This touches on something I wrote about not long ago, namely how our collections look like, and their size. Running into the following video sparked some thoughts again:
I like this a lot! And find it a worthy exercise.
My Picks
1. The Tome of Adventure Design, Revised
2. Knock! Magazine, issues #1, #2, #3
3. Stonehell: Down Night-Haunted Halls (and Into the Heart of Hell if allowed to cheat ;) )
4. BECM Rules Cyclopedia from 1991
Some Considerations
Considered what I personally own, and what has been perused at the gaming table.
The author of the video above has some damn fine choices. Lots of overlap!:
1. The Tome of Adventure Design, Revised
2. Knock! Magazine, issues #1, #2, #3
3. Veins of the Earth or A Folklore Bestiary (cheating by providing two entries)
4. AD&D 1e DMG
These are some excellent books, by all accounts. Whilst I haven't cut my teeth with AD&D, and also haven't had the urge to add A Folklore Bestiary to my repertoire, I can understand their merit and inclusion.
In my opinion the best materials are those that provide (a) a ruleset, (b) randomizers for game generation, (c) an implied or explicit setting, and (d) in some cases rules for oracles, procedures, or solo play. Any book that gets close or reaches these four categories is a clear candidate. Doing everything at once well is almost unthinkable.
For example Maze Rats is great, because it is an easy-to-teach game (simple to pick up for neophytes), but also has a myriad of random tables. So it solidly covers (a) and (b). And it also has decent referee advice. On the other hand, Lamentations of the Flame Princess' Rules & Magic is great at (a) and (c), but severly lacks in (b), and needs extensive supplemental material to function at the table.
Some examples that condense a lot of the four categories, and are worthy contenders for a single book to take to a desert island are:
- BECM Rules Cyclopedia from 1991
- Some of Kevin Crawford's catalogue: Worlds Without Number, Stars Without Number, or Scarlet Heroes jump out.
- Esoteric Enterprises by Emmy Allen.
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What are yours? What did you get the most out of? Which island do you want to be stranded in?
Stonehell is a solid choice. I have run it many times and there are still places no PC has seen!
ReplyDeleteIt is great in that you can either run it wholesale as THE adventure, or you can cannibalize it and sprinkle in your hexmap of choice
DeleteI'm gonna cheat and do some doubles:
ReplyDelete1. Basic/Expert (Moldvay & Cook)
2. AX1 D30 DM Companion and AX2 D30 Sandbox Companion (Richard LeBlanc / New Big Dragon Games)
3. Stonehell I (Michael Curtis)
4. AD&D DMG (Gygax)
This is missing a good starting town, but that's about it. Too many tables can get out of hand. I like mine to be nice and focused and AX1 and AX2 are some of the best laid out supplements I've seen.
Ah yes, those D30 booklets are a throve of actionable material!
DeleteThis reminds me I have to generate some rival adventuring party for Friday's game, and the D30 sandbox has some great support for that.
Mine would probably be:
ReplyDelete1. The 3 OD&D little brown books
2. Anomalous Subsurface Environment 1
3. Veins of the Earth
4. The OSE Advanced Player's and Referee's books
Agree that Worlds Without Number and Esoteric Enterprises would be great picks. Personally, ASE might be the one book I've gotten the most out of. It's an amazing setting, it has a great city, great random tables, an equipent list, and a good chunk of a megadungeon.
My problem with the 3LBB is that they are a disjointed mess, unless you are a scholar of them like Delta & co. I really dig the punk zine aesthetic though!
DeleteI would almost always prefer a retroclone like S&W or Whitebox FMAG, but that's just me :)
Honestly, I don't disagree with you. As a *rulebook*, I would take WB FMAG over the 3 LBB any day. But the evocativeness of the 3 LBB is just absolutely unmatched, imo. I've always found it's weirdness and the way it's written extremely inspiring.
Delete