Worst D&D products ever.

[Orius]

I'm not sure what problem anyone had with the Ninjas book either. It (finally) reintroduced martial arts into 2e (something I had to house rule in for years), and had some great roleplaying material in it. It was by Allston and had Halloway art. How could anyone not like that? Sigh. Some people I don't understand.

Ninja's Handbook wasn't bad on it's own, I'm guessing it's part of the backlash against people thinking ninjas are uber-gods or something (which the Ninja's Hadnbook did not do.) I remember when this fisrt came out, it was sold out in Waldenbooks, and I had to place a copy on back order. Anyway, it had great ideas on creating ninja clans and applying ninja rules to similar types or spy organizations. There was a pretty vanilla Elizabethan-era Majesty's Secret Service which was bland (James Bond with Shakespearean dialog? No thanks. ), but there was this cult that lived up in high mountains and tried to do impossible deeds just to prove they could. I always thought they were a cool idea.

And I just noticed someone had the audacity to list World Builder's Guide itself. Fortunately, it appears he did not read it (it came with a PAD of forms; the book itself had NO forms in it. No, wingsandsword, you do not remember correctly). Which is, AFAIAC, the only possible explanation for why anyone would knock this book. I still use it today. It has great idea seeds for world creation and great guidelines for filling in blanks and fleshing out worlds.

Seconded. This is probably the one product I have used the most in my game, and I still use it today. It was good because when it was released, the DMG had little or nothing to say about campaign building, and a lot of DM material like the Campaign Guide or whatever it was called was OOP. It even had hex mapping paper, although that has little use for me now, since I've switched over regular graph paper for world maps.

 

[mirivor]

I only read to the 3rd page of posts, so apologies for replications.

Regarding "Tomb of Horrors" and those that are bashing it.

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. But before you bash it too hard, remember these little tid-bits:

I read an interview with Gary Gygax.... I think in an old Inquest....

He stated that he constructed the Tomb for the soul purpose of killing players, and no other. In fact, I think that my printing suggests using the pregenerated characters if your party is attached to their normal ones. You shouldn't bash an adventure for being exactly what it is intended to be. IIRC, Gygax stated that he would carry this module around with him in his briefcase, daring people to brave the dungeon. Any who did so agreed that should their characters die they would surrender their sheets to Gary along with their DM's phone number so that he could call with the sad news of so-and-so's demise.

It may be a killer, but if you look at Gary's other work, I think that you have to agree that the Tomb of Horror's design HAD to be intentional.

Just a bit of mind from an old schooler that thoroughly loves the old modules... especially the "S" series.

By the way... my group made it through the Tomb with myself as DM... and I am the true definition of merciless

 

[Orius]

Obviously this list is highly subjective. With each of us looking for different things in a game, our opinions will vary significantly.

Yeah, that's true. I've seen this sort of thread before, and often the high hate count goes to The Complete series of 2e (mostly elves), Skills and Powers, and the 3e splatbooks. Those usually are chosen because people dislike them, rather than the actual content, although those books all had their flaws.

 

[Ycore Rixle]

Nightmare Keep was appalling.

Actually, I loved Nightmare Keep. This was the one by Rick Swann with the PCs traveling inside the body of a dead archmage being used to incubate lichlings? We changed it substantially, and it happened to fit perfectly with our campaign because we just had an archmage die, but we kept the basic idea I mentioned above, and we loved it - if this is the one I'm thinking of. If not... well, never mind.

My nominee for the worst product is 2e's DMG, as someone said, because it was a huge step backward from the 1e DMG. I'd also nominate the 2e Monstrous Manual, for eliminating devils and demons. And for being a three-ring binder, for crissakes (again, I think that was the one that was a binder instead of a book).

 

[darkrider]

I would throw in anything that has nothing but new prestige classes, I mean c'mon, do we need more of those? Also, anything that's basically repeating what the core rule books entail, with perhaps a smattering of some new spells or creatures. And did I mention, anything with yet more prestige classes? What is with the obsession with those things anyway?

 

[Krieg]

Add me to the list of folks who actually found the Complete Ninja's Handbook to be useful. 2e Martial Arts, Oriental Weapons, useful ideas & non-uber Ninjas. What exactly is the problem?

The single most pointless product, I don't remember the name of, but basically it was an INDEX of all magic items in D&D.

Being shrink wrapped, I thought it was like the Encyclopedia Magica. I was misinformed.

Ahh, the Magic Encyclopedia Vols I & II.

Yes, they were simply craptacular.

Other (not so) goodies...

WG7 Castle Greyhawk - I bought this thinking it was actually Castle Greyhawk (go figure), not a mish-mash of parody levels crammed together with a lame

The Fighter's/Thief's/Priest's/Wizard's Player Packs were all pretty useless (and lame).

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I would throw in anything that has nothing but new prestige classes, I mean c'mon, do we need more of those? Also, anything that's basically repeating what the core rule books entail, with perhaps a smattering of some new spells or creatures. And did I mention, anything with yet more prestige classes? What is with the obsession with those things anyway?

That's one reason CW made my list. Send your comments to custserv@wizards.com

 

[Alzrius]

Despite what I said earlier, I want to throw one out here: Labyrinth of Madness. I just don't see how Monte Cook could have done this one. The module was designed so poorly that it needed a hefty amount of errata just to be playable.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I've noticed a couple of people have mentioned The Horde. I would probably put the adventure trilogy in my Top 5 D&D adventures! They were great -- lots of cool roleplaying, a good story and a chance to use my 1e OA stuff again.

Maztica, on the other hand, was pretty disappointing.


Cheers


Richard

 

[Razz0putin]

as to my thought on tomb o horrors. I find it funny that people defend this one by saying it was created to kill characters. That is the basic defenition of bad module design. Now to all who are up in arms right now let me clarify I did have a good time in this one but was disappointed when the dm told me the way it should have worked. btw I was one of two that survived the lich fight.