The Best & Worst of 3rd Edition: SINGLE BEST Product of 3rd edition (poll closed)

[TerraDave]

With 1118 votes...

Eberron Campaign Setting (WotC) 19.86%
Ptolus (MP) 15.38%
Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords (Pz) 14.31%
Unearthed Arcana (WotC) 10.73%
Player's Handbook II (WotC) 8.68%
Draconomicon (WotC) 6.08%
Spell Compendium (WotC) 5.64%
Midnight (FF) 5.19%
Magic Item Compendium (WotC) 4.29%
A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe (XRP) 3.76%
Tome of Horrors I (rev.) (NG) 2.86%
Complete Book of Eldritch Might (MP) 1.70%

With 222 votes all by itself, Eberon is looking pretty solid.

 

[CharlesRyan]

Lot of great books on the list. I almost went with Eberron, which I think was the coolest single book WotC put out, but in the end I had to go with Ptolus. Frankly, it's probably the single greatest RPG book ever produced. If we were talking about a body or work or anything but a single title, I might vote otherwise. But for the best individual title, being judged entirely on its own merits as a single book, I don't think anything touches Ptolus.

 

[acorania]

Looks like the Runelords are indeed Rising and have at this point run up to third.

1 - Eberron
2 - Ptolus
3 - Pathfinder

It is interesting to me that so many of the early leaders in this poll were WotC products and that is shifting now.

I also think it is telling that the current leaders are more orriented to actually giving you a specific place to play (Pathfinder if not a true Campaign Setting, but it is more than just an adventure).

Also interesting is just how well Pathfinder is doing considering how new it is compared to other products on this list.

(as a side note, my fav WotC produced book that sees the most use at my table has been the Rules Compendium followed by the Spell Compendium).

Sean Mahoney

 

[Goobermunch]

I view the tally in post #13 of this thread as the best indicator of EnWorld interest in the books, before any of the outside "supporters" piled in for Ptolus and Eberron. I voted for the Draconomicon because of its utility in my campaigns and the beauty of the artwork.

I do like Ptolus, but there are a number of other books on this list that see more use in my game.

Job.

Interesting, but I voted before the post on Monte's board and before the post on the Eberron board, and when I voted, the ECS and Ptolus were neck and neck for most popular. In fact, I believe my vote pushed the ECS in front by 3 votes.

--G

 

[paradox42]

Ah, links from other boards- I wondered why the campaign settings were doing so well. But, very tough choice here.

While I agree that both Eberron and Ptolus are both staggeringly beautiful books chock-full of gaming goodness that can be ported to other settings easily if the DM is willing to do a little retooling, I had to go with Unearthed Arcana in the end for "replay value." There are so many variants in that book that you could make new campaigns trying out different combinations of them for decades, if not centuries, and still not run out. And every last one I've tried so far has been helpful to my game. Campaign settings like Ptolus and Eberron are the best of somebody else's game, but UA lets me literally make the game my own.

I would have picked Ptolus if I had picked a setting, though- the level of detail is nothing short of monumental, and I'm a very detail-oriented guy.

For current campaign utility I'd have to go with Spell Compendium, but in the end I went with maximum long-term utility.

 

[CPT_KIRSTOV]

Well, it's only "invalidated" if you are labor under the delusion that it was a scientific poll.

In a scientific poll, though, that's exactly the sort of thing you don't want, because it gives you a biased sample. In a scientific poll, you want an unbiased sample.

Obviously, some folks were expecting or hoping for something that was sorta kinda an unbiased poll, but the truth is, it's sort of hard to guarantee this in this sort of public messageboard poll.

ahh - but is it not biased to want it limited to one of the major messageboards (while it might be the biggest, would it not be a sampling of all the boards be better?

actually I would have liked a poll that connects the votes to the users profiles and only counts it if they had over 100 posts - just as a control to see how much the linking to other boards effected the poll in the long run (yes as you can see this is my first post on these boards- I never had the time to be addicted to another set of boards before)

 

[GrayIguana]

This was tough. I chose Pathfinder as I'm running Rise of the Runelords right now, and I'm enjoying it alot. I mention that it was tough because the Dracomonicon and the Spell Compendium get quite a bit of use. And while I don't run Eberron campaings often, I've picked up most of the books just to read for the fun of it.

 

[cougent]

It needs to be linked to message boards related to each product (if such can be found) that way the unfair influence of being hyped on another message board would be canceled out by all the other hype and the resulting chaos that ensued would be... well almost fair.

 

[Turjan]

It needs to be linked to message boards related to each product (if such can be found) that way the unfair influence of being hyped on another message board would be canceled out by all the other hype and the resulting chaos that ensued would be... well almost fair.

Don't worry too much. All that linking won't help with most of the other products. Popular campaign settings like Eberron or Ptolus are emotional affairs that elicit fond memories in DM's and players alike, even more so when the memories are very fresh, as in these cases. The Pathfinder modules have a similar effect, and they are popular just now.

Relatively dry rulebooks like Unearthed Arcana have a much harder time of stirring up this kind of responses. From there it follows that it's even more remarkable that Unearthed Arcana is that popular. It doesn't matter that it doesn't lead the poll.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

I voted for Eberron, even though I believe the PHB to be the best book created for 3e. Everything else, all the rules options, etc came because the PHB created the system.

Pathfinder was ok and seems to have made a strong push today. I'll have to look into Ptolus, but the price was a major turnoff.