Best Five RPG Books You Own

[Khairn]

1- Primal Order (and all supplements)
2- Iron Kingdoms Players Guide
3- Mage: The Ascension
4- Riddle of Steel
5- Dark Space (ICE by Monte Cook)

Honorable Mention
Game of Thrones
Grim Tales
Harn World
Exalted 2nd Edition
Chivalry & Sorcery (1st & 4th Edition)
Arcana Evolved
Ptolus

 

[Zulgyan]

DMG 1st Ed. AD&D + the rest of the cores
Wilderlands of High Fantasy (plus all the line and much old JG goodness)
Lost City of Barakus (great great module)
C&C books
My own game based on an Argentinian Comic

 

[Yalius]

No particular order

Star Wars D6
Planescape 2e boxed set
1e DMG
Fiendish Codex I
Rules Cyclopedia

Honorable mentions--
The whole Monstrous Compendium / Manual series from 1989 on. I liked how each entry gave an ecological niche and place for those monsters to actually fit.

 

[eric mcloins]

Planescape Boxed Set
Arcana Evolved
Ptolus
Paranoia XP
Oathbound

 

[Ryltar]

Planescape Boxed Set
Midnight: Fury of Shadow Boxed Set
Iron Kingdoms: World Guide
Iron Kingdoms: Monsternomicon v2
Dark Legacies Players' Guide

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

FATAL
d20 Macho Women With Guns
The Book of Erotic Fantasy
d20 Deadlands
HYBRID

 

[Mycanid]

Hmm ....

1. I loved the 1eADnD rulebooks ... just written well, but especially the PHB and DMG. (Yay Greyhawk!)
2. Loved the setting of Gamma World described in early TSR books.
3. Really liked the early Star Frontiers books as well.
4. The first Villains and Vigilantes game - yeah it had all kindsa rule probs, but I loved the concept of playing a hero that was yourself and getting statted out and dealing with day to day life while being a hero.... GREAT rpg idea.
5. I must admit that I have really enjoyed the C&C books put out by Troll Lords. Just good writing.

Honorable Mention:

1. The "old school" modules by Goodman Games - have enjoyed them as well.
2. The early Basic/Expert DnD books and adventures. Just good simple rp'ing fun! The world setting was nice too.
3. 3.5 "Expanded Psionics" Book. GREAT. Always loved psionics and this is an excellent book on it.

 

[Wik]

2. Gary Gygax's World Builder
I use this book all the time. It is a collection of lists, kind of like a book-length version of the 1E DMG appendices. Armor, weapons, metals, gems, colors, rooms, geography, buildings, furnishings, crimes, and much more. Invaluable as a reference and for brainstorming.
QUOTE]

World builder books are always popular with me. And something like this would be pretty helpful. I might just pick it up!

***

My top five:

1. Call of Cthulu d20 - I love picking it up and reading it, whenever I'm bored. The adventure ideas section is the best in any RPG book, Hands down. I mean, how much space is devoted to ideas? Something like 50 pages!? Great stuff.

2. Dark Sun - The Ivory Triangle. My favourite Setting book, because it really details how two different cities interact with one another (as opposed to saying "here is a place. It is self-contained"), and with the surroundings. Great set.

3. Savage Tide - not really a book (and, unfortunately, it never will be, sniff), but it's just a great set of adventures. Some of the NPCs in it are absolutely brilliant (Avner Meravanchi springs to mind, as does Urol Forol. If either of those NPCs were to bite the dust, my players would revolt!)

4. The World Builder's Guidebook. Number one on my list, actually. I've used this book so many times, it's almost funny. Lists and random tables that can be used to make a campaign world. I've used it to make oddball settings (Arabic Knights fight Jungle Dwarves while dodging technological dragons! And it's all on an arctic archipelego! Yeah!), as well as making settings that are more traditional, with a bit of a twist (this is where you can get things like theocratic elves with a decaying rennaissance culture, for example). Five out of five stars.

5. Eberron Campaign Setting. Don't own it yet, but my brother does, and I read it whenever I get the chance. Absolutely great setting, even if Shifters, Changelings, and Kalashtar are kind of lame races. And now that I'm in an Eberron game, it's even more fascinating.

 

[the_myth]

hmmm...Unlike other posters, I'll stick with fairly contemporary products:

In no particular order:

1. Psychic's Handbook: excellent generic Psychic rules based on a Feat + Skill system

2. Mutants & Masterminds 2.0: excellent generic Supers rules that can be adapted to many other settings.

3. True 20: just got the free PDF and all I can say is WOW! Some flaws, for sure, but I am impressed with the attempt at generics. I need to watch for sales on the supplementary products now.

