Charlie Hall is Polygon’s tabletop editor. In 10-plus years as a journalist & photographer, he has covered simulation, strategy, and spacefaring games, as well as public policy.
The original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook, known these days as the AD&D 1e PHB, is now available as an officially licensed digital file. The watermarked, searchable PDF is available from Dungeons & Dragons Classics or DriveThruRPG.com. Regularly priced at $34.99, it’s on sale now for $9.99.
D&D now on Steam, complete with dice and a Dungeon Master
The PHB was first published in June 1978 and not widely distributed until several months later at GenCon XI. This edition’s product page is accompanied by a thorough commentary by product historian Shannon Appelcline, author of the Designers & Dragons series.
As Appelcline points out, this is not the very first Dungeons & Dragons product to be published, but it is the first of what we would think of today as core sourcebooks.
Appelcline’s work here alone is worth a read, as he goes into not only the historicity of the book as an artifact — including information on the art found on the cover — but also dips into the various misunderstandings and controversies that surround AD&D to this day.
