What is your favorite RPG book of all time?

[Wolfpack48]

This was the Greyhawk set I first purchased. It certainly had a feudal structure, but the world was largely open, and you could mold it to your own needs.

 

[R_J_K75]

I ran a lot of Waterdeep/Undermountain campaigns in the mid to late 90's, (even beyond). I was always intrigued by Skullport from reading the entries in the City of Splendors and Undermountain, but the information on it was pretty limited. I was really excited when I saw the 2E FR Skullport product announcement for 1999. Really good book, short page count but packed with information. Is it my absolute favorite or the best written book, probably not, but its certainly up there. FR had some really good sourcebooks and boxed sets from 1996-2000 towards the end of 2E.

 

[dbm]

Like many people I have spent years looking for ‘my game’, and I eventually found it in Savage Worlds Adventure Edition. With just over 200, graphic novel sized, pages it does so much in one book. Whenever I look over the book to remind me of something specific I see so many other tools and options pop out and inspire cool encounters or scenes that could happen in my game, irrespective of whether it is fantasy, modern or sci-fi. It is pulp at its heart, and that is my preferred default, but it can also do more gritty and more heroic with the application of optional setting rules.

 

[Reynard]

Like many people I have spent years looking for ‘my game’, and I eventually found it in Savage Worlds Adventure Edition. With just over 200, graphic novel sized, pages it does so much in one book. Whenever I look over the book to remind me of something specific I see so many other tools and options pop out and inspire cool encounters or scenes that could happen in my game, irrespective of whether it is fantasy, modern or sci-fi. It is pulp at its heart, and that is my preferred default, but it can also do more gritty and more heroic with the application of optional setting rules.

SWADE is the --ahem-- pinnacle of Savage Worlds design. It looks and plays great, and the book is easy to use as a reference during play. Most importantly, you can run Rebellion era Star Wars straight out of the book with little effort (a key litmus test for me).

 

[dbm]

Definitely, and you can do so much with it on just the core book. The earlier editions were good, but SWADE was the one that finally ticked all the boxes for me.

 

[RuinousPowers]

Battlelords is just a fun book to read. The Savage North really made me want to run a game in the Forgotten Realms.

 

[TheSword]

I judge things by how "useful" they are at the table (that is, how many useful tables, rules etc are in it) but also how much it fires my mind and fills it with ideas and inspiration. In no particular order:


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Both of these sourcebooks filled with tons of useful mechanical bits and lore and ideas spilling out of every page. I don't use them all the time but every time I do it gives me so many great ideas and fills me with a desire to play in the Old World.

The non-human psychology essays for how long lived races like Dwarves and Elves might view the world in Apocrypha Now are absolutely brilliant.

 

[Thauramarth]

Dungeons and Dragons Rules Cyclopedia. Not the best RPG book, it's not the best in anything it does, but all you need to play, or to create the things you need to play, in a single book.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Total Aside: I never played Greyhawk. When people talk about it now, what is often said is that it is more "sword and sorcery" compared to FR's high fantasy feel. But this cover absolutely does not give me S&S vibes. This is straight up Arthurian.

The sword and sorcery thing is revisionist history by people wanting to carve out a niche for the setting so that WotC will want to reprint it. Which is a noble goal, but the idea that the Great Kingdom or the Shield Lands -- both core parts of the setting, which was even originally referred to as "The Great Kingdom" -- are sword and sorcery is definitely ahistorical.

That said, cool stuff like the Rain of Colorless Fire and the Invoked Devastation are 100% sword and sorcery awesomeness. The setting is basically a gumbo.

 

[Kannik]

Lots of good ones in this thread already, and I'll put in DP9's Heavy Gear and Jovian Chronicles core books. Delightfully evocative, especially for the era in which they were first published (Tribe 8 is also likely very good in this way, though I never got into it).