AD&D Core Rules 2.0 on CD-ROM is a great tool package for serious AD&D enthusiasts, players and DMs alike. The high quality of this new release is a great relief after the poor showing of the first version.

Program tools include complete text of nine key rule books, a character generator, improved dungeon, city and wilderness mapmakers, dice roller software, and a DM's toolkit with programs for automatically generating encounters, treasure troves, spells, NPCs, and more.

Mapping is provided through two different programs, the Map Maker and the Campaign Mapper. The former quickly creates City, Dungeon, and Overland maps, with neatly detailed symbols and some randomized variety in repetitive, placed features such as trees, houses, and mountains. The Campaign Mapper is much more complex, and will be very familiar to users of ProFantasy's Campaign Cartographer. In this program, maps are built in multiple layers and encounter data can be linked to the maps. Grids toggle on and off in either program; printing is available in both black-and-white and color. Both programs are miles beyond the original Core Rules map generator and an invaluable aid to the DM tired-to-death of graph paper and smudges.

The highly-detailed character generator can be set for either Core or "Player’s Option" rules, and quickly creates fully-equipped PCs and any level of NPCs complete with spells, skills, and, if desired, random names (some strange but interesting results, a feature probably of more use to the DM). Twelve methods of characteristic generation are provided, from straight "you’re-stuck-with-these-stats" to the manual entry of numbers. An optional “city” interface provides “buildings” to visit for creating all of the character’s various skills and items.

Nine on-line books are included: Monstrous Manual, Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master Guide, Arms & Equipment Guide, Tome of Magic, Dungeon Master Option: High Level Campaigns, and the three Player’s Option books: Combat & Tactics, Skills & Powers, and Spells & Magic. No pictures, all text, but quite a treasure trove for the price of the program, considering the price of acquiring physical copies of all of the books.

Encounters and monsters (lair and wandering), treasures, and NPCs are quickly set up by the DM toolkit. The installed database is customizable for house rules, letting DMs add their own monsters, character races, equipment, skills/proficiencies, magic items, racial abilities, powers, and spells, a flexibility sorely lacking in the previous version.

The value of this CD-ROM for the DM is enormous. Several of the various areas of the program can be run simultaneously, a great convenience for writing an adventure (the cyber equivalent of spreading out your books). For a pressing game deadline, reference sheets can be quickly printed, fast dice “rolled,” and NPCs and encounters swiftly generated, with the creation of maps probably taking the most time. With all this, all the DM needs is a good idea!

--Sharon Daugherty

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Windows 95 or 98; 75 MHz or greater processor; 16 MB RAM; 60 MB hard drive space; 4xCD-ROM drive; 800x600, 256-color display; Microsoft-compatible mouse.

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