Top 5 RPG Books

[JohnTaber]

Hi Hero Readers,

Ok...I have to be honest...Derek gave me the idea for this topic in another post... ;)

Let's hear your top 5 RPG books from ANY system.

I'll do mine but I need to check my books at home before I answer... :)

[ogier300]

Strike Force, by Aaron Allston
Lands of Mystery, by Aaron Allston
Feng Shui, by Robin Laws and Jose Garcia
Amber Diceless RPG, by Eric Wujick
Exalted, by various folks

[Agent Escafarc]

Hero System 5th
Champions 4th
Traveller Book 5 High Guard
Toon!
The original white box ver. of D&D

[GradonSilverton]

Hero 5th -- Grandmaster Steve Long
UMA (Origional, the 5th Ed version is good, but the origional was masterful) -- Pimp Daddy Steven S. Long
Star Wars : Imperial Source Book (from the West End Days) -- Greg Gorden
D&D 3rd : Forgotten Realms (hate to admit it but a damn fine book) -- cant remember is there is a author if if its TSR
Role Playing Gamers Bible 1st or 2nd Edition(Not a system book, but I believe it to be the best damn info book on RPG's period) --Sean Patrick Fannon

[Derek Hiemforth]

Okay, here's mine, but I'm approaching it as the top sourcebooks... rulebooks like HERO System Fifth Edition aren't eligible, because I don't want a like or dislike of the rules engine to color the rest of the book. It was just too tough to limit it to five, so here's ten. ;) (It could easily have been 20 without diluting the quality noticeably.) Another disclaimer: I haven't yet finished reading some recent Hero books that look like they could make this list (both Star Hero and Ninja Hero), so I can't in good conscience include them yet.

Okay, enough waffling. Here's the list: Champions (5th Edition) by Aaron Allston and Steven S. Long, for the HERO System. Takes all the best material from Champions 1st-4th and Strike Force, and expands it.

The Complete Book of Villains by Kirk Botula and Rick Swan, for AD&D. An excellent look at creating fully-realized adversaries.

Dark Champions by Steven S. Long, for the HERO System. Indispensible.

Gamemastering Secrets by Aaron Rosenberg and many others (including our own Steve Long), ostensibly for d20 System and Fudge; really for any system. Ton's o' good advice on gamemastering.

GURPS Illuminati by Nigel Findley, for GURPS. The ultimate treatment of matters illuminated for gaming. Fnord.

GURPS Religion by Janet Naylor and Caroline Julian, for GURPS. The best overall view I've seen of religions in games and game worlds.

Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering by Robin Laws, for any game system. Another fantastic book of GM tips from one of the industry's top writers.

San Angelo: City of Heroes by Patrick Sweeney, for the HERO System. The best original superhero campaign setting I've yet seen, and a great example of things to consider when creating your own Campaign City for a supers game. (I can't wait to see how Millenium City compares.)

Suppressed Transmission (Vols. 1 & 2) by Ken Hite, for any game system. Absolutely jam-packed with coolness, these books defy description. If you can't come up with a plot idea within 30 seconds of reading, something's wrong with you. ;)

Underworld Enemies by Chris Avellone, for the HERO System. It's "only" a book of characters, but it's just so well done and deliciously disturbing, that I couldn't leave it out. :)

[allen]

The thread title is "top"... I'll list my favorites.

I do not think these are necessarily the best written books ever produced, nor will I deny that some of my choices are in a big way based on nostalgia, nor are these the five RPG books I would recommend that 'every gamer own' -- but these are the ones that stick in my head for whatever reason.

1. Deities & Demigods
This is the second gaming product I ever bought (and in hindsight probably not a wise choice, since the first gaming product was the Basic D&D box set). I can't even begin to count the hours I have spent reading the entries and looking at the illustrations. At the age of 9 (or whatever) it was pretty much the coolest thing ever. When I'm visiting my parents, I still pick it up and read the entries for the gods and look at the illustrations

The remaining are in no particular order. (Bad enough trying to decide on five, I'll be gosh-darned if I try to rank them...)

Vampire: the Masquerade
Get out the rotten tomatoes, right? Many derisive comments have been said about the game (and, let's be honest, the players too). I won't deny any those. I will say however I read this book when I was 19 or 20... I'd stopped gaming entirely for various reasons... and reading it seemed to open a whole new vista of what an RPG could be. Maybe I just read it at the right age and in the right environment. Who knows. I will say that if a friend hadn't loaned me V:tM, it is unlikely I would be gaming today.

Dark Champions
I think of all my gaming books, I've gotten the most "GM use" out of this one. I cannot run a modern day game, regardless of genre or rules set, without refering to the sections on legal processes and criminal investigations. Even if the information is out-of-date (and I'm not honestly sure) it's valuable for just determining how the process works exactly, and lending a game verisimilitude.

The Dying Earth
The best game I will never play. It's an excellent system -- unlike some licensed RPGs, it truly captures the feel of the fiction on a deeper level than just setting, classes, and terminology -- and I love Jack Vance's work. But I simply cannot speak in a "Vancian" manner without mispronouncing every other word and becoming completely tongue-tied. Still, if you are interested in the possibilities and potentials of game design and systems, I cannot recommend the game highly enough.

Awww... to heck with it. Five is impossible, so two more.

Champions 4th edition
Me, a calculator, paper and pencil, and this book spent far too much time in high school together, when I really should've been doing homework. I borrowed the book from a friend, and kept it for months just making up characters. I just could not get enough. It was literally pick up a comic book, read it, think a character was cool, then sit down and make the character up using Champions. Voila! There the character was all stated out and everything -- ready to be played.

[I]The World of Greyhawk box set
Man, I agonized over this one... taken out of context, compared to setting stuff that has followed.... well, say no more right? But, again, I was young and discovering that the modules I owned like Tomb of Horrors and the Slavelord stuff actually took place on the map in hex whatever-whatever... it did not, absolutely could not get cooler than that. Hours lost to staring at the various heraldry printed on the inside of one of the covers, and deciding which would be the best for my fighter (Grand Duchy of Geoff, in case you're curious). I'm such a goob -- I had those maps tacked up to my bedroom wall.

