What RPG books/manuals do you really regret buying?

[Yair]

I have two shelves of RPG books, and looking through them I'm glad to say: I'm pretty pleased with what I've got. Even the ones I don't use inspired me or were useful in some form. Ignoring some luckluster pdfs, the books that most disappointed me were...

The Book of Eldritch Might I & II - I was buying into the hype, but ultimately the only stuff I ever used from these in retrospect was unabalanced and uncool.
Mindshadows - quite a disappointment, a "meh" setting that didn't inspire me in the least. I really wanted a psionic-based setting, too.
Ordo Nobilis (an Ars Magica supplument) - aside from a few rule tweaks, this offered nothing. I was hoping for proper Mythic Companions, I got a treatise on medieval nobility.
NPC Essentials, Occult Lore - both good books, but somehow I never used them. I could have spent my money better.

If this list was to include pdfs, it would get somewhat longer... but then, I buy a lot of pdfs.

 

[Kalendraf]

My biggest regret would be purchasing the Sovereign Stone campaign book. I had just discovered 3e, and this was purely an impulse purchase at GenCon a few years back after playing a short intro session in the setting. The session was really fun, but I'm pretty sure I'll never use the setting myself.

Other, lesser regrets...

Mythic Races (at full price) - seemed interesting, but haven't found a use for it.
Several Mongoose books (quintessential series, encyclopedia arcane series) - very mixed bag there. Some good fluff, but otherwise most have not proven to be of much use for me.

 

[KaosDevice]

In fact, it seems like Chaosium barely puts stuff out anymore . . .

They do, but slowly and none of it dual statted any more.

 

[Nightfall]

Trick,

I understand where you are coming from but for me, I just took most of what was written with a very LARGE grain of salt. (In regards to the Faithful and the Forsaken)

Won't comment on Champions, as I felt both it and Heroes were unnecessary. The Gaz were by far the best 3.5/3.0 products for RL to date.

I feel your pain for BoED but then I felt BoVD was only mildly useful.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

The Books of (splat) Might

On first sight, they appeared neat and cool. Then, after review, I discovered them to be either boring or silly. The description of the Rogues book makes me think the trend will continue.

Ghostwalk

Not to echo myself, but BORING. I'm not sure how hard it is to make death and the afterlife boring, but that was achieved with this setting.

Brad

 

[Altalazar]

I'm a book whore. I can find good use out of any book. Hey, as long as it isn't falling apart, it can at least hold up the other books on your shelf...

 

[Nyarlathotep]

While I have boxes and boxes of books that I will never use, the ones that stand out most in my mind as wasted money are:

Savage Species (I'm still not sure why I bought this)
Relics & Rituals (never used once, and only read a couple of times)
Ghostwalk (Seemed allright... but I'll never use it)

I've also got some other d20 stuff I'll never use, but enjoy reading (the complete Spycraft line/Dragonstar lines come to mind... my group doesn't want to play em, but damn they're good!)

 

[Old Fezziwig]

I sold it, but the top of my list (and its sole occupant), number one with a bullet, is Engel (Arthaus's d20 version). Nice idea as far as the setting, but so mechanically awkward and incomplete that it was pretty much unuseable as far as I could tell. Although, to be honest, I couldn't even finish reading it. Ugh.

Nick

 

[driver8]

Hero Builders Guide- basically background ideas and a name generator? Thanks!

Several of the first few 3.0 class splat books. They got better but the first one or so didnt seem to be worth the cost.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

There are very few books I bought that I have been disappointed in. The only one WotC books that I bought and was completely bummed by was Oriental Adventures, thankfully I didn't lose out too much on it, as I was able to resell it. The only three D20 books I bought that I was disappointed in was Eric Metcalf's The Foundation, R.A Salvatore's Demon Wars Campaign Setting and the Devil Player's Guide.