Gary Gygax had a dilemma. What to call the new game?
“Pondering this problem, I created a list of words, writing them in two columns. Having had some considerable experience in naming games by that time, thinking of potentially ‘good’ names for the new design was not difficult. You can see for yourself some of the ‘rejected’ choices on the covers of the three booklets that eventually came to comprise the finished product, the first edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. That’s right —men, magic(al), monsters, treasure, underworld, and wilderness were on the list. So were castles, dragons, dungeons, giants, labyrinths, mazes, sorcery, spells, swords, trolls, and so forth.
I cannot recall all the choices, but there were about 15 words in each column. I took a poll of my players (two of whom were my children Ernie and Elise). After reading aloud from the list, there was no doubt. Youngest daughter Cindy’s delight at the alliterative pair chosen confirmed my own personal favorite. After all, I had before that time created the ‘Castle & Crusade’ society as a special interest group for the International Federation of Wargaming. It followed that a medieval-based new game should have a similar name, one evocative of its nature.” (The Story of TSR, 1975-1999)
Dungeons & Dragons
Fast forward to 1999. So much had changed. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was predominant. Gygax had been forced out years earlier. And TSR had collapsed, prompting Wizards of the Coast to take over operations.
WotC was content to carry on with AD&D for a time, but what would become D&D 3rd Edition was on the horizon. As would happen again and again in the future, they published nostalgia reprints and homage works while awaiting the new edition.
And so it was with the TSR Silver Anniversary Set. It would indeed become a collector’s item, with only 5,000 printed.
TSR Silver Anniversary Collector’s Edition
1999 … Wizards of the Coast 11549 … ISBN 0786915498
This box is chock-full of facsimile reprints of classic (A)D&D modules.
- Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rulebook (Blue cover Holmes edition)
- B2 Keep on the Borderlands
- G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King (Original monochrome cover editions)
- S2 White Plume Mountain
- I6 Ravenloft
- L3 Deep Dwarven Delve
Plus:
- The Story of TSR, 1975-1999
- Art print by Jeff Easley (1000 of the 5000 were signed by Easley, according to Acaeum)
MSRP was $59.95 when the set first sold at GenCon 1999. I’ve only had the set in the shop a few times over the years. In the 2010s, I sold 3 sets for $180 to $290, depending on condition. The Silver Anniversary set is worth considerably more now.
Now we’ll get into the individual components. Photos, notes, and some quotes from Ryan Dancy with production numbers of the modules.
Slipcase Box
The Story of TSR, 1975-1999
For me, this 32-page booklet is the real treasure in the set. Several essays you won’t find anywhere else.
- Foreward by Peter Adkison. He talks about his love of AD&D, and how acquiring TSR was the 3rd moment of euphoria in his life. It’s easy to be cynical about Wizards of the Coast today, but back in 1999 they were gamers first and foremost.
- “The Wink of an Eye” by Gary Gygax. 4 pages. He talks about the early days of D&D (including the quote at the top), and its bright future.
- “Twenty Five Years of TSR”, a year-by-year recounting of the company’s highlights.
- “GenCon Game Fair”. A quick history of the greatest RPG convention.
- “Reminiscences” by Kim Mohan, John Danovich, Skip Williams, John Pickens, and Steve Winter.
- “Looking Back” by Ryan Dancy. He profiles the D&D Basic blue book, and the various modules in the set.
Art print by Jeff Easley
A nice Easley piece, seldom seen. Measures 8½ x 11″ – would require a document frame.
Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rulebook (Blue cover Holmes edition)
As with the rest of the reproduction booklets, the Blue Book is more-or-less a straight copy. Looks like they used the 5th print book, “Second Edition, Nov 1978”, TSR Wizard logo.
More than a half-million copies of the Blue Book were published. Despite that awesome proliferation, most have vanished — the victims of inattention, climate, garage sales, and spring cleanings. (“Looking Back” by Ryan Dancy)
Original (left), Silver Anniversary reprint (right)
B2 Keep on the Borderlands
It is impossible to really know how many copies of this module exist. The records are not as clear as they could be, but we do know that Keep was featured consistently in most of the original introductory boxed sets. The total print run for B2 is easily in excess of a million and a half units. (“Looking Back” by Ryan Dancy)
Original (left), Silver Anniversary reprint (right)
G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King, and S2 White Plume Mountain (Original monochrome cover editions)
G1, G2, G3:
The original adventures sold several hundred thousand copies individually, and a collection of all three generated a quarter million units in sales.
S2:
White Plume Mountain was one of the best selling adventures the year it was released — and the next two years. In fact, the product generated substantial sales for more than six consecutive years. At the end of its run, sales for White Plume Mountain had exceeded a quarter million units.
(“Looking Back” by Ryan Dancy)
I6 Ravenloft
Eight years after publication, Ravenloft still generated sales. Then, the designers of the game did something unprecedented. They converted the slim adventure module you see before you into a complete living world, extending in all directions the malignant horror first set forth within those pages. (“Looking Back” by Ryan Dancy)
L3 Deep Dwarven Delve
For those, and many other reasons lost to the mists of time, a manuscript slipped through the cracks and vanished from the sight of those who came after. Forgotten, like a relic of childhood discarded in favor of more complex pursuits, this adventure languished in the dark of one desk drawer or filing cabinet after another. The basic game became the advanced game. The advanced game revised itself into a 2nd Edition. Small adventures grew to become boxed sets with dozens of support products featuring cultures, races, histories, gods, and stories by the thousands. Whole worlds were created, flamed and died, and were born anew. And still the lonely pages awaited discovery. Like the dry husks under the Egyptian sands, the carvings on jungle ziggurats or the porcelain soldiers in an emperor’s tomb, this previously forgotten adventure opens a window for future generations to understand their past and the world that shaped them.
Less than two dozen people have seen the text of this adventure. Few remember its existence. When the time came to create this celebration of the D&D game’s history, only a few voices spoke of the hidden treasure passed from person to person across nearly twenty years of time. And at last, at the end of a journey no less epic than that of the heroes of the game itself, L3: Deep Dwarven Delve will finally see the bright light of day. (“Looking Back” by Ryan Dancy)
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