[JohnTaber]

Dang it...that's what happens when you wait...someone steals your #1 comment. I'll try and do what Derek did and keep it related to sourcebook material...

Champions by Allston - It is hard to just pick one Allston book. Lands of Mystery is cool but there are so many mistakes, etc. Anyway...as Derek put it...this book is the best covereage of the RPG superhero genre period. It is better than Strikeforce in my opinion as well.

GURPS Cyberworld by Hume - This book is slick and fun. It is written with it's own punk lingo! I think it is fantastic and a must have for anyone attempting to run the Cyberpunk genre. It does punk better than CP2020! 8)

Gods of Harn by Crossby, Delgliesh, Frazer, and King - Full of great Harn info that is so easy to port to other game systems it is laughable. Harn is a joy and this book is a wonder to behold.

Call of Cthulhu by Petersen - I know I know...this could arguably be called a rule system. Even if you take out the rules this book is chock full of elder evilness...which makes for RPG goodness.

Dark Champions by Long - This is a great genre book. Touches on everything needed to run the genre and has some great campaign tidbits to boot.

Temple Of Elemental Evil by Gygax - My players and I love to run dungeon crawls...and this one is the best of the best. Great module.

Lots of great stuff in these lists!!! Thanks gents!!! :D

[TechnoViking]

You had to ask:)

1. Hero System 5th/Champions 4th: I remember when Champions 4th ed. came out I thought it was a pretty meaty rpg. DOJ has done nothing but improve on this.

2. Strikeforce for Champions by Aaron Alliston: I really good example of the rpg world, and well written.

3. The Traveller Adventure: A great adventure for Traveller. Very long, 200+ page small type. Took my gaming group a year to finish.

4. Shadow over Bogenhaven: A adventure for Warhammer RPG which was very well done.

5. Star Hero 5th edition by Jim Cambias and Steve Long: I have been a Champions/Superhero rpg fan for a long long, but I think Star Hero is the best source book for FREd to date.

Honorable Mentions:
1. Hackmaster System books: I know is it a parody, but it good system. It is controlled munkinisms and power gaming. If you have a group of the right mind set it make for a great game.

2. Rokugan for OA 3rd ed: Probably the best deisgned Far East based game world. A good read and very nice artwork.

Mike

[nblade]

Originally posted by Mike Basinger

Honorable Mentions:
1. Hackmaster System books: I know is it a parody, but it good system. It is controlled munkinisms and power gaming. If you have a group of the right mind set it make for a great game.



Well it might be a parady, but I know quite a few people that swear its actually better than d20. Of course many of these people are veteran AD&D 1st edition players and GMs.

[lemming]

In no particular order:

Paranioa
Call of Cthuhlu : Dreamlands
GURPS: Technomancer
GURPS: Black Ops
GURPS: Alternate Earths I & II


"But lemming, you didn't list a single Hero book.", you say.

Everybody else listed the ones I like. So far, DOJ hasn't put out any stinkers. Hope they keep up the winning streak.

[Jhamin]

I notice that most of my favorites are the ones that changed how I gamed.

1) Red Box Basic Dungeons & Dragons.
This was the beginning for me. It explained roleplaying and gave you everything you needed to start while still being a full fledged game in and of itself. I can't think of any that have done it as well.

2) Vampire, 1st Edition.
I'm with Allen. I know what people think, I know what the perception of the fans is, but I remember when it was new. At that point in gaming everything was about the rules. Sure, you were supposed to have stories too, but the books were all about how much of a modifier you got in this situation or that and every supplament expanded how many rules there were to keep track of. Vampire was the first game I ever encountered that even raised the idea of putting the story and the characters ahead of the mechanics and the statistics. The entire combat section fit on four pages! At the time it was an epiphany.

Once upon a time WhiteWolf was telling the truth when it's logo said "a Renessance in Gaming"

3) Dark Champions
I started playing with 4th Ed. I knew it was supposed to be universal and sort of understood how it could be used for things other than capes & nova rays, but this was the book that showed me not only how to do it, but made me want to. It aslo was my real introduction to mainting a grim & gritty game over more than a couple of sessions.

4) Beyond the Supernatural
The rules were flawed, but the setting info... This thing read like a transcript of one of the creepier episodes of "In Search Of" with Lenord Nimoy. The world was ours only a little more mysterious, and the characters generally couldn't take the monsters in a stand up fight. You had to think your way out, but the mythology was recognizable unlike Call of Cthulu. You also had alot more hope than CoC gave you. This was the first game I ever played that lasted for a whole session witout anybody rolling dice.
I note that Palladium hasn't done anything like it since.

5) The house on Gryphon Hill
A sequal to the old Ravenloft adventure module, I encountered it first & ran my players through it. They didn't know what was coming, and during an all-night session the module somehow turned into an interactive Ghost Story with their characters as the protagonists. Several of the play aids really encouraged this.
Looking back on it there are some flaws, and I ended up dropping almost 2/3 of the combat, but it was the first time any of my players actually got scared at a session. It was the first time I even realized that was possible.

[Castaigne]

AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide - way before there were any 'editions'
Self-contradictory rules, creative spelling, and stuff somebody just thought up and wrote down (sounds like 3e). Just the building blocks I needed to create a whole world of adventure (laugh and save vs. Death at -5).

Call of Cthulhu - any edition (but make mine 2nd)
Discover things man was not meant to know. Fight evil cultists. Go insane. Die. In that order. How many gold pieces your dude can carry suddenly becomes totally unimportant.

Champions.
Wait, not only do I get to be a superhero, but I get to make up his superpowers. All by myself (with just a little help from my calculator). Still the leader in bringing what's in my head to the gaming table.

Vampire: the Masquerade - 1st edition.
What, a story! It's a story. Story. Whoa.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG Core Rulebook
How to. No, not the 'what is roleplaying' quasi-chapter from the front of every RPG published in the last twenty years, but a real breakdown on how to structure a campaign that's potentially as good as the first three seasons of the show. And all in a really, really pretty package.

[Crusader108]

1.) Champions 5th Ed.--I hated the wait but I am very happy it was well worth it. :D

2.) Champions 4th Ed--This book rekindled my love of HERO Games and Champions specifically.

