Some of the pre-production artwork from Wizards of the Coast's (aka TSR's) Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition

A Role-Playing game is a lot like a play that is being made up by the director (or Dungeon Master in game terms) and the actors (the players). Be this as it may, the game has a vast number of rules, any of which can be used, modified or discarded at the judgement of the Dungeon Master. The player get to act out the roles of valiant fighters, cunning thieves, crafty wizards, or pious clerics in a world of medieval fantasy.

In 1988, TSR decided to put out a second editon of the most common set of D&D rules known collectively as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, or AD&D for short. The did this in the name of clarifying contraditory rules, and cleaning up certain game mechanisms that seemed unweildy, but pretty much left the core of the rules system intact. However, many purists balked at the change, and many players still use the orginal rules set today. In a industry that was quickly gaining competitors, many of whom had much simpler and easier to use systems, it was an important step for TSR to clean up its primary product.

Fortunes in the industry were not kind to TSR. Once the biggest role-playing company, by 1997 TSR could not raise the capital to even pay its printer fees to publish the latest game supplements. The company was bought up by Wizards of the Coast, inventors of the Magic: the Gathering trading card game. After a 6 month re-start period, Wizards was pumping out the AD&D 2nd edition product again, still using the TSR name.

In 1999, Wizards of the Coast announced that a Third Edition of Dungeons & Dragons (dropping the "Advanced" as the basic rules are no longer in print) would be released by August 2000. According to the FAQ section on Wizards' web site, a new verion of the game is being produced because "...It's been ten years since 2nd Edition AD&D debuted. During that time, both D&D and RPGs in general have evolved significantly. We felt that it was time to upgrade the basic mechanics to reflect ten more years of game design advances, eliminate any contradictions, and provide our fans with the definitive RPG as we move into the 21st Century."

I have seen bits and pieces of the new rules, but the official playtest materials are available exclusively to members of the Role-Playing Gamers' Association. It is hard to present an accurate picture of the game from these few fragments, especially since all of these changes could change again before the final printing. Suffice it to say that most of the changes are aimed at making the game easier to play without looking up values in the book, and to give the player greater choices with his character. I will be looking forward to seeing the final product.