D&D 5E Previous Edition Material You Find Still Valuable for 5e

[Sacrosanct]

Just like the title says. What material do you have from previous editions that you still find very valuable in your 5e games. I think what still tops the list for me are:

* 2e's Creative Campaigning guide. Info never gets old.
* AD&D Encyclopedia Magica series. Don't have enough magic items in the DMG? These books are a wealth of magic items, and super easy to convert to 5e.
* AD&D Rogue's gallery. 5e is pretty easy to stat out on the fly for low to mid level NPCs, and this book is chalk full of personalities. You really don't even need to adjust much to still have them playable in the 5e world.

 

[JTorres]

Monster Mythology from 2nd edition. Its mainly fluff but I find it an enjoyable read whenever I pick it up and I have been using it heavily as I go about building my homebrew world for my 5th edition campaign. I'm hard pressed to find a section of that book that isn't useful.

 

[Vymair]

Prior edition maps from published adventures are always valuable. Even full adventures as a source for ideas. I still enjoy the Manual of the Planes for flavor about the various planar structures.

I'll probably repackage Ptolus into another campaign at some point as well. Great material in there.

 

[Ezequielramone]

- spell & item compendium
- settings and ad&d adventures
- the third era specifics monsters books (draconomicom, lord of madnes, drow of the underdark, etc)
- my entire ad&d forgotten realms collection. Special mention to aurora's whole realms catalog, ruins of undermountain and spellbound.
- manual of the planes
- forgotten realms cities of mystery
- temple of elemental evil
- all the dragonlance classics adventures
- I have used the "shadow deck" from shadowfell with other editions abs I plan to use it with the new ed.
- tome of magic from second ed.
- of course, minis, maps and accessories.
- random tables (encounters, treasure, etc)
- faiths and pantheons, and all the deities line from ad&d.

 

[Gecko85]

1e stuff:

* Citystate of the Invincible Overlord (Judge's Guild)
* Various Midkemia Press stuff: Cities, Carse, etc...
* Various Flying Buffalo stuff: Citybook Vol 1, Vol 2, etc.
* World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting
* Lankhmar
* Modules, modules, modules

 

[TarionzCousin]

I regularly mine Volo's Guides for my Forgotten Realm campaign. They are a great resource for taverns, inns, and shops.

* AD&D Rogue's gallery. 5e is pretty easy to stat out on the fly for low to mid level NPCs, and this book is chalk full of personalities.

Some of those NPC's can't be trusted:

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[Reynard]

It's not really an older edition source but a lateral one: Pathfinder's Ultimate Campaign has lots of cool subsystems that are easily portable.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Ah, of course modules I should punish myself for forgetting those. Lord knows I've ran games through over a half dozen AD&D models using 5e so far.

 

[TerraDave]

5E seems to play well with other editions.

For me, I am using some "B" adventures, then will move on to some "X" and others.

Still use the 1E DMG, but I always use that. Speaking of X, have also taken a little from the Moldvay Cook Expert rules.

I am sure I will be using the 1E Monster Manuals and Fiend Folio and the Encyclodedia Magica at some point.

 

[TarionzCousin]

It's not really an older edition source but a lateral one: Pathfinder's Ultimate Campaign has lots of cool subsystems that are easily portable.

We're about to have some "downtime" in my 5E game and I suggested the DM look at my Ultimate Campaign book for ideas. There are bucketloads of good ideas in it.