3.) Ravenloft (the 1st Ed module)--This adventure is what all D&D (and other RPG) adventures are measured against.

4.) Grimtooth's Traps---Yeah, I know it's evil to plot the gruesome demise of your players...but it can also be a whole lotta fun too. :D

5.) San Angelo: City of Heroes--The finest, most "living" city setting I've ever read.

Honorable Mentions:
Cyberpunk 2020
Dark Champions
Strikeforce
To Serve and Protect
VOICE of Doom

[Yamo]

1. HERO System 5th Edition
2. Delta Green
3. Delta Green: Countdown
4. D&D Rules Cyclopedia
5. Star Hero (5th)

[Herolover]

I will chime in,

1) HERO System (5th edition)
I am sorry, but this book is just sooo good. I waited forever for it and I wasn't dissapointed in the least. I think I will be using it for years to come. Can you imagine a 6th edition? What possibly could they do more?

2) Deadlands RPG
I had a friend that wanted this game when it came out and I admit that me and another or our friends laughed at him. Cards? Poker Chips? Not at my table. Finally me and my friend let him GM so we could shut him up. The next day drove an hour to buy the game ourselves. I don't play it much know, but I love to go back and visit it often. Some of the best writing and "GM" secrets of any line.

3) UMA (original)
Absolutely the best ever supplement. If you have anything to do with martial arts this is a must book. I have used it even when not doing HERO system.

4) Conspiracy X
This is a little known game. First, I HATE the system. Let me say that again I HATE the system. However, reading the setting will send chills up and down your spine. Usually when you do a modern "x-files" type game there is some aspect of modern mythology that doesn't translate well. Maybe you can explain UFO's but you can't explain magic or the other way around. Conspiracy X explains everything and puts it in a neat little scarry ball.

5) 3rd Edition D&D Players Handbook.
Yes geeky I know. I hated 1st and 2nd D&D, but I play D20. I bought the PHB when it came out because I wanted to get a hand up on the Star Wars system. I have now played a lot of D&D and Star Wars only once or twice.

Honorable mention: Alternity.
Pre d20. This was a neat game system. Easy and made me understand levels for the first time. What I liked about it was how different it was. Usually you roll a set dice and the difficulty number changes. However, in Alternity the Difficulty number is set and you roll different dice. Still think it is a great idea.

[MisterVimes]

1) HERO 5th
2) GURPS Cyberpunk
3) Champions 3D
4) Wildspace (AD&D Module by Allen Varney)
5) Book of the Righteous (d20 Sourcebook by Green Ronin)

[Nato]

My personal favorite five of all time - not necessarily the best books - just books that made a big impact on me.

1) The Big Blue Book
2) Red Box D&D
3) The Middle Arth Role-Playing rulebook (MERP)
4) Classic Enemies
5) Macho Women with Guns

[C_Zeree]

First off let me say I am an RPG reader and writer for fun. I base things off of what becomes the grain of sand in my mind to form the pearl.

I wish I was more of a gamer than my shelves and shelves could be used, but I have never lived in a place where I can find people to game. :(

In chronological order of influence on me:
(I’d love to give you the authors, as they deserve credit, but I made the move out of college, and I can’t go through my multitude of boxes.)

Spelljammer: Pirates of Wildspace.
This started it. I was walking through Waldenbooks in high school and saw this box. Could care less for the rules at that time…it spoke to me to buy it and read it. Nostalgia…

Planscape: Original boxed set.
The setting itself. Infinite planes. Multitudes of cultures. Raging Blood War, a war of faith, Law and Chaos. Places beyond imagination can be found by stepping through a door with the right “key.” And of course the planar attitude.

Mage the Ascension
It was different. It was setting, it was style, it was story. It’s a dichotomy: I love crunchy, lots of rules, but if you don’t do that and go fully for style and story you’ve got me. The idea of the secret mage societies shaping reality by will alone, the eternal quest for ascension. I like some of the darker aspect, but it got too dark at times. Why I never touched VtM. I did enjoy Werewolf too, just because I’m part tree hugger and think nature needs some fangs.

Hero 5th Ed
What can I say…CRUNCH. I love the fact when I pick up this book I feel like I could hurt someone by hitting them with it. The rules let you do everything, sure you have to do tweaking, complicated at times, etc…, but you don’t have to do it on the scale you would if you were going to pick up other systems. My imagination runs wild and Hero lets me give stats to it. Don’t know why I have the desire to do this, but Hero allows me to do it the easiest.

Savage Species
This is a d20 book, and another bit of Crunch. I honestly think this is very fresh for D&D. It is a brilliant work in the d20 system that lays the foundation for D&D players to finally expand, to play any race they want. Almost Heroesque, but still bound to d20 levels, xp, etc. Racial levels are a stroke of brilliance for 3E, players have a hope of playing low level dragons, ogres, incarnate stone golems, vrock (maniacal laughter). I do hope the project gets bigger and sees more expansion.

[Lord Mhoram]

Lessee - I am going for setting instead of rules as well...

1) San Angelo: City of heroes. Simple the best sourcebook I have ever read for any system. Period.
2) Lands of Mystery - Aaron Allston. Great setting, and a lot of the GMing advice he nipped and tucked in there was awesome (I still love the campaign roles section).
3) Spelljammer the box set. Loved the setting. I'm a sucker for nifty space stuff.
4)Star Hero- James Cambias and Steve Long. This is the best thing out for 5th yet, bar none.
5)Ninja Hero- the Original by Allston. This book turned my gaming on its ears, and I have been playing MA hero games ever since. All of the sequals and replacements were good, but they wouldn't be there if it weren't for the original. And you have to love Shinobi-yama.

honorable mentions
The Epic of Aerth for Mythus by Gygax.
hollow World - Allston

[Chris Goodwin]

In no particular order, but shading from #5 to #1:

Amber DRPG -- this was the first non-Hero non-GURPS game I had bought and played in a long time. I had read the first two of the Amber series before this and was very much "enh" about it. After I picked up the game I realized the series had a lot more to say to me than just "enh". That and it was kickass interdimensional high fantasy adventure from one pole of reality to another.

