Boot Hill reprint? • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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Boot Hill reprint?
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blackdougal
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 5:46 pm

So I was flipping through old catalogs (as one does on the weekend) and came across this in the Spring/Summer 1985 Mail Order Hobby Shop catalog:

Of particular note was the black & white, bagged version of Boot Hill. Anybody ever run across anything like this?

Tszii
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 8:15 pm

At $24, in 1985 money, I would hope it was more than a booklet. I have only seen the two booklet versions and the box sets.

sauromatian
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 10:16 pm

Why are the apparent non-reprints listed here? Fantasy Forest, the Greyhawk box, & Tharizdun were all recent publications in 1985.

grubbiv
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 10:45 pm

Wikipedia user "Patelasia" thinks the 1979 box set got reprinted with a different cover in 1984:

Boot Hill (role-playing game): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

blackdougal
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2020 11:56 pm

sauromatian wrote in Boot Hill reprint?:Why are the apparent non-reprints listed here? Fantasy Forest, the Greyhawk box, & Tharizdun were all recent publications in 1985.

I guess they felt that those fell under the "not always generally available through traditional retail outlets" category? Or maybe just overstock they wanted to clear out by giving them the illusion of scarcity?

grubbiv wrote in Boot Hill reprint?:Wikipedia user "Patelasia" thinks the 1979 box set got reprinted with a different cover in 1984:

Boot Hill (role-playing game): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

Yep, that's definitely a thing, but it's still a regular boxed set.

dbartman
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Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:00 am

I purchased some of the black & white copies that were produced at the time, so I am certain that the booklets were produced. I didn't purchase the Boot Hill B&W version, though, so I can't say it was produced for certain.

Waynes_Books
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Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2020 5:11 pm

So this 1985 black & white, bagged version of Boot Hill would fall between the Remington box (1984) and the 3e book (1990). (Boot Hill editions page).

Never seen or heard of this reprint. TSR vaporware is fascinating. If any actual copies from the time are out there, that would be cool.

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Zenopus
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2020 5:24 pm

blackdougal: Thanks for posting that catalog listing, I hadn't seen that particular one before.

I've never seen the B&W Boot Hill, but I did have a copy of the B&W Blackmoor Supplement reprint. I sold it off on Ebay long ago, and IIRC harami2000/faro bought my copy. These have been mentioned a few times in these forums over the years, and there's a note about them on the Supplements page:

Note: black-and-white reprints of the Nov 79 editions were also later released, probably as stocks of that print ran out. They are basically photocopies; some sources have reported paper-thin covers, while others describe covers identical in weight to the normal tan-colored versions.

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I ordered it from a later version of the Hobby Shop Catalog ('88 or '89?) and I don't recall that it was identified like it is here. If I located my later catalogs I will take a look.
Even if it was identified at the time, I didn't notice & didn't realize it was out of the ordinary until years later when I started reading the Acaeum.

I do have a Summer/Fall 1986 Edition catalog handy that I got back in the day that more briefly lists each of the OD&D supplements as "Black & White Booklet" in the "D&D Original Collectors Set" section. But there's no further explanation of what this means, so I don't think I noticed it back then.

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sauromatian
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2020 6:36 pm

Zenopus wrote in Boot Hill reprint?:I ordered it from a later version of the Hobby Shop Catalog ('88 or '89?)

It looks like we were getting into OD&D at the same time. I bought Blackmoor, DDG&H, & the OCE in late '87, then found the rest of the supp.s a few months later. It seemed like no one else in those days had any interest in the old-school stuff.

Mars
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2020 8:26 pm

I wonder if they ran out of boxes and were simply selling the book and map that were left over?

Also, 1985 was a great year for vapourware. If you look through the 1985 TSR catalog, it has a number of products that were never produced: Proton Fire RPG, TSR's Conversion System for RPGs, Star Frontiers Battlesystem, Parent's Guide to D&D, etc.
Note: no mention of Boot Hill in this catalog so I maybe lean towards it was a way for TSR to get rid of remaining stock.

sauromatian
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2020 8:41 pm

Mars wrote in Boot Hill reprint?:Also, 1985 was a great year for vapourware... Parent's Guide to D&D, etc.

Gaming seems to have a special penchant for vaporware. The Chaosium & Games Workshop catalogs of the day also are filled with it, though a lot gets produced in different forms years later. I would have liked to seen the Parent's Guide to D&D. Dragon #154 (1990) has "A look at the Angry Mother Syndrome and how it affects the games we make."

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