Oldies but goodies: 1e/2e books you still use?

[JoeGKushner]

Any topic that has a 1e in it, I feel compelled to reply.

The Dungeon Master Design Kit, has always and will always be one of my favorite products. I have so many photocopies of those forms I don't think I will ever use. Being a good impromtu DM, I would roll for a plot hook and red herring and such several minutes prior to an adventure and let it run.

Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide: the name is quite a misnomer. It is more of "how to be a good DM" and the information in most of the book crosses all verson of D&D, and is applicable to other RPGs too.

I love my 1e DMG. It always makes somekind of appearance, mostly for the random dungeon generator.

Man, those are three books I can really relate to. I'd add the Creative Campaigning book, not quite as good as Campaign Sourcebook, but useful.

Anyone know where you can find the old DMG Design Kit? Has it been released as a pdf or anything?

 

[Eryx]

What do i still use.... lets see...

1. Book of Lairs 2
2. Monster Mythology and The FR gods book trilogy
3. Age of Heroes - Greek Campaign set
   [/list=1]
   
   Not much, but these still serve me very well.

 

[Eternalknight]

1E DMG - what I refer to as the Godbook

Castle Greyhawk adventure - Great for a laugh, and good if I'm feeling mischevious

Player's Option books from 2nd ED - I use the critical hit charts and some of the other rules.

Many old Dragon and Dungeon mags

 

[Ravellion]

Dragonlance Adventures

Rav

 

[BronzeDragon]

Anything campaign-related.

I have most 2E campaign settings, except for Spelljammer (sorry not to have it), and Greyhawk (even more sorry not to have it).

The campaign material is just excellent for the most part, and the so-so parts can be easily altered to fit my style..

The monstrous compendiums are also a great source of conversions for me. That is, those that are not yet converted by the creature catalogue.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I have made significant use recently of:

• The Dungeoneer's Survival Guide - I use the mining rules for a town that a PC controls.
• Monster Manual II - for monsters not in the new Monster Manual. I find that the Creature Catalog site helps much in converting old creatures to 3e. Recently I've used Quicklings and Nabassu Demons.
• Of Ships & the Sea - Gives more useful info than either the Seafarer's Handbook or the Mongoose ship book; I need REAL ships more than I need 15 fantasy ships that don't fit my campaign.
• 1e DMG - I've taken some of the tables and used them to generate art objects for treasure.
• Judge's Guild Village Books - I use these to generate villages for my world - especially number and types of shops in various areas
• Judge's Guild Castle Books - I use these to generate random armies when I need to. I've also expanded these (admittedly simple) tables for my own use, so more correctly I use derivative info more than the original.
• Free City of Haven - this is the best city product every produced, IMO. I use the background elements for campaign flavor, I use the shop tables for big cities (used it today to prep my game - gotta love rolling shops up on a d1000!), and I have used the adventure seeds for many adventures. Made by the same guys who did the Thieves' Guild supplements, which I also occasionally use.
• D&D Creature Compendium - for when I REALLY want to give my players an enemy from out of left field.

 

[Marion Poliquin]

Hey all,

there are too many possible answers for this to be a poll, so I'll just throw this out there. Name 5 or fewer products from prior editions of the game that you still use in some capacity in your 3e game or game planning.

Aww. Only 5 ? Man that sucks. O.k, then, I'll stick to the minimum.

Lands of Intrigue
Empires of the Shining Sea
Demihuman Deities
Faiths and Avatars
Powers and Pantheons

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

I still use the Revised Forgotten Realms box quite a bit--especially the clear hex sheets that came with it. I did a quick conversion of the movement rules from Running the Realms and use them on nearly all the travelling that my PCs use.

Faiths and Avatars/Demihuman Deities are great books with tons of beefy information on churches and specialty priests--which fairly easily convert into Prestige Classes if you ask me. I did a conversion of a Selune Silverstar from the book to 3e and I found that the Silverstar that got put into a Dragon mag was quite a bit like the one i had made.

City of Splendors is a great boxed set--Waterdeep is a fun city, and it's THE thing to have if you want a easy, published city campaign in the Realms.

The World Builder's Guidebook is a great book for building campaigns--i've started several but never finished them--and has lots of really original ideas for making your campaign world spark.

Lastly, the 1e DMG is somethign that is starting to be very intriguing to me...I really do love the potion miscibility tables...hehehe!

I think that's all I really use...though I do think about using the Queen of the Spiders ESD that i downloaded at some point.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I have made significant use recently of:

• The Dungeoneer's Survival Guide - I use the mining rules for a town that a PC controls.
• Monster Manual II - for monsters not in the new Monster Manual. I find that the Creature Catalog site helps much in converting old creatures to 3e. Recently I've used Quicklings and Nabassu Demons.
• Of Ships & the Sea - Gives more useful info than either the Seafarer's Handbook or the Mongoose ship book; I need REAL ships more than I need 15 fantasy ships that don't fit my campaign.
• 1e DMG - I've taken some of the tables and used them to generate art objects for treasure.
• Judge's Guild Village Books - I use these to generate villages for my world - especially number and types of shops in various areas
• Judge's Guild Castle Books - I use these to generate random armies when I need to. I've also expanded these (admittedly simple) tables for my own use, so more correctly I use derivative info more than the original.
• Free City of Haven - this is the best city product every produced, IMO. I use the background elements for campaign flavor, I use the shop tables for big cities (used it today to prep my game - gotta love rolling shops up on a d1000!), and I have used the adventure seeds for many adventures. Made by the same guys who did the Thieves' Guild supplements, which I also occasionally use.
• D&D Creature Compendium - for when I REALLY want to give my players an enemy from out of left field.

Free City of Haven? Thieves Guild wasn't it? Man, what ever happened to them? Anyone dig 'em up and force them to do a d20 version?

Judge's Guild... good and bad things about 'em but wish that they would make more d20 material.

 

[Falcon]

1) 1E DMG--still the best core source-book, IMHO.
2) World Builder's Guide--great guidelines and things to think about when designing a world.
3) Realms of Terror--Initial Ravenloft Boxd Set--All kinds of cool, generative ideas.
4) 1E Monster Manual--I still find lots of helpful stuff that seems missing from the 3E Monster-Manual-and I love the illustrations.
5) The ORGINAL Deities & Demigods. Yep, got one. Helped me frame my conception of a cosmological context for a pantheon.