What's the best D&D product EVAR?
- Thread starter Tarrasque Wrangler
- Start date
Arcane Runes Press
First Post
It's a tie:
Return to the Tomb of Horrors. Just a great, great, great boxed set, and my favorite adventure of all time.
The Ravenloft Campaign Setting, Dark Lords, and Islands of Terror. There is no better campaign setting than Ravenloft, and there weren't any better Ravenloft books than these. So flavorful, so ripe for good gaming - I ran nothing but Ravenloft for 6 or so years, and never tired of it.
Of course, Ravenloft is also home to the worst D&D product ever: Thoughts of Darkness, the most munchkiny, "yeah, you really don't get this setting, do you?" module ever written. Parties of 15th level drow =/= gothic horror.
Return to the Tomb of Horrors. Just a great, great, great boxed set, and my favorite adventure of all time.
The Ravenloft Campaign Setting, Dark Lords, and Islands of Terror. There is no better campaign setting than Ravenloft, and there weren't any better Ravenloft books than these. So flavorful, so ripe for good gaming - I ran nothing but Ravenloft for 6 or so years, and never tired of it.
Of course, Ravenloft is also home to the worst D&D product ever: Thoughts of Darkness, the most munchkiny, "yeah, you really don't get this setting, do you?" module ever written. Parties of 15th level drow =/= gothic horror.
Dragon magazine 
From modules, monsters, stories, rules, and what not, it spurred me and made me think. The first adventure I ever DM was from one.
From modules, monsters, stories, rules, and what not, it spurred me and made me think. The first adventure I ever DM was from one.
VorpalBunny
Explorer
The 1st edition DMG. Still the most complete resource for Dungeon Masters.
Does it have to be an actual gaming product, or can it be anything related to D&D? If so I would say that it would have to be the Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy. Those books intorduced me to the fantasy genre, inspired me to first start drawing, and of course introduced me to the role playing hobby.
If it has to be a core game product than I have to go with the Darksun Boxed Set. Of course that ties into the original Psionics Handbook for 2e and all the rest of the amazing darksun gaming material. I've lost all my DS stuff, but I still have that fantastic cloth map. Man if someone would pick up the Darksun liscense I'd preorder every book. I really miss that setting.
If it has to be a core game product than I have to go with the Darksun Boxed Set. Of course that ties into the original Psionics Handbook for 2e and all the rest of the amazing darksun gaming material. I've lost all my DS stuff, but I still have that fantastic cloth map. Man if someone would pick up the Darksun liscense I'd preorder every book. I really miss that setting.
The Sigil
Mr. 3000 (Words per post)
The document that changed gaming forever?
The System Reference Document, including the Open Gaming License, version 1.0a
The document that got me into gaming and holds a special place in my heart?
Funny as this may sound, it's an old book called "The Winner's Guide to Board Games" - published by Playboy, of all people. It had many chapters on games from chess to risk to diplomacy... to, at the back of the book, Dungeons and Dragons. That piqued my interest (at the tender age of six) and when I was 8 years old and saw a D&D Expert Boxed Set (I started with the Expert, not the Basic set, oddly enough, because the local drugstore didn't have the Basic set), I had only one thought... "IT MUST BE MINE!" Besides, author Jon Freeman's rant at THAC0 and Armor Class rules is worth the price of admission alone. As best I can recall, it went something like this:
I know I didn't get the quotes exactly right, but they're close. I find it amusing that when the book was written (1975), the whole THAC0/Armor Class thing was getting panned... and only it only took 25 years for a change to be made. LOL!
All five boxed sets (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, Immortal) hold a special place in my heart, but even those, I don't think, had quite the impact on me that the SRD/OGL did. They captivated my imagination as a youth... the SRD/OGL got me as an adult... and between you and me, that is saying somthing.
--The Sigil
The System Reference Document, including the Open Gaming License, version 1.0a
The document that got me into gaming and holds a special place in my heart?
Funny as this may sound, it's an old book called "The Winner's Guide to Board Games" - published by Playboy, of all people. It had many chapters on games from chess to risk to diplomacy... to, at the back of the book, Dungeons and Dragons. That piqued my interest (at the tender age of six) and when I was 8 years old and saw a D&D Expert Boxed Set (I started with the Expert, not the Basic set, oddly enough, because the local drugstore didn't have the Basic set), I had only one thought... "IT MUST BE MINE!" Besides, author Jon Freeman's rant at THAC0 and Armor Class rules is worth the price of admission alone. As best I can recall, it went something like this:
I know I didn't get the quotes exactly right, but they're close. I find it amusing that when the book was written (1975), the whole THAC0/Armor Class thing was getting panned... and only it only took 25 years for a change to be made. LOL!
All five boxed sets (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, Immortal) hold a special place in my heart, but even those, I don't think, had quite the impact on me that the SRD/OGL did. They captivated my imagination as a youth... the SRD/OGL got me as an adult... and between you and me, that is saying somthing.
--The Sigil
Last edited:
Ulrick
First Post
For me, it used to be the 1st Edition Dungeon Master's Guide.
But now its really difficult to choose.
The 3.5 PHB is pretty good because everytime I get an itching to play Basic D&D, I always want to make changes and the changes would wind up being like 3.5 D&D.
Toolbox rocks as a DM aid.
And then there's all kinds of other books I really like too. But the books that really inspired me as a DM and player weren't D&D books.
But now its really difficult to choose.
The 3.5 PHB is pretty good because everytime I get an itching to play Basic D&D, I always want to make changes and the changes would wind up being like 3.5 D&D.
Toolbox rocks as a DM aid.
And then there's all kinds of other books I really like too. But the books that really inspired me as a DM and player weren't D&D books.