Danger International -- to my group, this was more than just Cold War era action thrillers. This was the Hero book of how-to-make-characters for the modern day and beyond. We used this book to do everything from old west to Battletech.

GURPS Illuminati -- I got, and still get, much enjoyment from this book. It whetted my interest in weird conspiracy, plus I'd been hoping for "Illuminatus! the RPG" for quite some time.

Hero 5th -- This stands in for all of the books of Champions and Hero System 3rd through 5th editions. I'd still be playing D&D and trying to find people who played Star Frontiers if it weren't for Champions.

The Primal Order -- Just freakin' wow. Roleplaying gods in any system.

[Steve Long]

Wow, fun topic. Thanx to everyone who mentioned any of my work. ;)

Let's see. I'll leave my own writings out of my answer, as well as anything I've edited or otherwise been associated with, to avoid charges of bias. :) I won't number these, though, because it's too hard to rank.

Underworld Enemies, by Chris Avellone. Wow, this is good. How such a nice guy could have such a gift for twisted, warped, and elaborately developed villains is beyond me. ;) The rest of Chris's work is equally good.

Creatures Of The Night: Horror Enemies, by Dean Shomshak. I like some bits better than others, but overall I think Dean has a great gift for the subject and writes very well.

Delta Green, by Pagan Publishing. My God, this book is good. Whenever I sit down to create a setting, this is the level of quality I aspire to. I don't think I've ever reached it yet... but I still hope to someday. ;) Most of the rest of the DG stuff is similarly good.

Deadlands, by Pinnacle. Fantastic setting, wonderfully developed; flavorful rules that really contribute to the fun of the game. Another one that sets a "bar" that I strive to meet or beat. I'm proud to have contributed to the overall line; wish I'd had the chance to write more.

Sengoku, by Mark Arsenault et al. A wonderfully detailed historic sourcebook.

GURPS Special Ops. Well researched and jam-packed with useful info and ideas. Many other GURPS books (Espionage, Swashbucklers, etc.) deserve honorable mention; great stuff for any gaming. These, too, set a bar.

Castle Falkenstein -- great framing device, superb production values, damn fun any way you slice it.

AD&D 1st Ed. It's hard to beat the classics. ;)

[Peregrine]

I've beat my head against the wall on this one, but I think I have it. In no particular order:

AD&D 1st Edition Dungeon Master's Guide: Worth it for the GMing and campaign management advice alone. While modern GMing advice runs along the lines of "don't split the PCs", the DMG gave guidelines for running a campaign with the PCs split, including how to sync time when time passes at different rates.

HERO System 5th Edition: Our beloved FRED. Cleaned up, polished, written with universal gaming in mind. If you're willing to do the work, you can literally do anything.

GURPS supplements (various): I've posted a list of my faves on the GURPS World Books thread. Suffice to say that, while GURPS itself is significantly less transparent than HERO, such that adding something new is much more challenging to balance, the supplements are chock-full of gaming goodness. Check the Bibliography of UMA if you doubt.

Ultimate Martial Artist: The original was astounding; the current is a good tweaking and polishing. If you use martial arts in your gaming, this is a must buy.

Warhammer 40000: Scoff if you will, but this is a clean, straightforward combat game. I've thought more than once about adapting it for HERO combat involving many characters per side (short of true 'mass combat'). And I have a Champions scenario in mind involving a Warp storm-lost Space Marine chapter appearing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Dr. Destroyer for Emperor of Earth, anyone?

[Libris]

Hmmn... Five best RPGs. Lets see.

Shadowrun - loved the game concept. The rules were... tricky. Actually got an article published in Valkyrie for it.

Call of Cthulhu - wasn't that into the mythos and all that Cthulhu nonsense but we took out a fair number of werewolves, zombies, cultists and the odd vampire and managed to rack up two A4 sheets of dead (or MIA) player characters.

Danger International - this was cool. "Hey guys, you can actually run out of ammo!"

Traveller - the original. Way cool. Ref'd, played, generally created mayhem and got our butts kicked by the Marines.

D&D - ah yes... them were the days... That first game. that 1st random encounter - 400 kobolds - and the equipment list; hey! I can by myself a hawk. Cool. And a war dog. Cooler.

Honourable mentions must go to Runequest, Pendragon and GURPS and, of course, Hero System.

[Thag13]

Ninja Hero first edition : I got both comp copy and playtest credit. Still a fav.

Deadlands: great story and background. Decent rules that fit the world.

Shadowrun: Wonderful story. rules are a little dicey, but I love the detail in this wonderful world

Twilight 2000, Our gang spent many a month in Poland and eastern Eroupe trying to stay alive.

Call oi Cthulu: Don't look in the locked room. Burn every book you find. Never go into the woods alone. and you still die horribly. God, I love every second of it

Honorable Mention Gurps IOU NO RPG setting has ever made me laugh as loud as this one.

[Doug McCrae]

5. Over The Edge. The first ever roleplaying game based on the novels of William Burroughs! Dense with ideas and very well written.

4. Amber DRPG. Also well written. The system is the best I've seen so far and has had a big influence on my subsequent gaming. The play examples are a joy to read, too. Don't bother with the second book - Shadow Knight - it's not nearly as good.

3. GURPS Illuminati. Great advice and ideas for running a conspiracy game. Fascinating information about the Prieure de Sion, Rosicrucians, etc. Have you noticed the best GURPS books are the ones with the least GURPS in them?

2. Suppressed Transmission 1&2. Idea-to-word ratio has gotta be the highest ever. Loads of interesting historical/Fortean tidbits, too.

1. Glorantha: Genertala, Crucible of the Hero Wars. The boxed set from Avalon Hill. The best presentation of the best roleplaying world ever created.

It's strange that although superhero is my favourite rping genre, no superhero games make my top 5. It's very hard to do it right, in fact I don't think anyone's managed it so far. Best superhero roleplaying product would be DC Heroes, 1st edition. Finest art and the best value for money I've ever seen in any rpg. The best Hero games products are Kingdom of Champions and Aaron Allston's new Champions book.

