What's the best and worst D&D book you own from any edition?

[Chad Hooper]

Well, since it came back from the dead, I may as well contribute

Best:

BECMI: I started with the pink (mauve? salmon?) edition of the Basic Set, contents 1 red rule book, 1 grease pencil, 1 set of dice, and a copy of The Keep on the Borderlands, so that one will always have a special place in my heart. I also like the Blackmoor trilogy, Blackmoor, Temple of the Frog, and City of the Gods.

AD&D1e: Dungeon Master's Design Kit. Going through the steps outlined in the books therein has saved me from a few cases of "prep block" over the years. Filling out the forms is not even necessary.

AD&D2e: I'm one of the apparent minority that dearly *loved* the Spelljammer setting, so I'm going to go with that, the campaign boxed set.

Worst: For me it's a toss-up between the (very late TSR era) supplements World Builders Guide and Shamans for AD&D2e. Apparently the first staff at TSR to go at the last were the proofreaders, based on those two examples.

Bottom of the barrel IMO is D&D Essentials, which I only bought because they were 75% off cover price at a used book store. Would never play or run that version. Maybe kindling?

 

[BronzeDragon]

The best is the Birthright Campaign Setting (I know it's not a book, but hey, today it would come out as a single volume instead of a boxed set). It's my favorite setting of all time, the art is amazingly inspired, the lore is incredibly good, and I love the idea of the players as rulers (of either small fiefdoms, guilds, churches or flat out kingdoms).

The worst is probably the Everquest Player's Handbook, by SSS. Some stuff to be mined, but overall not a good product.

 

[Celebrim]

Best:

1e: Dungeon Master's Guide, Runner Up: Ravenloft
2e: Complete Thieves Handbook, Runner Up: Return to the Tomb of Horrors
3e: Book of the Righteous, Runner Up: Player's Handbook

Worst
1e: There are several good candidates, but my vote would be Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits, edging out Forest Oracle and Castle Greyhawk.
2e: There are probably too many to name, but FRQ1: Haunted Halls of Evening Star would be one I personally despise as a total waste of money.
3e: Again, there are a ton of things to dislike for a ton of good reasons, but Book of Exalted Deeds edges out the rest for just having nothing slightly redeeming in it.

PS: I seem to have missed that this was necromancy. I don't know; the old threads even with their graveclothes on seem livelier than many of the new threads. I'm inclined to raise all of 2006 or 2010 or so and start over sometimes.

 

[Lanefan]

Best D&D book I own: the 1e DMG. And it's not even close, though there's lots of other very good ones.

Worst D&D book I own: well, define 'worst'. Worst as in "I bought this but I'm never going to use it, I only have it to maintain a collection" - probably the 4e DMG1 and PH. Worst as in "this is badly written/edited and the binding falls apart at one touch" - probably "The Seven Sisters" from 2e, though I no longer own it. Worst as in "this is so bad it's good!" - pick any one of some ancient bad Judges' Guild modules e.g. "Portals of Torsh", "Restormel", "Portals of Twilight" etc.

As for the casting of Raise Thread - I don't mind it at all, particularly a thread like this whose first life I seem to have missed.

Lanefan

 

[Morrus]

Whatever bug causes brand new people to see really old threads should really get fixed one of these days.

Pretty sure the bug is called “Google”.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Happily beating on this no-longer-dead horse:

Best: Secrets of the Lamp, a 2nd Edition Al-Qadim sourcebox. It has seen extensive use in every campaign I have ever run since I bought it back in '94. Distant 2nd place: Rules Cyclopedia, tied with DM's Option: High Level Campaigns. One gives you all the tools you need to run a game; the other tells you how to use them.

Worst: Magic of Incarnum. I'd be hard-pressed to think of a more lifeless and less interesting publication sold under the D&D banner. The only things that come close are the 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide II and 3.5 Spell Compendium.

NOTE: I am only counting books I actually purchased here. There are many, even worse, that I didn't even bother picking up.

 

[Emerikol]

The Best (1e)
There are many great modules. Unless the book went beyond just being a module I don't list modules here. 1e had by far the greatest run of modules ever in my opinion. So many classics.

1. The Dungeon Masters Guide. Still a good read today!
2. The Wilderness Survival Guide

The Best (2e)
1. Ravenloft.
2. The Castle Guide

The Best (3e)
1. Ptolus by Monte Cook
2. The Book of the Righteous.

The Best (4e)
1. Manual of the Planes. While I hated the system, I did like their new take on the cosmos.


The Worst
There is so much garbage in the world. Why dwell on it? In every edition since 1e, modules were bad generally. Ravenloft is an exception of course.

 

[Jhaelen]

Worst: Magic of Incarnum. I'd be hard-pressed to think of a more lifeless and less interesting publication sold under the D&D banner. The only things that come close are the 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide II and 3.5 Spell Compendium.

MoI was weird. I agree that DMG2 was mostly uninspired. The Spell Compendium, though, was an excellent investment, just like the Magic Item Compendium. While they surely didn't make for an exciting read, both were great reference books.

1e favorite: 'Fiend Folio', hands down.
The worst? I cannot think of one.
'sleeper hit': 'Deities & Demigods'. Not much use for the actual game, but such a great inspiration. Also my first contact with Lovecraft's Mythos...

2e favorites: Plenty. My favorite setting was 'Dark Sun'. And my favorite supplement 'The Complete Psionics Handbook'.
The worst? Perhaps the 'Book of Artifacts'.
'sleeper hit': 'Planescape Campaign Setting': Such a great read with awesome artwork, but nothing I ever wanted to play.

My favorite 3e book was probably 'Elder Evils'. Such an excellent resource on how to bring a campaign to an exciting conclusion!
The worst 3e book was definitely 'Complete Psionic'. This piece of drivel should never have been published. They should have taken the best parts (there wasn't much) and turned it into a Dragon article.
My 'sleeper hit': 'Weapons of Legacy': Brilliant concept, badly implemented.

My favorite 4e book was probably 'The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos': slightly better than its companion 'The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea'.
The worst? Probably the Essential PHBs 'Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms' and 'Heroes of the Fallen Lands'. Obviously targeted at players who didn't care for 4e, and deservedly largely failing to change anything about that. Also, this should have been a single book.
My 'sleeper hit': 'Hammerfast: A Dwarven Outpost Adventure Site': This is how the 4e adventure modules should have looked like! A sandbox chock-full of cool story ideas and npcs.

My favorite 5e book: '13th Age Core Book'.
Dunno about the worst. I haven't bought any 5e books.
Therefore no 'sleeper hit' either.

 

[JonnyP71]

A predictable 'best'

- the 1E Dungeon Masters Guide - without doubt the greatest RPG book ever published, it was a mess, but just so utterly inspirational, and full of juicy nuggets throughout. (it just took a while to find them ). Honourable mentions to modules U1, UK4 and WG4.

- 2E - another vote for the Complete Thieves Handbook, a lesson in how all the 'Complete' Books should have been done

(no votes for 3E/4E as I ignored those editions as much as I could)

- 5E - it's Third Party, but the Adventures in Middle Earth Players Book - such a beautiful labour of love.


And the worst:

- 1E Wilderness Survival Guide - unnecessary fluff throughout

- 2E - everything from the Players Options range

- 5E - I hate the section on Playable Monster Races in Volos, but the rest of the book is ok, so I'll go for Hoard of the Dragon Queen - poorly written, needing a lot of DM work to make it workable and fun!

 

[jasper]

Worst 1 E Dungeon Survival Guide
Best 5e PHB