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Eorran
2008-08-22, 10:00 AM
What are the best RPG rules/advice books, magazines, articles etc. that you have come across, and what is it about them that you liked?

I DM more than I play, so some of my favorite books were AD&D 2e Complete book of Villains, and the High-Level Campaigns book.
I got both when I had some experience as a DM, but not much, and they provided a lot of good advice on how to build opponents for the PCs, choosing smart tactics, etc. It helped prevent the players from waltzing over everything they faced.
Actually, the 4e DMG/MM has some similar advice on building encounters, though it's more restricted to combat, but having defined monster roles made "combined-arms encounters" much quicker to build.

bosssmiley
2008-08-22, 10:57 AM
Personal favourites as a DM:

"DMG 1E" - so much...random cool stuff...in tableseses scattered...everwhere!!! :smalleek:
"Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads!" for Cyberpunk 2020 - the GM's guide to hurting the characters and having the players love you for it
"Way of the Scorpion" for L5R 1st Ed. - aka: John Wick's guide to Magnificent Bastardry (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagnificentBastard)
"City of Chaos" for WFRP - urban adventure, memorable NPCs, cults, carnivals and conspiracy plots done right.
"En Garde" - an old Musketeers PBM rulebook
"Good Doesn't Mean Boring" - an article from a way old Dragon magazine (early-mid #100s IIRC) - the Tao of Paladins

I'd also give an honourable mention for the "Birthright" campaign setting by Rich Baker and co. A fantastic guide on how to mix class levels, kingship, meta-plot and memorable villains into a consistent setting without having the whole lot cave in on you.

arguskos
2008-08-22, 11:06 AM
Toolbox, by AEG. It's nothing but random d20 tables for stuff you may or may not have prepared (tavern names, barkeeps, random magical effects, more encounter tables than you can shake a stick at, etc).

Volo's Guide to All Things Magical (AD&D Forgotten Realms supplement). While almost useless for most people (thus how I got it for $3 at Half-Price Books), it has a bevy of most excellent item creation rules... great for campaigns where you aren't interested in the normal creation rules (which are so... bland, IMO).

The Warcraft d20 Manual of Monsters. Why? Cause it has a bunch of cool monsters in it that players may or may not know off the bat, which makes it invaluable to me, since SOO many of my players are powergamers, and can quote monster stats at me.

By the above logic, Monster Manual 2-5 (and Fiend Folio) are most excellent.

-argus

CASTLEMIKE
2008-08-22, 08:53 PM
WOTC Character Optimization Boards to see some of the full potential of a class even if you have no interest in taking things that far.:smallsmile:

Old editions and the adventures so you don't have to reinvent the wheel.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b

Magic of Faerun for Spellfire rules and lots of magical fluff.

Most of the Campaign setting source books lot of information to value. Oriental Adventures for the Iajutsu skill and Hengeyokai.

EPH for psionics rules except 5 "Specialist" psions to many or 1 Generalist Psion to few. The Auto-hypnosis skill. (Photographic memory and other skill checks)

Core books, the SRD and Unearthed Arcana.

PHBII.

Some of the canned adventures like Return to the Keep on the Border.

Glyde
2008-08-22, 10:07 PM
Complete Bard's Handbook from 2e will always have a place in my heart for introducing me to my first character (Blade)

Waspinator
2008-08-22, 11:22 PM
The Warcraft d20 Manual of Monsters. Why? Cause it has a bunch of cool monsters in it that players may or may not know off the bat, which makes it invaluable to me, since SOO many of my players are powergamers, and can quote monster stats at me.

I like that book too. It's a nice way to shake up some of the standard monsters by going with the Warcraft universe versions of standard D&D things, which creates a bit of variety.

Also, I love Azeroth's Kobolds and Murlocs. Best low-level baddies ever.

drengnikrafe
2008-08-23, 01:30 AM
The complete idiot. (The What?).

I sometimes hear that if someone does something out of a particular type of behavior, you would smite them with the appropriate book. They are evil and do something good? Smite them with the Vile Darkness. The only purposes for having an Epic Level Handbook? Smiting people with it's thick pages who ask for Epic Levels.

Thus, when you have a total idiot in your party, the only acceptable thing to do is to smite them with the Complete Idiot. Hey, if there's a Complete Arcane/Scoundral/Divine/Mage/Ect, why can't there be a Complete Idiot??

arguskos
2008-08-23, 01:33 AM
Complete Idiot
I heard that this was also called Complete Psionic, but that could just be a rumor... :smallwink:


I like that book too. It's a nice way to shake up some of the standard monsters by going with the Warcraft universe versions of standard D&D things, which creates a bit of variety.
Yeah, it's pretty fun, especially with players that, while smart, aren't the best with verbal descriptions (basically, I can describe an Infernal, and no one will get that it's actually an Infernal, rather, they'll call it and think of it like whatever I want them to call it/think of it as).

