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

[Wormwood]

People with weak hearts, please look away...

You utter bastard.

I have to lie down now.

 

[Silver Moon]

Tournaments Fairs and Taverns PDF

I'll echo that one, best thing I've picked up in years.

Other things that belong on the list are the following old TSR Modules:

B2 - The Keep on the Borderlands - I've used it multiple times

BH3 - Ballots and Bullets - Great western Boot Hill town that I've built my D&D/Boot Hill hybrid campaigns around

and the Judge's Guild module Verbosh

 

[woodelf]

What gaming products (books, accessories, etc) have you gotten the best bang for your buck? Think in terms of actual use you get from the product. What books do you reach for several times a session?

Well, it depends on exactly what you mean. If you mean what have i gotten the most use out of, relative to the price paid, that'd have to be RPGNet, Roleplayingtips.com or maybe EnWorld, since, mathematically, any use yields infinite value when the cost is zero--only question is which has yielded more use. [D20SRD isn't even in the running--just haven't written/played/run enough D20 System to have gotten all that much use out of it.]


However, it seems to me the spirit is more "what have you gotten the most use out of", regardless of actual cost. In that case:

• Aria: Worlds--the appendix on the evolution of technology, while slightly West-centric, is better than anything else i've seen of the sort (yes, it's better than Stone to Steel, and it's a much easier read than something like Guns, Germs, and Steel). And that's before you get to all the rest of the world-design stuff. Not to mention the cool magic-design system in Aria itself. (Oh, and while i haven't finished reading them yet, MS:E&C and MMS:WE, while awesome, are pretty clearly inferior to the combination of Aria and Aria: Worlds.)
• CityBooks. Especially Sideshow. Nothing like them has yet to be published for D20 System. (Actually, that's not true--Mad Kaiser's Bazaar is a passable alternative, and the Seven Cities, etc., books from Atlas are pretty decent. The CityBooks set the bar for the rumored World's Largest City (or whatever they're going to call it).)
  
  
• NPC Essentials
• The Primal Order. Like the Aria books, it is of use for just about every fantasy game i run, regardless of system or setting. And doubly-so when homebrewing.
• Over the Edge Players' Survival Guide. Bar none, the single best guide to chargen i've yet found. Again, regardless of the system you're using.
• My first d20 bought separately. I still have some of the dice from my D&D Basic Set (none from the Expert Set, for whatever reason), but not the d20. And with all the years of playing nothing but AD&D, plus its use for other systems, no other die has given as much use.
• Pocket Ref, 2nd edition, by Thomas J. Glover. Answers all those important questions like "what's the tensile strength of 1/4" hemp rope?" "what's the typical maximum supportable force of a house floor?" "What're the angle of repose and density of piled oats?" If i wanted to run a relatively realistic, especially modern, game, and needed to travel light, this is the book i'd take. Pocket sized, and under $5.
  
  

If the intent of the question was to limit to things of use in a D20 System game, cross The Primal Order off the list--i've never happened to actually use it for a D20 System game, though there's no reason one couldn't--and add Arcana Unearthed. Yes, i'm saying that almost nothing published with a D20 System logo on it is as good as some of the best older products even for running a D20 System game. And the only D20 System core rulebook that i've used is AU--not D&D3E PH--so, obviously, it gets a ton of use. Several other d20 System things have gotten regular, invaluable, use in my current game, but i'd never used them before, and am extremely unlikely to use them outside of D20 System:

• Artificer's Handbook. Even with the improvements in magic item creation that AU introduces, it's still a must-have, IMHO.
• Book of Distinctions & Drawbacks. IMHO, any system with the mechanical crunchitude of D20 System needs to have the ability to customize your character with (dis)ads--it's silly to have so much detail in other areas, but not in the mechanical representation of your character.
• Fantasy Bestiary. Essentially, my only monster book. I bought Primeval Groves with the intention of focusing on plant monsters for the game, but it hasn't seemed to actually happen.
• Deluxe Book of Templates. My only other monster book. Recent purchase, so i haven't actually used it yet, but i can see tons of uses coming up.
• Mystic Secrets and Grimoire II. Almost like extensions of the core book for AU.
• Occult Lore. All my villains seem to be coming out of this book...

