Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
What's the best and worst D&D book you own from any edition?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 7832728" data-attributes="member: 52734"><p>Coming back to this after several years is interesting. I'm revising my original answer, as others have, by edition. Limiting to "official" books, and what I'm familiar with.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>BECMI/Basic</strong></span></p><p></p><p><strong>Best:</strong> Rules compendium - an entire D&D game in one book. I don't think that's a feat we'll ever see again</p><p><strong>Worst: </strong>Immortal Rules Set. I've never been much for high level play and the whole Immortal line just made me wonder "why?" every time I read through it.<strong> </strong>The adventures for it didn't help, as the first two stripped your characters of their magical abilities for the majority of the adventure...<strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Honorable Mention:</strong> Moldvay Basic Ruleset - this was what I cut my teeth on. I did have the Holmes book first, but I didn't understand it. This set got me actually playing the game for real.</p><p><strong>Dishonorable Mention:</strong> B9 - Journey to the Rock. An insipid adventure, railroady and plain bad.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px">AD&D 1E</span></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Best: </strong>I7 - Ravenloft. Just so good. Doesn't hurt I played Dracula himself back in our 8th grade play. I've used Ravenloft in every version of D&D I've played</p><p><strong>Worst: </strong>Greyhawk Adventures. As much as I like the World of Greyhawk, I've never used anything from this book nor felt there was really anything of value in it worth using. <strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Honorable Mention: </strong>DL1 - Dragons of Despair. Really, the whole Dragonlance series kept me from moving away from D&D to other pursuits. The module itself isn't the best, but it was my introduction into the greater Dragonlance world</p><p><strong>Dishonorable Mention: </strong>S1 - Tomb of Horrors. I used to love reading through this adventure, until I actually used it in play.<strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>AD&D 2E</strong></span></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Best: </strong>Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog. I'm a sucker for shopping lists, and this just was shopping madness at its best.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Worst:</strong> Oy, there's a lot of bottom-feeders for 2E; practically all of the adventures for 2E were either too mundane, too railroady or both. Probably the worst was GA2 - Swamplight. It was like a bad attempt at retelling U2 - Danger At Dunwater.</p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Honorable Mention:</strong> Dark Sun boxed set (the 1st one). Really got to give TSR a hand for this one. It was one of their few non-traditional fantasy worlds that actually resonated as cool and fun to play in. It's still the only one where psionics feel right at home.</p><p><strong>Dishonorable Mention: </strong>Complete Book of Elves. Banned the damn book from my game at one point.<strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px">D&D 3E</span></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 15px">Best: </span></strong><span style="font-size: 15px">Ghostwalk. A fun and interesting campaign setting with an equally intriguing look at life after death.</span><strong><span style="font-size: 15px"></span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 15px">Worst: </span></strong><span style="font-size: 15px">Epic Level Handbook. The worst and most useless book out of the original 3E books. It came to truly cement why I hate high-level play.</span><strong><span style="font-size: 15px"></span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 15px"></span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 15px">Honorable Mention: </span></strong><span style="font-size: 15px">Forge of Fury. I probably would have put Sunless Citadel here too, but I never ran that one.</span><strong><span style="font-size: 15px"></span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 15px">Dishonorable Mention: </span></strong><span style="font-size: 15px">Stronghold Builder's guide. A worse version of 2E's castle guide and completely useless to boot. Hero Builder's Guide goes here too.</span></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>D&D 3.5E</strong></span></strong></p><p><strong>Best: </strong>Dungeon Master's Guide. This was the last DMG I could stomach reading cover to cover (5+ editions and countless other rule systems will do that to you).</p><p><strong>Worst:</strong> Book of Nine Swords. Worst. Book. Ever.</p><p></p><p><strong>Honorable Mention:</strong> Frostburn & Stormwrack. These got me out of my mundane mindset instilled by the old Wilderness Survival Guide and made me think about how "natural" phenomenon would be affected by a magical world.</p><p><strong>Dishonorable Mention:</strong> The entire 2nd round of "Complete" books and "Core Rulebook II" books at the tail end of the edition. Looking back it was clear they were all attempts to "3E" the incoming 4E rules, and they ported extremely poorly.</p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>D&D 4E</strong></span></strong></p><p><strong>Best: </strong>Hammerfast. The only 4E book I kept</p><p><strong>Worst: </strong>Keep on the Shadowfell - This module epitomized my hate of 4E. I tried my best to get through it and make it fun for everyone involved, and I just couldn't.<strong> </strong>Irontooth didn't help one bit.<strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px"><strong>d&D 5E</strong></span></strong></p><p><strong>Best: </strong>Curse of Strahd - A much better return to the original and revision than awful 3.5E Expedition version.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Worst: </strong> Yet to find it, as I have been <em>very</em> picky about what I buy so far.</p><p></p><p><strong>Honorable Mention:</strong> Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Some really great additions to the game for everyone.</p><p><strong>Dishonorable Mention: </strong> Dragon Heist. I don't own it, but it gets mentioned here for the misleading title. It should have featured a heist - from a dragon, and that's the main reason I never picked it up.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stormonu, post: 7832728, member: 52734"] Coming back to this after several years is interesting. I'm revising my original answer, as others have, by edition. Limiting to "official" books, and what I'm familiar with. [SIZE=5][B]BECMI/Basic[/B][/SIZE] [B]Best:[/B] Rules compendium - an entire D&D game in one book. I don't think that's a feat we'll ever see again [B]Worst: [/B]Immortal Rules Set. I've never been much for high level play and the whole Immortal line just made me wonder "why?" every time I read through it.[B] [/B]The adventures for it didn't help, as the first two stripped your characters of their magical abilities for the majority of the adventure...[B] Honorable Mention:[/B] Moldvay Basic Ruleset - this was what I cut my teeth on. I did have the Holmes book first, but I didn't understand it. This set got me actually playing the game for real. [B]Dishonorable Mention:[/B] B9 - Journey to the Rock. An insipid adventure, railroady and plain bad. [B][SIZE=5]AD&D 1E[/SIZE] Best: [/B]I7 - Ravenloft. Just so good. Doesn't hurt I played Dracula himself back in our 8th grade play. I've used Ravenloft in every version of D&D I've played [B]Worst: [/B]Greyhawk Adventures. As much as I like the World of Greyhawk, I've never used anything from this book nor felt there was really anything of value in it worth using. [B] Honorable Mention: [/B]DL1 - Dragons of Despair. Really, the whole Dragonlance series kept me from moving away from D&D to other pursuits. The module itself isn't the best, but it was my introduction into the greater Dragonlance world [B]Dishonorable Mention: [/B]S1 - Tomb of Horrors. I used to love reading through this adventure, until I actually used it in play.[B] [SIZE=5][B]AD&D 2E[/B][/SIZE] Best: [/B]Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog. I'm a sucker for shopping lists, and this just was shopping madness at its best.[B] Worst:[/B] Oy, there's a lot of bottom-feeders for 2E; practically all of the adventures for 2E were either too mundane, too railroady or both. Probably the worst was GA2 - Swamplight. It was like a bad attempt at retelling U2 - Danger At Dunwater. [B] Honorable Mention:[/B] Dark Sun boxed set (the 1st one). Really got to give TSR a hand for this one. It was one of their few non-traditional fantasy worlds that actually resonated as cool and fun to play in. It's still the only one where psionics feel right at home. [B]Dishonorable Mention: [/B]Complete Book of Elves. Banned the damn book from my game at one point.[B] [SIZE=5]D&D 3E[/SIZE] [SIZE=4]Best: [/SIZE][/B][SIZE=4]Ghostwalk. A fun and interesting campaign setting with an equally intriguing look at life after death.[/SIZE][B][SIZE=4] Worst: [/SIZE][/B][SIZE=4]Epic Level Handbook. The worst and most useless book out of the original 3E books. It came to truly cement why I hate high-level play.[/SIZE][B][SIZE=4] Honorable Mention: [/SIZE][/B][SIZE=4]Forge of Fury. I probably would have put Sunless Citadel here too, but I never ran that one.[/SIZE][B][SIZE=4] Dishonorable Mention: [B] [/B][/SIZE][/B][SIZE=4]Stronghold Builder's guide. A worse version of 2E's castle guide and completely useless to boot. Hero Builder's Guide goes here too.[/SIZE] [B] [SIZE=5][B]D&D 3.5E[/B][/SIZE] Best: [/B]Dungeon Master's Guide. This was the last DMG I could stomach reading cover to cover (5+ editions and countless other rule systems will do that to you). [B]Worst:[/B] Book of Nine Swords. Worst. Book. Ever. [B]Honorable Mention:[/B] Frostburn & Stormwrack. These got me out of my mundane mindset instilled by the old Wilderness Survival Guide and made me think about how "natural" phenomenon would be affected by a magical world. [B]Dishonorable Mention:[/B] The entire 2nd round of "Complete" books and "Core Rulebook II" books at the tail end of the edition. Looking back it was clear they were all attempts to "3E" the incoming 4E rules, and they ported extremely poorly. [B] [SIZE=5][B]D&D 4E[/B][/SIZE] Best: [/B]Hammerfast. The only 4E book I kept [B]Worst: [/B]Keep on the Shadowfell - This module epitomized my hate of 4E. I tried my best to get through it and make it fun for everyone involved, and I just couldn't.[B] [/B]Irontooth didn't help one bit.[B] [SIZE=5][B]d&D 5E[/B][/SIZE] Best: [/B]Curse of Strahd - A much better return to the original and revision than awful 3.5E Expedition version.[B] Worst: [/B] Yet to find it, as I have been [I]very[/I] picky about what I buy so far. [B]Honorable Mention:[/B] Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Some really great additions to the game for everyone. [B]Dishonorable Mention: [/B] Dragon Heist. I don't own it, but it gets mentioned here for the misleading title. It should have featured a heist - from a dragon, and that's the main reason I never picked it up.[B][/B] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
What's the best and worst D&D book you own from any edition?
Top