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Llew ap Hywel

Llew ap Hywel

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So what is your most used/valuable RPG supplement. The one book that is so good it crosses genre/setting/company lines to be used for everything.
 
Right off the top of my head, it's a tie between these two:
  1. I know that it's a bit of a cliché, but Vornheim has supplemented my GM job plenty of times. (link to store page), whether I used it to generate NPCs, weird locations or just to use the random tables in the back.
  2. Also, the D30 Sandbox Companion by New Big Dragon Games. That has helped me a lot, especially the NPC and tavern generators. (link to store page)
 
I have Vornheim in a box somewhere, I'll have to pull it out :smile:
 
Tough question. I'm drawing a blank - especially with a supplement that crosses genre lines.

I guess what has been really valuable for my gaming have been the Investigator Weapons books produced by SixtyStone Press. More than just gun-junkie-books, they provide some interesting historical background on firearms; present some interesting optional rules for combat situations; and are just meticulously researched.
 
AD&D DMG (either 1e or 2e) for the quick to use tables, especially to contextualize encounters for when my brain farts. Little things like sight range, distance, encounter reaction, surprise, terrain encounter rates, morale, quick personalities, etc. really help when my creativity hits a processing hump.

Still need to check out Vornheim as I've heard nothing but good things about it doing the same.
 
Not strictly speaking an RPG supplement, but the book I go back to the most often, no matter what the setting or genre is, whether player or GM, is The Thirty-Six Strategies of Ancient China.
 
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I don't really have one that I use for everything, but my Rolemaster Gamemaster Law has informed a lot of my GMing over the years, and I periodically re read it.
 
Whenever I need to go into detail on the construction of weapons/vehicles/spaceships I go to VDS (Vehicle Design System) by BTRC. It deals in real-world units, so it's fairly system agnostic.

Whenever working on a fantasy setting, I'll make extensive use of Aria: Worlds. The game itself isn't useful, but the Worlds book is a wonderful resource on building a believable and detailed setting. You just have to get past the words to the concepts. (It actually helps if you use the book in reverse order. It's easier to understand that way.)

For building religions, pantheons, and divine style magic, I've used The Primal Order books by Wizards of the Coast (from before they had anything to do with D&D, and even before Magic: the Gathering. Actually, I have a long-standing grudge against M:tG because its success led to them cancelling their Primal Order line.) It had conversions to the system I used at the time (Rolemaster,) and it's still possible to incorporate the concepts into other systems.
 
My first must-have supplement was Aaron Allston's Strike Force. While focused on Champions and specifically on Aaron Allston's famous Strike Force campaign, it had a lot of good GMing advice that could be applied to just about any RPG.
 
The Armory for RMSS. 50 more attack tables, including Mullet (fish) and Henchman. I actually wrote a critical hit table for Mullets. That's how I wound up getting the job of writing the critical hits for The Combat Companion, which is my only professional writing credit to date. Probably my last one, I don't think I'll ever write for something I don't own again. Well, except some Mutant Chronicles comics and the occasional silly fan fic. I'd like to do a few more of those.
 
Alchemy Companion and "...and a 10 Foot Pole" are good ones. Hands of the Healer for Merp is a good one with all the Herbs.
Edge of the Sword: Compendium of Modern Firearms by R. Talsorian Games was always useful to me when guns were present.
I've referred back to HarnManor and the Harnic Price List more times than I can count.
 
A slight tangent here, but i've just been browsing drivethru (for no real reason, just time-wasting really), came across something that looked interesting, clicked on the full preview section and had a shufty before shaking my head and closing it forever.

I will not name and shame the product or author, but get a load of this sentence (and this is being sold for money!)

"pick one of the corporations from one of the ones below".
 
OHT said:
A slight tangent here, but i've just been browsing drivethru (for no real reason, just time-wasting really), came across something that looked interesting, clicked on the full preview section and had a shufty before shaking my head and closing it forever.

I will not name and shame the product or author, but get a load of this sentence (and this is being sold for money!)

"pick one of the corporations from one of the ones below".
Click to expand...
Oh dear...
 
Wikipedia blows out everything I own for generic info supplements.

I love to repurpose stuff I own - the D&D battlemap finds its way to Rifts, etc, the Traveller deck plans become an arcane mecha-whale in Stormbringer, etc - but I don't think I have a go2 generic book anymore.
 
Some of my favourites...

Realms of Magic - one of my pet peeves with superhero RPGs is that when it comes to handling magic/magic-using characters, they pretty much all default to just treating the occult the same as superpowers. Realms of Magic is, AFAIK, the only one to really break away from this tradition and to present an actual magic system for the Marvel Superheroes RPG that feels...well, magical.

Strike Force - Aaron Allston's masterclass on running long-term superhero campaigns written as a combination of resource for GMs and an evaluation of Alstone's Champions campaign he'd been running since 1981 (Strike Force was first published in '88). Anyone who ever even thinks about GMing a supers RPG should read this book.

Damnation City - though it's for a gameline I don't have any particular interest in (nWOD, specifically Vampire: The somethin'), it is the best guide for putting together and running a modern city that I've come across, and I've applied it with great effect to my Phaserip games.

