The entire description, from  Dungeon Masters Guide  

"Second Alpha (Aug 1979)

   Wizard logo

   Cover art is of three adventurers fighting a large efreet

   Endpapers and flyleaves are a yellow-orange color

   "ADVANCED D&D" in the angled yellow banner has been downsized, and no longer has the "D" of "ADVANCED" running off the edge of the cover

   Wizard logo and TSR address appear on spine

   No ISBN on spine, back cover, or title page

   Textblock is now stitched 1" apart, on this an all subsequent prints (up to and including the Eighth print)

   Spine inlay is no longer yellow and red striped fabric, on this and all subsequent prints

   232 numbered pages

   According to Harold Johnson in Collectable Toys and Values and "The Story of TSR" in the Silver Anniversary Collector's Set, this print had sixteen pages of the Monster Manual (Fourth Print) mistakenly bound within.  Johnson relates in his interview that copies of this print went out to retailers via outer shipping.  Once the error was detected, the books were recalled, the covers were removed, the correct pages were inserted, and the books were rebound with the old covers (see Second Print Beta below).  However, at least a few copies were purchased by customers before the recall and remain in circulation.  The pages for the DMG were apparently printed 16 to a sheet (8 on the front and 8 on the back), known as a signature, then cut to be bound in the book.  In this case, the printer printed one side of the sheet with the DMG pages and the other with the Monster Manual pages.  When they were cut and bound, alternating pairs of facing pages were thus either DMG or MM pages.  The MM pages were also placed in their technically correct position in the book -- the page numbers were the correct MM page numbers, replacing the page of the same number in the DMG.  The specific pages that contained Monster Manual data were: 98/99 (facing pages), 102/103 (facing pages), 106/107 (facing pages), and 110/111 (facing pages), for a total of 8 MM pages.  As a result (of this, as well as the issue with the Third Print Alpha below), there was a severe supply shortage of the Dungeon Masters Guide in those early months

   A very rare DMG print.  Only a few of these copies with Monster Manual pages managed to escape the recall"

D'oh! I realized I forgot this fairly important photo. If anyone needs to see more reference photos before this item sells in five days, let me know as soon as possible!


---Pauly

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"232 numbered pages"

grodog wrote in DMG 2nd Alpha print Details:So with all of the additional info/detail about the DMG 2nd Alpha printing, have we confirmed anything new/different about the included MM pages relative to the MM 4th-minus printing?:  https://www.acaeum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=44565#p44565   I ask because outside of the MM pages in the 2nd Alpha DMG, we haven't seemed to find an MM 4th- yet, which makes me wonder if this was an error specific to the pages in the DMG 2nd Alpha, and it was corrected in the mainline MM pages when the 2nd Alpha issues were found, so that there may not be a full printing of the MM as a 4th- book (it's just the fragments in the DMG 2nd Alpha), perhaps?

Paul:  can you please post a scan of the Vampire page and/or picture of the 7th vampire paragraph with the TURN/ROUND errata from the 2nd Alpha, as well as the MM price list pages (both sides if they're both present?) too?

Allan.

Hi Allan,

Thanks for asking! I will have those photos up within the next couple hours :3

---Pauly

Sorry about the limited quality scans---these are times when I wish I still had a flatbed scanner :/ Hope they are still readable where it matters!



The Monster Manual price listing is only on one side (other side is the regular DMG page).




---Pauly

Zenopus wrote in DMG 2nd Alpha print Details:I saw one of these in the flesh for the first time at NTRPGCon this past week. It was neat to see but that copy had some hideous water damage including mildew (*shudder*). Still fetched $1300 in the auction, from what I hear. Your is in much better shape!

Thanks, Zenopus!  While I really do wish it wasn't a bit musty and having a textblock loosening from the spine, I am happy with it. I am not so happy, however, about being forced to put up for auction right away due to real-life money related circumstances :/  In a cool world, this would have become a mainstay of my small not-for-sale collection.

Thanks Pauly, those pics are great!

Allan.

grodog wrote in DMG 2nd Alpha print Details:So with all of the additional info/detail about the DMG 2nd Alpha printing, have we confirmed anything new/different about the included MM pages relative to the MM 4th-minus printing?

It includes instructions on the REAL way to kill vampires. The regular MM entry on vampires has been censored by the vampire conspiracy, a secret global organization which counts among its members many high-ranking individuals in law enforcement, education, & the church. Gygax tried to warn us by putting the authentic lore in "misprinted" pages that were "accidentally" released, but the conspiracy got to him eventually. Whoever owns this edition of the DMG is now in great danger, since the vampire conspiracy would kill (or worse) to keep their secrets from the public. So no, there is no "MM 4th-minus printing." Just keep telling yourself that.