Books you didn't expect much out of -bought anyway- and got a lot of use from.

[Kichwas]

As a counterpoint to the other thread:
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=70937

What did you buy for whatever reason -expecting it to be a waste of money or not that useful, and then got a lot more than you expected out of it.

Just to clear out a likely common response, let's exclude the core rules - I imagine about half of us got back into DnD with 3E, and probably a good number of those did it reluctantly or for 'whatever' and found they liked 3E more than they thought they would...

So other than the game itself, what supplimental material - WotC, d20, or OGL - proved itself to be a lot more useful than expected.



For me the two main entries are Kalamar Campaign setting and Mutants and Masterminds. In both cases I argued against them before buying in, trying to convince people I knew and people online that they were wasted items... bought them on whims to 'shut up that inner voice' and fell in for them completely. I run games of both of them now and they have proven to be the central angles around which I approach 'd20/OGL gaming'.

A more mild case is the Wheel of Time game - while I haven't used it in gaming at all, it got me to go and get the novel line and become a fan of the series. Again, I bought it purely on a whim expecting it to go collect dust on the shelf.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I'd say Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves from BadAxe.

I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but the craft rules alone immediately saw use in my campiagn, and, though I am loathe to allow most Prestige Classes, BadAxe's were well balanced against the core classes IMO (which is really all I ask, and which is almost never the case with published PrC's).

Also, it was crazy-cheap and a really handy size. It was positively dense with usable stuff.

 

[EricNoah]

Fiend Folio -- it's the first monster book I pick up now when looking for a critter.

DMG 3.5 -- I'm not running a 3.5 game per se but the new stuff on wilderness terrain features has been used many times.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Fiend Folio for me. Defiantly was a lot better than I expected.

And WOAH...Eric has mutated! Who hath angered him?!?!

 

[Kanegrundar]

Monsternomicon: I buy just about every moster book that comes out, but I've gotten a LOT of milage out of this book. Simply the best on the market.

Call of Cthulhu: I expected to run one-off games with it and then leave it alone. I use the sanity rules in both D&D and D20 Modern. Plus, I also use several of the creatures in the book as well.

Forgotten Realms CS: I never liked FR before, but this edition is chock-full of useful information. I rob all sorts of stuff from this book for my homebrew world.

Book of Vile Darkness: I thought all I would get of this book was the stats for major demons and a few other minor critters. Now, I'm using the PrC's for NPC's all the time, plus the effects and curses have seen a lot of play time. Ironically, I haven't use but 2 or 3 of the creatures in the book and none of the major demons!

Kane

 

[Nightfall]

Fiend Folio and Monster Manual 2. Didn't think I'd like it...until I saw some of each.

 

[francisca]

Seven Cities by Atlas. Bought it out of the mark-down bin for $7 on a whim. Vey nice book.

Toolbox by AEG. Bought it for just cranking out one-off pick-up games when most of the regular crew couldn't make it. Now I use it and World Builder together to generate ideas.

Both of these books have received high praise and good reviews, but I was unaware when I picked them up.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I'd say Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves from BadAxe...

Wa-hey, thanks TB. Didja check out Halflings yet? Cause you know, I put copious amounts of that "campaign portable" stuff in every book. Halflings has some... flavorful?... traps, grafitti, dirty fighting, bluffs...

/pimp

It was crazy-cheap and a really handy size. It was positively dense with usable stuff.

Or, as at least one reviewer put it:

"The first thing that struck me when I saw this book is its diminutive size and seeming lack of content that couldn’t fill a regular sized book... In my opinion don’t buy this book unless it is drastically reduced in price or you see something in it that makes you feel it is worth the money."



The book that is at the top of this list for me is A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe. It seemed too "scholarly" to me (the title didn't help); but, I had heard good things about it so I bought it as a show of support. As it turns out, I've gotten a lot of use out of it, and I haven't really even had time to fully read it yet. But I have found that I can pretty much open it to any page at random and find something useful and applicable. God knows what'll happen when I get enough time back in my life to read the whole thing!

Wulf

 

[Tsyr]

Rokugan Hardcover. I thought nothing could make me like Rokugan after my burning hatred for it ousting my beloved Kara Tur as the default setting for the 3E OA... Man was I wrong.

 

[Wraith Form]

The Slayer's Guide to Female Gamers. Indespensab--oh, wait....

Never mind.

On a more serious note, however, I really slammed Testament every time I saw adverts for it or messageboard comments about it. I thought for certain it'd be ridiculous. Then I spotted it on E-Bay for under $10, and something snapped inside me. I bid, I won, I own...and I love!

('Course, I say that about my wife, too....heh heh heh.)

(Please don't tell her I said that or I'm a dead man. Heh heh heh.)