4. The Dark Matter Setting for the Alternity rules set. Despite being an awesome ruleset, Alternity never had a chance, but the supplement for the Dark Matter setting was superb, from the content to the quality of the book as a product. I do not own the d20 equivalent, but I somehow suspect I shall find it inferior.

5. The Forgotten Realms hardcover for D&D 3.0. It's just a damn good basic book with interesting, useful new rules.

hmmm...I never realized that 3 of my all-time favorite products came from Green Ronin. Rock on, Green Ronin! Keep up the great work. I am sure I'll acquire more of your stuff in the future.


Honorable Mentions (with old-but-useful stuff):

Stargate RPG: I literally was in awe after reading these rules. So complicated yet elegant. A friend and I both slobbered...

Spycraft 2.0: a progression of the rules from Stargate. I don't think it was as well done. Some rules overly byzantine, which I hear they've corrected with a second printing or something. *shrug*

Call of Cthulhu d20: Sadly, I never much cared for the Basic system used in CoC, so I liked this adaptation of the setting to d20 rules. Plus it actively incorporated magic, which I liked.

The Complete Guide to the Fey: Just got it for $3. VERY impressed! Especially at the potential of creating viable fey characters without unwieldy level adjustments.

Elves by Mayfair Games: great variation on Elves and Elven societies

Dark Conspiracy + the Empathic Sourcebook: a great idea much-copied but not as well.

The Compleat Spell Caster by Bard Games: VERY old, but a decent, very basic spellcaster system adaptable to lots of rulesets if you just wanna throw in a little magic.

The Arcanum by Bard Games (apparently resurrected recently as Atlantis: The Second Age): A progession from the rules in the "Compleat" line mentioned above. Interesting pseudo-Conan setting with generic yet kinda complicated magic system. New version is in my wishlist, but the old rules have a long following.

There are others, but I think these can all be useful in games using contemporary systems.

 

[ivocaliban]

1. Legend of the Five Rings (Third Edition), AEG

I've been with Legend of the Five Rings since the first edition debuted roughly ten years ago. I never played the CCG, but I've always been a fan of samurai films and stories. Unfortunately, that love was never shared by my players, so for me L5R became a selfish pleasure, bought only for the enjoyment of reading the material. Thankfully, the characters and storylines were amazing and I enjoyed the mix of various eastern cultures with strong fantasy elements. As someone who has all three editions of L5R on his shelf, I can safely say that Legend of the Five Rings (Third Edition) is the best of the lot. While I wouldn't want to give up the earlier editions, this is the one to use if you're running the game.



2. Wilderlands of High Fantasy (boxed set), Necromancer Games

I came late to the Wilderlands party, having only discovered it last year after taking a chance on ordering the boxed set online...having never seen the product. It was an investment that paid off big time. With eighteen maps and about five-hundred pages of material on the setting alone, you could probably play in the Wilderlands for the rest of your life and never see it all. It's not that the area is terribly large (roughly the size of the Mediterranean Sea and surrounding lands), but there is an abundance of detail and layers of history to give a Wilderlands campaign lasting appeal. It won't do you much good without The Player's Guide to the Wilderlands, however, so pick that up as well.



3. A Game of Thrones RPG, Guardians of Order

Alright, so I haven't gotten to play this game yet, but having read through it I certainly enjoy its style. It helps if you've read the ongoing George R.R. Martin series that begins with the novel of the same name, but it's not entirely neccessary as the corebook contains mounds of background information. I really enjoy the way classes are handled in this d20 variant and have considered using it as a basis to overhaul the base classes in the PHB. If you like classic fantasy, intriguing plots, unique characters, epic storytelling and cliffhangers galore...this is the game for you. While I hope Green Ronin can do something with it now that it's in their hands, it's hard to imagine they can top this version.



4. Tome of Horrors (revised 3.5 .pdf), Necromancer Games

I bought the original Tome of Horrors (3.0) several years back and for one reason or another I ended up selling it. I'm still not sure why, exactly, and I could have kicked myself for it later. It's not that I used it that much at the time, but after I picked up Wilderlands of High Fantasy, I realized just how important it was going to be that I found the book again. When I realized it was no longer available in print form I was at least relieved to find out I could get an updated 3.5 version .pdf file for only $9.99. I still prefer print versions of books (and would snatch up a new version in a moment if they decide to print one), but this is probably the best .pdf file I've ever purchased. The layout is improved over the original version and makes printing out one creature at time easy and efficient.



5. Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier, Kenzer & Company

I've never been a huge fan of westerns. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed some of the great movies like True Grit, The Magnificent Seven, Tombstone, and Dead Man, but I never really wanted to play a western rpg. Deadlands and Werewolf: The Wild West caught my eye, but only because of the other elements involved, not the idea of the west in and of itself. Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier is the book that changed all that for me. It's simply one of the best rpg products I've ever encountered and gives me hope about the future of gaming.