What book to buy?

[Olaf the Stout]

Hi everybody. My birthday is coming up and I am looking at getting a couple of books. I'm just having a little trouble deciding what to get. I'm not playing in a D&D game at the moment (little bit busy with working full-time, studying, playing sport as well as just getting engaged ) but I plan to once I have cleared some space on my calender. Since I just got engaged this is the last time for a while that I will be spending money on some books before going into super saving mode.

There are a few books that I'm looking at buying and I just wanted everyones' opinion on what they think I should get. When I do get some free time I plan to DM a homebrew game. With that in mind what books do you think would be a good purchase?

I just ordered both Magical Medieval Society books from XRP so both of them are out. I was thinking about the "Book of the Righteous" but I was wondering how campaign specific this book is. What I'm really looking for is a book to help me design my own gods, pantheon, etc., Is this the book I'm after then or does it just give me a lot of details about the Green Ronin campaign setting? Is there another book that would suit my needs better in this regard?

The other things that I was looking at are "Experts" and "Counter Collections" 1 and 2. Does anyone have any thoughts about these products. Are they good/bad/okay? I have read all the reviews about these books but I am still to make up my mind about them.

The one other book that I was considering was by Grey Ghost Press, "Game Mastering Secrets, 2nd Edition". I haven't really DM'ed much before and I thought it my have some good advice to help me out. Has anyone else out there heard of or used this book before? What were your thoughts on it? Any opinions good or bad would be appreciated.

Apart from the books that I have listed above, does anyone know of any other books that they think I may be overlooking that are well worth the money?

Thanks in advance,

Olaf the Stout

Edited for stupid spelling mistakes

 

[johnsemlak]

Counter Collection I and II are great resources but many of the counters are specific to 3.0. Basically, many are the wrong size, including most monsters huge-sized or larger.

I'd wait for Counter Collection Gold to come out, which should correct this. I believe CC:G should be released soon.

I do love CC1 and CC2 as a resourse however. It's a cheap and nice alternative to minis.

 

[Voadam]

I believe book of the righteous is not what you are looking for in a god book. I believe it gives an in depth cosmology and set of gods and divine history and is not a toolkit for designing your own.

Maybe GURPS religion if you want generic discussions about gods and cosmology. Or the old Primal Order for actually using gods.

For counters the Fiery Dragon ones are good, they show profile shots of the creatures depicted and there are a lot of them. They are 3.0 so they have some 5x10 facing counters. You have to cut them out yourself, however, which is annoying. The great thing about counters is you can get a bunch and they are easy to carry around in a plastic ziploc bag.

Other books to consider would be a big megamodule such as the Banewarrens (Malhavok press) or a set of short encounters such as Book of Challenges (WotC) or En Route (Atlas Games) to fill in things in between your major campaign activities.

Or maybe a monster book to give your campaign a different exotic feel, although if you have not been playing a lot lately then straight core book flavor D&D should be fine.

For the future, if you want cheap d20 RPG materials check out the pdfs on www.rpgnow.com there are a lot of good ones ranging from class books to monster collections to modules.

 

[CCamfield]

GM Secrets (2nd ed) is a pretty darn good book. It's aimed, in my opinion, at beginner GMs or close to it - and I'd include myself in that category. It covers a very wide range of topics.

There are some reviews of it at rpg.net, here are links.

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9344.phtml
http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_7382.html

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

The other things that I was looking at are "Experts" and "Counter Collections" 1 and 2. Does anyone have any thoughts about these products. Are they good/bad/okay?

The one other book that I was considering was by Grey Ghost Press, "Game Mastering Secrets, 2nd Edition". I haven't really DM'ed much before and I thought it my have some good advice to help me out. Has anyone else out there heard of or used this book before? What were your thoughts on it? Any opinions good or bad would be appreciated.

The Counter Collections are great, but I'd wait for the Counter Collection Gold, as johnsemlak mentioned.

Game Mastering Secrets is a good book, but I'd recommend Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering. I think it's one of the most useful rpg books I've ever purchased. I'd also recommend GM Mastery: NPC Essentials.

 

[diaglo]

otherwise...book of the righteous might be a good bet for you.

 

[DonAdam]

For monsters- the Monsternomicon or Tome of Horrors

For traps/puzzles- Traps and Treachery (T&T II is good as well, but not great)

For DM advice: GM Mastery: NPC Essentials

 

[Mystery Man]

NPC essentials was a great read and worth the money. I think I downloaded it from their website for less than 10 bucks.

As far as Game Mastering Secrets, 2nd Edition goes, it's 35 dollars for 178 pages worth of info you could find on the internet wiht a google search or this message board by just asking.

 

[Nightfall]

otherwise...book of the righteous might be a good bet for you.

And people complain about my SL pimpage.

BotR is good for setting up a new panethon you haven't created. The religions section are nice but a little too rigid at time. Overall I recommend BotR for mining ideas but not as a source. Them counter thingies are nice.

Best monster book: Tome of Horror with my CC fellows being excellent additions. Tome of Horror II will also be a good choice.

Best Magic book: Complete Book of Eldritch Might.

 

[DaveMage]

Do you have all of the Wizards of the Coast books?

If not, then I'd recommend the Book of Vile Darkness and the Fiend Folio.

If you're looking for non-WotC books, then I'd recommend any of the following:

Dangerous Denizens (Monster book - Kenzer)
Tome of Horrors (Monster book - Necromancer Games)
Toolbox (Lots and lots of tables - AEG)

For your homebrew campaign design, I'd recommend Gary Gygax's World Builder and/or Living Fantasy (from Troll Lord Games). They don't tell you how to build a world so much as show you what you can put in it, but they are great for plugging holes in your home-brewed world.