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This is where I will be reviewing D&D products as they are released and I can get my grubby little hands on them. At the moment only a few such products have been released so I have them all here for you to review and possibly buy.

The Player's Handbook
This book is the foundation of 3rd edition D&D. It has been written very well to illustrate the new rules ina cosistant and informative manner. All school gamers will have to put aside their ideas from previous additions to really get into this game. The new skill system allows for more flexibiltiy than ever before seen in D&D, while the combat system (including the new concept of Feats) allows for every character to be different and useful in the party. They have brought back the Barbarian and Monk classes and included a new classed called the Sorcerer. The magic system is consistant between all classes that can cast spells and the new rules for magic item creation justify the prevelance of abundant magic items on most (but not all) game worlds. I heartil suggest this book to anyone playing any version of D&D even if you aren't going to switch. I am willing to bet money ($0.01) that you will be able to find at least some information useful as house rules.

The book is well illustrated with relevant pictures. The diagram a few spell effects (Bruning Hands, Fireball and Meateor Swarm) as well as show all the PC races in proportion to each other. All weapons, armor and gear is drawn to scale and ever picture in the book is related to the information on the page it is on.

Now for the bad news. The one major problem I have seen with the new rules is that the combat system is very hard to fully use without the use of minutures, tokens, or some other way to represent the combat such as a white board. This is a major drawback as my group didn't play with this type of style. It is unfortunate, but having used minutures for a few game sessions, my entire group agrees that it makes any combat much easier to understand.

PHB (Player's Handbook): retail $19.95 (US), Amazon $17.95 (US).

Character Sheets
WotC has released a packet of 3e character sheets. This product is called Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition Player Character Record Sheets. It retails for $9.95 (US) but sells on Amazon for $8.95 (US). It comes with 1 double sided character sheet for each class. 1 generic character sheet. 1 sheet for Mounts and Familiars. It also comes with a few sheets that have the names of all the spells on them (one for Bards, Clerics, Druids, Paladins & Rangers, and Mages & Sorcerers) to keep track of which spells are known, memorized, and used. It has a sheet for keeping track of magic items as well. The good thing about this pack is the sheets. They are all well done and very useful. The bad thing is that you only get one of each, so it looks like a trip to a copy machine is in order before using them. All the sheets do say you have permision to photocopy them so places like Kinko's shouldn't give you any trouble. All in all I am of mixed feelings about this product. I wish they had included two copies of each sheet, but I guess that just wasn't going to happen. I sugest that each group of players pitch in to buy one pack as a set of masters for the group and to pay for copies for the group. Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition Player Character Record Sheets: retail $9.95 (US), Amazon $8.95 (US).


The absolute minimum that you need to start playing D&D is the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game. Its retail price is $9.95 (US), but if you click on the link you can get it from Amazon.com for 8.95 (US) and it usually ships in 24 hours. This is a basic box set that will allow you and a group of friends to start playing about 1 hour after you open it. It has a very stripped down and easy to understand set of rules. It comes with several pregenerated characters, 6 adventures for the DM to run, a large poster map, very nice tokens for use on the map, all the dice needed, and a nice illustrated rules book.

This set is great for new players as it will introduce you to the rules of the game in a very small easy to understand increments. It is also good for players who are experienced in role playing as you will be able to see the changes to the game and understand the new rules quickly. At about $10.00 (US) it will provide many hours of fun for people of all ages. The most common use I have heard about for this product is adult D&D gamers using it to introduce D&D to their children.

Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game: retail price of $9.95 (US), Amazon $8.95 (US).