Also, it has the Lich King. I mean, LICH KING. EPIC AWESOME BADASSERY. :smallbiggrin:

-argus

drengnikrafe
2008-08-23, 02:03 AM
I heard that this was also called Complete Psionic, but that could just be a rumor... :smallwink:

-argus

You know... from what I remember, Psionics and Sorcerery are basically the same thing with only one difference: the casting lists. In fact, I distinctly recall an old timer say that there was a misprint in one of the Psionic books that was later recalled to be reprinted. It explained 5 types of Psions, and one of them was just the sorcerer description, copied and pasted. The only problem? They missed changing one time it said "sorcerer" into whatever they changed it into.

In case you hadn't figured it out from my rant, I dislike both Sorcerery and Psionics greatly. "Magic is something you work at, not something you inherit."

And now, I'm drawing this thread off topic before it even gets to page two..

I'm very sorry everyone.

Waspinator
2008-08-23, 02:10 AM
The Lich King stat block is pretty silly. I mean, CR 50? When would you ever use that? And he can control 2100 HD of undead? That's just plain crazy. Still neat that they included him. It's just that he's basically the Warcraft version of "rocks fall, everyone dies." You don't really need stats.


Other awesomeness includes Nerubians, Pandarens, Furbolgs, and Wildkin.

Attilargh
2008-08-23, 02:14 AM
Volo's Guide to All Things Magical (AD&D Forgotten Realms supplement). While almost useless for most people (thus how I got it for $3 at Half-Price Books), it has a bevy of most excellent item creation rules... great for campaigns where you aren't interested in the normal creation rules (which are so... bland, IMO).
While I do agree it's a fun book, I also think you paid too much for it. Because, y'know, Wizards is giving it away for free (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads).

The Iron Kingdoms Character and World Guides - A campaign setting for 3.5. Infernally pricy and finding them's an epic-level quest, but thick as an trollkin's skull and full of juicy IK mechanikapunk goodness. (Except the mechanics, some of those are kinda wonky.)

Tome of Battle - Yes, I said it. My favourite book in the whole 3.5 is the Book of Weeaboo Fightan Magic. (Deadly shining fingerrrr! Also, blah blah, medieval swordsmanship, blah blah.) As an aside, discussing the book gave me the idea of thinking of hit points as the amount of blood in your character, measured in litres.

Emerald Empire - Subtitled "The Legend of the Five Rings Companion". A really good resource on how stuff works in Rokugan. It has a sidebar on how the chopsticks used by the clans differ.

arguskos
2008-08-23, 02:24 AM
While I do agree it's a fun book, I also think you paid too much for it. Because, y'know, Wizards is giving it away for free.
....DAMNIT. >_< There, you just ruined my good mood. I hope you are happy, you mean person you. Hmpf.

Also, that page is most excellent. :)


Tome of Battle - Yes, I said it. My favourite book in the whole 3.5 is the Book of Weeaboo Fightan Magic. (Deadly shining fingerrrr! Also, blah blah, medieval swordsmanship, blah blah.) As an aside, discussing the book gave me the idea of thinking of hit points as the amount of blood in your character, measured in litres.
Oh, don't fear. It's all personal preference, and even though SOME people around here forget that *ahem*buzzing Bees*ahem*, we won't, cause we're nice like that. :smallwink:


You know... from what I remember, Psionics and Sorcerery are basically the same thing with only one difference: the casting lists. In fact, I distinctly recall an old timer say that there was a misprint in one of the Psionic books that was later recalled to be reprinted. It explained 5 types of Psions, and one of them was just the sorcerer description, copied and pasted. The only problem? They missed changing one time it said "sorcerer" into whatever they changed it into.

In case you hadn't figured it out from my rant, I dislike both Sorcerery and Psionics greatly. "Magic is something you work at, not something you inherit."
Though I personally like Sorcery as an alternative to Wizardly magiks, I do agree about Psionics. Ooo, shiny mental magic, ooo. Blech. Before anyone jumps me, I do own the XPH, I have read it a lot, and I just don't find anything in psionics that magic can't do, or that necessitates a completely different system, other than, "Uh, cause we could?" Personal preference and dislike for no reason other than, "it's not my thing", so lay off you forum grouches. *staves off trolls with a stick*

-argus

Chronos
2008-08-23, 10:38 AM
Tome of Battle - Yes, I said it. My favourite book in the whole 3.5 is the Book of Weeaboo Fightan Magic.We should probably stay away from discussing that one, since everyone seems to have a strong opinion of it one way or the other, and it can thus lead to some rather heated hijacks.

