What d20 Purchases to you Regret?

[Bloodstone Mage]

For me...

Epic Level Handbook. Didn't have any use for it, and I didn't like the way the material was handled. I gave away it to a friend of mine.

Cheers!

 

[CRGreathouse]

To continue with the thread, I'll post the other products I regret buying:

The splatbooks, of course; fortunately, I only got one -- which I later sold to a group member for $2. I'm glad I did, because I bet I bought great stuff with that money like three candy bars.

Path of Faith was interesting to read, but I don't really use it in my game. Best part: legendary classes like the Avatar; worst part: small gods, a great idea poorly implemented (IMO).

Requiem for a God was perhaps the first Malhavoc product I regret, and I'm not sure if I do regret it. It's very well written and organized, and covers a topic I use in my game (as one of the gods in my setting just died several months ago), but the particulars annoy me -- powerful as everything surrounding the death of a god is as presented, I thought it should be more powerful yet. The godsflesh golem is made from the corpse of a fallen god, but it's only CR 16; drinking godsblood directly gives nothing more than a heal and 3 stat boosters (as cast by a Wiz20), or just cure serious wounds if moved from the corpse. Best part: the What happens to followers of a dead god? section, which considers many options I hadn't really considered.

 

[CRGreathouse]

To prove I'm not entirely heartless, here are some much-maligned books I enjoyed:

The Epic Level Handbook allows me to keep playing even though my group's high level. No one's above level 20 in the party, but monsters and major NPCs are. For example, the Lord High Preist of the church of Pelor (who the cleric PC has met twice) is 23rd level. The monsters they fight, generally in Hell (long story), are either from the ELH directly or based on ELH mechanics.

Deities and Demigods is useful when your gods can be killed and, in fact, kill each other with suprising regularity -- at least on their time scale, if not on a mortal time scale. Qantifying their power in relation to one another is important to me, even if the PCs coudn't ever face even a demigod in combat. (In time, though, perhaps they will; they've angered a certain demigod. They may ask protection from another god, or just keep low profiles...)

 

[Threedub]

I've bought a lot of material since 3.0 came out and I like most of it since I usually do not buy until I read a few reviews. But I too am human and sometimes make rash purchases. I would not have got:

Epic Level Handbook
The whole concept and handling of the mechanics didn't fit our group's 'ready for Epic' characters and has never seen use.

Psionic's Handbook
Didn't fit the feel of our world, felt like nothing more than a new spell casting system. Again, has seen no use except for using the Puppeteer monster and converting its powers to non-psionic.

The Slayer's Guide to Duegar
This is the only Slayer's Guide I have even purchased and I should have known better after looking over the others in game stores. But I was building a large underdark campaign with Plot and Poison from GR and read a semi-positive review. I found nothing in the book that I added to the Duegar I had already put into the campaign. About 30 pages or so for $10. I should have bought a couple Duegar minis. (BTW Plot and Poison has seen a ton of use and I really like the mechanics and feel, great buy).

 

[Michelle Lyons]

As a note, even worse than purchasing a book you regret is contributing to one. I've written some really nice stuff for some terribly, terribly uneven books that ended up horrible as a whole. While I can forget about them and go on with my professional life, I then have author copies -- like, five each -- of books I have absolutely no use for and can't even give away to anyone I actually like.

This is a true regret. Ah well.

 

[Emirikol]

I bought the following books for my campaigns:

These make me happy:
*Nyambe
*Oriental Adventures
*Creature Collections I&II
*Call of Cthulhu d20
*Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (when I write LG adventures, this is my bible)

I'm mixed about the following:
*Deities & Demigods (why god stats? needed more background)
*Psionics Handbook (I like the standardized system but classes are weak)
*Slaine

I'm pissed I bought:
*D20Modern (why did I buy this again?)
*Star Wars
*Relics & rituals
*Epic Level Handbook
*Book of VD
*Dragon Lords of melnibone
*Arms & Equipment guide (good only for low level characters)
*FR CS and Magic of Faerun (why did I buy these if I'm not running a campaign there?)
*Class Guidebooks (aka 'splatbooks') I HAD to buy these b/c I was on the Living Greyhawk Triad here!

jh



..

 

[Emirikol]

As a note, even worse than purchasing a book you regret is contributing to one.

Funny you should say that. some of my players said that about some stuff they've playtested..time will tell.

jh

 

[Trickstergod]

That is the ONLY SL book I've EVER regreted getting. I will say though your reaction Trick is what I expect at times. If it isn't godlike perfect in some respects, it's not good.

You'll also note that of the books I said I regret having, only one is a Scarred Lands book, and while I pointed out the mechanical troubles with Relics and Rituals and the Creature Collection, which everyone else has, I also leapt to the books defense and made a point of saying I don't regret having them. If something isn't godlike perfect in some respects, yes, I'll point that out, but that doesn't mean a book isn't good.

Not to mention, bad as an unrelenting critic may be, sycophants are equally as sickening. One should strive for a balance. That way, when something's really good, hey, you can trust to that. When it's not, you can trust to that.

In either case, a number of folk have already stepped up to offer a rebuttal, so no need for my belaboring the point.

 

[mrswing]

What I've regretted buying :
- Mongoose's Dragon Magic. Not what I expected at all and didn't interest me in the least.
- Some Penumbra stuff: the Bestiary (too many Weird/Cute creatures, not enough 'wow! that's spectacularly cool' beasts.
The Monte Cook adventure based on the Half Dragon-Template.
- Kingdom of Kalamar : not bad, but I realised I'd never use it and some of the adventures weren't very good or interesting. I only kept the Villain's Design Handbook.
- Midnidght: it just wasn't for me. The 'You cannot defeat Izrador no matter what you do'-caveat, the weakness of spellcasters and the overabundance of invisble, intangible evil spirits who possessed people or animals killed it for me.
-RttToEE: an interminable, boring dungeon crawl as written (I am in awe of the people who took it apart and rebuilt it as evidenced over at Monte's forum, but it didn't inspire me at all).
-SAS d20: not bad, just will probably never use it, what with M&M, DNW, and Hero...
-Star Wars Tempest Feud adventure
-Bluffside: don't like the history and idea of the city
-Bloody Sands of Sicaris: another adventure with great NPC's and a cool intelligent plot which reduces the characters to the level of bystanders and bodyguards of the REAL main characters. Same could be said to a certain degree of the Witchfire trilogy but there I feel there is enough gold among the dross to keep me interested (though running it would require MAJOR rewriting).
-And some Scarred Lands stuff: the dreadful Penumbral Pentagon, but also Hornsaw Forest (way too much 'gee, look how cool these elves are: they use piercings and tattoos', too reminiscent of the Earthdawn Blood Wood (and inferior to it), a dull adventure which is nothing but a magic-using spider filled dungeon crawl...). I'm not ecstatic about CCIII either (50/50), but don't really regret it.
- And various and sundry modules which are either senseless dungeon crawls or just not very interesting at all.

I will leap to the defense of Masters of Arms because it makes a valiant effort at rendering d20 combat more visual and exciting. I enjoy it a lot.

 

[I'm A Banana]

For those of you torqued about Deities and Demigods...

Check the link in the sig. It's an example of *my* take on how the gods should have been statted up.

Which actually reminds me....gotta contact Ashy about a possible preview of a something something blah.