What do you think is the most underrated supplement?

[SLOTHmaster]

There are a ton of 3rd-party supplements (especially in 3.x), most of which don't get any publicity. What supplements do you think deserve to be better known?

 

[Celebrim]

I have no clue how famous supplements are.

There are very few pdfs I don't regret spending money on. Of those, the best are:

Hot Pursuit: The definitive D20 Guide to Chases
Bestiary: The Predators, by Betabunny

As far as more traditional format books my favorites are:

Tome of Horrors
The Book of the Righteous
The Shaman's Handbook

However, I could hardly call those books underrated as they often end up in best of lists.

If I had to underrated titles though, I might pick:

Classic Play: The Book of the Planes
The Book of Eldritch Might III: The Nexus

Neither is truly great, but there are a lot worse titles out there that I feel get undeservedly more attention.

 

[Serendipity]

Keeping it to third party supplemental stuff - Requiem for a God or When the Sky falls, both by Malhavoc Press for 3.5 and both incredible.

 

[Celebrim]

Keeping it to third party supplemental stuff - Requiem for a God or When the Sky falls, both by Malhavoc Press for 3.5 and both incredible.

Actually, those two would have made my list for 'most overrated'.

I don't need adventure hooks. I have more ideas for adventures than I'll ever run. The last thing I need for an adventure hook is a 60 page book about a single 'you only do this once' sort of monolithic plot in a trope based campaign setting, complete with a bunch of crunch like feats, prestige classes, spells, monsters and so forth that are not only campaign specific but adventure specific... and all of this without an actual adventure to run. Not only do I hate that sort of special snowflake approach to rule building, but it feels sort of like someone pitched Pazio for an adventure path concept, got shot down, and then in order to salvage the work effort turned the pitch into a splatbook.

Overall, the 'event books' strike me as gaming books written for people who enjoy collecting and reading gaming literature, as opposed to books that were ever intended to be used.

Cry Havoc is better than the others simply because it covers something that might happen more than once.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I really like Malhavoc Press' work. I especially like the Book of Iron Might for Combat Maneuvers, Skills/Stunts, and some good arcane combat feats.

The Complete Book of Eldritch Might and the Book of Experimental Might are both quite fun and thought-provoking. I have used things from Chaositech and the Book of Roguish Luck as well.

Finally, if your DM allows it, there are some really fun and useful spells in Necromancer Games Eldritch Sorcery.

 

[RevTurkey]

Hmm...

I used to really like 'Legends of Earthdawn' a FASA 1st Edition supplement.

I don't know how well recieved it was as we are talking before all this internet lark exploded.

It was full of folklore style tales that could be used as building blocks for adventures or as flavour within a campaign. I ran a campaign based around some of those tales combined with some inspiration from song lyrics and we had a fine old time. Good game system at the lower 'levels' but tended to go a bit wonky as you progressed...well that was our experience through several campaigns.

 

[gamerprinter]

Of course this is completely biased, but as the concept creator of the Kaidan setting of Japanese horror, published as an imprint under Rite Publishing with a mini-campaign arc, multiple one-shot adventures, racial guides, class/faction guides, a map product/adventure site, a haunts guide, and though still in development the GM's and Player's guides to the setting. Think of it as a cross between Oriental Adventures and Ravenloft, with a heavy dose of spiritualism and esoteric concepts with nods to Buddhism. If looking for a feudal Japan setting with a greater emphasis on historical, cultural and folklore authenticity than most other Asian settings, it might be worth looking at.

Although it has a fairly strong base of fans, especially those that contributed to the Kickstarter supporting it, as both a horror and a feudal Japan analog, it is niche, niche, niche and definitely an outlier in the kinds of settings most people play. It does get some love from other 3PPs also creating Asian based material, but I really wish more GMs and players looked at its possibilities.

 

[Greg K]

For 3e, these are my favorites. Many are on favorites lists that used to, frequently, come up on ENWorld, but I think more people should be familiar with them.

Adamant

• Hot Pursuit
• Hot Pursuit: On Foot

Alderac (AEG)

• Toolbox

Avalanche

• Noble Steeds: A d20 Guide to Horses

Blue Devil Games

• Poisoncraft

EN Publishing

• Advanced Rules for Beginners
• Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns

Green Ronin

• Advanced Bestiary: a big book of monster templates
• Book of the Righteous
• Book of Fiends (or for 3.0 the individual books Armies of the Abyss and Legions of Hell)
• Psychic's Handbook
• Shaman's Handbook
• Witch's Handbook

Malhavoc

• Book of Iron Might

Monkey God/Highmoon Media

• From Stone to Steel
• Frost and Fur

Mystic Eye Games

• Artificer's Handbook

Silverthorne/Goodman Games

• Deluxe Book of Templates Revised (pdf)/Book of Templates (print edition)

Skirmisher Press

• Experts 3.5

 

[Greg K]

Bestiary: The Predators, by Betabunny

This has been on my to buy list for a long time. However, due to shortage of funds, it keeps getting put aside for both games that I want to check out and/or supplements of games that I am, currently, playing and can buy during pdf sales.

 

[Celebrim]

Of course this is completely biased, but as the concept creator of the Kaidan setting of Japanese horror, published as an imprint under Rite Publishing with a mini-campaign arc, multiple one-shot adventures, racial guides, class/faction guides, a map produt/adventure site, a haunts guide, and though still in development the GM's and Player's guides to the setting. Think of it as a cross between Oriental Adventures and Ravenloft, with a heavy dose of spiritualism and esoteric concepts with nods to Buddhism.

Sounds good.

I don't actually have an 'oriental' setting in my homebrew world per se, but neither do I actually have an 'occidental' setting either. It's more like medieval Europe if medieval Europe was in south east Asia and the Catholic church was replaced with Hinduism and the racial inhabitants were a mixture of Mayans and Irish settlers.

So it isn't entirely as niche as you think, because exotic horror is definitely to theme. With that in mind, keeping in mind I need more crunch than fluff, what would you say are the strongest pdf's in terms of providing collections of things like monsters, ghosts, etc. Off the bat the 30 haunts for Kaidan looks like it might go on my wish list.