What RPG books/manuals do you really regret buying?

[Shemeska]

Keeping in mind that I paid money for SYNNIBARR and don't regret that...

3e Deities and Demigods. Utterly useless and I've not so much as opened the book since the first week after I had purchased it. Not -bad-, just completely and utterly useless and pointless.

Players Guide to Faerun - the only 3.x FR book that I don't consider to be well written and put together. 3.5 updates (aka lots of marginally updated crunch), a compilation of novel metaplot stuff that I'd know from reading them in the first place, and an expansion of a retconned cosmology that I'll never in my life (even if there's a gun to my face) actually deign to use.

 

[Dr. Harry]

XXVc game- it is not Buck Rodgers, as much as they tried to make it.

As far as the roel-playing game with its "we'll assume thta you are nine years old" approach, and the Richard Scary-style artwork, I agree with you 100%. Good heavans was this disappointing. I was looking for a hard(ish) sf game and got (too) desperate. The board game, however, runs pretty well.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

Sounds like some of you have really made some iffy choices. But, just to clarify, would the revised version of Creature Collection be worth a bit under the £5 (including P+P) which I paid?

Yes. I have the original and found many monsters in it to be interesting (the assorted denizens of the Carnival of Shadows ranks tops amoungst them). I never got the revised version having made most of the revisions myself once the MM came out.

My biggest regret RPg wise is probably 5th edition HERO. I've read it (mostly) but know I will never play it. Thankfully I paid 1/2 price for it.

For a full priced RPG book I would have to lump all of the 3.0 classbooks into one big steaming pile and say - 'waste of money'.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Draconomicon

Neat book, but I have zero use for it.

 

[The_Universe]

The D&D Arms and Equipment Guide - I've used a total of once, and even then there were only 3 useful pages. It's not even fun to read. BLEH!

 

[KB9JMQ]

Well the DUNE book released at the same time as Third Edition.
I will never get to play it. No one wants too.
But I am keeping it since they are now worth a mint.

 

[Greylock]

My bottom shelf books are the ones I bought trying to understand computer RPGs better:

Baldurs Gate: 2ed PHB and DMG
Neverwinter Nights: 3.0 PHB and Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting.

If I could have that money back, I'd be mighty pleased. It's a pity I wasn't aware of the SRD back then. When I bought the 3.0 PHB the shop owner was upfront about 3.5 coming out, but since NWN is 3.0 (with twists), I thought the book would still be useful. I was wrong. The FRCS seemed a smart move too, at the time. I had just signed on as a writer/tester for a PW and knew zero about FR. However, it didn't take long for me to have a falling out with the team leader, who was an egotistical martinet. Everything halfway useful from the book is readily accessible online, and no one I know runs FR. Another useless book.

 

[Insight]

The Psionics Handbook (3.0). I bought it about a month before the new one came out. That'll teach me to read the message boards before I make a purchase!

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

The Shady Dragon Inn...


the all time worst piece of trash EVAR written for a rpg.

But it has a great map.

My #1 RPG purchase regret is easily Dragonlords of Melnibone. Worthless. I can't even give it away.

 

[John Morrow]

The RPG Unknown Armies (first edition). It was getting rave reviews on RPGnet while I was living in Tokyo and I bought a shrink-wrapped copy in a Tokyo game store for way more than US cover price. I probably should have avoided it by looking at the cover but was also interested in the system. I simply don't see what all the fuss is about. It's the only RPG that I own that I'd consider selling or giving away (no, I'm not mailing it to anyone so don't ask).