Fifth printing of S2 White Plume Mountain, a new First print of Hexagonal Mapping Booklet, and new Second prints of C3 Lost Island of Castanamir and O1 Gem and the Staff
     
  • Your Personal Invitation to Adventure flier
     
  • The Acaeum FAQ, featuring answers to frequently asked questions
     
  • Site Statistics and the What's New History
     
  • Our most-requested article: the Mold & Mildew essay.  We've intended for a long time to expand this article to include additional information on storing and protecting a collection, but haven't found the time to do so.  Here is what information we have
     
  • A cosmetic reshuffling of articles between the FAQ section and the Essays section.  No, the organization still doesn't make much sense, but hopefully it's a little more coherent.  The Foreign Editions Master List, which many people have had trouble locating, is now in the FAQ section
     
  • Finally, a scan of an obscure Games Workshop item: Hex Sheets
     
  • Info and scans on one of the last great rarities: "Dwarven" Quest for the Rod of Seven Parts
     

April 6th:

  • Info on one of the earliest D&D products -- the first D&D Basic Rulebook published in the UK, by Games Workshop.  We've been looking for this rulebook for years, and had ended up relegating it to the realms of myth.  Not so -- here it is, in the flesh, so to speak
     
  • Yet more rarities!  The pre-publication versions of R1 To the Aid of Falx and R3 Part 1 Egg of the Phoenix
     
  • The addition of two Games Workshop logos to the TSR Logos page
     
  • An updated State of the Hobby essay, which helps explain several of the highlighted values on the Rares Index
     

January 18th:

  • Added in the Fourteenth through Sixteenth prints of the D&D Basic Set
     
  • A major change to the Original D&D Set sequence, yet again.  In light of some new information, the old Third+ set has been re-classified as the Fifth (bumping the poor OCE set up to Sixth printing), and a new Third+ print has been identified (it's actually an extremely rare hybrid print).  Our estimated values of the sets have not changed, however
     
  • A new Third print of the Dungeon Masters Adventure Log, a new Twelfth (and final?) print of Unearthed Arcana, and new Second prints of the Monster & Treasure Assortment Set Three and Monster & Treasure Assortment Sets One-Three
     
  • By popular demand: the (Mostly) Complete TSR Stock List, listing every item ever printed by TSR.  It's actually only complete up to 1998; additions after that point are sketchy.  Anyone who'd care to add/update this list, please do so!  The list itself is on an HTML page (in our Essays section), as well as in a Microsoft Word 95 document file (in our Downloads section)
     
  • Yep, you guessed it: I'm traveling again, and won't be back until the first week of March.  All e-mail channels will still be functional, though, and we'll still be soliciting submissions during the interim


January 6th:

  • Happy Holidays!  And take a look at what Santa brought for one lucky collector: a First print of Chainmail, one of the rarest of all D&D items
     
  • A new print of the monochrome C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, and some new / revised info on the print run of the orange B3 Palace of the Silver Princess

2001

December 5th:
  • Apologies for the server downtime this past two weeks.  Forces beyond our control (we strongly suspect al-Qaeda had something to do with it) took down the server last Monday.  All incoming mail from November 24th through November 29th fell into a black hole and/or was bounced back to the sender; if you sent us something last week, please re-send!  If you sent us something before November 24th and have not yet heard a response, that's simply due to the enormous e-mail backlog we've got here.  We'll get to your question / submission as soon as we can
     
  • Correction: the changes listed in the Errata Article for the Players Handbook were never incorporated into any print.  Additionally, we've added annotations to the Errata Article for the Monster Manual identifying in which print the changes were actually made, and re-classified the Fourth print of the Monster Manual as the true "final" version (incorporating all of these changes)
     
  • A re-vamping of the Chainmail and Palace of the Vampire Queen pages into checklist style, and added some clarifying information
     
October 19th: 
  • All of the information and scans from our Foreign Editions archives have now been posted to the site, and numerous additions and corrections have been made.  Please help us fill in the gaps!
     
