Olaf the Stout
Hero
What THAC0 reference are you referring to?I'm almost certain the the PHB's horrible index exists entirely for the THAC0 reference. Which was not worth it in any way.
What THAC0 reference are you referring to?I'm almost certain the the PHB's horrible index exists entirely for the THAC0 reference. Which was not worth it in any way.
The Encyclopedia Magica books would be up there for me too. I didn’t use them much during an actual campaign, but teenaged me just loved reading through all the different magic items. I spent hours just imagining all the different possibilities.For the best I'm going to go with 2e's Encyclopedia Magica. Awesome book set.
For the worst it's a toss up between 1e's Dungeoneers Survival Guide and 3e's The Magic of Incarnum.
Check THAC0 in the PHB index. It's there, I promise. At least it is in my 1st printing copy of the book.What THAC0 reference are you referring to?
I think the key is that most of the simulation is for campaign management. There aren't that many charts during the adventure. If you are trying to run a domain then yes there are some charts to manage that. So it's very much like 1e in that sense and what is an OSR but harkening back to older editions in style.Yea. You're right in that very loose, making it up as you go along play is really common in the OSR, but I do think more detailed simulation is also a pretty common strand.
Tomb of Horrors was a legend long before 2e. And that is not taking away from Return to ToH.The sheer multiplicity of D&D products put out across almost fifty years and several editions makes this a very hard question to answer. I'll tentatively nominate the following:
Best: Return to the Tomb of Horrors (AD&D 2E). This is an epic campaign, starting out with a simple mission to root out some giants, which leads you to infiltrating a college of necromancers, only to then brave the Tomb of Horrors itself, and that's just the beginning! It really contributed a lot to the legend of the original S1 Tomb of Horrors, and has become a classic in its own right ever since.
Worst: WG7 Castle Greyhawk (AD&D 1E). I honestly can't get past how mean-spirited this product is, being one big put-down of Gary Gygax's legendary castle/dungeon.
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I used them then and I still use them. It's pretty easy to adapt the incredibly diverse items to whatever edition you are playing.The Encyclopedia Magica books would be up there for me too. I didn’t use them much during an actual campaign, but teenaged me just loved reading through all the different magic items. I spent hours just imagining all the different possibilities.
That find and replace error provided so much unintentional hilarity when reading the Encyclopedia Magica!Beware of Dawizard!
The worst books I own are not necessarily the worst books I thought existed in each edition; check my nickname, and realize that it came from a real place -- I couldn't afford to buy books that I had zero interest in just to be a 'completist', at least prior to roughly 15 years ago. With that said, I do have a few books that I've found myself disappointed in: the d20 adaptation of Call of Cthulhu, the 3PP supplement Requiem for a God, and Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Probably not a coincidence that these are all Monte Cook jams -- I just don't find Cook's 'games are meant to be broken' approach to design to be all that entertaining or inspirational. I also don't own the Slayer's Guide to Female Gamers (mentioned earlier in the
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Pauper