From Newsgroup: rec.games.frp.dnd


There's been a lot of material written for D&D in its various
iterations, both official and unofficial. Some of them have been
great, some of them have been terrible; most fall somewhere in
between. Of all the books you may have read for the game, which one do
you think is both well-written, useful and often overlooked?

I've got three. You'll note all three are old-school TSR-era books,
but that's mostly because that's what I still use but that's not to
exclude more modern stuff (and I think even the old stuff I mention
may have some value to users of more recent editions)

#


For me, the one that immediately comes to mind is "REF3: Book of
Lairs" (TSR9177), a 1st Ed. AD&D supplement that included 60+
mini-adventures, sorted by monster and terrain, that were intended to
be placed as encounters or side-quests during campaigns. Not all the
adventures were great or --at least for my campaigns-- useful but I
always found them to be great stepping-off points that helped me
create my own adventures. In fact, I only used a few of the encounters
in my own campaigns (and even then, not without major modifications).
But often when I was writing up an adventure and couldn't think up
what to do next, I'd pick one of the encounters from the book. I
wouldn't use it and rarely would even slip any of the ideas into my
own writings, but the book was great for getting me into the right
state of mind.


Next, the "Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue". (TSR 9358) Not so much
for the writing but its pictures. Written as if it were a
fantasy-themed 'Sears Catalogue' sort of thing, it lists a bunch of
equipment that PCs might find useful in their adventures. Some of it
is absolutely silly and worthless but you can't imagine how many times
I've let players thumb through it and it spurred them onto some wild
ideas that made our campaigns more exciting and imaginative. (also, a
quick shout out to "DMGR3 Arms And Equipment Guide" for similar
reasons: it's great to have pictures of commonly used gear)


Finally, "DMGR1 Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide" (TSR 2112).
Not the entirety of the book, and it may not be something everyone
agrees with. But its early chapters on how to actually DM a game were
something I found inordinately useful when I first started a long-term campaign. It gave me an idea of how to handle different players and
add life to my campaigns. Up until that point I was more or less
playing it all by ear; that book made me stop and think about how I
could improve my skills at a DM. I don't agree with everything it says
but in many ways it was the first time I had any real advice on how to
play itself beyond just being given a bunch of rules to adjudicate.
There are probably a lot better guides for that sort of thing these
days (and maybe even back in 1990 when it was first published) but it
was the first such book I had read, and as such it holds a special
place in my heart.


#


What about you? What book do you think is something that is
particularly memorable to you and probably would benefit others by
reading it, even if it may not be directly useful to a modern gamer?
Is it one of the classic rulebooks? An especially memorable adventure?
A reference guidebook? Some third-party campaign supplement? What
hidden gem do you think needs to be uncovered by more D&D gamers?





----
* Note: All three books I mentioned are available for purchase and
download. Please note I get a high 00000000.000000% kickback on every
sale made at that website ;-) https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/17019/ref3-the-book-of-lairs-1e https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/16834/aurora-s-whole-realms-catalogue-2e
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/16887/dmgr1-campaign-sourcebook-and-catacomb-guide-2e
And probably available elsewhere if you don't mind raising the ol' skull-n-bones


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From Newsgroup: rec.games.frp.dnd

On 13/04/2026 21.47, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

There's been a lot of material written for D&D in its various
iterations, both official and unofficial. Some of them have been
great, some of them have been terrible; most fall somewhere in
between. Of all the books you may have read for the game, which one do
you think is both well-written, useful and often overlooked?

Never played D&D, always just AD&D, mainly 2.0, some 2.5. One that we
used to get more details regarding weapons we had "The Compendium of
Weapons, Armour & Castles" (ISBN: 0-916211-38-X), good source for
example for how different weapons were actually used.

I have some boxes of old books at the attic, but out over DMG, MM, and
PHB, I don't really think any other AD&D related book really stand out
over another, as anything else is easy to create in your own mind.
--
//Aho
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From Newsgroup: rec.games.frp.dnd

On Tue, 14 Apr 2026 08:05:49 +0200, "J.O. Aho" <user@example.net> said
this thing:

On 13/04/2026 21.47, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

There's been a lot of material written for D&D in its various
iterations, both official and unofficial. Some of them have been
great, some of them have been terrible; most fall somewhere in
between. Of all the books you may have read for the game, which one do
you think is both well-written, useful and often overlooked?

Never played D&D, always just AD&D, mainly 2.0, some 2.5. One that we
used to get more details regarding weapons we had "The Compendium of >Weapons, Armour & Castles" (ISBN: 0-916211-38-X), good source for
example for how different weapons were actually used.

Ah, Palladium's best book!