  • The Original D&D Set sequence has been re-written in checklist format, which will hopefully alleviate some confusion
     
  • New printings of the Monster Manual II and DLC1 Classics Vol 1
     
  • Clarification on the Understanding D&D promotional flier, along with some new scans
     
September 9th: 
  • An interesting essay on the disproportionately high value of the Kara Tur boxed set
     
  • Literally dozens of new Foreign Edition scans, some newly-activated links on the Foreign Editions Master List, and numerous corrections and additions to the data posted last week.  And yes, we still have lots more information to be posted from the archives!
     
September 2nd: 
  • Apologies for this very tardy update!  We've just not had the free time to devote to working on the site.  Nevertheless, today we present one of the biggest updates in quite a while:
     
  • Two new rarities: the TSR Spotlight newsletter, and confirmation on the existence of the City Geomorphs.
     
  • Several updates to the Ongoing Research page.
     
  • The Foreign Editions pages are now in the process of being entered.  Links to these pages will appear on individual module / set pages, as a button located next to the item title (in the "Printing Descriptions" section) .  The pages currently published on the site are indicated by active hyperlinks on the Foreign Editions Master List (listing every foreign printing known, organized by country).  Please note that we're only about half-finished with entering the information from our archives, so don't despair if your submission isn't posted yet; it will be up soon.  As always, we're looking for additional information on all of these foreign titles, and a lot of scans.  Incidentally, we've identified twelve foreign languages that D&D has been translated into, in one form or another:  Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish... not including the "translations" into British and Australian versions.
     
  • The Errata article from Dragon Magazine #35, by popular demand.  This article has been broken into three sections (for the Monster Manual, the Players Handbook, and the Dungeon Masters Guide), and additional changes incorporated.  While we admit it's largely useless, it's at least interesting for trivia purposes.
     
  • Eliminated the Fifth printing of the Original D&D Set (the old Sixth printing is now the Fifth).  The sole difference between the two prints was the interior color of the booklet covers; we believe this was in error, and all OCE-set booklets have parchment-colored interiors.  Also, a bit of trivia is noted: there's a leftover reference to Hobbits (on page 6 of Men & Magic) that the editors apparently missed!
     
  • For whatever reason, The Acaeum Search Engine has been having some problems... not all of the pages on the site were correctly indexing.  Hopefully, we've got this fixed now.
     
June 10th: 
  • A mini-update today, mostly posting miscellaneous corrections.  One big correction: the Anauroch Promo Map, trumpeted in the last update, was apparently distributed in Dragon Magazine #124, as well as given out by dealers with purchases of the Forgotten Realms Campaign sets.  Our mistake.  Thanks to several astute readers who discovered this error!  We've decided to keep it on the Forgotten Realms page, but have deleted its estimated values (relegating it, appropriately, to the realms of the collectably worthless).
     
  • Unfortunately, real life intrudes again, sending me once more overseas (but this time only for three weeks).  Site updates will resume in July, though feel free to send in submissions through the normal e-mail channels in the interim.  On the very front burner when I return is the long-awaited (and huge) Foreign Editions expansion to the site, which will attempt to chronicle every print of every 1st Edition xD&D item in every language.  Stay tuned.
     
May 26th: 
  • Split the Sixth printing of the Players Handbook into the Sixth and Seventh printings, based on new information.  In the same vein, renamed the "Fourth Minus" print of the Monster Manual as the Fourth print, and shifted the sequence accordingly
     
  • A new rarity: the Anauroch Promo Map
     
  • New Third and Fifth printings of the D&D Expert Set (and a revised, checklist-style format to go along with it), and new, messy information on the Sixth printing of the D&D Basic Set
     
  • Added several DragonLance items:  the DLA, DLC, and DLE module series, the DLR series of sourcebooks, and the Time of the Dragon boxed set
     
  • Updated the Downloads section (fixed a number of links, and added in the most recent of WotC's electronic module releases), as well as updated the Conventions page
     
May 19th: 
  • New First and Fourth printings of Deities and Demigods, a new Second print of L2 Assassin's Knot, and a new Fifth printing of Unearthed Arcana
     
  • Heavy revision of the Basic Set sequence.  Besides rewriting it into a checklist-type format (the wordy paragraphs were getting far too complex), there have been numerous changes, additions, and deletions to the sequence starting with the Sixth print.  And while it pains me to say it, if you happen to have a print that doesn't fit these new descriptions (*cringe*), please send it in! 
     
