Welcome to the Second Edition AD&D® Game takes up page 8, and contains six sections: Why a Second Edition?, How the Rule Books are Organized, Learning the Game, The Second Edition AD&D Line, A Note About Pronouns, and Creating a Character. This section is meant for returning players, and new players are advised to skip to The Real Basics on page 9 before returning to the introduction. (Conversely, returning players are advised to skip The Real Basics altogether.)

I should note that the layout going forward is three columns of text per page, with chapter headings and subheadings printed on white lettering within the blue banner stretching across the top of the page. Subheadings within the text are written in bold, colored the darkish blue mentioned earlier. I could not say what font size it is, but the font is large enough to be easily readable. All in all, a nice, clear layout.

Why a Second Edition? makes the case for the new edition. This section somewhat rehashes Zeb Cook's foreword before giving the answer to this question: "The AD&D game evolved over the course of 16 years. During that time, the game grew tremendously through play. Changes and improvements (and a few mistakes) were made. These were published in subsequent volumes. By 1988, the game consisted of 12 hardcover rule books. It was physically and intellectually unwieldy (but still a lot of fun). The time was right to reorganize and recombine all that information into a manageable package. That package is the second edition."

How the Rule Books are Organized simply notes that everything a player needs to know is in the Player's Handbook, additional rules and information DMs need are in the Dungeon Master's Guide, and details about monsters is in the Monstrous Compendium.

Learning the Game notes that returning players will find the biggest changes in Character Classes, Combat, and Experience. As for how new players learn the game? Rather interestingly, it's primary advice is to find a group of experienced players and join them. If none of your friends are into AD&D, look for experienced players through your local hobby store! But what if you can't find any experienced players to teach you the game. Here I find the advice rather weak tea. The new player is recommended to read the Player's Handbook, make some characters, and buy a pre-packaged adventure module. Then round up some friends and go to it. "You will probably make lots of mistakes and wonder constantly whether you are doing everything wrong. Even if you are, don't worry about it. The AD&D game is big, but eventually you'll bring it under control."

How spectacularly unhelpful, and not very conducive to getting new players to buy your game. This is particularly egregious since the Red Box was still in print. But if crossing the streams would be Very Bad, why not create some kind of tutorial module?

The Second Edition AD&D Game Line reiterates that there is a Dungeon Master's Guide and Monstrous Compendium, teases the Complete...Handbook series, and notes that there are adventure modules.

A Note About Pronouns notes that "[c]enturies of use have neutered the male pronoun," so it is used exclusively throughout. This was 1989, of course, and the writers no doubt saw themselves as progressive for having even addressed the issue. But it is a little disappointing after B/X made a point of using "he or she". (Mentzer wrote in a style that explicitly avoids using third-person pronouns entirely, using a combination of the second-person pronoun and somewhat stilted sentences.)

Finally, Creating a Character is a short paragraph noting that character generation is covered by chapters 1-6 (with chapter 5 being optional).

The Real Basics begins with a very thorough, in my opinion very good explanation of what a role-playing game (specifically AD&D) is, and how to play it. Through a step-by-step process, it turns a game of Snakes and Ladders into a dungeon-crawl RPG:

Start with Snakes and Ladders.

Instead of a path winding from side to side, make it a maze.

Instead of snakes and ladders, put in hidden doors and secret passages.

Instead of rolling to see how far you move, move as much as you want, in whichever direction you want.

Now add other things to the maze, like vampire bats, goblins, zombies and ogres. You get a sword and shield to fight them.

Now add other players in the maze, and you can team up.

Now hide the board and give it to a player who becomes the referee. The referee describes what you see, and you tell the referee what you want to do.

And now you're playing AD&D. Get pen, pencils, dice, rulebooks, and snacks.

The Goal notes that there's winning and losing like in a board game. There's typically an adventure goal to achieve, and the point of the game is to have fun while working together with other people to achieve that goal. Required Materials goes through what you need to play: a copy of the Player's Handbook, a character sheet or blank sheet of paper for your character, pencil, eraser, polyhedral dice. It notes that at least one player should have graph paper for mapping, although the book doesn't deal much with how or why to map. Miniature figures are noted as being useful to keep track of where everyone is in a confusing situation like a battle, but anything from pewter figurines to chess pieces, toy soldiers, or even pieces of paper can be used.

Page 10 is taken up with the Example of Play. The example of play follows a party of three (two fighters and a cleric) as they go through a dungeon, pursuing a wererat they fought and wounded earlier. They travel through some passageways, making choices about direction, and find themselves at a deadend, a block sticking out of the wall. They figure out that the block is a step to reach the ceiling, where they find a secret door to a new room. They hear monsters coming, so all three go through the secret door. In the hidden room, they find themselves caught between two groups of hostile wererats, and the example of play ends just before combat begins.

The example of play is pretty standard, though I notice a distinct absence of procedural examples. There is only the DM checking a fighter's STR score to see if he can move the block, and the DM rolling the PC's attempts to find a secret door. Most of it is the DM describing something, the players doing something, and the DM describing the result. Which is absolutely fine, and gets across the idea that role-playing is an interaction between the DM and the players. But I think what I want to see from an example of play is demonstrations of how a DM knows what to do, and how they have their information. These early examples of play tend to be written so that they are almost entirely dialogue between the players and the DM. I'd like to see a little more "stage directions", as it were.

Some other things that jump out at me: while one fighter is called "the group's leader," there is no mention of a Caller or Mapper. Nobody appears to be mapping. Indeed, the DM describes distances using yards, a very unwieldy unit if one is mapping to 10' squares.

The introduction ends with a Glossary: about 100 entries over two pages, so economical, yet fairly comprehensive. Some terms get their last hurrah here: Demihuman, Dual-Class, Infravision, and Prime Requisite in particular. Some terms are 2nd Edition specific: Maneuverablility class, Specialist, and Sphere of influence. One might even add THAC0 there, since it was only in 2nd Edition as an official rule.

Next up: Chapter 1: Player Character Ability Scores

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