What is your favorite RPG book of all time?

[Tonguez]

hard to say really GURPSs Age of Napoleon was a big inspiration on my fantasy Earth
DnD specific The Red Box set and Rules Cyclopedia for nostalgia

 

[Greg K]

Hard for me to say. Off the top of my head, Psychic's Handbook, Shaman's Handbook, Witch's Handbook (all written by Steve Kenson and published by Green Ronin) are definitely in the list of contenders. 2e Complete Thief's Handbook, Insults & Injuries, Experts 3.5, Chaosium's Cities, Rolemaster Campaign Law, and Shadowrun 1e are up there too.

 

[Deset Gled]

Star Wars WEG (2e). It's a coin flip between the Dark Empire Sourcebook and the Imperial Sourcebook. The expanded universe within the Expanded Universe was just so well done. Lots of books from that series were great, but these stand out in my mind as the perfect blend of soft, narrative expansion of the IP and good hard crunchy mechanical bits that exemplify what I want from an RPG expansion book.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

Dragons of Eberron from D&D 3.5 is my all time favorite RPG book of all times, acting as both a wonderful Draconomicon and wonderful treasure trove of material to create an actual society of dragons.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Pavis/Big Rubble for RuneQuest also very high on my list.

They were great, but are boxed sets really legit for this thread's question? They have a lot of advantages over any book. I know a lot of boxed sets are available as pdfs that could be bound as a single volume now, but that still feels like it's not true to the spirit of the OP's ask.

That aside, I'm too inconstant to always have the same book at the top of my own list. Strike Force would be there sometimes, but I can see three others on-thread already that would also be first at times, and I can think of several more that haven't shown up yet. And if boxed sets are okay, there's a bunch more that would drift in and out of the top slot.

 

[thullgrim]

My love of the Pathfinder 1e core rulebook knows no bounds. It is my favorite game of book of all time.

 

[Wolfpack48]

They were great, but are boxed sets really legit for this thread's question? They have a lot of advantages over any book. I know a lot of boxed sets are available as pdfs that could be bound as a single volume now, but that still feels like it's not true to the spirit of the OP's ask.

That aside, I'm too inconstant to always have the same book at the top of my own list. Strike Force would be there sometimes, but I can see three others on-thread already that would also be first at times, and I can think of several more that haven't shown up yet. And if boxed sets are okay, there's a bunch more that would drift in and out of the top slot.

Well, they are bound into a single volume now, but I think at least one of those boxed sets would qualify as a single product. I'd pick Pavis over Big Rubble for The Cradle scenario.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I'd pick Pavis over Big Rubble for The Cradle scenario.

Yeah, I can see that. It's also maybe more generally useful overall. You can do a lot with Pavis and never actually set foot in Big Rubble. Harder (but not impossible) to say the reverse.

 

[Laurefindel]

Ooooh, tough choice.

I’m gonna go for a sentimental value here: Planescape Monster Appendix II. You know, the one with the Aasimar chick.

As a work of art alone it has its worth. There are many more I could think of but this is the one that sprung to mind immediately.

 

[johndesmarais]

Lands of Mystery for Justice Inc by Aaron Allston. Aside from being a cool campaign supplement, it taught me a lot about the type of GM I want to be.