Happy 25th Anniversary D&D3E!
August 10th marked twenty-five years since the release of the third edition PH
Over the weekend I noticed some folks celebrating the anniversary of the launch of Dungeons & Dragons (3rd Edition). According to what I read (and I have no reason to doubt it) it was on August 10th, 2000 at Gen Con that the 3E Player’s Handbook was released to the public. In particular, game designer extraordinaire Mike Selinker posted a picture of his copy of the PH, complete with his name embossed in gold at the bottom.
That was a nice little gift that the folks at Wizards gave to all of us on the D&D team—our own personalized copy of the new core book. Very nice, we all thought, and I’m sure most of us still have our copies around somewhere. For me, “somewhere” is on a shelf next to my work desk.
I wasn’t especially deeply involved in the design of D&D 3E, though like the rest of the department I certainly took part in LOTS of playtesting, brainstorming, and proofreading. It definitely felt like a team effort, and it remains one of the great honors of my career to have played even a small supporting role in bringing the game to life.
I decided to treat my personalized copy as something like a yearbook, and sought to get as many people as possible to sign it.
As we all probably remember from high school days, it’s often difficult to figure out what to write at a moment like that. Some messages were emotional, others perfunctory … but all were heartfelt. And it makes me smile to occasionally pull the book off the shelf and look through them.
When I do so, I ALSO find the department org chart that I printed out to keep track of who had already signed … and who I had yet to collect. It included a handwritten list of other connected folks I wanted to get. And much to my chagrin there are still more than a dozen people I haven’t managed to collect.
But I’m not done yet! So if your name is on this list, don’t be surprised if one day when we get together for a game day or a BBQ lunch, I pull out my copy of the book and hand you a pen!
In the meanwhile, happy 25th anniversary, 3E D&D!
Great post Stan! What does the E and D mean next to their names? I'm bummed I got Skip's autograph at Gary Con last year and chatted with Penny for a bit, but didn't think to get her signature. Was she involved in TSR?
I never knew about the personalized copies - that's awesome!
I ran a playtest group and can honestly say we contributed at least two things to the game, though I am certain I'm not the only one that questioned those particular things (spells that did not scale enough with level - or rather were too good at low level).