Surprised by the non-suckage

[Fishbone]

This is the thread for the things that are generally viewed as bad or poor quality that you said "You know what? I don't know whats wrong with everybody, I dig this." I'm just going to give one example for the sake of brevity.
Magic of Incarnum: Bought the book brand spanking new for 12 dollars. Post shipping and handling. Less than 3 months after the release. All I can say is WOW. I've never seen something go from being so heavily anticipated to the bargain bin so quickly. I've gotten tons of mileage out of it, played as an Incarnate Archer and loved it. Used it extensively as magic for the more savage races. Used it to bring alignment rather than good/evil to the forefront in a campaign. I consider it to be my favorite WOTC purchase of '05 and value wise one of the best WOTC purchases I've ever made.

 

[Drowbane]

This is the thread for the things that are generally viewed as bad or poor quality that you said "You know what? I don't know whats wrong with everybody, I dig this." I'm just going to give one example for the sake of brevity.
Magic of Incarnum: Bought the book brand spanking new for 12 dollars. Post shipping and handling. Less than 3 months after the release. All I can say is WOW. I've never seen something go from being so heavily anticipated to the bargain bin so quickly. I've gotten tons of mileage out of it, played as an Incarnate Archer and loved it. Used it extensively as magic for the more savage races. Used it to bring alignment rather than good/evil to the forefront in a campaign. I consider it to be my favorite WOTC purchase of '05 and value wise one of the best WOTC purchases I've ever made.

I'll say this diplomatically... its not for everybody.

Personally, I think MoI is an excellent product. I have an Incarnate and a few Totemist rolled up and ready to go incase my current PC bites it. Can't say I have any use for the Soulborn though.

Some people however, just aren't interested in learning a new subsystem... or are either unwilling or incapable of looking past the presented flavor (which I'm not really that fond of... psuedo-magic items? bleh.

 

[Treebore]

I dig a lot of 3rd party books that many said they hated. I don't dig them in their entirety, but I like enough of the material to have found them worth having. Probably not if I had paid full price, though.

I guess my biggest surprise is the lack of love for some modules, such as Necromancers Durbenford module. I've heard it called a "major railroad" adventure and other things. I guess it could be. But with a module that big, with that many directions to go in, I would say it is more likely the people who knocked it read it while they were in a bad mood or didn't read it at all.

 

[catsclaw227]

I am of the minority of MMIV lovers. I didn't need a book of completely new monsters, I like some of the new ones, others are 'meh' but the classed/templated versions of existing ones and the lairs and combat tactics is great. This is something I can use in my game. I'm not a newbie either, with 25+ years of DM experience.

 

[Toric_Arthendain]

One book that immediately springs to mind for me that most people really didn't like but that I have gotten use from is the 3e version of Deities and Demigods. Every time I see that book mentioned, it is with loathing. While I understand that sentiment and can see that it definitely wasn't for everyone, I have found use from it anyway. I use it as a guide for creating my own deities for my homebrew setting. I've used the write-up format from the book for writing up my own deities. Not the stat block write-up but the write-up that pertains to clerics and other followers of a specific deity. Basically I've stolen ideas from the book. I have no interest in using any of the deities as written and I could honestly care less for actual deities that are statted out. When would anyone ever use a deity to a point that they need actual game stats for them? I have found use from simply modeling some of my own deities after those in the book, taking a bit from here and a bit from there. The book has essentially helped me to create my own pantheon.

EDIT: I should add that I only paid half price for the book.

 

[catsclaw227]

<snip>....... such as Necromancers Durbenford module. I've heard it called a "major railroad" adventure and other things. I guess it could be. But with a module that big, with that many directions to go in, I would say it is more likely the people who knocked it read it while they were in a bad mood or didn't read it at all.

Now see... I liked Durbenford as well, but there were some parts that just plain didn't make sense. I think the idea is great, but I had some issues with some of the plot elements not making sense.

 

[Nalfeshnee]

Some books other (read: most) posters have expressed hatred towards, that i really enjoyed are Magic of Incarnum and Tome of Magic. Granted, the classes in ToM are a bit underpwered, especially with the throng of new clasess appearinga ll the time, though the yare very characterful. I ran a Bariaur Truenamer NPc in my last campaign and i learnt a new respect for them. While one of my players ran a binder/rogue shadowswyft which rocked. the shadowcaster... meh, i can see where the complaints stem rgarding that one.

though Since i saw Magic of Incarnum in my local game store i was fascinated by it. i ahvent had a chance to run a character yet, but i have many drawn up and ready to go if the occasion arises I think the mechanics are very fresh and some of the prestige classes are very interesting and viable choices for non-incarnum characters.

Other books I liked that i saw some mixed reviews about was the Fiendish Codex I and Planar Handbook which i have both used since purchasing.

Edit: While i have not yet seen the MMIV, I am also an unashamed lover of the new monster/NPC stat block and love everything about it. Since i saw it in the DMG II i've been writing up my monsters (yes, monsters) and NPC as well as PCs in that block. the only qualm i have is that it is quite long and (especially given the shorter page counts of current books) takes up quite a bit of room. This may be off-topic, so please forgive me, but i just had to say it!

 

[MutieMoe]

Call Of Cthulhu D20 version was pretty vilified around here, I had my own doubts too, clerk of FLGS sold it for me on line "it looks good on coffeetable" and price was about 3 euros, that's dirty cheap for book like that, I was suprised to find out how good game there was between the covers, and it turned out must people who I had heard from it had not touched the game ever, just made up stuff based on assumptions, in future I will be more critical when listening to opinions of my peers.

 

[blargney the second]

I've got a bit of fondness for D&D Miniatures. Squidginess and all.

 

[Imruphel]

I've just bought Monster Manual IV despite the negative comments and found that it's quite a good book and certainly better than the turgid dreck that was Monster Manual II and (Monster Manual III, come to think of it).

Magic of Incarnum is just not my thing, though, and it won't be joining my gaming library.

What continues to annoy me, though, are these new stat blocks. I hate, loathe and detest them. They're a waste of space, IMO.

As for a product that I think has suckage when most people are promoting its supposed non-suckage I would nominate Hordes of the Abyss. I am surprised by the overwhelmingly positive comments it seems to have attracted. I think I will be getting more use out of Weapons of Legacy and that's a product with some serious suckage (nice flavour text; bad rules)!