Worst Value for Money RPG Purchase

[Herobizkit]

Epic Level Handbook. All of my games crap out far below the 20th-level mark; I don't know what I was thinking.

I also haven't gotten any mileage out of Arcana Unearthed, though I did enjoy the read and game concept, so it wasn't a total loss.

I also picked up Treasure Quests from FFE as well as a few other books of theirs. They are quite shoddy overall, but at least TQ gives me a bare-ass framework of an adventure to expand upon if I so desire.

I also got no mileage whatsoever out of Second World Simulations, although the concept is interesting enough. Much too large to be practical, though.

 

[Khuxan]

Everquest Core Rulebook would have to be No. 1, and I bought it cheap for $Aus15. I got value from Quintessential Dwarf and QFighter, but only because I paid $1 each for them.

On the other hand, I've spent around $Aus 200 on the Arcana Evolved ruleset (AU in paper, $45; DT as ebook, $20; Arcana Evolved as ebook, $30; Arcana Evolved in paper, $60) and it's worth every penny.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Everquest Core Rulebook would have to be No. 1, and I bought it cheap for $Aus15. I got value from Quintessential Dwarf and QFighter, but only because I paid $1 each for them.

On the other hand, I've spent around $Aus 200 on the Arcana Evolved ruleset (AU in paper, $45; DT as ebook, $20; Arcana Evolved as ebook, $30; Arcana Evolved in paper, $60) and it's worth every penny.

Where in Australia are you from Khuxan?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Khuxan]

Where in Australia are you from Khuxan?

Olaf the Stout

Blue Mountains, near Sydney.

*changes his account*

 

[seskis281]

Worst purchase:

Fiend Folio, Epic Handbook, 3e supplements that I paid too much money for on a system I grew exhausted of quickly thereafter.

Also, Dragonlance Campaign Setting several years ago - good as reference for me but the world's just plain useless to me now as a setting - too much baggage with players I've gamed with.

 

[Tuzenbach]

Psionics Handbook.

As it was trumped by The Expanded Psionics Handbook & Complete Book of Psionics, I have a thoroughly useless book on my shelf. Actually, I did enjoy the "Blue" goblin creatures, but that's about the extent of the tome's usefulness.

 

[Particle_Man]

Stuff I bought but will never use: Epic Level Handbook, Exalted 1st ed Core book, Exalted: Lunars. And yes, the 30 sided dice. To be fair, the latter included a set of tables that had 30 entries in them (like random NPC encounter tables, etc.). Battleboxes (one group doesn't use minis, and the other just draws things out).

Stuff I bought but will never understand, much less use: Exalted: The Fair Folk. This is not to slam the game. But now I *know* what system incompatibility means: my brain is incompatible with this game.

Stuff that was very, very badly edited: Swashbuckling Arcana (cutting and pasting 7th Sea rules into d20, leaving some DCs to hard to hit even in theory).

Stuff that was good setting wise, but broken as hell rules wise: Last Days of Constantinople. The only city I know of that had a 3rd level prositute with a charisma of something like 25 or 30, oh, and the Assassin's Death Attack ability. Aroo?

Stuff my mom got me that was a waste of money: Hero Builder's Guide. (But don't tell mom - at least she is supporting my hobby).

Stuff that is good, but got released for *free* as a pdf about 2.5 nanoseconds after I bought it: Deadlands Classic player's book, Ars Magica 4th edition, Traveller T20 Lite. D'oh!

 

[Infernal Teddy]

Everquest D20, and that's even though I bought all three books in a bundle for 15€...

Ebay got me 60€ for them

 

[Buttercup]

Nearly everything from Fast Forward Entertainment.

Same here. What a bunch of dreck. My other candidate would be the Scarred Lands stuff I bought. It's not (quite) as poorly done as the stuff by FFE, but it really isn't to my taste. Dunno why I kept buying it for so long.

 

[JustKim]

d20 Star Wars (the original). I have no interest in Star Wars, but this was one of the very first d20 books and I was kind of curious how lightsabers and jedi would work. The answer was "not very well at all".

Two books I actually returned for a refund, Map Folio 2 and Monsters of Norrath.