What better way to complete this week’s unofficial ‘become a DM’ theme and sandwich PM’s most excellent post with yet another Top 5 list?
In order to balance my crunchy Ying with some fluffy Yang here’s a few words on my top Fluff books and boxed sets.
Now since I’m not much of a fluff lover and I might not have 5 purely fluff books so I’ll include DM advice books if I need to pad this baby. Once again, the list is in no particular order of awesomeness.
Hands down the best campaign supplement I have ever read or used. It’s been called the Lexus of game supplement, with an original retail price of more than 100$. It is the most usable, well designed, Generic D&D campaign setting in my opinion.
It’s basically a campaign world about a single city that features a very large number of dungeons under it. The best thing in my opinion is the sheer number of organizations, NPCs, maps and plot hooks dripping from every page of that monster of a book (over 700 pages)
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not THAT complete, no city books are, but it is the closest thing I have ever found to a complete campaign product/setting before Pathfinder came out. Some called it less than original, and that’s a bit true, but it’s very very well done not original stuff! 🙂
Dungeon Master Guide II/Robin Laws Rules of Good Gamemastering:
The stuff I loved best about the DMG II is what Robin Laws wrote about good DMing. Much of which seems to come from his earlier work. This is what made me want to become a better DM at a time where I was ready to say I had peaked and was Just That Good (TM)… Truly a must read for all DMs/GMs. Player types, definitions of fun, pacing… this here blog is heavily based on that philosophy.
These books reek of fluffy goodness about where fiends come from and what are their agenda. While I prefer the near-perfect synergy of Crunch and Fluff of FC I, I absolutely loved reading about Asmodeus’ schemes in FCII and I am actually looking forward to read about his ascend to godhood in 4e (which incidentally, some people seem unable to decide if it will rock or suck).
Planescape Campaign Setting (AD&D 2nd and fan-fueled 3.5):
I must confess that I’m a very late bloomer about Planescape. I’ve discovered it last summer when I got an original mint box for 20$ on Ebay. While I’m perfectly aware that it was TSR’s transparent bid to counterbalance White Wolf’s storming of the RPG world, it’s still one impressive pile of fluff. It oozes attitude and badassery!
I do find the various factions to be a bit ‘shallow’ in terms of description, and a bit dated when compared to Ptolus’ approach, but I have yet to read the ton of material available online.
A great-read nonetheless.
Manual of the Plane (D&D 3.0):
This is the one book I find interesting whenever I open it randomly. I absolutely love D&D’s cosmology and this is what I’ll be using for our campaign’s next chapter. This book will remain in my library for years to come, much like my 1st ed DMG.
Please share your Fluff All-Stars… from all games and systems!
I bought Ptolus. I looked at it. I lifted it. I leaved through it. I got myself some tea. And then I opened another book.
It’s too big!!
I can respect that Alex… but this here crunch monkey actually read it all… and it was soooo worth it! 🙂
Might I suggest that you read chapter 33 (adventures ) and then see from there?
Or put it on E-bay… the Hardcopy version, especially an autographed one, sells quite well.
While Ptolus may be sweet. I’ve never really looked at it. The whole comparing it to a Lexus turns me off. The car guy in me screems “Its just a Toyota with a slightly nicer trim package!” Now Pathfinder theres a supplement. I just recently picked this up. Oh man, I love it. Parts of it are totally going into my game. Truly Pathfinder = Awesome.
I just stole 2 Pathfinder boss monsters and used them in my game….
They are great supplements… I could have said ‘my stack of Paizo adventure’ as top 5 fluff… let’s put them in the top 5.5!