BRC
2008-08-23, 10:46 AM
Personally, I am a big fan of Complete Scoundrel, I just wish there were more skill tricks, and that luck feats were practical without having the Luck domain.

ZekeArgo
2008-08-23, 11:06 AM
Dangit, I've forgotten the name but there was an equipment book for 2e done in the style of a turn of the century sears-robuck catalog. Anyone recall the name of it? Want to say it had something to do with a woman proprietor...

Anyway, awesome flavor and built-in ideas for urban adventures (guarding the "teleport circle stations" that each shop used to transport goods and whatnot), nevermind just how detailed and interesting it made simple gear and equipment for your player's characters.

Ecalsneerg
2008-08-23, 12:20 PM
Expanded Psionics Handbook: :smallbiggrin: It's everything casting should be. Your Int 22, level 16 Wizard should not suddenly forget how to fling a Fireball because he didn't prepare enough. And Thri-Kreen rock.

Tome of Battle: Yep, I do like the controversial stuff. Tome of Battle is just fun, it works well with the existing classes (even Fighters, supposedly invalidated by it, benefit from the feat options) and you get to do so much fun stuff.

Mutants & Masterminds: Buy it, use it, love it. If you don't already own it, you don't know what you're missing. Yeah, it does superheroes, but it does almost every genre as well.

The Glyphstone
2008-08-23, 01:09 PM
The Stronghold Builder's Guidebook. Coolest supplement ever, even if it's not really useful for a DM (who has no GP limit on his dungeons) and rarely useful for players except in dedicated campaigns built around their fortresses.

Sinfire Titan
2008-08-23, 01:44 PM
Magic of Incarnum. Why? Flavor, balance, mechanics that actually work, the ability to replace almost all dependency on magic items for a single character, and for providing a Druid variant that actually has a unique feel to it (the Totemist, officially the most bad-ass looking class this side of the Bo9S).

If there is one book I recommend buying for 3.5, it is the MoI. It takes a couple of tries to get it right, but once you've got it down it is a piece of sheer freaking platinum-frosted cake.

monty
2008-08-23, 01:49 PM
As an aside, discussing the book gave me the idea of thinking of hit points as the amount of blood in your character, measured in litres.

So my friend's fighter has over a hundred liters of blood in him? Damn, that's a lot.

Chronos
2008-08-23, 02:28 PM
Magic of Incarnum. Why? Flavor, balance, mechanics that actually work, the ability to replace almost all dependency on magic items for a single character, and for providing a Druid variant that actually has a unique feel to it (the Totemist, officially the most bad-ass looking class this side of the Bo9S).I can certainly see the appeal, but to my taste, the Tome of Pact Magic did it so much better. The only problems with the ToPM are that first, it's so short, and that second, you have to get the Tome of Shadow Magic and Tome of Truename Magic with it.

bosssmiley
2008-08-23, 05:14 PM
Dangit, I've forgotten the name but there was an equipment book for 2e done in the style of a turn of the century sears-robuck catalog. Anyone recall the name of it? Want to say it had something to do with a woman proprietor...

Anyway, awesome flavor and built-in ideas for urban adventures (guarding the "teleport circle stations" that each shop used to transport goods and whatnot), nevermind just how detailed and interesting it made simple gear and equipment for your player's characters.

You're thinking of Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue (http://paizo.com/store/brand/forgottenRealms/roleplayingGames/2ndEdition/v5748btpy7mk8&source=top).

ZekeArgo
2008-08-23, 05:27 PM
You're thinking of Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue (http://paizo.com/store/brand/forgottenRealms/roleplayingGames/2ndEdition/v5748btpy7mk8&source=top).

AhHA! Thank you! You and this book are made of 9 kinds of win and awesome.

Edit: though whatever you linked isn't coming up. Is paizo down?

Zeta Kai
2008-08-23, 06:03 PM
I believe that this recent thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87555) has the answers that you seek, at least in regards to 3rd Edition.

FMArthur
2008-08-23, 06:20 PM
Dang. I was going to say Races of Destiny, on the grounds of it having my favourite PrC, but it's the one part of the book availible online through Wizards' website, and looking through the rest of the book... it's probably the most useless book ever made. 200 pages split between fluffing out humans (the one race we don't need more information on), half-elves and half orcs (two of the worst races a player could have), and Illumians, the most ridiculous race I've ever seen. Waste of paper.