I rank this one slightly below TSR's "Arms And Equipment Guide"
because a) the writing isn't as accessbile, and b) it's just TOO
dense. It's informative as all heck, but the TSR book is easier to
skim through and get a general idea as to what is what. It's a great
book but, in my personal opinion, it's too meaty for how I'd
ordinarily use such a book... which would be to spur on ideas (either
as player or DM).


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From Newsgroup: rec.games.frp.dnd

On 4/13/2026 12:47 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

There's been a lot of material written for D&D in its various
iterations, both official and unofficial. Some of them have been
great, some of them have been terrible; most fall somewhere in
between. Of all the books you may have read for the game, which one do
you think is both well-written, useful and often overlooked?

I've got three. You'll note all three are old-school TSR-era books,
but that's mostly because that's what I still use but that's not to
exclude more modern stuff (and I think even the old stuff I mention
may have some value to users of more recent editions)

#

For me, the one that immediately comes to mind is "REF3: Book of
Lairs" (TSR9177),

In much the same vein, 4e's Dungeon Delves is a collection of '5-room dungeons' from 1 each from level 1-30 (equivilent to 1-20 since each
level was about .75 of a level elsewhere.) Admittedly not quite as
useful since no one plays 4e, but still easy enough to take and convert
to anything.

Next, the "Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue". (TSR 9358) Not so much
for the writing but its pictures. Written as if it were a
fantasy-themed 'Sears Catalogue' sort of thing

That was fun, but a little too useful in some regards. I rather like AC
4 The Book of Marvelous Magic, which has a bunch of rather silly magic
items, and isn't presented as something the PCs can just buy from.

What about you? What book do you think is something that is
particularly memorable to you and probably would benefit others by
reading it, even if it may not be directly useful to a modern gamer?
Is it one of the classic rulebooks? An especially memorable adventure?
A reference guidebook? Some third-party campaign supplement? What
hidden gem do you think needs to be uncovered by more D&D gamers?

Primal Order. Wonderful and fun book on a system of how to deal with
god's powers, possibly even playing gods.
--
-Justisaur

|+-|+
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
-|-4'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'
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From Newsgroup: rec.games.frp.dnd

On Tue, 14 Apr 2026 12:08:23 -0700, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
said this thing:

On 4/13/2026 12:47 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

For me, the one that immediately comes to mind is "REF3: Book of
Lairs" (TSR9177),

In much the same vein, 4e's Dungeon Delves is a collection of '5-room >dungeons' from 1 each from level 1-30 (equivilent to 1-20 since each
level was about .75 of a level elsewhere.) Admittedly not quite as
useful since no one plays 4e, but still easy enough to take and convert
to anything.

I really dislike how 4E adventures/encounters were presented, so this
makes the book a lot less useful to me. The nice thing about Book of
Lairs is how open-ended they are; they're more sandbox than the
step-by-step combat encounters of 4E. I'm also more of a fan of
outdoor adventures than dungeon crawls. Which all says more about my
style of playing D&D than anything about the book. For gamers who
primarily engage with the combat and want drop-in rooms, "Dungeon
Delves" is probably great. But I can't appreciate it the same way.

Next, the "Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue". (TSR 9358) Not so much
for the writing but its pictures. Written as if it were a
fantasy-themed 'Sears Catalogue' sort of thing

That was fun, but a little too useful in some regards. I rather like AC
4 The Book of Marvelous Magic, which has a bunch of rather silly magic >items, and isn't presented as something the PCs can just buy from.

We never used it that way in our campaigns. I never presented it to
the players as 'you have a catalogue where you can buy stuff'. In
fact, often FINDING the particular item was impossible. But players
would often use the items as ideas to further their own madcap
schemes; they'd see something like the 'toy bow and arrow' set and use
it to formulate an idea where they shrunk down their weapons (reverse
Enlarge spell) to sneak them into an area pretending they were toys).
It was more an idea-factory than an actual catalog.

What

hidden gem do you think needs to be uncovered by more D&D gamers?

Primal Order. Wonderful and fun book on a system of how to deal with
god's powers, possibly even playing gods.

I wasn't familiar with this one. Apparently it's a generic FRPG
supplement published by WOTC (back in 1992, before they owned D&D)
that helped DM role-play gods, whether as powers the PCs interact with
or if the PCs themselves achieve (or try to achieve) that sort of
prominence. In form, it reminds me a bit of the old RoleAids
supplements, although I suspect its probably better written.

(here, if anybody wants to look https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/118293/the-primal-order

Seeing as I tended to run low-magic campaigns where it was rare for
PCs to exceed 10th level, the utility of this book for me doesn't seem
very high... but I'm tempted to grab it just to see what it's like
now.


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