D&D Players Association Broadsheet 1 (1983)

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Title: D&D Players Association Broadsheet 1
Item Code: 1983
Type: Newsletter
Copyright: (1983)
Editor: Mike Brunton
Text Production: Sally Meadows
Place of Publication: Cambridge, United Kingdom
Format: 4 page booklet (folded)
Cover Price: n/a
Mass: 12g
Dimensions: length 29.8cm, width 21m, thickness <.1cm

Contents:

PAB Pipings, an editorial
New Products
----X5 Temple of Death
----I5 Lost Tomb of Martek
----R4 Doc's Island
"Spelling Bee" a discussion of the magic missle, the fireball, and the lightening bolt
Prize Quiz
Special PA Offers
----RPGA1
----R1
----R2
----R3
----PA Pins, T-Shirts, and back issues
Bargain Basement

Additional image:

[Guy Fullerton]

Trying to establish the approximate date for this. There are two immediate clues:

1. The Mill Days capsule on the back talks about the next Mill Day being Saturday Oct 22, 1983. (Strictly speaking, it doesn't say 1983, but there are other clues that indicate 1983, including the fact that Oct 22 was Saturday in 1983, but not in 1984.) This would date issue #1 prior to that.

2. The Bargain Basement list includes Imagine issue #3, which had a cover date of June 1983. Of course, the lead times for magazine production are significant, so issue #3 might not have been on newsstands yet.


There are some more substantive clues in Imagine Magazine...

The expected immediacy of X5 and I5 in the PAB blurb suggests it was written no earlier (or at least not significantly so) than the upcoming product info in Imagine #5 (dated 1983 Aug, see p. 15), though PAB production quickness could have been much different than for Imagine.

The Broadsheet wasn't announced until Imagine #6 (dated 1983 Sep, see p. 31), and was expected to be in PA members' hands within a month or so of that announcement. Note that Imagine #6 still advertises the Sep 10 Mill Day, so probably was likely put together well before that date.

Finally, Imagine #7 (1983 Oct, see p. 31) says PA members should have already received a copy of the first Broadsheet. Imagine #7 advertises an Oct 22 Mill Day.


So a PAB #1 production date of Sep / Oct 1983 seems like a safe bet.