DestroyYouAlot
First Post
So, I recently re-discovered That's Entertainment in lovely Worcester, MA. They're a warehouse-sized comic store with every kind of collectible imaginable, and an amazing RPG selection. They've got tons of new product, from lots of different lines, but what draws me is the used selection - 16 full-sized comic boxes, filled to overflowing with amazing classic gaming stuff, pretty much anything you'd want to check out from 30 years of RPG gaming. I've mentally marked plenty of stuff for future perusal (Classic Traveller, TMNT and Other Strangeness, all kinds of Shadowrun and Battletech stuff, and endless 1e and OD&D modules), but here's what I picked up this time:
Monster Manual II (1e): The latest addition to my 1e collection - excellent condition, classic monsters, just add Conversion Catalog to confuse the hell out of your player group. (I didn't get MMI because the only "orange spine" copy they had was in atrocious condition, and I'm trying to collect those versions of the 1e books. So far, I've gotten excellent prices on copies of the Phb, OA, and MMII, and free copies of the Dungeoneer's and Wilderness Survival Guides from a friend. I've still got my eye on Legends and Lore and the DMG there, just waiting on a decent copy of MMI to come through. Haven't seen UA or the Manual of the Planes there, yet.)
T1 Village of Hommlet: I've wanted a copy of this one for years, goes nicely with the above 1e collection. Now if I can just track down the boxed set. (I was amazed to see how close Troika got it with the Greyhawk PC game.)
DMGR5 Creative Campaigning: Always been a fan of the 2e DMG supplements, this one has eluded me for many years since I lost the first copy. (I had a landlord rip off everything I owned when I was a young'un, including RPG books.) Nothing groundbreaking here, lots of good ideas for historical campaigns and getting away from "generic fantasy," but I'm a completist, so I'm glad to have it.
Dragonlance Classics 15th Anniversary: Meh. I was kinda disappointed with this one, I should've read it before picking it up. This was supposed to go along with the 1e thing, but a) this is more aimed at the "SAGA" system (which seems to be TSR trying to rip off the White Wolf WOD system and shoehorning it into the Dragonlace 5th Age setting), and b) they've updated what little AD&D content remained to 2e. They must've bragged 5 times in the introduction that, "of course for this momentous event we couldn't just reprint DL1-14," but that was (and is) exactly what I wanted. Oh well, I'll track them down at some point.
Sons of Gruumsh: Nice to have this one on hand - it doesn't really fit into my current Realms campaign, but I'll run it as a one-off some time.
LC3 Nightwatch in the Living City: Classic stuff. This one, I will definitely run as a one-shot the next time I get a chance. Textbook example of how to run a fleshed-out city adventure.
9516 Faiths and Avatars: I've been wanting this one for a while. I dropped out of gaming during the late 90's, so I missed all the good FR supplements from that period - not too many, from what I'm told, but this is one of them. Detailed info on all the gods of the Faerunian pantheon, their avatars (which I emphatically don't care about, and these supplements always waste pages upon pages on, but no matter), histories, followers, dogma and holy days - the last three being what I look for the most out of this kind of book. The fluff in this book is better by far than the 3e version, Faiths and Pantheons, and - while the stats aren't up to date with the current edition, how often do you really need to know how many hit points Kossuth has on the PMP? As an added bonus, dead and forgotten gods are given the full treatment, which is great if you're running a campaign in an earlier period than the current realms timeline. And faith-specific spells for each power are here, too - something I'm a big fan of. I'll probably convert these to 3e rules and offer them as alternate domain spells for clerics. All in all, a nice thick tome, high quality presentation, without reams of paper wasted on pretty pictures and new PRCs - when it comes to the ratio of useful fluff to page count, FaA has FaP beat cold. Me likey.
So I'm psyched, all in all a fruitful trip.
Monster Manual II (1e): The latest addition to my 1e collection - excellent condition, classic monsters, just add Conversion Catalog to confuse the hell out of your player group. (I didn't get MMI because the only "orange spine" copy they had was in atrocious condition, and I'm trying to collect those versions of the 1e books. So far, I've gotten excellent prices on copies of the Phb, OA, and MMII, and free copies of the Dungeoneer's and Wilderness Survival Guides from a friend. I've still got my eye on Legends and Lore and the DMG there, just waiting on a decent copy of MMI to come through. Haven't seen UA or the Manual of the Planes there, yet.)
T1 Village of Hommlet: I've wanted a copy of this one for years, goes nicely with the above 1e collection. Now if I can just track down the boxed set. (I was amazed to see how close Troika got it with the Greyhawk PC game.)
DMGR5 Creative Campaigning: Always been a fan of the 2e DMG supplements, this one has eluded me for many years since I lost the first copy. (I had a landlord rip off everything I owned when I was a young'un, including RPG books.) Nothing groundbreaking here, lots of good ideas for historical campaigns and getting away from "generic fantasy," but I'm a completist, so I'm glad to have it.
Dragonlance Classics 15th Anniversary: Meh. I was kinda disappointed with this one, I should've read it before picking it up. This was supposed to go along with the 1e thing, but a) this is more aimed at the "SAGA" system (which seems to be TSR trying to rip off the White Wolf WOD system and shoehorning it into the Dragonlace 5th Age setting), and b) they've updated what little AD&D content remained to 2e. They must've bragged 5 times in the introduction that, "of course for this momentous event we couldn't just reprint DL1-14," but that was (and is) exactly what I wanted. Oh well, I'll track them down at some point.
Sons of Gruumsh: Nice to have this one on hand - it doesn't really fit into my current Realms campaign, but I'll run it as a one-off some time.
LC3 Nightwatch in the Living City: Classic stuff. This one, I will definitely run as a one-shot the next time I get a chance. Textbook example of how to run a fleshed-out city adventure.
9516 Faiths and Avatars: I've been wanting this one for a while. I dropped out of gaming during the late 90's, so I missed all the good FR supplements from that period - not too many, from what I'm told, but this is one of them. Detailed info on all the gods of the Faerunian pantheon, their avatars (which I emphatically don't care about, and these supplements always waste pages upon pages on, but no matter), histories, followers, dogma and holy days - the last three being what I look for the most out of this kind of book. The fluff in this book is better by far than the 3e version, Faiths and Pantheons, and - while the stats aren't up to date with the current edition, how often do you really need to know how many hit points Kossuth has on the PMP? As an added bonus, dead and forgotten gods are given the full treatment, which is great if you're running a campaign in an earlier period than the current realms timeline. And faith-specific spells for each power are here, too - something I'm a big fan of. I'll probably convert these to 3e rules and offer them as alternate domain spells for clerics. All in all, a nice thick tome, high quality presentation, without reams of paper wasted on pretty pictures and new PRCs - when it comes to the ratio of useful fluff to page count, FaA has FaP beat cold. Me likey.
So I'm psyched, all in all a fruitful trip.
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