May 7th: 
  • Yet another printing of S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. This module has been very difficult to sequence.  If you've got a copy of this module which doesn't fit the printing descriptions listed (heaven forbid!), please send the info our way
     
  • A new Seventh print of Chainmail, a new Second print of the Forgotten Realms Adventures manual, a new Third+ print of the Players Handbook, clarification of information on N1 Cult of the Reptile God, and some new background info on ST1 Up the Garden Path
     
  • The Players Association News and the Players Association Broadsheet newsletters (the predecessors to Imagine magazine)
     
  • Updates to the Ongoing Research page
     
April 29th:  We're back!  While we were gone, we received literally hundreds of submissions -- and it's going to take some time to organize and enter them on the site.  Your patience is appreciated.  Besides the submissions, we've also been working on some new expansions to the site, which we'll unveil over the next month or so.  We think you'll be pleasantly surprised.  In any case, here's our first batch of updates:
  • The first major re-vamping of all the Estimated Values, due to a perceived imbalance on many of the lower-value items (many people have said that our values for the cheap stuff were too high, and we agree).  Green and (mostly) red highlighting on the Indexes serve to indicate the changes
     
  • A major change to ALL module sequences:  size of the module (i.e. 11", 10 3/4", etc) is no longer a determining factor in different printings.  In reality, there were dozens of printings for each of the later modules, probably every few months or so.  Occasionally, TSR would switch printers, or the printers would switch equipment, and the size, color, paper texture, etc would change ever-so-slightly.  We're going mad trying to sequence some of the modules (notably X1, but many other modules as well), so we're implementing this change.  This affects the following modules (meaning that printings based solely on size have been eliminated):  A2, A3, A4, C1, C2, I1, U1, and X1
     
  • A cover scan, and some additional details, on Wee Warriors' Character Archaic.  We've added it to the Rares Index as well
     
  • Additional info on the "woodgrain" prints of the Original D&D Set
     
  • Additional info on several of the early prints of Greyhawk: Supplement I
     
  • A new Fourth printing of S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
     
  • Robert Kuntz's original map for his unpublished module To the City of Brass
     
  • A gradual re-write of many of the printing descriptions into what (we hope) will be an easier-to-understand format.  Rather than sticking with the logic-puzzle-style of before ("Third print: As First, but now without a map book, but including two dice chits"), we've opted to go with complete descriptions for each printing.  It's longer text, but we think you'll find it more intuitive.  An example of the rewritten format can be found on the Special Series module page
     
  • In the same vein, we've gotten a lot of questions as to "what's the Product Number?  The TSR Piece Code?  The TSR Stock Number?"  Completely our oversight.  To correct this, we present the Expanded Description section of our module pages; long overdue.  Check out the first one on the Aerie Series module page; more will be added in the coming weeks
     
2000

Oct 6th:  Due to a real-life relocation of yours truly to a top-secret training facility in the Swiss Alps (or thereabouts, anyway), The Acaeum will be devoid of updates until April 2001.  However, the site will continue to be functional, and we'll still be soliciting submissions through our normal e-mail channels.  Just don't expect to see those submissions actually posted until April.

We would also ask that you not send unsolicited file attachments (cover scans, etc), due to the fact that we'll be forwarding the e-mail to various temporary (Hotmail) accounts, which can fill up quickly.  And since the Sage will be away from his research materials, he might have to "wing" your queries even more than he usually does. See you in April.


Sep 18th:  Some revised info on the First and Second prints of B2 Keep on the Borderlands, a new Sixth print of the D&D Basic Set, confirmation of the long-lost Fifth print of the AD&D Players Handbook (finally!), and corrected data on the Sixth and Seventh printings of Chainmail. 


Sep 2nd:  A new "Fourth Minus" print of the Monster Manual, a new Third print of the DM Screen, a new Second print of the DMs Adventure Log, the original Blackmoor map from the Domesday Book issue #13, a new Second print of the D&D Expert Set, and the addition of two very old and rare items: the Understanding D&D explanation sheet and the TSR Hex Pad.


