Most useless book ever?

[Zeit]

From WotC?
Book of Exalted Deeds. The single best argument against the alignment system.

 

[JoeGKushner]

From WotC?
Book of Exalted Deeds. The single best argument against the alignment system.

But what about Sacred Strike? Such a useful rogue feat for those good aligned and misunderstood rogues. Or the various feats to augment paladins and goodly clerics?

Didn't dig the poisons that weren't poisons, but enjoyed a lot of the other stuff in there myself and still use it.

 

[The Shaman]

3.5 Players Handbook.

Buried in a box somewhere. It will go to Goodwill if I ever come across it.

 

[qstor]

Hero Builder's Guide. What a waste of paper...

I agree 100%!! Come on people hands down this should win.

It's nothing but a rehashed series of articles from Dragon Magazine.

Mike

 

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

Most useless 3.x book I own is Psionics. Never used once.
Bought the Epic Level book, returned it to Border's next day for a refund. They asked me why I wanted to return it, told them it was crap. They cheerfully refunded my money.
Most useless 2e book I own is Complete Priest's Handbook. Never used. I hate kits.
Most useless 1e book I own is Wilderness Survival Guide. Never used. Weather charts. Feh.
There are no useless BX/BXCMI/RC books that I know of.
Most useless Original D&D book I own is Swords & Spells. Never used it.

 

[Azul]

So very true.

ELH runs a close second though.

For WotC D&D books, yep, that's pretty much my picks too although I'm inclined to add Weapons of Legacy to that list (love the concept of levelling weapons - hate the implementation and the awful fluff material in that book - my most dissappointing d20 purchase in a long time).

For "good" useless (i.e. enjoyed it but will never use it) d20 books, Ghostwalk and Wheel of Time stand out.

If I look at my entire RPG collection, the most useless RPG book I ever bought is Battlelords of the 23rd Century with the leatherbound collector's edition of Earthdawn coming a close second. (both are GenCon souvenirs - signed copies) I tried playing Earthdawn a few times and considered it horribly clunky and cheesy. I bought Battlelords in the mid-90s but the whole feel and design philosophy of the game was very late-70s/early-80s (i.e. a different mechanics for EVERYTHING... and lots of different mechanics for all sorts of weird things). It's interesting in a strange retro way but it's useless since I'll never use it or borrow ideas from it. The author was fun to chat with though (which is why I bought a copy). Third place would be Fuzzy heroes, but if I ever have kids I hope to get some use from that game.

Most useless RPG "book" (actually a boxed set) I've ever seen (my friend owned it) - probably the original TSR version of the Indiana Jones RPG. I seem to recall that it didn't even have a character generation system. You just got to play Indy or his sidekicks. Synnabar may be worse but probably even it's not quite as useless. :\

 

[Kanegrundar]

The most useless book I've owned would have to be Dragonlords of Melnibone. It was terrible from the first page to the last. That nearly burned me on the whole non-WotC d20 movement.

The 3.0 Psionics Handbook and the Gamma World D20 Player's Handbook are a close second and third. I used 3.0 psionics for a while, but decided it wasn't worth it. (I like the XPH a LOT better.) GWD20 still sees use in the occasional talent tree and Advanced class. The rest of it, though, I won't use.

Kane

 

[Halivar]

I agree 100%!! Come on people hands down this should win.

It's nothing but a rehashed series of articles from Dragon Magazine.

Hero Builder's Guide was useful for me because I didn't have a Dragon subscription. I still run all my charcters through that beckground generation thingy, if only to force myself to write a backstory.

 

[the Jester]

AEG's Evil takes the useless cake for me (at least for d20 books I actually own).

A few good ideas in there- but the lack or organization, piss-poor execution and inexcusably bad mechanics just make me wish I had simply waited for the BoVD.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Hero Builder's Guide was useful for me because I didn't have a Dragon subscription. I still run all my charcters through that beckground generation thingy, if only to force myself to write a backstory.

I've also found it to be one of the absolute best books to hand to a new player.