What 1e/2e books are still useful to a 3rd edition DM?

[VirgilCaine]

I have found the 1e DMG to have some useful information, if I ever need it. Effects of herbs, tapestry and fur values, reputed powers of gems, nifty magic items that aren't in 3rd edition [or at least, not in their true form, like the Rug of Welcome in Complete Arcane], and lots of cool artifacts and artifact destruction methods.

What books are still useful, even though the crunch isn't necessarily up to date?


[Of course Al-Qadim and Dark Sun are useful, yes. I'm talking about general books, not campaign settings and not modules. Those are obviously still useful.

Sha'irs rule!]

 

[Crothian]

If you happen to be running a setting that was only existing at that time like Dark Sun or Planscape or even if your setting is just similar; I've gotten great use out of my Al-Qadim books for instance. THe old modules are still great and I use them a lot.

 

[Jdvn1]

I dont' have much of a selection of 1e/2e stuff, but I find the 3.0 splatbooks and DMG to be really useful, still.

 

[shaylon]

This is a great question. I find myself referring to many old forgotten realms 1E/2E books for information. The Volo's guides to x , the gray boxed set, Myth Drannor's boxed set, and the Elves of Evermeet. As far as basic rules, I could see people using Oriental Adventures and Unearthed Arcana quite a bit.

Again, great question.

-Shay

 

[megamania]

Anything with maps and good room / scene descriptions I keep. I have my Ravenloft books for these reasons. I kept all of my Darksun books for reference purposes. The dungeoneer book and wilderness book have lots of uses and ideas from 2nd.
Boo of artifacts for the reasons you gave. The ency series of Arcane and cleric spells has uses.

At this point, I still can't part with my 1st and 2nd ed goodies.

 

[MetalBard]

If you happen to be running a setting that was only existing at that time like Dark Sun or Planscape or even if your setting is just similar; I've gotten great use out of my Al-Qadim books for instance. THe old modules are still great and I use them a lot.

Exactly what I was going to say. Planescape stuff is still great, since much of it had very few rules. I also use all of my old 1e/2e Forgotten Realms sourcebooks, since they always seem to have greater detail and you can pick out some historical mentions as great adventure hooks.

I'd say much of the 2e campaign setting stuff works very well with 3e, since rules were typically only in the core books and the classbooks. There are some exceptions, but the overwhelming majority of campaign material was pretty rules-free.

Oh, and spells and most magic items from older editions are quite easy to convert to 3e.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

All of them.

For better or for worse, 3.x is very balance oriened. The older stuff isn't. Designers were a little more free to do what they wanted. Sure, they could break the game or cause a total party kill in the first encounter on a bad roll, but that's the way it was.

For example, one pretty slick idea was to have a magic item that used the wizard's spell slots to channel magic energy into a specific spell. It was very open ended, so the item could have charges, or useable only a few times a day, or just constant. Concerns about how much it should cost or what spells this might be abusive with were dismissed. But it's still a neat idea that can be used in 3e.

And the modules are perfectly portable. Just update and blance the statblocks. The old adventures also have the advantages that your players won't know where you're getting the material from and you have nice maps.

 

[the Jester]

I often use old skool pics for monsters, if they're better than the newer ones (xorn, for one great example). So I find old monster books useful.

Things with good descriptions- the 1e dmg, the 2e blue books (Castle Guide, Necromancer's Guide, Arms & Equipment Guide, etc). Wilderness and Dungeoneers SGs. And, of course, lots of modules and setting stuff... YMMV.

 

[wingsandsword]

Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog, the best equipment book ever made for any version of D&D, by far.

The setting materials themselves are still useful. For my FR game I still use the Faith & Avatars/Powers & Pantheons/Demihuman Deities trilogy of deity sourcebooks for actual setting information about the gods of Faerun because the level of detail and completeness is much greater than the short blurbs that was found in the 3e material.

 

[diaglo]

all of them

cuz 1edADnD is better than 2edADnD which is better than d02.