Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

An updated version of D&D was released as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D). The game rules were reorganized across three hardcover rulebooks, compiled by Gary Gygax, between 1977 and 1979. The AD&D rules are reorganized and recodified, incorporating the original D&D rules and many additions and revisions from supplements and magazine articles. The three core rulebooks are the Monster Manual (1977), the Player's Handbook (1978), and the Dungeon Master's Guide (1979). Major additions included classes from supplements like assassin, druid, monk, paladin, and thief, while bard, illusionist and ranger that had only appeared in magazine articles were also added.

Later supplements for AD&D included Deities & Demigods (1980), Fiend Folio (another book of monsters produced semi-autonomously in the UK - 1981), Monster Manual II (1983), Oriental Adventures and Unearthed Arcana (1985), the latter of which mostly compiled material previously published in Dragon magazine, and others.