Worth the wait (Dugeons & Dragons Third Edition Player's Handbook)

Member Name: zaphod

Product:	Dugeons & Dragons Third Edition Player's Handbook
Date:	28/11/00 (313 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Character Generator, Artwork

Disadvantages: Misleading typo, slightly more complicated than 2nd Edition

Well, 3rd Edition is here an it was well worth the wait. There are quite a few differences to 2nd Edition, and long-time players of 2nd Ed may find these slightly confusing.
For starters, the generation of characters is, I think, slightly more complicated than in 2nd Ed, but this may be because I have become used to creating characters in 2nd Ed. Although this is slightly more difficult, the Character Generator on the C.D. provided with the book is very useful. The second printing of this book contains some extras in the back, but these can be downloaded from the Wizards of the coast website for anyone who rushed out and bought the 1st printing (like me).
One thing I noticed when I went to create my first character. There is a misleading typo in one of the instructions, leading you to a table that does not exist, but the correct table is listed in the contents. (I am not sure whether this typo is in the 2nd printing or not).
The chapters are more varied than in 2nd Ed, with a whole chapter dedicated to the description of your character.
To anyone who wants to try this game, but is not sure whether they would like it, and does not want to buy this Players Handbook only to find that they don't like the game, I would reccomend first purchasing the 3rd Ed 'Adventure Game', which contains brief rules, characters and Dungeons so you can start playing straight away.
This is an improvement on the 2nd Edition in many ways, but I think that I will stick with 2nd Ed for the majority of my gaming sessions, because I have grown to know and love that system.

Summary: