Worst D&D products ever.

[Razz0putin]

I've thought of a worthy worst the map folio I. how about we put out a product we're already offering for free on our website and let's make sure we don't have any kind of grid to make it completely useless. :\ however to be fair this was priced cheap but it taught me to read reveiws before I impulse buy.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

My vote is for an early 2E module for Greyhawk called "Child's Play."

Just. Awful.

Add to that "The Murky Deep" and "Swamplight." Bleh.

 

[Tatsukun]

The monotony award goes to Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. You get a huge dungeon, filled with seemingly random monsters, two small towns nearby (where the players can't buy or sell anything more than about 50Gp) and that's pretty much it.

Use instructions for players…

Enter dungeon, kill mooks, collect 10Gp, a CLW potion, a masterwork bastard sword and masterwork banded mail

Leave dungeon, at pre(teleport levels) levels this means a day long walk to a village, then a several week walk to a town where someone can buy your masterwork bastard swords and banded mail.

Think of it like Diablo without Town Portal.

Then, you get teleport, and it's just like Diablo

Go back, enter dungeon, repeat until every player in your group quits.

For the DM, you get maps made without any scale (gotta love the 7.5 foot wide hallway with three 3 foot wide doors about 9 feet apart. Battle map THAT !), errata which is nearly as many pages as the book, and every NPC has a silly name guaranteed to break the feel of your game instantly.

In short, booooooooooring, and overall horrid. Run from it like the plague.

-Tatsu

 

[derek_cleric]

The worst offenders are the Horde and Maztica, as they ripped off specific historical figures, as well as the surrounding cultures.

This is true, however, I find culture to be among the interesting parts of any version of DnD. I think the problem with Maztica is the way it's implemented. I haven't looked at it in a long time but I remember there was some weirdness with the setting.

For a good Aztec-ish setting, I like the Azcan Empire in the Classic DnD Hollow World setting. I've always wanted to combine ideas from both to have a really bloody campaign setting.

--Ray.

 

[Zaarastara]

My knowledge of products is quite limited, but here goes:
Deities and Demigods (3e)
Fires of Dis Module (2e)
Fiend Folio (1e) (Collection of dumbest creatures. Evar. Pretty iconic though )
Complete Psionics Book (2e)
Song and Silence (3e)

Actually, I though the Fires of Dis was a decent module. However, I never run anything directly as it is designed. I always tweak and borrow from various sources. My players loved that adventure, because they were scared out of their minds have the time. They managed to succeed in the end, but only because they used their diplomatic skills more than their combat skills.

I still remember my wife negotiaitng with some very minor fiends. Yes, the party could have fought them and alerted the creature's masters, but instead, my wife offered the creatures some of her 'dried elf eyes" that she used for components in spells. Man, was the paladin upset at her uncouth habit of collecting dried elf eyes.

The 'dried elf eyes" were actualy raisins.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

My vote is for an early 2E module for Greyhawk called "Child's Play."

Though I believe it was Child's Play which featured the great cover of a Storm Giant housewife threatening a very abashed youngish gold dragon with a broom.

I also believe it's the one which featured the hilarious scene where two polymorphed Glabrazu demons pretend to be gnolls hunting for a "rabbit", with neither having the slightest clue what a rabbit looks like. Features the one liner, said to the PC's "Uh.... what's a rabbit look like?"

Not a good module, but still worth a chuckle in some places.

 

[S'mon]

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.

That's the one - scenario set inside a decaying corpse, illustrated in purple & yellow maps... lichlings... levels 18-20... yup. I loathed it with a passion. YMMV

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

Nightmare Keep
ANY Ravenloft Module after they did the Grand Conjuction (And the Grand Conjunction modules sucked too)
Ravenloft MC2
The Ravenloft Black Book
Ravenloft 3.0
The Epic Level Handbook
Players Options (ANY OF THOSE 2.5E DOGS)
Most the the FR# books.
The old 1E XXXXXX Geomorphs
Synnabar.
And I'll get a lot of flack for this...
THREE POINT FIVE!!!! Next time, can I get a reach-around on the $300 in books I bought?
Book of Vile Darkness (Should ahve been entitled: WotC tries to scare a nun)
Most Dragon Magazines for the last few years
The Complete Racial books...
The old Forgotten Realms hardcover book (I gave that thing away to someone on mIRC)
Most of the B series modules after 5
The X series modules after 1
The Lost Caverns Of Tsucksomuch
Maztica
The Horde
Most of the Oriental Adventures Modules
A few of the Ravenloft Isles in the Mist were useful, but the rest were all crap.
The Villians Lorebook


Of course, everyone here is bashing that splatbook Hero Builder's Guidebook, but a lot of you are forgetting something... Some people come to D&D with NO IDEA of how to play. Sure, teaching them works, but many people got some worth out of it. Many of my new players think it's good, and I don't make fun of them for liking it, or for using it. Jeez, get off your high horse and remember, some whole groups are made of newbies. My daughter and her friends used it to great effect.

Oh, and worst 3.5 products?
Don't know, quit buying stuff unless it was 3rd party d20 stuff.

 

[RichGreen]

This is true, however, I find culture to be among the interesting parts of any version of DnD. I think the problem with Maztica is the way it's implemented. I haven't looked at it in a long time but I remember there was some weirdness with the setting.

For a good Aztec-ish setting, I like the Azcan Empire in the Classic DnD Hollow World setting. I've always wanted to combine ideas from both to have a really bloody campaign setting.

--Ray.

Maztica just seemed dull. There weren't enough adventure hooks in the boxed set, and the first adventure was designed for starting characters, yet featured some pretty tough dragon-like monster that would mean they were toast.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Though I believe it was Child's Play which featured the great cover of a Storm Giant housewife threatening a very abashed youngish gold dragon with a broom.

I also believe it's the one which featured the hilarious scene where two polymorphed Glabrazu demons pretend to be gnolls hunting for a "rabbit", with neither having the slightest clue what a rabbit looks like. Features the one liner, said to the PC's "Uh.... what's a rabbit look like?"

Not a good module, but still worth a chuckle in some places.

Yup, that would be the one! I think the big thing for me was asking "WTF does this have to do with Greyhawk?"