There’s some trouble in retro roleplaying land.

I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons in various forms for about 25 years now. It started with a Red Box, an elf, and Ryan Tunnecliffe behind a DM’s screen. This was followed by years of AD&D, in the form of 1st and 2nd editions.

There have been other games, but it always comes back to Dungeons & Dragons for me. There’s something about it, I guess.

Most recently, I have been playing a lot of 4th edition. It’s still fun, but it’s a very different game, that leaves me wanting to re-experience the versions that have nostalgia attached.

Enter Wizards of the Coast, or so it seemed. This week, the core books for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons were re-released. In theory.

In practice, I’ve tried to find them in two different stores that peddle fantasy roleplaying wares, only to find not a sniff of them. I’ve looked on Amazon, and found this, which looks like my old 1st Edition Player’s Handbook from back in the day:

Except that to buy it from Amazon new costs four hundred and forty three pounds. I wrote that out as a sentence, so you wouldn’t think there was a typo or anything.

There’s one more shop to try in London, but I don’t expect to find it here. Guess I’ll have to fly to America to buy these things.