Jul 30th:  The much-requested Trail Maps, and the following module series: FRC, OP1, WGM, WGQ, and WGS.  Also, a new Third print of module X1 Isle of Dread, a new Second print of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, new Third and Fourth printings of Rogues Gallery, some clarified info on the True First / First printings of Supplement I: Greyhawk, and a new Third print of the D&D Basic Set... and yes, this means the whole sequence shifted one-up again.  :(


Jul 13th:  The PC accessory series, the DDA module series, and the Outdoor Survival boxed game (which is not even a D&D item, let alone a TSR product... you'll have to check out that page for the reason we're including it!). Also new this week, a long-awaited addition: The Acaeum Search Engine.  We've been cognizant of the need for this since the site was originally published, but have run into numerous snags in our test-run implementations.  It looks like we've worked out those difficulties, and we now present an engine that you should find fast, simple, and enormously useful.


Jul 5th:  Submissions Guidelines, to answer some common questions.  Also, a new Seventh print of the D&D Basic Set, and the addition of the DQ module page.


Jun 26th:  Scans of the super-rare Rahasia (Daystar West) and ST1 Up the Garden Path, and a new Fourth printing of B2 Keep on the Borderlands.   Also, TSR has recently made available online copies of EX1 Dungeonland and EX2 Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, links to which are in our Downloads section.


Jun 13th:  A smattering of info, and some rough scans, on early Games Workshop items, plus a switch of the Third and Fourth print S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.  Also, further edits to the Original D&D Set sequence: the First print booklets were a woodgrain color (the assumption that they weren't was a scanning error), and the Fourth print booklets did not have references to Hobbits changed to Halflings (this occurred with the release of the OCE set). Concerning the Greyhawk "True First" printing described in the last update.  We're no longer sure of this item's rarity... 24 hours after the update was published, we heard of three copies.  We'll be monitoring auction sources to see how many of these pop up, before deciding whether to lower the rarity score or keep it where it is. And in stunning news, the First print of Chainmail did indeed come with the vaunted Fantasy Supplement.  We have all been raised on lies and misinformation. Yesterday, June 12th, we had an e-mail "black hole" for about twelve hours, because yours truly incorrectly configured the mail server.  If you sent something to us on June 12th, and have not heard back, please re-submit!


Jun 8th:  A new printing of T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil, the "True First" printing of Supplement I: Greyhawk, plus some new info on the First printing of the Original D&D Set.  Also, the drama continues on X1 Isle of Dread, this time with additional information on the Fourth printing, and also with a slightly retooled D&D Basic Set sequence (splitting the Third printing into a Third and a Third+). Lastly, we've tracked down a scan and some info on Secrets of the Sages, the Forgotten Realms newsletter available through the early boxed set.  Our attention now turns to the five DragonLance Newsletters, highlighted on our Research page.


May 23rd:  New prints of Unearthed Arcana and Lankhmar: City of Adventure, some tidbits of info on Rahasia (Daystar West), and the addition of the GAZ and REF accessory pages (now on the Miscellaneous Index, along with the AC page). And speaking of indexes... we've expanded the Dragon Magazine Index into the new Periodicals Index, covering Dragon, Dungeon, Polyhedron, and Imagine magazines.  It still needs a bit of fleshing out, so please help us patch the holes with your submissions. Last but not least, a long-overdue rewrite of the How To Use This Site introductory essay.  Hopefully it's a bit more comprehensible this time.


May 12th:  A new print of I3 Pharaoh, some corrected details -- and a new Fourth print -- for Palace of the Vampire Queen, a hint of a very rare Forgotten Realms newsletter (obtained with a form from the First printing of the boxed set), a new print of Monster & Treasure Assortment Sets One-Three, and various updates to the Research page.  Also, something we've been planning to do for a long time: the TSR Logos page.  While the names we've assigned to the logos are arbitrary, knowing exactly which logo we're talking about in the printing descriptions can be very helpful.  We've added a "Logos" button to all the item pages, for quick reference.


May 8th:  Added two new prints of module B1 In Search of the Unknown.  The Forgotten Realms Campaign and the Dragonlance Campaign pages are finally up, along with the Forgotten Realms Adventures hardcover manual and an expanded Art Books page.  Also, two rare oddities: Quadrille Graph Paper and the First Quest Music Album.


