The Dagger's Den

Advanced Dungeons And Dragons (AD&D) is the natural descendant of another, simpler Role playing Game called Dungeons And Dragons. It deals with an age when people had to deal with Sword And Sorcery in their ordinary, everyday life, loosely based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, creator of the Lord Of The Rings, which also deals with the concept of such a world, and the everlasting struggle between Good and Evil.

In AD&D players play the parts of heroes; either strong Fighters equipped with swords, axes, or shields, Clerics able to cast spells given to them by powerful beings -- "Gods" for people in fantasy settings --, sneaky Thieves with extraordinary abilities in unlocking doors, removing traps, and picking pockets, and powerful Mages, wielders of magic able to destroy their opponents in a blaze of fire and last but not least Psionicists powerful and feared wielders of the powers of the MIND...

AD&D by itself isn't that much of a Role Playing System -- it's over-simplified, it deals with characters non-combat skills without much precision, it's not nearly deadly enough for high-level characters as it should be -- but it *is* after all, just fantasy! It gives players the chance to expand their skills, to create interesting characters, and ever to have fun in the process! Not to mention that, after all, books deal with things in the very same way -- most writers are trying to make thing easy for the reader to comprehend, avoiding to confuse him/her with details of medieval-style every day life procedures ...

Another rather interesting part of AD&D is the fact of true character death -- there's no such thing! As a natural example of how fantasy-life imitates real-life art, your favorite fighter in the game might never die, since being hit by ten-feet tall Trolls or being in front of an ancient red Dragon when he tries out that fancy fire-breathing of his is no guaranty of a rather sudden stop to that character's career, as long as you manage to convince your Dungeon Master (who plays the part of everyone else in the fantasy world except the characters, of course, thus being something like a super-god for the game and to boost that Ego of theirs, often are. Or at least called G.O.D. the Games Organizational Director) that this should be the case... And even if he/she does die, so what? Find a cleric, let him use the biggest part of your treasure, and voila! -- resurrected you are!

Suggested Reading:

Ok, so you got the Player's Handbook, you got the Dungeon Master Guide, several Monstrous Compendium Pages, you've adventured a bit, but are still missing something... Yeap. It's called Role Playing, and it's that little thing that takes monster bashing and transforms it into serious fun -- and defines RPGs in general. In order to do it, there are several books - novels - that can guide and help you, but most of all, can make you gasp from time to time. Ready yet? Good.

You might wish to check the excellent works by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, the Chronicles and Legends trilogies, set in the world of Krynn, well known as the world of the DragonLance. Not only the books themselves are great and the storytelling is marvelous, spinning tales of a tragic world and a standing battle of good vs. evil, but it's actually set in an AD&D based world, so it will be quite helpful to your campaigns in general.

Also, you should check R.E. Feist's Riftwars saga, consisted of Magical, Silverthorn, and a Darkness At Sethanon - very powerful story, and one almost essential if you are planning to ever role play a magician in any campaign! There's a long series of books that involve the same world and (about) cast of characters, so you won't be let down after the trilogy itself.