[Col. Orange]

1) Call of Cthulhu
Ref it. My first adventure had no monsters, no blood, no death and the PLAYERS were terrified. Mental.

2) Listen Up You Primative Screwheads! (Cyberpunk 2020)
Funny, informative, smart. Great advice for campaigns, combat, style, and how to deal with troublesome players.

3) FRED
I need to explain?

4) The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep
The best published campaign I've ever read or played. The London chapter went like a dream and even the players in my group who habitually play combat monsters were sucked in and freaked out.

5) GURPS
Me mate Shane uses this for Warhammer FRP, StarWars, Black Ops and Autoduel. There may be only four real stats, which at a certain point makes all characters feel a little too similar, but the combat system "feels" realistic (Passive Defence asside) and is fairly simple.

[Darren Watts]

I've posted about most of these before, so here's my quick summary:

Best Supers Book: Sorry, can't be objective here. Aaron and Steve knocked Champions out of the park. "Dark Champions" also peeled my eyes about what the Hero System was capable of.

Best Supers Adventure: "Don't Ask," the Ambush Bug epic from Mayfair's DC game. Hands down the funniest RPG book ever written.

Best Horror Book: Delta Green. Everything they say is true.

Best Fantasy Book: GURPS Fantasy II (Madlands). One of the few truly unique RPG experiences.

Best Sci-Fi Book: Until this year I'd have said GURPS Space, another well-beloved classic. But Star Hero rocks on toast.

Best "Other" Book: Bunch of candidates here, like GURPS Black Ops or Nobilis (2nd Ed), but I'll go with Feng Shui.

Best Gaming Support Book: Suppressed Transmission 1 & 2. Must haves for anybody interested in history (real or otherwise), horror, magic, literature, or just plain storytelling. dw

[CleverName]

Cool Topic!

AD&D 1st Ed -- I had so many fond memories of this game -- mostly involving snow days home from school and endless piles of orc bodies in the early 80's

LBB Traveller -- The first game that taught me about character development and intrigue, mostly due to a warped GM.

RuneQuest -- the first game that taught me how important setting was, and how damn cool it could be.

HERO -- This completely dominated my gaming life from first grey cover Champions book until the Dark Times... (...and now it's back!)

Mage (1st and 2nd) -- a great game. I had some of the best RPGing experiences of my gaming career with this game. I loved the freeform magic system and grew to hate the sloppy dice mechanics. 3rd was the nail in its coffin for me . :(

[Chris Goodwin]

I gotta add some honorable mentions to my list:

Over The Edge -- Burroughsian conspiratorial roleplaying with a postmodern self awareness. Good stuff.

The Ghostbusters RPG. Used to be number 1, now tied for first place as the best.licensed.RPG.evar.

The Buffy RPG. This is tied with Ghostbusters for number 1.

All of the pre-4th edition Hero Games standalone RPGs, with the exception of first edition Star Hero. At least the ones I haven't already mentioned.

[keithcurtis]

Palladium Book of Weapons and Armor. This little booklet has pictures, weights, sizes, country of origin, and relative damage for just about any pre-gunpoder weapon you'd want to use. All damage is generically listed, so it's not to hard to convert. Lots of pictures, details and references for armor, too. Not limited to Medieval Europe.

Judges Guild Treasury of Archaic Names. Indispensibale when I was a DM. Even reading through it could generate ideas.

HSR 4th and 5th Editions. Actually all of the core Hero/Champions editions, but 4th was when it REALLY started getting universal.

The three main AD&D books. Although now they are crude, dense and narrowly limited, they gave me and my friends millions of wasted hours of fun.

Strike Force. Filled with GM and campaign goodness.

Keith "Is it too late to add about fifty more books?" Curtis

[GestaltBennie]

Man, there's a lot to choose from:

1. Masks of Nyarlathotep. Arguably the best RPG adventure ever, epic, challenging (to put it mildly), with great attention to detail and props. It's linear (which is not inappropriate, given the source material), but wonderfully done. Someday, I want to see a Champions scenario as good as this one.

2. Delta Green. Atmospheric, imaginative, it's everything Steve said it was. I have a congenital dislike of conpiracy RPGs, and this book still leaves me in awe. That's a really tough trick.

3. The Enemy Within Campaign for Warhammer RPG. Great adventures shape the tone of the system for which they're written - they educate as well as entertain.This is one of the grittiest and nastiest campaigns ever written - and it's a blast all the way.

4. Gurps Fantasy II. Darren, you bastard! I thought I was the only one who'd mention this one. Robin built a wonderfully strange and original fantasy world in just one book that's only been equalled by a handful that came before and after him.

5. Dungeon Master's Design Kit. Aaron Allston's campaign building treatise may not be as famous as his Hero work, but it's a must read. One of my most precious gaming purchases.

Honorable mentions: Mythic Greece, Griffin Mountain, San Angelo, Strike Force, Village of Homlett (a sentimental favorite, I know), the original Forgotten Realms (grey) boxed set, Lands of Mystery, Twilight's Peak (Traveller, another sentimental choice). Gurps Russia, Gurps Space, Star Hero (5e), The Grey Knight (Pendragon), The Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues (Paranoia).

Scott Bennie

[Steve Long]

Mmmm, Village Of Hommlet. Excellent mention there, Scott. A lot of those old D&D modules are favorites of mine, for nostalgia's sake if nothing else. ;)

[Law Dog]

Originally posted by Steve Long
Mmmm, Village Of Hommlet. Excellent mention there, Scott. A lot of those old D&D modules are favorites of mine, for nostalgia's sake if nothing else. ;)

For a blast from the past, Goodman Games is putting out new modules that look and play like the old ones, down to the purple/blue ink maps on the inside covers, the nont-quite-polished art and even the fonts.

The first one made me all tingly.:D

[Harvester]

Here is my list:

1. HarnWorld
2. Blue Planet
3. The Riddle of Steel
4. Glorantha
5. Transhuman Space

[Tasha]

Like most everyone else I tried to list products that either are a sourcebook or have strong source material included with them.

