Dungeons & Dragons Magic Item Compendium

Well, having played D&D since the 80's, I can say that the started view is a bit myopic historically plus possibly a bit biased.
The myopic? First and especially second edition AD&D had a cornucopia of books available. Just to rattle off a few (sticking with just 2nd Ed for the moment) - the Guides (Fighter, Mage, Scholar, Ninja, etc.), the Monster Manuals (several of those, Fiend Folio, etc) the worlds (all the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Spelljammer, Ravenloft, Darksun stuff) and the campaign aids (Creative Campaigning, Campagin Sourcebook, etc.)
The second is the bias. Andy may well be right that WotC is releasing FAR MORE books than TSR did in a similar period of time, but is this really a good thing? These books aren't cheap for one - average teen D&D player probably doesn't want to shell out for more than a half dozen books (and THAT is several hundred dollars already.) Also the poor DM better have access to a great library, file-shared some PDFs, or be working a 50k or more a year job (and if he is, he probably AIN'T role-playing in his spare time - just saying) to afford all the books he'll need.
3rd editions sheer glut of races, classes, prestige classes - who can keep up with all of it? Plus the whole system is based on miniature combat - personally have nothing against miniatures, but its just more you have to buy. Other than sometimes using models to represent general combat positions in confusing battles I've rarely seen miniatures used in D&D games (and I've played in several different groups, including at GenCon.)

All that aside -

3rd Edition does keep the game alive, it is thriving actually, and players are very enamored with it on a whole. So WotC is doing something right. :)

And despite my criticism of Andy's initial statement, this is a great review of what is indeed a pretty good book.

I posted a comment yesterday and it seems to have dissapeared. Oh well.

This is a great book..good buy. Not only for the massive increase in magic items, but it provides new treasure tables that combine the items from this book with the items from the DMG.

Yes, he's a little off initially as there were quite a few resources for magic items. You left off a couple of the more obvious 2nd ed ones, Merlin. "Tome of Magic" and "Artifacts and Relics" (or whatever that one was called.)

As for 3rd eds glut of books? Like 2nd ed, you do not have to buy every book. I'm running a 3.5 game right now only using Core books (DMG, PHB, and MM)

Merin, I will agree that 2nd edition did have a plethora of guide books containing specific race or class-based items. The author of the review comments that he's specifically talking about the late '70s and early '80s, ADND 1.0 if you will. Had the reviewer qualified it as the first edition of ADND I think it would have made for a much cleaner opening.

The Wizards of the Coast is (much more than TSR was) a company that understands marketing and product development. They have one system that works, and they base ever RPG world or game on that system. That individual system, though, can be adapted or specialized in a million different ways depending upon what source books you purchase. And they are going to keep cranking out new source books every fiscal quarter.

If I were a teenager now and if I played as much DND as I did back when I was a teenager, I don't know how I would have afforded it. Now, due to a lack of a playing group and the increasing complexity of the miniature-based combat, the only DND I play is called Neverwinter Nights.

I played AD&D back when it first came out. Back then, there really was just the Holy Trinity of source books - the DM Guide, Players Handbook, and the Monster Manual. Of course there were modules, but other than that we were scrounging for whatever we could get our hands on - Dragon magazine articles and independently published material that looked like it had been Xeroxed rather than printed. I got out of gaming just before the huge avalanche of gaming source books, campaigns, etc. hit the market. I'd love to play it again, but just don't have the time. It's good to see that evidently some people out there are still playing the old-fashioned paper & pencil & dice version.

Some of us have gone web-based. E-mail groups and such.

I stopped bying the world material by WotC mainly because it was retreads of already existing products (the next D20 version of Waterdeep) I did buy Eberron only because I knew that at least the material would be new.

It's just too bad that people don't have the time to play the old paper, pencil & dice version. It was as much of a social event as it was to play a game.

I miss the 70-80's D&D but I'm glad to see that gaming is still going relatively strong.

Okay, I just listed 2nd Edition last time. Now I'll list 1st Edition.
First, just the 1st Edition books I have - Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Fiend Folio, City System (FR Box Set for City Campaigns), FR Campaign Box Set (Cyclopedia of the Realms, DM's Sourcebook of the Realms, bunch of maps, etc.), Waterdeep and the North, Dragonlance Adventures and Rogues Gallery. Didn't list a single module there.
Books I don't have but a five second internet search brings up -
MM 1 & 2, Greyhawk Adventures (like the Dragonlance book, this ISN'T a module despite the "Adventures" title), Greyhawk Folio, Lankhmar City of Adventure, The Magister, Dreams of the Red Wizards, Lords of Darkness (ok, this is a book of mini-adventures, but contains other useful info too), Book of Lairs I & II (like Lords of Darkness, bunches of mini-adventures plus supplemental material), Battle System, Monster Cards sets, Deities and Demigods, Legends & Lore (updated Deities book), Oriental Adventures, Manual of the Planes, Unearthed Arcana, Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, Wilderness Survival Guide and the DM Design Kit. Again, didn't list a single module.
That's an impressive array of books. Remember that the vast majority of the 2nd and 3rd Edition books are just retoolings of those books into later edition rules - and with new ideas being developed every day, of course each successive generation of the game will have more material - rehashing the old plus adding new? Of course there is more.

It's a faulty argument and a pointless observation. WotC had a couple decades of material to revamp before adding new stuff, so of course 3rd Edition will seem bigger.

First...I wrote the review...not andy Collins...Collins is the writer of the book in question. Second, you guys misunderstood me...when I was talking about the dearth of supplements for AD&D, I am talking about the ORIGINAL version of the late 1970's....NOT the 2nd edition.

The fact of the matter is that between 1978 AND say 1988, there was NOT a lot of material put out for AD&D, at least not by today's standards when there are 3 or 4 hardcovers that come out every month.

Merlin...Yes that is an IMPRESSIVE array of books...HOWEVER that array came out over the span of about a decade...nowadays, WOTc is putting out that much material in about 3 or 4 months. That's the difference.

For example...the Original Unearthed Arcana came out in 1985 to expand the players handbook and DM's Guide which had come out in 1978. That's a SEVEN year span.

As other older gamers have pointed out..if you were playing in the late 70's and early 80's as i was, you had to scrounge for new material. Older players will certainly remember Judges Guild who put out some very cheaply made, but very good supplements such as Tegal Manor and The City State of the Invincible Overlord.

WOTC puts out more supplements in a year than TSR did in a decade. period!

and the 3rd edition doesn't just SEEM bigger...it is by far...care to count how many 3rd edition supplements that are out there that are NOT revamps of old material...how bout anything to do with Eberron...