Uncaged: Faces of Sigil - I was amazed at how good Uncaged was, as I'd actually not bothered with it the longest time because "a book of character write-ups" reminded me of some of the most boring RPG products I'd come across. But Uncaged is amazing, a fascinating web of potential events woven throughout Sigil just from the character descriptions, yet also many characters that are so endearing in their own right, it's the closest an RPG supplement has come to a Discworld novel for me. It's a work that verges on Dickensian, and ore than any other Planescape supplement or adventure, painted for me the clearest picture of Sigil as a "living" city.

1920's London Guidebook - hyper-specialized, but if you want to run a game that takes place in London in the 1920's, particularly one with an occult or Mythos-type flavour, this classic by Chaosium is the one for you.

Grain Into Gold - a practical guide to medieval economics for gaming purposes.

Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering - just as a basic introduction to GMing, I found this little comic book-sized booklet more useful and effective than the GM sections of 99.9% of published RPGs I've ever read.
 
Unknown Armies’ One Shots - A collection of short, weird scenarios to run with a with a percentile system so straightforward that you could possibly run them straight out of the book without the core rules. I’ve managed to run several of them for other games, like Mage: The Ascension and Doctor Who.

Ars Magica’s Medieval Bestiary - A monster manual of sorts, but this one is different as it is based on research about how medieval people actually viewed beasts in terms of myth making. That is, story opportunities are discussed for even the most mundane of beasts. If you ever want to know how to construct a scenario about a badger or a magpie, this is a supplement that tells you how.

Kult - The Conjurer’s Guides - 2 Books: Heart, Mind and Soul and Beyond the Boundaries. A flashy but intrusive interior design and a small font makes these two books difficult to read, but they are great for weaving real world occult concepts directly into the backstory and Magick system of the game. Really evocative stuff.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Chicago By Night - Any edition will do. Just a great tool, with everything you need for running dark, convoluted, political soap operas for years.
 
I don't actually buy a lot of supplements for most games, but there are exceptions...

Monster Island, for Mythras. I like all of the material I buy for Mythras, but Monster Island stands out as a top notch book.

All of the Hollow Earth Expedition books.

All of the John Carter of Mars supplements.
 
Well their is a ton of GURPS books that are great, and find them selves being used with a sorts of games of varying systems. But the book that comes to mind, is outdated now. But was great back in the day. (Back in the day being the mid 80's early 90's) Palladium book of contemporary weapons.
 
One supplement that really stuck with me was Three Pillars, for Vampire: the Dark Ages. Can’t speak for historical accuracy but it painted a pretty solid picture of Medieval society that’s colored even my fantasy games.
 
Some things I've used often over decades and for several game systems:

- The Arden supplement for 1st edition Chivalry and Sorcery. Not many people have or know about this, but it is an amazing product because it presents one of the most detailed small-scale hexcrawling setting you'll ever see, in a format that is perfect for use at the table (a set of heavy card stock map sheets with a transparent hex-grid overlay).
- Original Wilderlands maps by Judge's Guild (the ones on heavy, glossy parchment paper)
- Palladium compendium of weapons, armor and castles
- My collection of 1E AD&D pastel modules, which I re-use and repurpose so frequently for so many game that I've stopped thinking of them as D&D modules. There is something about the format and maps that has never been rivaled.
 
Stars without number, Silent Legions, and Worlds without number. If I'm ever stuck with what I want to make as my next situation the players come across, I pull out those books. The tags are great prompts for creating interesting locations/people.
 
redlemonginger said:
Stars without number, Silent Legions, and Worlds without number. If I'm ever stuck with what I want to make as my next situation the players come across, I pull out those books. The tags are great prompts for creating interesting locations/people.
Click to expand...
I need to pick up Worlds Without Number. I've fallen behind on my Kevin Crawford collection.
 
Of all the games on my play list the only absolute must have is Cults of Prax.

Beyond that I would add various iconic adventure and setting supplements.
 
For games set in the right time periods, I have got cross-game line use out of:
  • “The Globetrotter‘s Guide to London“ for Leagues of Adventure/Gothic Horror (Victorian London) as well as TSR’s Guide to Gothic Earth (from the original Masque of the Red Death Ravenloft line); and
  • “Paris Gothique” for All for One: Regime Diabloque (Louis XIII Paris)
 
I am not sure I have any must-haves. Some publications have proven useful, and the selection shows my age.
  • Anything HârnWorld. How do cities, villages, or ships work?
  • Robin Hood: The Role Playing Campaign (Iron Crown Enterprises, 1987) for Rolemaster provided me with a pretty cohesive idea about a medieval world.
  • The world/campaign building parts in Rolemaster's Character Law & Campaign Law (Iron Crown Enterprises, 1985) have been a great inspiration. There is probably nothing special about it, but the top-down approach always fills me with ideas of conflicts at different levels.
  • GURPS Space (Steve Jackson Games, 1999) and GURPS Mysteries (Steve Jackson Games, 2006) have been pretty useful as well. All inspiration and recognition of possibilities. GURPS Old West (Steve Jackson Games, 2000) remains to be tested.
  • I got a lot of mileage out of Living Greyhawk Gazetteer (Wizards of the Coast, 2000). It lends itself to my gritty tastes much easier than some other high-fantasy worlds. (edit: However, I would not use it for anything other than D&D, so I supposed it does not meet the OP's criteria.)
 
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