The Classic Edition arrives in a beautiful carved wooden box.In December of last year Wizards of the Coast announced a Premium reissue of the Original Dungeons and Dragons set that started a revolution in gaming for it's 40th Anniversary. It has been hard to come by due to limited release, but they finally got mine to me today, and it is just as I hoped it would be.

For those of you too young to remember the original Dungeons and Dragons, before there was AD&D with it's modified rules, and even before the simplified "Red Book" set came out was the original "White Book" set released by TSR Games in 1974. It consisted of seven rules booklets, a booklet of reference sheets, and a set of five dice that literally changed the world. I know many games and books have made this claim, but there is not a gamer, movie, or TV fan alive that does not owe a part of their entertainment for the last 40 years to this game.

D & D was the first game that taught our youth that creating stories was just as valuable as retelling them. It is fitting that it was released by TSR, a company founded as a way for some friends to make money from their hobby of war reenactment gaming. They had speant hours and hours gaming and at conventions retelling stories of battles throughout history. Now they had come up with a game that allowed them to write their own stories, and make worlds up out of whole cloth for their friends and family to play their way through; creating new stories for them to retell their friends.

The Box Set is beautiful, and quite frankly the books are printed on better quality paper than the originals. The set is a fitting tribute to the history of the game, and a great way to bring a new generation of gamers into the world of fantasy role playing.