What edition of D&D so far has had the most errata/corrections in the core rulebooks? I just got done printing about 8 pages of errata for 4th, and 3rd had twice that many (probably because 3rd is a more complex game than 4th). How much did 2nd have? (I'm only counting the 3 core books here: Player's handbook, Monster Manual, and DMG... and only the 1st of each!) Which edition had the least errors?
Errata in D&D
Thu, 2008-09-25 21:00
#1
Errata in D&D
Mon, 2008-09-29 23:34
#3
There are significant
There are significant amounts of stuff from the 2e era that probably should have gotten errata. But as Idran said they weren't playtesting, and only dealt with typographical errata cause it took little effort. (Read that as no effort, people would tell them where such errors existed and maybe they might mention something about it in errata if they felt like it). Also notice how much time 3e had to accumulate all that errata, 4e hasn't even been out a year and it's already competitive. Moreover a lot of that errata was available within a couple DAYS of the new edition rolling out. I feel 4e with its exception based design is going to have far more errata pile up than 3e did if you give it some time.
Thu, 2008-10-02 17:56
#4
True... and I have an errata
True... and I have an errata of my OWN to report: that should be "twenty-two" (or so) pages of errata for 4E so far... not "eight"!!! Mia culpa... 3rd is still ahead so far, however, and remember I'm only counting the core 3 rulebooks for each edition, not supplements like Tome of Magic (2nd Ed) or Arms & Equiptment (3rd). Since 2E had the most books overall, I'd assume more errata, but maybe not.
Thu, 2008-10-02 21:42
#5
Your best chance at
Your best chance at figuring out real 2e errata would probably be to dig through old Dragon Sage Advice columns and look for mentions of errors in the books, athough that'd be a pretty big undertaking. That's where a good deal of the 3e errata came from, if I understand correctly, TSR just never bothered compiling it for 2e.
I can't find anything on the 2e MM, but all Wizards has for the first printing of the 2e DMG is two corrections. The 2e PHB is slightly bulkier, with 14 corrections total, 4 changes from first printing to second and 10 corrections from the second printing. Of course, given that playtesting wasn't allowed during the 2e TSR era (not hyperbole or exaggeration; one of many of Roberta Williams' horrible decisions as CEO), it's quite likely there were more than that and TSR just never printed them. All the corrections listed for both are typoes, missing index and table entries, and other things that are far more typesetting-related than rules issue-related.