May 6th:  Revised / corrected printing info on modules B3, B4, D1, D2, D3, G1-2-3, L1, S1, T1-4, and X2 (some major, some minor).  Also, the Fifth print of Chainmail is now relabeled as the Sixth, based on new information.  Please update your collection inventories accordingly! 


Apr 7th:  A new print of Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits, a blurb of info relating the R-series modules to the World of Greyhawk, new information on the First print of Supplement I: Greyhawk, and info on the 10th Anniversary Combo Packs.  Also, a shuffled sequence for the Original D&D Set; in short, the "Fifth" print we had was correctly relabeled as the "Third+" print, and some further details were added to all the printings.  Hopefully this will clear up some confusion.


Apr 5th:  Yet another print of X1 Isle of Dread; a re-sequencing of the monochrome G-series modules due to newly-discovered Second prints; a strange "hybrid" print of the Monster Manual; a new print of B2 Keep on the Borderlands.


Mar 31st:  Important legal notice.  Please read, as it concerns what may or may not be taken from this site.  While we feel it is unfortunate that we need to enforce our legal copyrights, a certain unscrupulous individual seeks to profit from the thousands of hours of work that has gone into this web site.  We would hope that you would avoid supporting his efforts and thus encouraging this kind of behavior.


Mar 30th:  Some info on rarities: ST1 Up the Garden Path, Bigby's Tomb, Quest for the Fazzlewood, and modules L4 and L5.  Also, a newly-discovered Second print of module B1 In Search of the Unknown.


Mar 20th:  To the City of Brass, an original AD&D tournament module by Robert J. Kuntz, is now available in our Downloads section.


Mar 16th:   Updates have been a little slow lately, as real life intrudes a bit.  We promise to shove it back in the closet and get to work soon.  We also apologize for the server downtime the last week.  Our web host provider, ICOM.com, has been jerking us around for the past month or so.  As a result, we fired 'em.  Our new host, GlobalHosting, is not only extremely fast (or so they claim... if not, we'll probably fire them too!), but gives us twice the server room, which was getting a bit critical.  All this for twice the cost.  :)  And for those of you who could care less about our server problems: besides several new scans (we're rapidly getting rid of those "scan needed" placeholders!), we redesigned our front page to eliminate scrolling on 800x600 browsers.  We've also dug up some strangeness on module X1 Isle of Dread, and revised the printing sequences of the DMs Screen and Chainmail (hopefully we got them right this time), with help from several individuals.  Check them out.  On the front burner: a Forgotten Realms boxed set page, a page for the REF accessory modules, a couple more D&D oddities, and a very special (and legibly edited) original AD&D module by Robert Kuntz.


Feb 13th:  Several new scans this week, including the very special, super-rare cover of Jade Hare, and the long-awaited "questionable artwork" from Palace of the Silver Princess.


Feb 8th:  Reorganized the Module Index alphabetically by module title, rather than by module code.  We think modules you're searching for will be easier to find this way.  The module pages themselves have remained the same, i.e. grouped by module code.  The one casualty of this change is that the "Up" navigation buttons in the module pages will all take you to the first Module Index page, A-C.  Unfortunately, this is an unavoidable limitation of HTML (in order to go directly back to the Index page you were just on, use your browser's "Back" button).  Sounds confusing, but it will all make sense once you try it out.

Due to recent information we've received on several new printings of older modules, we've been forced to revise the printing sequence for many of them.  As a result, if you've used our pages to label the modules in your collection, please go back and double-check them!  The affected modules are B1, B2, B3, C2, D1, D2, D3, and S2.  Also new today is the Forgotten Realms accessory module series page, and an addition to the Palace of the Vampire Queen page: her sister module, Dwarven Glory.


Feb 1st:  A brand-new Quest for the Fazzlewood entry, lots more cover scans (we're now updating the "Mod" column for modules when new scans come in), and a continuing-to-balloon Research page.  Also, to answer a common question: we do small updates to various things all the time, and don't necessarily mention them here in What's New.  This section serves only to notify of the big updates . We're collecting data for an upcoming FR module series page (Forgotten Realms).  We need any trivia you have about them, cover scans, etc.  (As of right now, we're only concentrating on the FR series, not the FRA, FRE, etc).  Check the Research page for new developments on this as they occur.


