Quote from: StuartMoldvay edition D&D Expert Rulebook, and B5: Horror on the Hill.  I lost these years ago -- and now I've got them again!  B5 is still my favourite module.  It's gelatinous-tastic!

Heh - my most recent purchase is also the Moldvay Expert Rulebook, which is brand new to me.

(Also, I think this is my first post, so hi everyone).

Welcome, Forager.

In preparation for a campaign, I've snapped up a bunch of Moldvay/Cook B/X D&D books.  I now have enough to give a copy of each to everyone who might be playing.

In addition, I just scored a 1e Gamma World box off of eBay and am waiting for that to be delivered.

Oh, and it's back to school time, so I got a bunch of notebooks and mapping/drawing supplies from Staples for my game prep.

EDIT: Judges Guild pdfs from RPGnow or whatever it's called now, too, using up an AMEX gift card left over from my birthday.

Yesterday I bought some old Judges Guild numbered hexmaps, a copy of their psionics book, and a mini of a Rodian with a big gun.

RIFTS Chaos Earth and a 10 pack of notebooks.

Quote from: Pierce InverarityJudges Guild Islands Book
World's Greatest GM Screen (that vinyl thing from Hammerdog)
Player's Guide to Kaiin (Dying Earth)
Scaum Valley Gazetteer (Dying Earth)
Creature Catalog (for RC)

Scaum Valley Gazetteer is freakin' awesome. Probably the best written and most useful setting book I own. You'll have to let us know what you think of the Player's Guide to Kaiin. I have that on my 'to buy' list.

The following Redbrick Earthdawn books:

Earthdawn Player's Compendium
Earthdawn Gamemaster's Compendium
Nations of Barsaive

I made the purchase after a thorough research of the game, including downloading samples of the core books and searching the RPGnet archives for opinions about Earthdawn.

Nevertheless, I'm pretty disappointed. The Earthdawn system is far more complex and crunchy than I was led to believe by comments about it being 'rules-medium'. And the setting material is almost all fluff - page on page of historical background and politics. There's fuck all concrete content for running an actual gaming session - no lairs, wilderness encounters, maps of kaers - just hundreds of pages describing factions, economics, and history.

I suppose you're supposed to use that stuff to inspire you to write actual game material. But I'm pretty choked that with over 1,200 pages of book I'll still have to make up any actual playable adventures almost from scratch - and that's if I can get my players to read hundreds of pages of character generation and background; the Player's Compendium recommend players read all the material on adepts (classes), races, and skills before playing. That's over 200 pages.

I got a ton of stuff at GenCon

RPG Stuff:
GURPS Who's Who 1
GURPS Who's Who 2
GURPS Shapeshifters
All Tomorrow's Zombies
Changeling: The Lost
Monster's and Treasure 2nd printing (C&C)
Crusader Magazines (5, 6, 7)
Grey Ranks
The Shab-al-Hiri Roach
The Roach Returns (for above)
Starship Troopers Pocket Players Guide
Og: Unearthed Edition

Games:
Hex Hex
Illuminati: SubGenius Edition
Vampire: Dark Influences (this one's a real deal for all the shit in the box...)
CoverUp
Wallamoppi

I also got a novel from a new writer (Shane Moore), titled A Prisoner's Welcome.

Now, none of this counts the goodie bag stuff, which was pretty extensive.  I think that's everything.

Quote from: HaffrungThe following Redbrick Earthdawn books:

Earthdawn Player's Compendium
Earthdawn Gamemaster's Compendium
Nations of Barsaive

I made the purchase after a thorough research of the game, including downloading samples of the core books and searching the RPGnet archives for opinions about Earthdawn.

Nevertheless, I'm pretty disappointed. The Earthdawn system is far more complex and crunchy than I was led to believe by comments about it being 'rules-medium'. And the setting material is almost all fluff - page on page of historical background and politics. There's fuck all concrete content for running an actual gaming session - no lairs, wilderness encounters, maps of kaers - just hundreds of pages describing factions, economics, and history.

I suppose you're supposed to use that stuff to inspire you to write actual game material. But I'm pretty choked that with over 1,200 pages of book I'll still have to make up any actual playable adventures almost from scratch - and that's if I can get my players to read hundreds of pages of character generation and background; the Player's Compendium recommend players read all the material on adepts (classes), races, and skills before playing. That's over 200 pages.

That's pretty much how Earthdawn is...  It's a thoroughly 90's game...  Almost every book released for it was complete fluff, with maybe 4-5 pages of rules stuck at the end.  I think it's pretty unreasonable to expect players to actually read that much information.

Don't get me wrong - I love Earthdawn - but the supplements had a very poor crunch:fluff ratio.  It's a system that beautifully ties in with its setting, but the setting is almost crushingly detailed.  Most of the supplements were basically $20 collections of short stories.

There were a few adventures released for 1e.  The first one - Mists of Betrayal - had very poor balance combined with a completely railroady plot.  However, there's good stuff in there, too, if you can work it out.  Shattered Pattern was a pretty good module, OTOH.  Infected was (imho) pretty outstanding with the right group, though fairly complex to run.

I've been looking at the Red Brick Earthdawn and would be interested in finding out how it's similar to or different from 1e.  Do you have any insight on that?

-O

Quote from: obrynI've been looking at the Red Brick Earthdawn and would be interested in finding out how it's similar to or different from 1e.  Do you have any insight on that?

No, this is my first experience with Earthdawn.

Thanks for the insight.

I should point out the books are very well written, formatted, and illustrated. They compile most of the material from earlier editions into huge indexed tomes. There are adventure hooks throughout. For a particular kind of gamer (or reader) this is quality stuff.

But the adventures are almost all political (find out why the Tashja trading compact isn't fulfilling its treaty obligations to the Pradu of Greater Volmia, etc.). For a game that has so much mechanical support for combat, and is chock full of interesting monsters and magic artifacts, it's bizarre that virtually none of the setting material or adventure hooks involve killing monsters and taking their stuff.

And there's just so much material - like seven pages of historical and cultural background on each class, with rituals and short stories, etc. piled on and on. It comes across as a game that's meant to be read rather than played, which is a shame because there's the skeleton of a clever game in there, larded with enormous amounts of non-game content.

Quote from: Zachary The FirstI love the GameScience booth.  Col. Lou is fun to talk to, and my players FEAR my pewter pecentiles.

That guy was a hoot!  Apparently he's not going to make any more pewter ones.  "Some kid" broke into his warehouse and stole the cast mold thingies and is apparently using them as ammunition for his wrist rocket.  

Can you imagine getting popped with one of those things in the head?  :eek:

Quote from: HaffrungScaum Valley Gazetteer is freakin' awesome. Probably the best written and most useful setting book I own. You'll have to let us know what you think of the Player's Guide to Kaiin. I have that on my 'to buy' list.

I will--I got it specifically for inspiration for my S&S Basic D&D game. I'm thinking Vance and Leiber should be a great mix.

I bought the M&M2 Pocket Player's Guide from my FLGS last Friday night. It was spur of the moment, but I have found it quite handy so far.

Star Wars Saga Edition.

Pete

Actually now it's nMAge.

I'm sensing a pattern...

After not buying much for most of the summer, I seem to have gone on something of a binge. Luckily, everything received so far has been great:

• Kobold Quartery, Issue 1. This looks very promising -- not quite a home run, but a good first try. Hopefully Wolfgang can sustain the effort.
  
• D&D Dungeon Tiles III, Hidden Crypts: Very nice, sturdy collection of necro-themed tiles. I was able to use these immediately in my 3.5e conversion of "Kingdom of the Ghouls."
  
• Pathfinder Volume 1, Burnt Offerings: This just came Monday, and so far looks freaking fantastic. I plan to post a review on EnWorld soon, it's that good.
  
• Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk: Just came today, so I only had a chance to paw through it at lunch. This also looks sweet.
  
• Beyond Countless Doorways: One of my campaigns is about to take a planar swing. I hope this helps, but I have somewhat low expectations.
  
• The City of Brass: Amazon tells me this just shipped; the buzz is universally positive.
  
• Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor: Also on the way from Amazon.
  

Crap that's a lot of stuff. The 4e annoucement had me take a few crunchy items off my intended buy list: PHII, Magic Item Compendium, MMV.