Print On Demand

Old is New
Modern technology not only allows us to carry tomes of information in our pocket by way of our mobile devices, it also brings a world-wide market place to our finger tips allowing us access to purchase original printings through second hand sources and new prints of old titles. Thanks to Wizards of the Coast, most of the old TSR publications are available again at reasonable prices along with a bunch of new game material written for the old systems using the Open Gaming License. There has never been a better time to be a gamer than now.
I recently purchased print on demand copies of the Advanced game 1st Edition books because I was curious about the quality of the books. The new books stack-up well with the WOTC premium reprints from 2012 and appear to be taken from those originals, except they don't have gold edges and ribbon bookmarks. Otherwise the books seem of similar quality to the premium reprints.  The covers are glossy rather than the flat finish given the WOTC reprints, but show the same design - a cut-down version of the 1st Edition cover art. Binding seems durable, well in comparison to other modern glued bindings it's durable. Whether these books will hold up as well as the stitched original editions only time will tell...and I am quite certain my reprints won't get the same amount of use/abuse as my original TSR copies.

As a player I frequently flip through the pages of my originals, studying monsters in the Monster Manuel, committing many details to memory, rolling up characters with the Players Handbook open before me, consulting spells during play when running a Magic User and consulting the Dungeon Masters Guide for those ever needed To Hit tables as referee, my books saw a lot of wear even though I ran a White Box style of the Advanced game (DIY rulings not rules), I frequently took from those tomes freely combining versions. As a player in another referee's (1st Ed. DM's) campaign, the PHB was usually the only reference I took along to the game.

In the Preface to the 1st Edition Advanced PHB, Gary Gygax names himself "the final arbiter of fantasy role playing" and states, "there is a need for a certain amount of uniformity from campaign to campaign..." while attempting to qualify his meaning.  As I understand him, Mr. Gygax is not arguing against customizing elements of the game to reflect the unique qualities of individual campaigns, but rather offing a standardized set of norms suitable for organized "tournament" play at conventions. He emphasizes, logical, sequential and understandable as goals of the new presentation. He also takes the opportunity to jab at "wrong, bad fun" styles of play with which he obviously disagrees (as "final arbiter", of course!).
For the hobby in general, the Advanced game took the game in a different direction - one away from DIY improvisation towards more complete, understandable rules which encouraged looking up the answer rather than making up the answer. Players and DMs (as referees are now called) look in the books for what to do at the game table more and think a little less often about imaginative, creative ways to solve in-game problems. The Advanced game is a subtle shift in this regard and much imagination and creativity is still needed to play it. It is my hope that by keeping it (and the Original and Basic Editions) alive and available to a new audience, the old-style of play I so much enjoy will continue to exist well beyond my lifetime. Why? Because I wish you all the fun I have enjoyed thanks to these games!