The book you were all excited to get... and now gathering dust...

[Sir Whiskers]

Books sitting and collecting dust because they were just THAT bad or disappointing:

Psionics Handbook (incredibly bland)
Epic Level Handbook (incredibly over-the-top)


Books that are great but are unfortunately collecting dust:

Stargate SG-1
5th Edition Hero System (not d20, but still...)

 

[Stormrunner]

Thought it would be interesting but was absolute crap:

Ultimate Feats from Mongoose Publishing. Basically the Netbook of Feats in hardcover (=$$$), with the page count padded with gratuitous babe art. Lots of feats that do almost-the-same-thing-as-a-feat-elsewhere-in-the-book, lots of add-plus-2-to-2-skills feats... maybe a dozen or so feats that might be useful with a little rewriting, the rest was useless to me. Feh.

Sorta useful but only on rare occasions:

Monsters' Handbook
Stronghold Builders' Guidebook
Savage Species

Bought for completeness but will probably never use in a game:

Psionics Handbook
Manual of the Planes

Neat but can't find anyone to play it:
Arcana Unearthed
Temple of Elemental Evil
Oriental Adventures and various Rokugan splatbooks

As for non-D&D3.x stuff ... oy, don't get me started. Besides my 2 1/2 shelves of D&D, I've got an entire shelf of GURPS, and two more shelves of "other" - Ars Magica, Champions, Amber, Ironclaw, Albedo, Lace and Steel, Castle Falkenstein, Mage, Werewolf, Traveller, Car Wars, Orkworld, Floating Vagabond, Paranoia, Shadowrun, Aria, and Chill. Just to name a few. All gathering dust for years now, due to lack of time/players/money.

 

[Gez]

For now, it would be Seas of Blood. But that's because our piratey-seafaring campaign has yet to start with the piratey-seafaring bit.

 

[jrients]

Neat but can't find anyone to play it:
Arcana Unearthed

As for non-D&D3.x stuff ... oy, don't get me started.

Ditto. I thought I had a group lined up for AU, but scheduling turned into a huge mess. Non-D&D-wise I've got Streetfighter, HKAT!, Adventure!, some Exalted, a SAS core book and lots of other Tri-Stat stuff going unused.

 

[MulhorandSage]

Many, many books - like, half my collection. But if I EVER want to run something with that game setting....

Most recently:

Testament - Fascinating reading, but I haven't cracked it open since Gencon, I think.

Please no comments about any trends.

I'm sorry to hear this Henry; I thought we'd put in enough liftable bits to keep it useful for a long time. Though I'm glad you enjoyed reading it.

Out of curiosity, if someone was ever to do a second edition of Testament, what do you think would need to be added or changed to make the book more usable?

Scott Bennie
Author, Testament

 

[frankthedm]

Again with the bashing, sheesh!

I wasn't that disappointed, the original was the same deal.

I just don't see how every didn't SEE that it would be
stat blocks for Gawds, isn't that what the original was about?
(Minus the Cthulhu/Melnibonean goodness)

The stat blocks took up way too much space. smaller font for the stats would of been a major improvement.

 

[tburdett]

Which book were you eager to get, only to have it gathering dust in some murky corner of your collection?

The next book that I will sell is Savage Species. We gave it a try and it just did not work out for us. Traps and Treachery 2 and the new Gamma World book are going to go as well. If I do not use it, I sell it.

 

[Nifft]

For now, it would be Seas of Blood. But that's because our piratey-seafaring campaign has yet to start with the piratey-seafaring bit.

Hey, that happened to me too! I bought the ship-combat rules, put my PCs on an island where Goblinoids were assaulting (by ship). They chose to track a small group which was making its way into the interior of the island... pesky trackers!

It's been months and they've yet to set foot on a ship in-game.

-- N

 

[pogre]

Another man's trash is my treasure
I like the ELH, I cannot wait to get another group high enough to use it. However, the way my campaigns have been going that might take a while. 2 TPKs in a row - ouch

My Pick
I do not buy a lot, but the only thing I have regretted buying is one of the splat books. They just do not fit my style.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

Which book were you eager to get, only to have it gathering dust in some murky corner of your collection?

Deities & Demigods. Man, what a waste of money that was.