Some honorable mentions that are probably taking the letter of the question over the spirit:

• If you can count entire runs of magazines as one item, Dragon (i have ~#80-~#280) would probably top the list. But that seems rather like cheating.
• In terms of raw hours of fun, AD&D2 PH would probably top the list, since i ran AD&D2 for more years than any other game, by far, and probably more contact hours than every other RPG combined. W:tA and Ars Magica [core books in both cases] would be the distant runners-up.
  
• In a similar vein, i've gotten a pretty impressive amount of use out of Fudge, since it's my default when i want to (1) run something that i don't have a specific game appropriate for and (2) don't feel like homebrewing the rules.

 

[taliesin15]

since I see no qualifier in the question (i.e. limited to d20 or RPGs), I would definitely have to say...

1st edition Illuminati, Steve Jackson Games

 

[woodelf]

Next time I go to the FLGS, I plan to buy another of their discounted WFRP modules (splatbooks). Do you know of other titles that would be as good as this one? And of the modules that directly follow Shadows over Bogenhafen? (I mean: I have a spaltbook containing Shadows over Bogenhafen + The Enemy Within). Thanks.

Just a point of order here: scenarios aren't "splatbooks". A splatbook is a book about a group within the game, and is a player's book moreso than a GM's book. The group could have in-world meaningfulness (Clanbook: Tzimisce), or be purely mechanical in theme (The Complete Warrior). But the defining characteristics are that it be aimed at players and be about a specific type/group of character (so, Ultimate Feats isn't a splatbook).

 

[woodelf]

You utter bastard.

I have to lie down now.

Well, heck, if we're gonna go just on monetary value vs. price paid, i think my friend has you beat: an entire bankers' box full of AD&D1/2 stuff for free, including two copies of Dieties & Demigods, one with Cthulhu & Melnibonean, the other with just one of those (i forget which one was in the later printing), both in near-mint condition. I don't know if he sold them or kept them.

 

[danbuter]

Call of Cthulhu rulebook - I've used my 4th, 5th, and 5.5 editions a LOT
DnD Basic/Expert/Companion boxed sets - played these for years in the 80's
DnD 2nd edition
Forgotten Realms 2nd edition boxed set
Planescape box set/Faces of Sigil/Outlands
Shadowrun 3e
DnD 3.5 - PHB/DMG/MM/MMIII
Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary
City State of the Invincible Overlord
Libris Mortis
Warhammer 40,000 rulebooks
various 40k army codices

 

[danbuter]

Next time I go to the FLGS, I plan to buy another of their discounted WFRP modules (splatbooks). Do you know of other titles that would be as good as this one? And of the modules that directly follow Shadows over Bogenhafen? (I mean: I have a spaltbook containing Shadows over Bogenhafen + The Enemy Within). Thanks.

Power Behind the Throne
Death on the Reik
Marienburg: Sold Down the River

Any one of these books is worth purchasing.

 

[Crothian]

Thieves World Box set from 82 I think it was. USed it for multiple campaigns in multiple systems. Point system, level based system, diceless system, the box set was able to handle it all.

 

[Silver Moon]

Well, as far as "Bang for your Buck" is concerned, a few years back my wife bought a large box of games and gaming materials from a local used bookstore that had no idea what to do with them. This collection was in all in excellent conditiion and included:

AD&D 1E Hardbacks PHB, DMG, Oriental Adventures, World of Greyhawk, MMII & Dungeoneers Survival Guide (the last two in mint condition)
AD&D Modules A2, B1, B2, B3, B4, O1, M1 & X2
D&D Expert Set
Dungeon - Game of Fantastic Adventure - Boxed set - TSR (1975)
Runequest Boxed set with hardbound rule book (1980)
Dragonquest Boxed set (1980)
Dragonmaster - card & cyrstal game (1981)
Middle Earth Role Playing Game - boxed set (1984)
War of the Rings (offical LoTR game) - boxed set (1977)
Adventures in Fantasy by Dave Arneson boxed set (1979)
Wizards - boxed game from Avalon Hill - (1982)
Swordbearer - fantasy RPG (1982)
Worlds of Wonder (superhero RPG) (1982)
DeathMaze - boxed game (1979)
Orbquest (1982)
Paranoia - boxed set (1984)
GO - oriental strategy game
Dragon Magazine #74

All for only $ 20.00!