Worst D&D products ever.

[woodelf]

The opposite of the Best D&D Products thread. The title should make this one self-explainatory.

Here are my picks, in no particular order...

Maztica
Wilderness Survival Guide
Complete Book of Elves
Complate Ninja's Handbook (I'm not joking: this book really exists)
Complete Cleric's Handbook
Die, Vecna, Die!
Hero Builder's Guidebook
Living Greyhawk Gazeteer

EDIT: Added a couple more that I forgot to mention the first time.

Huh--anybody care to elaborate with reasons? I think the Complete Priest's Handbook (i presume that's what you meant) and Wilderness Survival Guide are two of the better products ever put out. Do those who don't like WSG also dislike Frost & Fur, and the like, or is it something else?

 

[Prince of Happiness]

The worst product from D&D I ever wasted my money on was Undermountain.

"Congratz! You just spent a ton of cash on a gigantic empty dungeon!"

I was going to put that one up, but I felt like I was putting too much 2E stuff up as an example, but...yeah. And not just an empty dungeon, but one cobbled together from maps from old modules. Yeah. Yay. :\

 

[Arnwyn]

And not just an empty dungeon, but one cobbled together from maps from old modules. Yeah. Yay. :\

Then that's not Undermountain you're thinking about.

 

[Tanager]

Here's two that I'm amazed nobody mentioned, both 2e products:

A Players Primer to the Outlands ( think was the name), reaching truly outstanding levels of awful fluff writing. It came with a cd too, with some of the worst dialogue and monologue ever recorded. It was almost enough to put me off planescapes all together.

The Council of Wyrms boxed set, nice idea, intriguing world but virtually unplayable mechanics.

 

[JeffB]

E. Gary Gygax. Responsible for Castle Greyhawk...

So you have played with Gary? Because if you have not, then you've never played in his CG. The comedy version (CG), and the serious version (Greyhawk Ruins) were not of his design...they were done a few years after his departure...and are in no way like Gary's CG (according to those who have played with Gary, as well as Gary himself).

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Then that's not Undermountain you're thinking about.

BULLCRAP! I can recognize the entry floor of Quasqueton anywhere.

 

[MDSnowman]

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.

Wow, That's a lot of hate for one person...

 

[Quasqueton]

BULLCRAP! I can recognize the entry floor of Quasqueton anywhere.

Huh? Wha?

Quasqueton

 

[NiTessine]

So you have played with Gary? Because if you have not, then you've never played in his CG. The comedy version (CG), and the serious version (Greyhawk Ruins) were not of his design...they were done a few years after his departure...and are in no way like Gary's CG (according to those who have played with Gary, as well as Gary himself).

Indeed. The comedy version was released after Gary had left TSR, as a mockery of his creation. It also gets my vote not only for the worst D&D, AD&D or D20 product ever, but also for the worst commercially available RPG product in the history of mankind.

I make that distinction, 'commercially available', because, well, FATAL is free.

In D&D, other winners of the NiTessine Award for Outstanding Badness are FR14: The Great Glacier (Worst Ideas), Complete Divine (Worst Editing), Villains' Lorebook (Worst Recycling), Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor (Worst Art) and Faction War (Worst Metaplot Development). Faction War was an excellent adventure on its own right, though. I just hate what it did to Planescape.

 

[woodelf]

All of the FR products that were thinly disguised in their translation from the real world. After hearing about how much great stuff Ed had in the Realms, TSR proceeded to pee in the realmsian pool with products that made no attempt to utilize the things that made the setting special.

The worst offenders are the Horde and Maztica, as they ripped off specific historical figures, as well as the surrounding cultures. But the other ones get under my skin as well. How can you not be disappointed to get a supplement on Anauroch only to discover that most of the book is a bunch of stuff you could have clipped out of a National Geographic article on the Bedouin.

Huh. I would've said that about all the FR stuff, Greenwood or otherwise (with occasional exceptions, of course). It's why, after buying the first dozen or so products in the line (and having read all his FR articles in dragon up to that point) i just about stopped buying FR stuff: if i want pseudo-historical settings, i'll pick up Harn, Ars Magica, or a GURPS supplement. The FR stuff is too thin to do the job effectively. Otherwise, i want original. And the FR stuff is too close to rehashed historical to be sufficiently original to keep my attention.

I don't fault Al-Qadim or Kara-Tur as much, as they were D&D genre attempts shoehorned into the Realms, but the others leave me in a rage. I'm glad that the 3e Realms products have focused on doing the right thing with the Realms (even though I don't play there).

I love Al Qadim, and Kara-Tur only slightly less. They're both excellent examples of really drawing upon a source culture, even if it is in a fantastic way. I conversely love Planescape and Dark Sun, for being great original constructions. So, has the new FR stuff actually gotten either more historically authentic, or more original? Or is it just more detailed and/or cohesive (which would itself be a great improvement)? What is this "right thing" that they do, in your opinion?