Jan 21st:  The Links section is now online.  No more "Under Construction" pages!  Also check out the added WGA module series (we're slowly bowing into pressure to add more module series, so stay tuned).

We've deleted several items from the Miscellaneous Index, namely the coloring books (except for the Official AD&D Coloring Album), the D&D Binder, and Giant Coloring Poster.  After some internal arguing, we've decided to limit the Miscellaneous section to game-related D&D items only.  Otherwise, we'd need to cover such things as action figures, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books, TSR lunchboxes, etc.  While we admit that several of the deleted items do have market value, we're guessing that the majority of the RPG collectors out there are not interested in anything that doesn't interface with the game directly.  


Jan 13th:  The last of the indexes, the Miscellaneous Index, is now finally online!  Now we can concentrate on updates, and all those small things that we've been ignoring.  Like the Links section.  Speaking of updates... we'd like to offer our sincerest thanks to all of you who have sent in corrections, additions, scans, etc.  We're thrilled to see that our enthusiasm is infectious -- and we're working hard to try and incorporate all the extra information as quickly as possible!   We've already lost a few slaves to the demanding work schedule, but that's how these things go.  If you've sent in info or scans and you don't see it up yet, rest assured that we'll have it online in the next few days.  Some highlights of today's update:  The D&D Basic Set sequence has gotten a revamping, due to a flood of new info concerning the earliest sets.  We fear we're still not done.  Also, we've gotten a lot of tidbits concerning stuff on the Ongoing Research page; seems like we toss something new on there every day or so.  And a word on how we do our updates.  We keep the "master" web site on a local server, which we do all our daily updates to.  Since we've been working on half-finished indexes, we've only been "publishing" this local web to the Internet server about every ten days or so.  However, now that the indexes are finished, we can update the Internet server much more frequently (like every couple days).  Use that "Mod" column in the indexes to let you know what's been changed.  This "What's New" page will simply serve to point out major updates.  Again, thank you all for a great first month.  Here's to many more.  Keep those submissions rolling!


1999

Dec 13th:  Front page redesign!  Hope you like it.  We've also deleted some planned sections:

  • The D&D Third Party Index.  These items are covered quite thoroughly over at Matthias Bock's Non-TSR xD&D Item page.  Please check it out!
     
  • The Buy/Sell section.  We decided it would be a conflict of professional interest to advertise the buying or selling of items that, in effect, we're appraising.  If you want to sell us something, that's great; send us an e-mail and we'll consider it.  We aren't currently interested in selling anything ourselves, however.
     
  • The Traveller section in its entirety... The Acaeum will now be exclusively dedicated to the Dungeons & Dragons game system.  For one, Far Future Enterprises (the current Traveller copyright holder) has prohibited copyrighted images from being displayed on web sites, including cover scans.  Secondly, we frankly don't have all that much to say about Traveller.  Very few Traveller products have multiple printings, or for that matter, any real worth at auctions.  If you'd like info on the game, check out Ron Brown's excellent Traveller Downport site. 
The Dragon Magazine Index is now online.  We scaled back some planned features on this, too, in light of the recent release of the Dragon Magazine CD-ROM from TSR (containing every issue from #1 to #250, plus the Strategic Reviews!).  Our Dragon Magazine Index will simply serve as a quick-reference for those who choose not to purchase the CD-ROM.  Next up is the Miscellaneous Index... it's almost complete.  And then that darn Links section.


Dec 4th:  Apologies for the downtime this past week... big server crash.


Nov 29th:  The D&D Game Book / Set Index is now online.  We're especially proud of this one, as much of the information in it has never been compiled before.  Also, we've added in the CA and OA series of D&D modules.  Next up (within two weeks, hopefully) will be the D&D Miscellaneous and Dragon Magazine indexes.


Nov 20th:  Last night we published the final build to the server.  We're now operational, but a few things are taking longer to implement than we anticipated (big surprise).  The only indexes currently up are the massive D&D Module Index and the Rares Index -- the others should be ready in about two weeks.  Also, some of the sections (notably Links) are not as fleshed out as they will be.

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