Fighting Wheel

A useful tool for resolving combat involving a multitude of weapons.  Comprised of a double-sided, windowed wheel, protected by a paper sleeve of various charts and tables.

As far as we know, the AD&D Fighting Wheel was published in 1981 in the United Kingdom (most copies have a sticker on the back of the sleeve stating "Made in Britain", and several of the words are of the British spelling).  It was pre-released at GamesFair 1981 in the UK.  RPGA members in the U.S. were able to purchase the AD&D Fighting Wheel through the club; it was advertised for in early issues of Polyhedron, at a price of $4.50.  They didn't sell well, prompting TSR to attempt to unload the rest via the Mail Order Hobby Shop.

Sequels were planned (the sleeve is labeled "No 1. Fighters, Paladins, Rangers, and Bards"), but they never materialized, probably due to poor sales of this first one.  The wheel was also incidentally designated TSR code RP3; RP1 was the TSR Belt Buckle, and RP2 was the RPGA Alignment Generators (two six-sided dice used to randomly determine alignment).

An errata sheet was available, apparently bundled within later copies of the wheel (most copies of the wheel do not contain the errata sheet).  The sheet simply says "Correction.  See Note 1.  Rangers do not do extra damage against Giants only against giant class creatures."

Thanks to Rick Bauer, Mike Dann, Adrian Newman, Adam Shultz, and Stephen Weir for much of this info, and to Javier Murillo for the scans.

According to TSR's Frank Mentzer, approximately 1,000 were printed in a single run.

The AD&D Fighting Wheel is quite rare, especially in the U.S., and its popularity with collectors has recently risen dramatically.

The following represents The Acaeum's current valuation of these items, dependent upon condition (multiply by 3x-10x if shrinkwrap is present).  Values are updated at the beginning of the month, provided there were new public sales.  Click the titles to view active eBay auctions!

Fighting Wheel

sleeve

Fighting Wheel