Castle Falkenstein- One of the richest campaigns that I have hardly ever played. It has really touched off my interest in the whole era that CF takes place in. I also like games that mix Technology ,Magic, and fantasy races

Dark Champions- Had everything that I wanted to know about running street level games and had things in it that I hadn't even considered

Champions New Millenium- I know everyone here hates Fuzion, but it was a real fun game world to play in both Fuzion and Hero 4th/5th. It is still one of the most interesting set of books on my Book Shelves. I have run 3 campaigns in the world and I plan to run more.

Champions (the one for 5th ed Hero)- It is also very well written. I will be using things from it for future campaigns.

Forgotten Realms sourcebook. The one for 3rd edition is really packed full of good background stuff. It really sucked me in and made me want to play or run in a Forgotten Realms Campaign.

Oops, I almost forgot Deadlands. I have to agree with Steve. The gameworld is just packed full of info and you get the feel for the game from reading about it.

I am sure that there are others that I like as well, but these are the stand outs as far as I am concerned.

Yes it's 6 but who is really counting :P

Tasha :)

[Zoth]

1. Hero 5th Of course what can I say out of all of the role-playing games hero is one of the truly generic rpgs next to fudge and fudge is too rule light for me.

2. The Primal Order: Chessboards – Planes of Possibility This is the most comprehensive and well thought out guided to creating dimensions and plains of existence. I hesitate to call this a role-playing supplement because there is very little if any rules, however it's useful for just about any role-playing game. Another good one in this series is The Primal Order itself of course.

3. GURPS Vehicles 2ED I know there is The Ultimate Vehicle and I do think this book is worth getting for any serious hero system fan and was definitely a book the hero system need. However while TUV has expanded rules for vehicles and a system for modeling existing vehicles in hero system context, there is nothing like GURPS Vehicles for constructing vehicles from the ground up. GURPS Vehicles has list of different parts like motors, propulsion systems, body frames, equipment, est, and a system for assembling them to produce a vehicle from scratch. The statistics you generate form this can be useful in any system. The only bad thing is like Hero you gone need to obtain a copy of Excel to put it all together. BTW Gurps Vehicles 1st was too complicated and was replaced by the system used in 2ED which is not backwards compatible. This is one time Gurps drop the ball.

4. GURPS Religion This is kind like Chessboard in that it more ideas then rules. (Thankfully. I really don’t like the way GURPS handles priestly magic and granted powers). GURPS Religion has everything you need to get you thinking on how to assemble the religions in your campaign world.

5. D&D 3RD Hero Builder’s Guidebook I know you are saying *winning* why this is a total waste of money and for an established role-player you are right, however the Hero Builder is a good guide book for beginning D&D 3RD players. I especially liked the section with the alignment quiz (a quiz with a bunch of what would you do questions and at the end you add up your answers and it told you what your alignment would be based on how you answered.).

[Nelijal]

Most entries I would make have already been mentioned.

AD&D 1e--this was my start in 1981. We called our obsession "the fever" because we couldn't get enough.

Traveller in the original black books--"rules lite" compared to other systems, focusing on the play.

The Palladium sourcebooks and The Treasury of Archaic Names--I've used these for years.

HERo 4e--this was my start in the HERO system.

But no one has mentioned RoleMaster? I still remember the day I picked up a copy of the original blue cover Character Law at a game shop just outside one of the gates at Great Lakes. The skill cost chart on the back cover sold me immediatly. Any class could buy any skill, the cost just varied--no more arbitrary all-or-nothing character development rules (since that day I have refused to play D&D). Spell Law magic made much more sense to me than "memorize-cast-forget." And let's not forget the Arms Law Critical Hit Charts; they're entertaining reading even if you don't play.

[Keneton]

My top 5 are rated for relvence to the gaming world and their impact. . .They are not rated in order of magnitude, but in the order I was exposed to them.

1. The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons DMG (1st Ed)
2. Traveller (Box Set Books 1-3)
3. Champions
4. The City State of The Invincible Overlord
5. Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition

I consider the Big 3 D&D, Traveller and Champions to be the standard for all great gaming sytems. The Citystate was the greatest supplement of its time and set the stage for great supplements to come.
:)

[Pattern Ghost]

I'll give the top five I'm interested in getting, just to be different. =)

1. Mutants and Masterminds. Looks interesting, and if nothing else, it seems to have some great art.

2. Rune. Interesting concept for a fun time of competative hack-n-slashing. And Vikings rule.

3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Like the show, and it looks like a well put together game. Rules are supposed to be pretty solid.

4. Nobilis. An interesting twist on the "god game" genre, and seems to have a workable diceless resolution system.

5. Tie: Star Hero or Fantasy Hero. Mostly I use Hero for supers, but these two are the other genre books I'm most interested in.

Getting more back on topis...Top Five Nostalgia Products:

1. Top Secret S.I. This game had some pretty smooth mechanics and lots of secret agenty fun.

2. Arduin Grimoires. I spent hours reading through all the imaginative weirdness. Played with a lot of the concepts in 1st Edition ADD games as well.

3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Just a neat game concept, but didn't get much play time.

4. Robotech RPG. OMG! TWO Palladium products on here? No, I haven't lost my mind. The Robotech game was a lot of fun, and worked pretty well.

5. Marvel Super Heros Advanced. Also, Realms of Magic and Ultimate Powers Book supplements. Had tons of fun with this system, and it ran great.

Top 5 Products that didn't make my first two top 5 lists:

1. Hero System 4th/Champions 4th. Had the skinny brownish book and a couple copies of the BBB. These books are still tough to beat as far as clarity and content. Fred is a good product, but only because it has a great foundation.

2. Dungeons and Dragons Rules Cyclopedia. The Basic game in all its glory in a nice hardbound book. Good binding, too. I've had mine for years and it's held up great.

3. DnD 3E. This is really a pretty neat system, and a HUGE improvement over 2nd edition, IMO.

4. Amber DRPG. Amber has a great concept, and if you play it with a good gaming group, it's a heck of a fun game. It lends itself easily to tweaking, and it's got an interesting dynamic. If you haven't been to an AmberCon, I highly recommend one. The Amber community is on the whole a pretty good bunch.

