D&D 5E Old Edition "Keepers" (Books)

[Werebat]

Every now and then this thread comes up, but I'd like to read some more opinions for my own reasons.

With the dawn of a new edition, most of us have at least some "obsolete" books in our collection. If you're like me, most of these end up in storage, but a select few remain in your active bookshelf.

Which "obsolete" books do you still get use out of?

I'll start with 2nd Edition's "Monster Mythology". This softcover "splatbook" presented pantheons and gods for many creatures in the D&D game, from traditional humanoids like orcs, goblinoids, and kobolds to more exotic sentients like mind flayers, hags, and selkies. A fair amount of "crunch" is salvageable (or at least adaptable) in newer editions of the game, but the real treasure here is the "fluff" -- insight into the methods and motives of a species' deities can give great insight into what makes them tick, as well as prove fertile ground for ideas concerning adventures, dungeon dressing, and more.

 

[was]

I'm continually converting old monsters and magic items to new editions.

 

[Kramodlog]

The Rock of Bral.

Old monstrous compedium with ecologies. They sometimes inspire ideas.

Wizard Spell Compendium and Encyclopedia Magica are good inspirations for plot centric spells and items you want to introduce in a game.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Forgotten Realms City System from 2E

 

[Thyrwyn]

Al Qadim Setting Box

 

[Shiroiken]

Pretty much most of the 2E splatbooks (brown complete series and blue DM series) are relevant for any edition. There will be some crunch that is no longer useful, but even some of that can be converted with a little work.

Adventure. Never, EVER, get rid of adventures. You can always reformat them to whatever edition you're playing.

Campaign source material. No matter what setting you're playing and what edition, there will be useful information in any campaign book. Some of the WotC era ones are less useful (filled with more crunch), but even then they often have tidbits not found in other sources.

 

[Grimstaff]

I'm neck deep in Rise of the Runelords right now, set in Paizo's Golarion, but I've got my eye on Wilderness of High Fantasy - I'd love to see how 5E works for some good ol' fashioned hex-crawling. I've got a crap-ton of awesome 1E mods and 3E Dungeon Crawl Classics (Goodman Games) that I'd love to run. 5E is so easy for conversion, its only a matter of finding time for all the gaming.

 

[Lancelot]

I'm always using Old Modules. In fact, 90% of all the modules my group played in 4e and 5e were derived from classic 1e/2e/BECMI/Dungeon modules... including the complete Dragonlance series, the GDQ saga, Lost City, Saltmarsh, Fire Mountain, Gauntlet/Sentinel, Tharizdun, Tsojcanth, and too many other to name.

Other than those, though...

Anything to do with Planescape, particularly the boxed sets (Planes of Chaos/Law/Conflict, the Campaign Setting, Blood War), Faces of Sigil, the softcover guides to the Astral/Ethereal planes, and In the Cage. Nothing better has even been written for any edition on the D&D planes, in my opinion. And it's 95% fluff, so eminently re-usable.

The 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. Still, in my opinion, the single best book from the 3e days. And I don't even DM in the Realms.

Oriental Adventures, both the 1e and 3e versions. Good source-books for adding some oriental flavor to a modern campaign (weapons, monsters, campaign info, etc).

Uhhh... The Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, from 1e? It had surprisingly robust rules for mining (PC's running their own mining business), a couple of cool maps, a campaign setting, and a bunch of other interesting stuff. It's very readable, unlike the (terrible) Wilderness Survival Guide from the same era.

The Greyhawk Wars boxed set, for mass combat and political shenanigans. Again, I don't DM in Oerth... but I've re-used the counters and cards from the set with home-grown maps to handle some massive scale military campaigns.

...and of course, the Rules Cyclopedia. The staggering truth is that, after 30 years, BECMI is still the go-to rule-set for building castles, running dominions, taxing peasants, building armies, and determining the outcome of a large-scale war with a handful of rolls (incorporating tactical options, troop quality, etc). The 3e Stronghold Builders Handbook wasted 10 times the paper to achieve only a fraction of the result, and no other edition so far has really even attempted it.

 

[drowdude]

Let's see... off the top of my head...

Grey-Box FR setting
Ruins of Undermountain (2e)
Lands of Intrigue boxed set
Netheril boxed set
Planescape setting boxed set
Birthright setting boxed set
Ravenloft Campaign Setting (black box)
Forgotten Realms Adventures Hardcover
Planewalker's Handbook
On Hallowed Ground
Complete Psionicist's Handbook
The Will & the Way
Faiths & Avatars, Powers & Pantheons + Demihuman Deities
Forgotten Realms Atlas
Arabian Adventures
Cormanthyr, Empire of Elves
Cloak & Dagger
FR Series (Savage Frontier, Bloodstone Lands, Anauroch, etc...)
FOR Series (Drow of the Underdark, Cult of the Dragon, etc...)
Van Ricten's Guides (Vampires, Vistani, Fiends, Werebeasts, etc...)
Volo's Guide to All Things Magical
Volo's Guide to the North / Cormyr / the Dalelands / etc...
Draconomicon (3.5)
FR Campaign Harcover (3e)
Dragons of Faerun
Lost Empires of Faerun
Spell Compendium (3.5)
Wizard + Priest Spell Compendiums (2e)
Encyclopedia Magica (2e)

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I would add Top Ballista, Tall Tales of the Wee Folk and the Creature Catalog to the list.