What's the best you've ever gotten for your buck in gaming products?

[Hand of Evil]

This web site, the shear value as a resourse is priceless.

AEG's Toolbox
Core books 3.5
Bluffside

 

[The Cardinal]

GURPS4e Basic Set
GURPS3e Horror 3e
GURPS4e Magic
GURPS4e Fantasy
GURPS3e Illuminati

 

[reanjr]

In 3.x?

SRD
Book of Iron Might
Kingdoms of Kalamar DM Shield
Beyond Countless Doorways

To be honest I don't think I got my money's worth of gaming on anything else, though some (the Ravenloft line, Nyambe) were still entertaining.

For non D20/OGL products that were still great bang for their buck when applied to my D20/OGL game (especially when considering they were used for other things as well):

Alternity PHB
Dragonlance Fifth Age SAGA game

 

[KB9JMQ]

Tact-Tiles and En World.
No doubt these two things have helped/improved my gaming more than any other products.
The 3.5 PHB and Gencon are a close second.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Enworld = nearly endless ideas incorperated into my homebrew at 0 cost.
- current list: sorcrer, magic item crafting, paladin, rules clarification & purchase choices. I use far more from here than my 60+ Dragon Magazines, or any single 3rd party book.

Core: 1st, 2nd (not including monsterous compindiums), 3rd, 3.5
Used Mage: the Asension 10$
Companion Rules book used 5$ - even after I quit playing (galantri) I used the mass combat, and domnion building rules for all of 2nd ed and the one game of 3.0 that involved such things.
Battlemat, although I only use it when I am actually DMing a game, which is a small percentage of the time I spend on gaming. (compared to time spent in prep, or on enworld)
pencils.
Dice.

 

[Breakdaddy]

My TACT-TILES set, no contest (Cool factor: 10. Engage.)
runner up is ETOOLS (fully updated with all the addins Ive purchased), its a nice piece of software since CMP took the helm. Why would I put ETOOLS on the list? Because it saves me HOURS of prep time consistently, and how much is *your* time worth?
Honorable mentions to AEGs Toolbox and the Dragon Magazine Archive CDROM set

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Tournaments Fairs and Taverns PDF
Everyone Else PDF - got it for $1 on sale - on a per dollar basis, I doubt anything will beat it.

 

[Thanee]

none.

Wrong!

there hasn't been a single product after their release that even comes close.

"Best" is relative... so, if those were better than the rest, they were best.

although i use my OD&D booklets all the time. they were still overpriced at the time of purchase.

"Best" doesn't mean they have to be good value... the best can still be bad.

Tho, I do wonder how many hours (that's a lot of hours in your case, I guess) of fun you expected from the few $ spent on those precious little booklets.

Isn't it "good" what you got in the end (well, not that it is the end yet)?

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

My "best picks" would include the 3.0/3.5 Core Rules + FRCS, Midgard Rules and Shadowrun Rules.

Dice and Battle Mat are a given, anyways, as are pencil and paper.

Bye
Thanee

 

[robberbaron]

In terms of value for money, some years ago I bought a Conan module (can't remember the publishers) for 10p (that's about 6 cents in the colonies) in a Bargain Bucket which, after about six hours of tweaking lasted for 5 gaming sessions - some 30 hours.