So, my actual favourite book must remain ToB.

drengnikrafe
2008-08-24, 12:05 AM
Your Int 22, level 16 Wizard should not suddenly forget how to fling a Fireball because he didn't prepare enough.


I must play by some really different rules from you. In my gaming world, a Wizard does not "forget" how to cast, he simply prepares most of his spells in the morning (thus, taking a full hour), and when he is "casting", he is not so much casting as he is finishing the very long preperation required for spellcasting. He simply cannot cast it after he runs out because it would take somewhere in the realm of all of the combat time for a medium scale battle x2.

... Darn it, I've become a troll, only trying to derail every topic with debate. I feel very foolish.

arguskos
2008-08-24, 12:17 AM
Dang. I was going to say Races of Destiny, on the grounds of it having my favourite PrC, but it's the one part of the book availible online through Wizards' website, and looking through the rest of the book... it's probably the most useless book ever made. 200 pages split between fluffing out humans (the one race we don't need more information on), half-elves and half orcs (two of the worst races a player could have), and Illumians, the most ridiculous race I've ever seen. Waste of paper.
I despised Races of Destiny. I don't really like the Races of XYZ series anyhow, but a book based on humans and their half-breed spawn doesn't sound like a real thriller to me. Oh, and it wasn't. I regret reading it.


I must play by some really different rules from you. In my gaming world, a Wizard does not "forget" how to cast, he simply prepares most of his spells in the morning (thus, taking a full hour), and when he is "casting", he is not so much casting as he is finishing the very long preperation required for spellcasting. He simply cannot cast it after he runs out because it would take somewhere in the realm of all of the combat time for a medium scale battle x2.
Interestingly, I was thinking about the Vancian casting fluff, and I found an explanation that I like, and that may help others not think of it like, "I forget how to cast Fireball, I fail at being awesome." (That was sarcasm to prove a point, not to flame, just a disclaimer here)

See, Wizards trick the universe into giving up packets of magic. In this raw form, they are unshaped. What the Wizard does when he prepares spells is he spends time mentally shaping these packets into more useful forms, like, say, a Fireball. When he casts that Fireball, he doesn't forget how to shape the magic, he just releases his creation. It's like how a sculptor doesn't forget how to shape a clay statue when he sells it, he's just freeing up space on the shelf for a different statue, or maybe another just like the first, whatever floats his boat.

Yay metaphors! :smallbiggrin:

-argus

Chronos
2008-08-24, 12:20 AM
I must play by some really different rules from you. In my gaming world, a Wizard does not "forget" how to cast...This is one of the ways you can recognize an old-timer gamer. Back in 2nd edition, the thing that a wizard did in the morning with his spellbooks was referred to as "memorizing" spells, and a spell, once cast, was no longer memorized. 3rd edition kept basically the same mechanics, but changed the terminology to "preparing" spells. But since the mechanics are the same, folks who got their start in earlier editions still think of it as "memorizing", even though most of us don't think it makes much sense, and sometimes don't even realize that 3e changed the fluff to be more reasonable.

Waspinator
2008-08-24, 12:41 AM
I must play by some really different rules from you. In my gaming world, a Wizard does not "forget" how to cast, he simply prepares most of his spells in the morning (thus, taking a full hour), and when he is "casting", he is not so much casting as he is finishing the very long preperation required for spellcasting. He simply cannot cast it after he runs out because it would take somewhere in the realm of all of the combat time for a medium scale battle x2.

... Darn it, I've become a troll, only trying to derail every topic with debate. I feel very foolish.

Exactly. The spell for fireballs or whatever is actually mostly cast in the morning and is left almost-done until needed, then finished in-combat.

mabriss lethe
2008-08-25, 12:25 AM
I like Tome of Magic or as someone else happened to mention, the first third of it. pact magic is amazing, shadow magic mediocre, and true name....worthless.If I hadn't just picked it up used on the cheap, I probably would never buy it. (the only thing keeping me back in the past was the enormous pricetag for only 1/3 of a book.)

Attilargh
2008-08-25, 02:27 AM
So my friend's fighter has over a hundred liters of blood in him? Damn, that's a lot.
It is. It also makes a delightful mess when you let it all out, as all that blood squeezed inside a human (or otherwise) body implies a rather tremendous pressure.


See, Wizards trick the universe into giving up packets of magic.
It's all about quantum, huh? :smalltongue:

arguskos
2008-08-25, 02:29 AM
It's all about quantum, huh?
I like to nickname them strings personally, but whatever floats your boat. :smallwink:

-argus