What's the best D&D product EVAR?

[drowdude]

Hard to narrow it down to just one, but I guess I will just run with the first one that popped into my head.... Drow of the Underdark

Although there are several books that have a special place on my bookshelf...

the Grey-Box, FR Adventures, the FR Atlas, Undermountain, the Planewalker's Handbook, the Faiths & Avatars trilogy of books, the 1e Manual of the Planes, 1e Unearthed Arcana, 1e DMG, 1e Oriental Adventures, Cult of the Dragon, the World Builder's Guidebook, FR7 Hall of Heroes, Lankhmar: City of Adventure, 1e Deities & Demigods, Chaosium's Thieves World boxed set...

Wow, all that popped into my mind before I even thought of including any 3e books... Guess they just dont feel as "special" somehow.

 

[Alloran]

The Red Box books (my first set... secondhand [I'm a second generation gamer]).

The Planescape Boxed set. Ahhh... the memories.

~Alloran

 

[Iron Sheep]

The 3.0 PHB will always have my heart.

I agree that the 3.0 PHB (and DMG and MM) are the books which have given the groups I've played with the best game experience over the longest time; but I fully expect that the 3.5 versions will eventually eclipse them, and I certainly prefer 3.5 to 3.0.

Corran

 

[Dark Jezter]

My pick:

3rd Edition Core Rulebooks: Great-looking hardbound rulebooks that contain the ruleset that brought D&D back from the grave TSR had dug for it. If it weren't for these books, I almost certainly would have never become as big a D&D fan as I am today (I'd played previous editions, but it wasn't until 3e came along that I really got into it), nor is it likely that ENWorld would be around (after all, ENWorld was born as a news & reviews page for 3rd Edition D&D). I've easily used these books more than any other D&D book.

Honorable mentions...

Forgotten Realms Box Set: Referred to as "the Old Gray Box" by fans, this product wonderfully introduced what would go on to become the most popular D&D setting of all time. The cover artwork by Clyde Caldwell is one of my favorite pieces of D&D artwork of all time.

The Planescape Boxed Set: Another great setting box, containing one of the most unique and interesting worlds ever envisioned.

The Tomb of Horrors: Probably the most famous dungeon of all time, although the Temple of Elemental Evil and Undermountain might possibly be more well-known.

Unearthed Arcana: The 1e version. This was the original book of variant rules, and is easily a classic.

The D&D Basic Set: The product that started it all.

3rd Edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting: Hardbound, beautiful artwork, setting-specific rules, races, prestige classes, and mountains of information about the setting. This is the way a campaign setting book should be done.

 

[Wombat]

(...getting in before Diaglo again!)

The Three Little Books -- OD&D (pre-1st Ed)

No, in terms of physical quality they were not the best, but the utterly changed the face of gaming!

To me, that qualifies

 

[francisca]

The D&D Basic set: Moldvay edition, with the Keep on the Borderlands module.

My introduction to D&D, and so important. Whilst AD&D may have given a better defined system, Moldvay taught me how to DM, and Keep taught me what a module should be like.

Cheers!

What he said.

Still getting mileage out of them, actually. Dig the sig....

 

[Pants]

The 3.0 Core Books - For reasons mentioned above.
The 1st Edition Monster Manual - The book that made me want to DM... just so I could throw crazy monsters at the players.
Eberron - Because it has play me written all over it. It makes me want to stop homebrewing...

 

[David Howery]

I don't know if this qualifies as "a" product, but my all time fave is the G/D/Q series of modules. These were an absolute challenge for 1E gamers, and I saw many a PC bite the dust. The scale was epic... all the way from a simple raid on a hill giant fort to battling a demon queen in the Abyss!

 

[the Jester]

I think my favorite ever has to be the Return to the Tomb of Horrors boxed set. I actually ran my group's regular characters through that and they triumphed!

Others high on the list: 3.0 PH for bringing the game back to life- 2e was really starting to rot in its own refuse at the end. 3.5 MM for showing how damn good a monster book can be. 1e Deities and Demigods, first printing, for having Cthulhu in it.

 

[Ryltar]

Uncaged: Faces of Sigil. Hands down.