Most useless book ever?

[Aus_Snow]

3e Deities and Demigods. No contest. Useless.

So very true.

ELH runs a close second though.

I've never even glanced at the Psionics Handbook, so I'll hold my tongue there.


edit --- Oh, and Zeus+init got a chuckle from me.

 

[amazingshafeman]

Huh. I'm actually about to grab the 3.5 Psionics Handbook. Any haters giving it away?

For me, it's the 3rd edition Deities & Demigods. Sad part is, I read part of it at B&N, went back for another perusal and it was gone. At that point, I HAD to have it and ordered a copy. After rereading it without the distraction of putrid coffee and a kid screaming about Bob the Builder two bookshelves over, I realized if I ever used that system to make up a pantheon, my players would complain more than if I had rivers flowing uphill.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Huh. I'm actually about to grab the 3.5 Psionics Handbook. Any haters giving it away?

Well, I don't know about other posters, but I was talking (er, biting my tongue) about the 3.0 Psionics Handbook, not the 3.5 XPH.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Even to the staunchest detractors of the 3.0 PsiHB, I can't see how it can hold a candle to the horribleness that was the 2E PsiHB. But, I did actually allow a Psion in a game I ran in 2E. He was the party's deus ex machina. He wouldn't do anything until they got in over their heads and then he would solve all their problems with one blink.

 

[Imruphel]

Deities & Demigods- yes, another vote for the Big Bad Book of Stats You'll Never Use (and, being a WotC product, if you ever did use them I am sure you would find an enormous number of errors in them).

Goodman Games' Underdark Adventure Guide was also an absolute shocker. Radiation-based magic without a Gamma World logo to be seen, 3E stats and a 3.5E label and essentially just an unimaginative piece of poorly executed dreck that somehow wove a spell over several reviewers who inexplicably said nice things about it.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

In hindsight, a lot of those FFG books were pretty useless too. $5 is one thing but when you wish you had that $5 back for some of them is saying something.

I bought two for full price.

I'm still weeping.

Brad

 

[Gronin]

I bought a new bag to haul around all my DM stuff the other day, and began the long and messy task of cleaning out the old one. Lo and behold, what did I find at the bottom? My WotC Psionics book! You see, other books had worn a hole in the bottom so I laid this book down flat to protect and reinforce. Never once missed the darn book. I suppose it did serve a purpose, but nothing a good stiff piece of cardboard couldn't have done.

So what's your most useless book ever?

I gotta go along with this assesment - psionics - it didn't work for me in 2nd Ed, didn't work for me in 3rd Ed and I ain't biting in 3.5... (probably).

And just to be complete - the rules about psionics in 1st didn't really do much for me either (but at least an entire book wasn't wasted on it ---- although I must admit to once putting together a character in such a way as to maximize my chance of getting them, but only once)...

 

[Uder]

Epic Level Handbook, hands down. I have a hard time believing anyone really uses that thing outside of the bathroom.

 

[Nomad4life]

I thought is was almost universally agreed that the WORST BOOK EVAR was the Synnabar RPG...

Wait... You mean that game was REAL!?! I thought it was a joke when I heard someone talking about it!

 

[Jackelope King]

Probably my extra copy of BESM 2E. I went to a game with one copy and some how came back with two in my bag. I love that book to death, but now one copy just collects dust on the shelf.