5. Call of Cthulu. I'm tossing this in here even though I've never played or owned it. I'm more interested in the Hero products that got the fifth slot above, but I've flipped through CoC and owned Stormbringer, which uses the same basic system, and I have to say I'm still interested. Seems like a great game.

hmm.....I've squeezed fiteen products in here, and I think I've still not scratched the surface...I mean, I've left off Ars Magica (1st Ed.), Space 1889. and BESM, and a lot more...

[Catacomb]

In no order...
Hero 5th
RMSS(Yes I love this game)
3rd edition Forgotten Realms campaign setting
ICE Black OPs
Legend of the Five Rings(Not d20)

[Gary Ciaramella]

These are in no particular order.

1) Dungeons & Dragons Module X2 : Castle Amber (Château d' Amberville) (1981 - Tom Moldvay) : This module had a wonderful mood and flavor, a true gem even after 22 years.

2) Dungeons & Dragons Modules G1 - G3 : Against the Giants (1978 - Gary Gygax) : This series of modules have always stuck with me. I converted these into an Apple Basic game when I was in Jr. High school.

3) Dungeons & Dragons Modules A1 - A4 : Scourge of the Slave Lords (1980) : These were the first modules that showed me that there could be more to RPGs then killing monsters and stealing their treasure.

4) Strike Force (1988 - Aaron Allston) : Ok... I lied, this is my favorite. I feel this is the best supplement of all time.

5) Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth (1994 - Christian S. Moore and Owen M. Seyler) : An amazing work, brought down by an overly complicated presentation. I really feel that there was a tremendous opportunity lost here.

I could easily list 20 or 30 more books I enjoyed, but these are the first to come to mind. :)

[tesuji]

My Top Five in no particular order...

San Angelo COH: IMO the best startup of a supers based setting with definitely good turns on character designs and story integration.

Ars Magica: Best fantasy rpg nobody plays. A massive departure from the DND style of fantasy rpgs with well done system and great storytelling acumen. Also, the level of historical detail makes this look like a labor of love and its reads just that good. I never found anyone who played but have enough sheer poundage of their products to anger environmentalists concerns with deforestation.

Vampire: tM: Frankly, revolutionary enough to get even me to overlook an inability to count and elevating lack of editing to an art form. This was WWs finest hour.

Amber DRPG: Again, for me at least mostly revolutionary. Like Vampire and Ars Magica, one of the biggies which changed how i play and GM. Its sections on GMing are worth the price of the book, as well as its take on diceless resolution opportunities. Even if you never go diceless, it will improve your GMing.

Mutants and MasterMinds: A wonderful retooling and functional break down to bare elementsof the D20 system. "D20 done right" is not just puffery in this case.

[Greenstar]

OK, I tried to resist, but couldn't. Here's mine, in no particular order:

1. 1st Ed AD&D Player's Handbook: This introduced me to RP, and so will always have a spot in my heart.

2. ICE Rolemaster (specifically, Arms Law): Those critical hit charts just rocked. We managed to incorporate them into our 1st Ed. AD&D game.

3. 1st Ed. Champions: When I saw how utterly felxible the system was...

4. World of Greyhawk: What can I say, I still use this map. I even created a stategic game system where you ran a nation and played by email - twice! Both times I had to drop it due to lack of time, sadly.

5. 1st Ed. Chivalry and Sorcery. Sure it was unplayable, but I still use it and it's supplements as reference material.

[Nelijal]

I completely forgot about C&S in my list, and I'm using the latest edition as a Medieval reference in my HERO campaign. Lots of good background info, even though the rules are a bit obtuse.

[Alibear]

Hard one to cut down but here goes..

1) Fred - 'nuff said.

2) Ninja Hero - In my mind the best supplement ever made. Had lots of copies (I've moved around alot) and were all so well used, can't be beat IMHO

3) The Shadows over Bögenhaven and Death on The Riek campaign series for Warhammer RPG. The best campaign that I ever played in and probably the best scenarios ever published.

4) Classic Enemies - Perhaps the 2nd most used gaming resource of my 18+ years as a gamer. Had 2 copies of this sucker as well!

5) Wasteworld rpg - My original GM's attempt at putting his vision of RPGing onto paper. These books are so full of stuff my head spins. Plus my Superhero gaming group gets in on the dedications page! Sadly OOP but still findable with a little patience.

Honourable mentions - Judge Dredd RPG, Isle of Dread (TSR), Judge Dredd the boardgame and Up Front by Avalon Hill.

[TheImperialKhan]

Sorry I just can't limit this to five. There are seven on my list which I actually published at my website some months ago. They're in alphabetical order.



Behind Enemy Lines by FASA
An excellent beer & pretzels role-playing game that has you playing the members of an Infantry Squad in Europe during World War Two. The game isn't deep and insightful but it's fun, only takes 15 minutes to generate a character and is a wonderful change-of-pace on game night. Winner of the Charles Roberts Award as best RPG in 1981.



Champions by Hero Games
If you have any interest in Superhero role-playing games then this is the game to get. It wasn't the first, that honor goes to "Superhero: 2044", but Champions with two consecutive Charles Roberts Awards under it's belt (1982 &1983) set the gold standard for the genre. For the most part none of the pretenders to the throne have even come close.



James Bond, 007 by Victory Games
This game gave the Bond movies a superb treatment as a role-playing game. I particularly like the system of bidding on the difficulty of a task to determine the order of play and the success Quality Rating. Also I should note that this excellent system can be adapted to any modern action/adventure style genre.



Justice Inc. by Hero Games
A companion to Champions this role-playing game of two-fisted action during the pulp era of the 20s & 30s is one of my all-time favorites. Whether you wanted Horror, Crime-fighting, Espionage, Adventure or even early Sci-Fi the Pulps had it and Justice Inc. can give it to you.



7th Sea by Alderac Entertainment Group
Although still a relatively new game having come out in 1999, this role-playing game of Swashbuckling Fantasy is one of the best games I've seen in more than twenty years in this hobby. Worth getting for the rich tapestry of the world you will adventure in alone, I have found it far superior to any other fantasy game available and that includes the vaunted D&D. The real pity is that they recently sold out to D20 and abandoned their excellent Roll & Keep system.



