What RPG books are the Gems of your collection?

[Wild Gazebo]

I guess the most sentimental would be my OD&D Expert Boxed Set that I bought with my own birthday money...I was so happy to go beyond third level. Besides that, I have a peculiar passion for the the 2nd Ed Factols Manifesto...it was just so well thought out. Oh, and the 1st Ed Manual of the Planes...it was just awsome--still is.

 

[Khayman]

The Book of Ebon Bindings. Hands down, the winner in my collection. It has been pilfered to prop up every demon cult in all of my campaigns, and the book is entirely stat-free despite being intended for the Empire of the Petal Throne. Comes complete with illustrations of summoning circles and bizarre rituals involving the sacrifice of children's feet.

Runners-up: (the things that find use in every campaign)

* Petersen's Guide to Creatures of the Outlands
* All of my Ars Magica material (3rd - 5th edition)
* Megatraveller: Aslan & Solomani
* Megatraveller: Vilani & Vargr
* Megatraveller: Worldbuilder's Handbook
* Kult main rulebook (1st English edition)

 

[CarlZog]

There's a lot of old books I wouldn't part with just because of sentimental reasons (OD&D booklets, 1e corebooks, etc).

But for reasons of utility, innovation, etc:

PHB and DMG -- Pure practicality; Most frequently used.
Runequest -- Decades ahead of its time.
Alternity -- Brilliant core mechanics, more like what d20 should have been.
Arduin Grimoire -- Still get ideas out of this.

Also, because they're being most used at the moment, my pirate stuff: Swashbuckling Adventures, Skull and Bones, Broadsides!, and Pirates!.

Carl

 

[palleomortis]

I'm newer, and only have a few good books. My collection is small and includes:
DM's Guid
Players Handbook
Monster Mannul 3.5
Monster Mannul 2
Complete arcane
Libris Mortis
Small book(paperback) on charecter creation
Small book(paperback) on D20 treusurs and marvoules finds and thing of the sort.

My "gems" are my DM's Guid, Players Handbook, And Monster Manuals. They aren't special, but ther's now way to play without them, and I've become rather attatched. By the By, would anyone like to buy a DM's guid of (I think) One of the first D&D versions. If you can tell me wich, i'de like to know. It Is black, with yellow lettering, really basic looking. I'll post to tell you if I find out wich edition it is.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Presently Usable:

Tome of Horrors I
Manual of the Planes
Castles & Crusades Boxed Set
Crucible of Freya
NeMoren's Vault
Warhammer Fantasy 2e

Nostalgic Reasons:
The OD&D boxed sets, Basic through Immortals -- with the exception of the Immortals set and the DMG from the Basic set, these are all the original books that I cut my teeth on gaming with when I was a young lad.
Battered copies of:
Tomb of Horrors
Queen of the Spiders
Keep on the Borderlands

 

[der_kluge]

My own personal copies of Bluffside and Artificer's Handbooks. I put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into those books. They have a lot of personal value to me.

 

[AIM-54]

The gems, eh? Well, my absolute favorite is my battered SR3 (it went from brand new to well-used in about one session). All I need to play my favorite game, plus it has some great art. I'd also add Man and Machine, Cannon Companion, Rigger 3 and Shadows of Europe to that list, if only because you can't go wrong with more cyber/bio-ware, guns, and rules for things like aircraft carriers. As a student of European affairs, I get a big kick out of SoE.

Sentimentally, I'd have to say my collection of Robotech RPG books. Many of them were bought used, so they're not in the greatest conditions, but I can happily flip through those books looking at the mecha and gear for hours. The RPG suffers from being Palladium, but I enjoy the books anyway. I think I'd throw my 2E DMG in this category as well. It provided hours of world-building ideas which I happily played with (world building being among my favorite aspects of fantasy role-playing).

 

[Azgulor]

My three copiesof the old THieves World Box set.

My jealousy meter just went off the charts!

 

[Pants]

2e Monstrous Manual
Draconomicon
3.5 Core Books
Manual of the Planes

 

[caudor]

3.5 Core Rules
Fiend Folio (lastest one)
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Miniatures Handbook
eTools
And, of course, my stack of Dungeon and Dragon Magazines