Product opinions: first look versus deeper look

[Teflon Billy]

The Dungeon Master's Guide

it seemed ridiculously simplistic when I first got it. I was really put off that it went over so many incredibly basic concepts.

Then I realized: it wasn't for me. I was designed for the novice DM.

In that light I thought (and think) that it was great.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The Forgotten Realms setting book.

I still am not that great a fan of FR...I've never read the books and don't plan to. I never had anything FR-related in 2e. What made me get the 3e book was one thing that I really didn't need -- stats on playing planetouched as PC races (I'm a PS fanboy, so...)

After paging through it, I realized that the things I hate the most about FR (Uber-NPC's, that I could write a setting that's a rip-off of Europe in my sleep, too much magic and not enough taste, etc) I could easily solve, and until then it was a great place to steal some quick quest ideas. Becaue FR *is* so bland in flavor, it's easy to bastardize and stick anywhere.

Slowly, I'm coming around, and thinking of playing an FR campaign...after, of course, I kill off all the Uber-NPC's and mix it up with magic a bit....maybe add some Call of Cthulu stuff.

Basically, I can get rid of the stuff that irks me and make it better for the wear...and since most of my players are at least remotely familiar with FR, it makes it a great place to mess with and put my own spin on.

 

[Superman]

This is not what this thread is about. Products that seem good at first blush but turn out to be worse than they look are legion. Tell us about products that DIDN'T look good at first but turned out to be good.

Oops, sorry about that, I wrote it past 3am (It's 2am right now) I don't have time to get online til late.
I must have read it wrong.
The closest thimg to that would have been the pdf file of spycraft-lite.
It didn't look that good at first so I left it alone.
Then I read the review Kaptian Kantrip wrote about it so I decided to give it another read.
And it was readlly great.
So I then I got the spycraft book (which was very impressive) and showed it to some of my gaming buddys, now they have copys and all we play is spycraft now.

 

[uv23]

Demonology. First impression seemed really interesting. Brought it home, read through it, and lo and behold, it was worthless.

 

[Psion]

Demonology. First impression seemed really interesting. Brought it home, read through it, and lo and behold, it was worthless.

Someone else isn't paying attention...

 

[Psion]

given that you've probably read more D20 products than everyone else here, why don't you get the ball rolling? Is there any products that you at first ahted, and then found a use for? Ever had to revise any reviews?

Rappan Athuk 1 comes to mind... it plays a lot better than it appeared to me.

Arms & Armor and Minions by Bastion. They still both have what I consider some goofy concepts, but there are some gems in there.