Look Who it Was Random video

Original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Books From 1980! — Look How Much D&D Has Changed

824 views · Published 10 January 2017 · 3:13 · Indexed 6 November 2026

Channel: Mike Martins · 2017 · Gaming

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Today I'm taking a quick look at something really nostalgic for all the Dungeons & Dragons fans out there: some of the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books from the late 1970s and early 1980s.

These aren't the modern books you see sitting on the shelves today. We're talking about the old-school AD&D era — the books that an entire generation of tabletop role-playing gamers grew up with.

I've got several classics here, including the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master's Guide, and another reference book covering gods, heroes, monsters and mythology.

Just looking through these old covers takes you back to a completely different era of gaming.

What's especially interesting is putting these older books beside the modern D&D books and seeing just how dramatically the game and presentation have changed over roughly 35 years. The newer books have completely different artwork, layouts and presentation, but the basic idea behind Dungeons & Dragons is still recognizable.

And that's something I really like about D&D.

Before everybody was carrying around smartphones and spending hours communicating through screens, games like this gave people a reason to sit around a table together, talk, use their imaginations, create characters and build entire fictional worlds.

You weren't simply watching somebody else's story.

You were creating the story.

You had a Dungeon Master running the adventure, players controlling their own characters, monsters to encounter, decisions to make, dice to roll and an entire universe that could develop through the imagination of the people sitting around the table.

I've got some of the newer books here as well, along with a starter set, additional companion books and miniatures, so you can really see the evolution of D&D from these classic books into the modern tabletop game.

If you've never played Dungeons & Dragons, give it a try. It's a lot of fun, it gets people together, and it's something completely different from sitting alone staring at a screen.

And for the old-school players watching this: Which edition did you start with?

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