Unearthed Arcana
Gary Gygax wrote the original Unearthed Arcana book to raise money for TSR. The company was deeply in debt when he began work on the project in 1985. He announced the release of this supplement in the March 1985 issue of Dragon magazine. Gygax planned for the book to arrive during the summer of that same year. It served as an interim volume meant to expand both the Dungeon Masters Guide and Players Handbook. Much of the content had already appeared in magazines like Dragon and Imagine before being collected into this hardback. Some material remained unpublished until its inclusion here, written by contributors other than Gygax himself. Jeff Grubb provided design assistance while Kim Mohan handled editing duties. The 128-page volume contained new races, classes, and rules intended to help players track information scattered across multiple sources.
Readers discovered numerous errors within the text of the original Unearthed Arcana shortly after its publication. Even positive reviews pointed out the considerable number of mistakes found inside. Dragon editor Kim Mohan worked with ideas from Gygax, Frank Mentzer, and Jeff Grubb to address these issues. They printed four pages of rules corrections in the November 1985 issue of Dragon magazine. This included supplementary material meant to be inserted directly into the physical book. A two-page list of type corrections followed, designed to be pasted into future revisions. The January 1987 issue devoted its entire Sage Advice column to answering reader questions about the book. Despite these efforts, the errata were never incorporated into later printings of the manual itself. A paperback reprint finally arrived in 1999. Wizards of the Coast released a premium edition on the 19th of February 2013 featuring gilded pages. This specific printing became the first version to include all previously published errata directly in the corrected text.
Wizards of the Coast produced a second book titled Unearthed Arcana for Dungeons & Dragons third edition in February 2004. Andy Collins, Jesse Decker, David Noonan, and Rich Redman wrote the supplement. Cover art came from Matt Cavotta while interior illustrations involved Steven Belledin, Ed Cox, Wayne England, Emily Fiegenschuh, David Hudnut, Jeremy Jarvis, Doug Kovacs, John Lakey, Laura Lakey, David Martin, Dennis Crabapple McClain, Mark Nelson, James Pavelec, Steve Prescott, David Roach, Richard Sardinha, Ron Spencer, Stephen Tappin, Joel Thomas, and Ben Thompson. The designers targeted experienced players and Dungeon Masters seeking customization options. They explicitly avoided replicating the mechanical structure of the original book. Andy Collins stated that every other product on the market looked like the first Unearthed Arcana. This new volume instead offered an extensive list of variant rules designed to change the standard
game itself. The sheer volume of options required Dungeon Masters to drink from a fire hose before using them. A checklist at the end detailed all included variants alongside a chapter discussing transitions between different rule sets.
The title Unearthed Arcana began appearing as a semi-regular series of digital releases on the official D&D website starting in February 2015. These updates presented work-in-progress content such as class archetypes, playable races, and rule variants similar to earlier playtests. Much information found in Xanathar's Guide to Everything (2017) and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (2020) developed through this public process. Jeremy Crawford noted that almost every single subclass created for Tasha's Cauldron made it into the final game. From January 2018 to August 2021, content appeared on D&D Beyond toolsets approximately one week after initial release. Once playtesting concluded, the material was archived on D&D Beyond allowing existing character sheets to continue usage without adding new characters. All remaining content received archive status on the 12th of August 2021. Articles featuring One D&D playtest material became exclusive to
D&D Beyond in PDF format between August 2022 and November 2023. Crawford stated they had received more than 500,000 surveys from players regarding their time spent with the content. The series returned in December 2024 following the 2024 revision of fifth edition.
Paul Cockburn reviewed the original Unearthed Arcana in issue 73 of White Dwarf magazine published in January 1986. He rated the book four out of ten overall calling it a rules extension package adding very little interest or value. Scott Dollinger wrote for Different Worlds magazine describing the hardback as well-constructed with top-quality illustrations and easy-to-read charts. Lawrence Schick noted in his 1991 book Heroic Worlds that many players viewed the new classes as overly powerful. William B. Haddon's review of the third edition on RPGnet found power levels unbalanced while criticizing the flatness of the content. James Maliszewski wrote for Black Gate in 2014 stating the book failed to be what he hoped it would be despite being a game changer. Scott Taylor listed the supplement number three among Top 10 Orange Spine AD&D Hardcovers by Jeff
Easley citing its iconic wizard image. Viktor Coble ranked it tenth on CBR's 2021 list of Best Supplemental Handbooks claiming they are rarely regretted additions to any library.
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Common questions
Why did Gary Gygax write the original Unearthed Arcana book in 1985?
Gary Gygax wrote the original Unearthed Arcana book to raise money for TSR because the company was deeply in debt when he began work on the project. He announced the release of this supplement in the March 1985 issue of Dragon magazine and planned for the book to arrive during the summer of that same year.
When did Wizards of the Coast release the premium edition of Unearthed Arcana with corrected text?
Wizards of the Coast released a premium edition on the 19th of February 2013 featuring gilded pages. This specific printing became the first version to include all previously published errata directly in the corrected text after errata were never incorporated into later printings of the manual itself.
Who wrote the second Unearthed Arcana book for Dungeons & Dragons third edition in 2004?
Andy Collins, Jesse Decker, David Noonan, and Rich Redman wrote the supplement titled Unearthed Arcana for Dungeons & Dragons third edition which arrived in February 2004. The designers targeted experienced players and Dungeon Masters seeking customization options while explicitly avoiding replicating the mechanical structure of the original book.
What happened to the digital Unearthed Arcana series starting in February 2015?
The title Unearthed Arcana began appearing as a semi-regular series of digital releases on the official D&D website starting in February 2015 to present work-in-progress content such as class archetypes and rule variants. All remaining content received archive status on the 12th of August 2021 before the series returned in December 2024 following the 2024 revision of fifth edition.
How did Paul Cockburn rate the original Unearthed Arcana book in January 1986?
Paul Cockburn reviewed the original Unearthed Arcana in issue 73 of White Dwarf magazine published in January 1986 and rated the book four out of ten overall calling it a rules extension package adding very little interest or value. He concluded that the new classes were overly powerful according to Lawrence Schick's notes in his 1991 book Heroic Worlds.