Your least-favorite pre-3e D&D/AD&D books

[maddman75]

Worst Sourcebook - Of Ships and the Sea. I love naval battles and campaigns, and we'd had a fun swashbuckling campaign with Pirates of the Fallen Stars. But I sold that book in a mad fit of "I'm getting out of gaming" and needed a new one. The back cover sounded promising - ship to ship combat, nautical gear and spells, rules for seagoing campaigns, and even a chapter on underwater adventuring. Sounds great, doesn't it?

First the combat rules were so convoluted I wouldn't inflict them on my players - and I used combat & tactics! We used them for one encounter that involved the PC's ship running away from the pirate ship. This took about 45 minutes to resolve.

Second, the vaunted underwater rules didn't have sunken ships full of gold dabloons, tribes of agressive sauhaign, or hidden sea-elf coral cities. No, it had fascinating rules like how much the temperature dropped as you descended, and how much pressure you could take by race. Cool - I get to role play my halfling getting nitrous poisoning! The thrills!

The final nail in the coffin was that there was no flavor at all. None. Not a statted up pirate NPC, no small map of a desert island where buried treasure lie, not even so much as a paragraph on a colorful pirate town. No, this thing read like stereo instructions.

For this, I place Of Ships and the Sea on top of the Altar of Crap and sing its praises.

PS - for worst module I agree with Merric. Terrible Trouble at Tragiador was god-awful.

 

[johnsemlak]

PS - for worst module I agree with Merric. Terrible Trouble at Tragiador was god-awful.

This one gets mentioned a lot. What was so bad about it? Just wondering. I've never seen it.

 

[johnsemlak]

I'm with Grazzt on this one- Planescape was a complete waste of paper. Some folks love it, but to me it seemed like TSR trying to "World of Darkness" one of their worlds. Blah. WOD has its place, but not in D&D.

I never played planescape but this sounds a little harsh to me. Planescape continues to have one of the largest fan bases of any setting, it seems to me, even after being OoP for years. Also, a lot of top-notch authors worked on it.

Obviously tastes differ, and its not for everyone. Again, I've never played it, but it seems ot me it provided loads of veteran D&Ders with a much needed break from traditional dungeon-crawling or standard setting-based storylines.

I'm just guessing here, but I'd venture to guess that was one of TSRs most successful 2e product lines. Heck, they made a popular computer game out of it.

 

[Nighthawk]

I found the 2E Clerics class book to be the worst. I found it to be dull and uninspired. It was a nice thought, but fell flat in execution, IMO.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I'm just guessing here, but I'd venture to guess that was one of TSRs most successful 2e product lines. Heck, they made a popular computer game out of it.

I loved, loved, loved Planescape:Torment. I made a fan site for it ("Becker Interviews", for those who remember). I've replayed it about seven times. It's my favorite CRPG. But it wasn't that popular.

*sigh*

Back to the topic at hand:

I don't remember some of these titles, but I'll take a stab at a few of these...

* The original desert supplimient for the Forgotten Realms. Horrible. Most of it was a listing of adventure groups and stat blocks for NPCs. There was nothing about it that couldn't have been set in a traditional "European" milieu. Imagine Robin Hood, only Sherwood Forest is a desert.

* For the Mystara setting: the Irendi Gazeteer. Tropical islands where not much happens, only they have the best navy because of fire wizards who don't interact with any of the other islands. Huh?

* "School of Magic" or "College of Magic". I forget the exact title. I think it was written by Bruce Cordell. It was not his best work (I have other books by Mr. Cordell that I like). This was supposed to be a generic wizard school ... only it completely depended on being tied into a fallen evil god. So it's generic, as long as you change your campaign to suit it. The stats for all the high-level NPCs were given, but not the lower ones, so if you wanted to run a campaign in a wizard school you'd have to write up about 30 or so student NPCs. There was a paladin who ran a temple in this wizard school and the only reason I could see for her to be in the book was for the obligatory cheesecake picture ( I pause now for Teflon Billy to run out and buy it immediately). This book did feature the first incarnation of the "spellpool" system now seen in "Tome and Blood", but a couple good pages does not a great book make.

 

[Sir Trent]

The best purchase I ever made was the 1e Unearthed Arcana. Aside from the core books of the time, I have never been more pleased with any gaming purchase.

 

[Zappo]

Psionics Handbook. Mind ya, I never bought this fabled book of elves, from the sound of it, it could take the prize. However, any version of 2e psionics I have seen is so ridiculously overpowered that I have to wonder if the guy who wrote it had actually played it for more than a few sessions.

At least, Skills and Powers made everyone equally overpowered.

 

[Wombat]

You mean all the books from AD&D ("1st ed") to just prior to D&D3e that I avoided while playing other games?

Hard to choose...

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Funny thing is, I don't dislike any of my 2e books (and I have A LOT). If I HAD to name a least favorite, I'd agree the the Complete Clerics book was totally uninspired. No good kits, no new rules, etc. The list of stuff I LOVE is long, as WHY would I pay for a book I wouldn't like?

 

[TiQuinn]

Psionics Handbook. Mind ya, I never bought this fabled book of elves, from the sound of it, it could take the prize. However, any version of 2e psionics I have seen is so ridiculously overpowered that I have to wonder if the guy who wrote it had actually played it for more than a few sessions.

At least, Skills and Powers made everyone equally overpowered.

Hey now, no dissin Skills and Powers! What it lacked in balance was more than made up for in uber-munchkinized fun!