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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Those Damn AD&D 2e Complete Handbooks

Earlier today I posted a bit about the AD&D 2e Handbooks.  You know, the books that took AD&D into the never ending, unbalanced world of "splat books".  Moving stuff (like my bed) earlier tonight uncovered my collection of 2e Complete Handbooks.  (As an aside, the binding on my 2e Player's Handbook is shot to shit).

I'm not even sure if I have a complete collection of the "Completes" - I'll list what I have in no particular order:

Complete Psionics Handbook
The Complete Ranger's Handbook
The Complete Book of Humanoids
The Complete Book of Elves (an evil, unbalanced addition if any are)
The Complete Paladin's Handbook
Complete Thief's Handbook
Complete Fighter's Handbook
The Complete Book of Dwarves
The Complete Bard's Handbook
The Complete Barbarian's Handbook
The Complete Druid's Handbook

Somewhere the Halfling and Gnome book is hiding.  I know I have it, but those buggers are sneaky ;)

The Code of the Harpers kinda fits the overall definition of "kits" too.

Were they f'n insane?  I must have been insane, as I bought the suckers (tho' as I stated earlier, the Mail Order Hobby Shop was nice enough to fill in some gaps).

I played a lot of 2e back in the day, but my fondest memories are of 1e.  Without the bloat,  Without the kits.  Without the later Player's Option: Combat & Tactics.  Still, there's a years worth of posts in those books, I am sure... heh

6 comments:

  1. Not a complete set. Looks like you're missing Wizard, Gladiator(Dark Sun), Ninja, Necromancer, and possibly Sha'ir(Al-Qadim).

    Impressive collection though. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Necro is blue and a GM book... Got that ;)

    Should have the wizzie book. Need to search further.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I enjoyed those books and bought a number of them myself. I would rarely ever turn down a source for new material for Dragonquest. Some of them were insane, but as a DM/GM you only need to know the rules for a particular kit when it is in play. I think the same rule applies to the all the Mongoose books for 3.X.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The complete Complete list (per RPGGateway.com):

    PHBR1: The Complete Fighter's Handbook
    PHBR2: The Complete Thief's Handbook
    PHBR3: The Complete Priest's Handbook
    PHBR4: The Complete Wizard's Handbook
    PHBR5: The Complete Psionics Handbook
    PHBR6: The Complete Book of Dwarves
    PHBR7: The Complete Bard's Handbook [Labelled PHBR8]
    PHBR8: The Complete Book of Elves
    PHBR9: The Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings
    PHBR10: The Complete Book of Humanoids
    PHBR11: The Complete Ranger's Handbook
    The Complete Paladin's Handbook
    The Complete Druid's Handbook
    The Complete Barbarian's Handbook
    The Complete Ninja's Handbook


    I was very active when 2E sprang forth and didn't have too much of a problem with the books outside of the expense (a PFC doesn't make too much and when you have to choose between beer and D&D books, well....)

    My favorites though were the Historical Accessories (green covers if IRC), that were for both DM and players:

    HR1: Vikings Campaign Sourcebook
    HR2: Charlemagne's Paladins Campaign Sourcebook
    HR3: Celts Campaign Sourcebook
    HR4: A Mighty Fortress Campaign Sourcebook
    HR5: The Glory of Rome Campaign Sourcebook
    Age of Heroes Campaign Sourcebook
    The Crusades Campaign Sourcebook

    ReplyDelete
  5. The only one of these kit books I liked was the Thief book because it has great info on setting up a Thieves Guild. Apparently the Mage book has that too, but I haven't read it. Odd that this stuff was in a red player book rather than a blue DM book, but useful nonetheless.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Everyone who has fond memories of 2nd Edition should be aware that many books are online at :

    http://www.purpleworm.org/Library/Rules/

    Sha'ir's Handbook and Necromancer's Handbook were pretty awesome IMHO.

    ReplyDelete

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