What RPG books/manuals do you really regret buying?

[Lars Porsenna]

I didn't mind BoED either. I use several feats from it and a few spells, and so far 1 prestige class (Lion of the Talisid...one look at the illo and I KNEW I wanted to play that character!!!). The additional extra-planar powers make sense within the context of D&D cosmology (they are for the upper planes what the Dukes, Princes, etc of the Abyss/Hell are for the lower planes) and although I haven't used then, I like the addition (I haven't used Asmodeus yet either, but I enjoy him and his ilk within the game).

I'm not sure about ravages. I KNOW I saw somewhere, in some fantasy literature, folklore, etc. something similar, but I'm just not placing my finger on it yet...

I also really enjoyed MotP as well. Then, I enjoyed 1e's MotP very much as well -- one of my favorite books -- even though I never used it once. Knowing its there, and having fun reading it, made it worthwhile too. At the very minimum, I could pull characters/personalities, etc from the book to spice up Prime Material adventures...

Stonghold Builder's Guidebook got much use from me, with 3 of my PCs building strongholds, as well as designing a number of others in a logical, consistent manner. Plus its fun to make stuff like that.

The only books I really regret spending money on were in 2e, and included I, Tyrant, Complete Book of Dwarves. and a couple others. Not worthwhile at all, IMHO.

Damon.

 

[Torm]

Clanbook: Ventrue. Kinda neat, but I don't anticipate EVER playing V:TM again.

 

[billd91]

Stuff I regret buying:

Traveller New Era - if you thought the original Traveller was too militaristic, put it into a neo-colonial setting and throw in all sorts of modern military jargon, ugh!

Player's Option: Skills and Powers - an interesting idea, badly implemented. Only served to reinforce the imbalances of the ongoing system.

House of Strahd (and pretty much all of the 2nd ed Ravenloft modules) - HoS was a 2nd ed repackaging of I6, which I already had so HoS offered me pretty much nothing at all. Other than Feast of Goblyns (which I liked) most Ravenloft modules were pretty lame.

Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil - worse than the first in pointless dungeon-crawliness

 

[MrFilthyIke]

There are many I regret, but only because it was money that could have been spent on different products.

 

[resistor]

I'm probably in the minority here, but I regret buying Arcana Unearthed when it came out. A lot of the mechanical changes were interesting and had potential, but the flavor just turned me off. I wanted D&D with interesting different mechanics rather than something that's kind of D&D with a very odd flavor... and interesting different mechanics by the wayside.

I like the concept of the combined magic system and most of the new classes concepts. The races, the feats, and some of the classes just turned me off. And even for the concepts I did like, they were all drenched in a flavor I didn't like to a degree that it would have taken considerable effort to detox them.

 

[Captain NeMo]

What'cha know, my first topic to go red.

I think I'll add to the list the DMG at full price. I'm kinda thrifty, and wished I got it via eBay really. Ah well, at least it is a useful book...

 

[woodelf]

Regret?

Riddle of Steel is top of the list, followed by Midnight. Both of them sounded great, but are utterly wrong for my tastes.

Interested in parting with Riddle of Steel? It's on my "to buy" list, but i've realized it's not sufficiently important to me to pay full price, so i've been waiting to see a used copy--and haven't yet.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

As another has noted, my opinion of Chaosium, especially their business sense, has lowered. Has Green Ronin offered to do a limited license or anything for Elric? They're basically sitting on the license so maybe a Mythic Vistas under license from Chaosium could be done? Ask them with sugar on top!

The fact that Chris Pramas can offer to help out and then gets turned down really bugs me. Chaosium continues to make mistakes the size of Games Workship's mistakes. In fact, it seems like Chaosium barely puts stuff out anymore . . .

 

[KaosDevice]

Wow where to start, all these books over the years...

Chamelon Ecclectic's Babylon 5 springs to mind....good lord what a horrible, horrible game.

I really regretted buying Aftermath, hated the rules.

City System, those paper buildings had about the same life span as a gnat in my gaming group. I might as well of set that money on fire.

 

[Trickstergod]

My three biggest regrets are the Faithful and the Forsaken, the Book of Exalted Deeds and Champions of Darkness.

The Faithful and the Forsaken took one of the more interesting aspects of the Scarred Lands and totally trashed it, transforming the not quite so hackneyed forsaken elves into overly hackneyed high elves with a garbage history and more than a few loop-holes and broken mechanics. It's easily the lowest point of the setting for me, in part for my love of the settings forsaken elves, in part because it really is just a poorly done book.

Then the Book of Exalted Deeds ranks up there for its extremely shallow and superficial take on alignment. The morality was cartoonish, inoffensive and not really the focus of the book. It focused too much on new spells, feats, stats for NPC's I'll never use and prestige classes based on those NPC's I'll never use. I guess it's not the worst book; just not for me.

As for Champions of Darkness, it's similar to the Book of Exalted Deeds, on the flip side. It's a book of anti-heroes, to a degree, and boy is it a stinker. It dilutes the feel of the Ravenloft setting and misses the theme of a number of the settings Domains. It has a number of badly written NPC's with missing stat blocks, to boot, and a number of poorly conceived, broken prestige classes and feats. It also has introduces each chapter with fiction. Really. Bad. Fiction.

Of course, I have no one to blame but myself for Champions of Darkness; I knew it was bad before I picked it up. However, it detailed an organization that I was looking for some information on. Thus why I bought it. It turns out that information only took up about half a page.

I have a few other books I'm 'meh' on, but they've either proved useful in some fashion or they weren't picked up at full price. Heck, had I picked up the Faithful and the Forsaken and the Book of Exalted Deeds under half the cover price, I probably wouldn't have much issue with them.

Champions of Darkness is the one book that I don't think anyone should buy. Ever. Meh, meh, meh.