Worst Purchase Ever?

Greg K · Mar 10, 2018

Dausuul said:
One I do recall is the 2E Complete Priest's Handbook. There was just... nothing interesting, nothing useful. There was no reason anyone would ever play a priest from that book instead of a cleric or druid,.

Back during 2e, if you were playing with my group or with one of several other DMs I knew, you would have been using it (sort of) if you wanted to play a "cleric"or "druid". Not that you as a player would have been using the book to design your priesthood for a deity. The Complete Priest's Handbook was used by we DMs to build the priests of various deities in our campaigns (with a little modification when necessary).

Even today, as a DM, I will take that book over the 5e cleric, 1/2 the 5e PHB subclasses or any subclass in Xanathar's Guide or Sword Coast.

pogre · Mar 10, 2018

Hero Builders Guide
Not an original choice, but a very disappointing book.

Demetrios1453 · Mar 10, 2018

amerigoV said:
I was not a 2e guy - so I did not realize that!
<turns and shakes fist at that book>

Yeah, I just posted on the sister thread about best purchases that among my favorite purchases were the 2e books [MENTION=6816692]Lylandra[/MENTION] mentioned. They cut a lot of the stuff that made those books really good, leaving some of the leftovers for the 3.x book, and then adding the (pretty useless) 3e avatar stats. Now the 2e books did have avatar stats as well, but they were much less complex, thus leaving extra room for more interesting stuff, unlike those bloated 3.x epic stat blocks...

screech8780 · Mar 11, 2018

rgoodbb said:
Did you buy it just on the title alone, knowing absolutely without doubt that it would be the best movie in the world? Did you? Did you?

And then when it got trashed by everyone, did you try to defend it because you had bought it? Did you? Did you?

How long did it take you to get over the disappointment? How long? How long?

...It is possible that I may not have fully recovered yet....

What about the sequel???

Tinker · Mar 11, 2018

Greg, absolutely with you on CPH. That priesthood system, and the spell spheres, are among the very few things from ADnD I find worth bringing back.

JonnyP71 · Mar 11, 2018

The Dungeoneers Survival Guide in 1E. Waste of paper. It put me off buying the Wilderness version - lucky really as I hear that was even worse.

Too much unnecessary fussy crunch, that looked decent when read, but which simply slowed the game down too much. Playing fantasy heroes is fun. Playing fantasy spelunkers is not.

Note - I didn't buy any of the 'Players Option series' for 2E - though I've read the pdfs and they are far far worse, taking the game in a direction that was totally unnecessary and convoluted.

Jacob Lewis · Mar 12, 2018

I really want to say the 5e PHB simply because I turned around and sold it quicker than any RPG product I've ever actually used, even if only for a short time. But I did get more than what I paid for it, so it wasn't the worst investment I ever made. And I'm sure someone is still getting good use out of it.

guachi · Mar 12, 2018

I purchased four books for 1e outside the big three. One was WG7 Castle Greyhawk and another was Wilderness Survival Guide. I actually kind of liked both them. And they both had Holloway art, which I liked.

But what was my *worst* purchase? - Not counting either of the above two as they were named by the OP.

Only counting things that I purchased around the time they were new and not a few decades later I'd say it was module X3 Curse of Xanathon. I bought X2-5 around 1985 or 1986 ordered from Waldenbooks. The nice lady had a catalog and I ordered stuff I hadn't seen on the shelf. X2-5 were only a few years old at the time but in 1986 it seemed so ANCIENT as I hadn't seen them on the shelf anywhere.

X3 isn't an awful module, but it was the weakest of the first in the X series and weaker than X10, which was the only X series I bought when it was a new release.

Olaf the Stout · Mar 12, 2018

mach1.9pants said:
3E has some really pointless books taht caught me out as a completist:

Our group liked the Rules Compendium as it consolidated some of rules we'd commonly have to look up to clarify into one book with all the relevant bits in one place.

Lanefan · Mar 12, 2018

guachi said:
X3 isn't an awful module, but it was the weakest of the first in the X series and weaker than X10, which was the only X series I bought when it was a new release.

By and large the X series aren't bad; a few, e.g. Castle Amber, Quest for the Heartstone, are even quite good. Full disclosure: I don't own and have never read/played/DMed either of X7 or X10 so can't comment on those.

On the flip side all three of the IM Immortal series - the 'I' end of 'BECMI' - have thus far proven vastly underwhelming on first read. I can't imagine ever trying to run any of these except as a gonzo one-off some drunken New Years' Eve when nobody can think of anything better to do.