Later AD&D Manuals                                                 Home Up


Several expansion manuals for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

DragonLance Adventures by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis
Dungeoneer's Survival Guide
by Douglas Niles
Fiend Folio
edited by Don Turnbull
Forgotten Realms Adventures by Jeff Grubb and Ed Greenwood
Greyhawk Adventures
by James Ward
Manual of the Planes
by Jeff Grubb
Monster Manual II
by Gary Gygax
Oriental Adventures by Gary Gygax
Unearthed Arcana by Gary Gygax
Wilderness Survival Guide by Kim Mohan

DragonLance Adventures provides additional campaign resource material for Tracy Hickman's DragonLance Campaign and world of Krynn, as well as information on classes, races, spells, and artifacts.

Dungeoneer's Survival Guide and Wilderness Survival Guide flesh out the worlds of the Underdark and the Great Outdoors, respectively.  Both present some genuinely valuable and interesting info, but deal with both subjects in too much detail for all but the hard-core gamer.  Both were also offered in shrinkwrapped "Limited Editions", which contained modules Dark & Hidden Ways and Wild Things respectively.

Fiend Folio is TSR UK's sequel to the Monster Manual, and is mostly a compilation of monsters previously published / submitted to White Dwarf magazine's "Fiend Factory" feature.  Originally intended to be released in November 1979 (and so dated on the preface page!), production was delayed for more than two years due to "contractual reasons".  Apparently, the manual was to be released as a Games Workshop product (licensed by TSR), but when TSR failed to merge with Games Workshop -- instead, opening the TSR UK division -- Games Workshop reportedly stalled production on the manual for as long as possible.  (Thanks to Ciro Alessandro Sacco for this info).  It was pre-released, in final form, at the GamesFair 1981 convention in the UK.  (Thanks to Adam Shultz for this info).  Estimates place the total number of Fiend Folios sold at 190,000.

Forgotten Realms Adventures, like Greyhawk Adventures, provides supplemental information to the Forgotten Realms Campaign setting.  Besides offering additional background material, spells, etc, it also serves to update this 1st Edition AD&D campaign to 2nd Edition AD&D conventions.

Greyhawk Adventures takes over where the World of Greyhawk Campaign set left off, describing in depth many additional features of the Greyhawk campaign.  It bears a "Compatible with AD&D 2nd Edition" starburst, although it does not have the 2nd Edition logo (it was published in 1988, just prior to 2nd Edition AD&D being released).

Manual of the Planes covers rules and locations for extra-planar campaigns.  It is supported by a single module, OP1 Tales of the Outer Planes.

Monster Manual II is (surprise) the sequel to the Monster Manual.  Written by the same person (Gygax), in exactly the same format.  Published in 1983, the Monster Manual II heralded the re-design of all the AD&D manuals to this style (though Fiend Folio was not reprinted after roughly 1982, so it escaped the redesign).

Oriental Adventures introduces a Far-Eastern campaign setting, replete with ninjas and samurai.

Unearthed Arcana is a rules expansion from Gary Gygax, adding new character classes (Barbarian, Acrobat, Cavalier, etc), as well as new spells, races, and magic items.  Unfortunately, many players complained that the new character classes were too powerful.  An errata article was published in Dragon #103, and this article stated that the changes would be incorporated into later prints, but this revision never transpired (thanks to Michael Deaton and Richard Graves for this info).  A pre-production cover scan is here.  Thanks to Alban Jalabert for the scan.


Printing Information  Logos

While the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide and Wilderness Survival Guide were released in "Limited Editions", the hardbacks are identical to the stand-alone versions, with the exception that the bar codes on the rear covers of the hardback books have been crossed out with a black "x", to prevent them from being scanned and sold separately from the booklets.  Thanks to Devon Hibbs and Paul Tremiti for this info.

DragonLance Adventures Foreign

Fiend Folio

  • First (1981):  ISBN (only) on spine.  Lower-left corner of back cover has the ISBN, as well as "1981 TSR Hobbies, Inc.  All Rights Reserved." and "The designation 'TM' is used to designate trademarks owned by TSR Hobbies, Inc." (Thanks to Adrian Newman for this info).

  • Second:  ISBN and TSR Product number on spine and lower-left corner of back cover.  Copyright info has been dropped.  (Thanks to Adrian Newman for this info).

Forgotten Realms Adventures Foreign
  • First:  Front cover and spine have the Angled TSR logo.

  • Second:  Front cover and spine now have the Gold Angled TSR logo (thanks to Mike Kuo for this info).

Manual of the Planes
  • First:  TSR UK address on back is "The Mill, Rathmore Road".

  • Second:  TSR UK address on back is "120 Church End, Cherry Hinton".

Thanks to Matt Roberts for this info.

Monster Manual II Foreign
  • First (1983):  Preface and Acknowledgement boxes (on page 4) are shaded in gray, making the text inside somewhat hard to read.  Thanks to John Justice for this info.

