I’ve discovered something dangerous.
A while back I was poking around online to see if I could find an original boxed set of “Dark Sun” for Second Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
I love Dark Sun but, beyond that, I have huge nostalgia for campaign settings that come in boxed sets. It use to be that you would buy a campaign setting and get a nice boxed that contained a few paperback books, some handouts, one or more fold-out color maps.
My general feeling is if you want something to feel important, such as a campaign setting, you deliver it in a box. It feels more special than a book. I was excited for and immensely enjoy the 5e “Curse of Strahd” release but, every time I pick it up, I can’t help but think that it would carry more gravitas if it were boxed. I’m sure that’s why it was released in the “Revisited” boxed set in 2020. It’s even a coffin-shaped box! It’s amazing.
And I know you can get really spendy with that Beadle & Grimms “Legendary Edition,” but I’m not looking for every bell and whistle, just a few. “Revisited” was exactly what I was looking for.
My quest for an original “Dark Sun” boxed set should have been fairly easy. Go to eBay and pay way too much for a gently used copy that may or may not have all the maps and books. The definition of “gently used” is a malleable thing depending on who’s uttering it. Charitably you can describe me as thrifty. Less charitably I’m cheap. I wasn’t about to spend $140 on a used boxed set that may or may not arrive with all parts intact.
But, as I was wholly unaware, it turns out there was another option.
Apparently (and later, demonstrably) you can order complete reprints of these old boxed sets in bound form. The entire contents of a campaign boxed set — all the books, maps and handouts — reprinted and bound into a hardback tome. I’m such a sucker for physical media that PDFs alone aren’t good enough.
Yes, I do see the hypocrisy.
“But you just said that the boxed format was the driving force of your nostalgia. Why are you settling for buying it in a book form like you were literally decrying mere paragraphs ago?”
Yeah, but I also said I was cheap.
For the cost (around $35), I’ll gladly accept my childhood nostalgia in reprinted hardback format. It would be amazing to get good condition boxed set, but it’s harder to justify the cost for something 30+ years old and multiple editions out of date that I probably couldn’t find a group to play.
The book will do just fine in this case, thank you.
The quality on these was far beyond what I was expecting. I ordered them from Wizards of the Coast on Drivethrurpg.com which, thinking back on it, makes a lot of sense and I feel kind of silly that I didn’t think about it before stumbling onto it accidentally. Every page from the original books is reprinted and every map is broken down into separate panels that are printed in color.
The pages are clearly printed from scanned images, so the type is a little fuzzy if you know what you’re looking for, but it’s still eminently readable, even in low light. If I had to pick a disappointment, it would be with the maps. I wish they were full-bleed printing (edge to edge) because that always makes a product feel a little more high end. It would have been nice to get a separate folded map, but I’m firmly in beggars v. choosers territory here, so I’ll be quiet.
If you have any love in your heart for the old boxed set, this is a fantastic and affordable way to get quality copies.
I’ve come full circle in this writing:
- Wizards should be doing Dungeons and Dragons boxed sets regularly.
- Strahd as a book was great but should have been a boxed set.
- Well, I guess I’ll accept a boxed set as a book if it’s out of print and will save me from having to buy a poor-quality copy.
- OK, this boxed set as book is fine.
So far I’ve gotten “Dark Sun” and “Spelljammer,” but I plan to sang a few more as I continue to whet my Second Edition collector’s whistle. I used to have a huge collection of Second Edition books. I don’t know where most of them went, but at least I work on replacing some of that content. It’s Plane to me which one I’ll be picking up next.