  • Second:  Preface and Acknowledgement boxes are now white, with gray shading outside of the boxes.  Rear cover has the Angled TSR logo.

  • Third:  Preface and Acknowledgement boxes are white, with gray shading outside of the boxes.  Rear cover does not have the Angled TSR logo, but has the price ("$15.00") in the lower right corner.  Thanks to Michael Deaton for this info.

  • Fourth- Ninth:  Unknown.

  • Tenth (1987).  States "10th Printing, October 1987" on copyright page.  Thanks to Michael Deaton for this info.

  • Eleventh (1988):  States "11th Printing, October 1988" on copyright page.  Rear cover does not have the Angled TSR logo, but has the price ("$15.00") in the lower right corner.  Thanks to Michael Crisman for this info.

  • Twelfth (1989):  States "12th Printing, July 1989" on copyright page.  Otherwise identical to the Eleventh print.  Thanks to Rick Blumer and Michael Deaton for this info.

  • Thirteenth (1990):  States "13th Printing, July 1990" on copyright page.  Otherwise identical to the Eleventh print.  Thanks to Michael Deaton for this info.

Oriental Adventures

  • First (1985):  Front cover and spine have Angled TSR logo.  Back cover has ISBN and Product Number above the bar code.

  • Second:  Front cover and spine have Gold Angled TSR logo.  Back cover has ISBN only above the bar code.  Also present is a copyright line (1985 TSR Hobbies, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.  Printed in USA) and a price in the lower right corner ($15.00).  Inside is identical to First print.   Thanks to Adrian Newman for the printing sequence info and the scans below.

Unearthed Arcana

  • First (1985):  Has no indication of printing # on copyright page.  Rear cover has the U.S. TSR address to the right of the Angled TSR logo, as well as the ISBN and Product Number in the lower left (thanks to Michael Deaton for this info and the scan).

  • Second:  Identical to First (no printing # on copyright page), but rear cover has the ISBN and Product Number covered over with a sticker -- this sticker has "394-54834-5" (the Product Number, but missing the "TSR1200"), and the price, $15.00.  Thanks to Michael Deaton for this info.

  • Second+:  Identical to the Second print above, but the sticker on the rear cover now has "394-54834-5TSR1500" (the full, "corrected" Product Number for the price change from $12 to $15), though no actual price listed.  Thanks to Njål Brekke for this info.

  • Third:  Does not state any printing # on the copyright page.  Rear cover has both the U.S. and U.K. TSR addresses to either side of the Angled TSR logo, but now only has an ISBN (above the bar code).  "Printed in the USA" and the price ($15.00) are in the lower left corner (thanks to Michael Menges for this info).

  • Fourth (1987):  States "4th printing, August 1987" on copyright page.  Rear cover identical to Third print (thanks to Josh Berling for this info).

  • Fifth (1987):  States "5th printing, October 1987" on copyright page.  Otherwise identical to Fourth (thanks to Adrian Newman for this info).

  • Sixth (1988):  States "6th printing, April 1988" on copyright page.  Otherwise identical to Fourth (thanks to Michael Deaton for this info).

  • Seventh (1988):  States "7th printing, October 1988" on copyright page.  Otherwise identical to Fourth (thanks to Rick Blumer for this info).

  • Eighth (1989):  States "8th printing, July 1989" on copyright page.  Otherwise identical to Fourth (thanks to Michael Deaton for this info).

  • Ninth (1989):  States "9th printing, December 1989" on copyright page.  Otherwise identical to Fourth (thanks to Thomas Jones for this info).

  • Tenth (1990):  States "10th printing, May 1990" on copyright page.  Otherwise identical to Fourth (thanks to Richard Graves and David Lamontagne for this info).

  • Eleventh (1991):  States "11th printing, March 1991" on copyright page.  Otherwise identical to Fourth (thanks to John Huckerby for this info).

  • Twelfth (1991):  States "12th printing, October 1991" on copyright page.  Gold Angled TSR logo on cover and spine.  Otherwise, identical to Fourth (thanks to Michael Deaton for this info).  As far as we are aware, this print was the last for Unearthed Arcana; as you can see, TSR continued to print it nearly two years after 2nd Edition AD&D had debuted (a result of TSR's continuing efforts to fill orders for 1st Edition books).

Thanks to Adrian Newman for the Forgotten Realms Adventures scan.
 
Fiend Folio Monster Manual II Unearthed Arcana Oriental Adventures (1st)
       
Oriental Adventures (2nd) Dungeoneer's Guide Wilderness Guide DragonLance Adventures
       
 
Manual of the Planes
 
Greyhawk Adventures
 
Forgotten Realms Adventures
(1st print)
 


Auction Commentary

These manuals are a dime-a-dozen, with the possible exception of Manual of the Planes (produced at the twilight of 1st Edition AD&D rules).


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