Star Trek: the Role Playing Game by FASA
Although optimized for the Star Trek universe this excellent game published throughout the 1980s does not force you to play junior officers on the Enterprise. The game is designed around the idea of the players being the command officers of their own starship. They are their own Kirks, Spocks and McCoys with their own ship to command. That alone puts it head & shoulders above the rest.



The Morrow Project by Timeline LTD
For a while in the mid 1980s post-apocalyptic role-playing games were all the rage. Most of them were just fantasy games with a Nuclear war written into the background somewhere, but there were a few that dealt with the subject intelligently as a setting for an RPG. Of those "The Morrow Project" is the best. You play volunteers placed into suspended animation to be awakened after the war and help mankind rebuild. Naturally things don't go as planned and instead of awaking a few years after the war, you wake 150 years later. But your mission remains the same: rebuild, recreate, preserve.

[JohnTaber]

Nice call Khan! I ran a Hero game based on Morrow Project. It was a blast... :)

[Jeff T.]

1. The original D&D rulebook, 4th-5th printing, circa 1979: This discovery created a magical time in my life

2. Original In Search of the Unknown module, with the white/tan cover I believe See above

3. 1st Edition Champions, circa 1982 Wow, now I could play this RPG-thing with SUPERHEROES!

4. Big Blue Book

5. Classic Enemies

[TheImperialKhan]

Originally posted by JohnTaber
Nice call Khan! I ran a Hero game based on Morrow Project. It was a blast... :)

Thank you very much. I've still got almost all the modules except the one set in Seattle. I even ran Prime Base once upon a time. It was fun and the rebuild, recreate, preserve premise gives you a more hopeful outlook than is usual in the genre.

[MarkusDark]

In no order:

Aftermath - a very well detailed system on post apocolyptic gaming. They even did a couple of pages of Planet of the Apes. The system was not very intuitive though so I had a hard time finding anyone who wanted to play a game.

Hero System - If I didn't like it, I wouldn't still be here.

GammaWorld- Liked first ed over others. Enjoyed the flow charts to figuring out technology.

Top Secret- Liked first ed over others. Although simplistic, I think they gave much of the flavor for the genres and there is some good qualities for simplicity.

Oriental Adventures - I haven't looked through the latest version, the first run did a nice job of bringing an Oriental spin to the game. The monthly/yearly plot generator was fun to play with too.

[Greenstar]

Ah, Aftermath! It had some wonderful research behind it, but it didn't make my top 5. Why? We used to say "After the math, then you can play" :D

We tried, but even a bunch of engineering students like us got tired of all the calculations. Some of the rules were just inspired though, like the way you could use kill to "walk" a hit from its randomly rolled location to some other location on the body.

[ShadowRaptor]

ok ok, my turn... :D

In no particular order because they are all at the top of my list...and this is specifically my favorite gaming books and not perhaps the best in quality...

1) Exalted. The best WW game to have been released in years.

2) FREd. This is the book that caused me to get rid of my d20 collection. Okay, it wasn't the book but the system and the feel I get when reading it.

3) Earthdawn. Pre-Exalted and d20, to me this was one of the finest fantasy rpg books ever released. It took an old idea, gave it a unique twist, definately redefined how magic worked in a world, and was basically just kick butt. Plus, it had only 15 pages devoted to combat in a rpg book almost 300 pages in length.

4) Alternity and Star Drive. To me the original d20 system that never had the chance to truly thrive because WotC decided it didn't sell as much as D&D. Really fun, plus its my wife's favorite game and if I didn't put it on here she woudl beat me up. :D

5) Star HERO. 'nuff said.

6) Marvel Super heroes '87 advanced release. This was my very first rpg I ever bought and I have many fascinating memories of spending my time gaming instead of doing homework and getting in trouble by my parents but without this on the list then none of the others would be possible.

others that could have made the top six if the previously mentioned had never existed...

Werewolf (any incarnation) from WW. I hate vampires and werewolves hate vampires so we are kindred spirits. :)
Forgotten Realms 3ed campaign setting. This book had quality.
TMNT and Other Strangeness. Probably the only Palladium game to ever make it to my list, this was my second game and it was just plain fun.
Gamma World 4th edition.
d20 and 3e D&D. I know its bad to say this but it would be wrong if I didn't at least give the game I spent 2+ years playing previously to getting HERO 5 at least some kind of honorable mention, depsite the fact I got rid of about 90% of my collection and spent that money on all HERO books.

[Zoth]

Originally posted by ShadowRaptor
2) FREd. This is the book that caused me to get rid of my d20 collection. Okay, it wasn't the book but the system and the feel I get when reading it.

Ahh, if I could do this but at last I live in Houston. Houston was so originally saturated with those that had sympathy for only D$D that (even thou the market has opened up a lot and you see a lot people with Hero 5th books) everyone has given up looking along ago and the only way you can find players interested in other games is to find them in a D$D group first. So you could say that the players hand book is a prerequisite for the Hero 5th handbook in Houston :(     I will probably end up having to sell some hero books it get the players handbook 3.5 :mad:

[buzz]

1. RuneQuest 2e.
Simply the greatest RPG ever created. Well, maybe not the greatest... RQ was one of the first RPGs I bought after cutting my teeth on AD&D, and it completely changed my concept of what an RPG could be. Pretty much every RPG I buy gets measured against it.

2. D&D3e PHB.
If this edition had been released back when I was starting out, I never would have given up on D&D.

3. HERO5e.
It wasn't easy choosing FREd over the BBB, but I have to admit that 5e was the edition that convinced me HERO could be used for more than just supers. I'll be writing this one in for this year's Origins awards.

4. Call of Cthulhu.
Another game that fundamentally changed my concepts about RPGs. Also, hands down one of the most inherrently enjoyable to play.

5. AD&D1e DMG.
A pure nostalgia vote. You could always find something new in this convoluted mess of a game book. :)

Honorable mentions go to Alternity: Dark*Matter and Adventure! for being two of the most enjoyable-to-read RPG products I've ever purchased. Before I read them, I had no interest whatsoever in conspiracy or pulp. Now I'm wondering what the hell I'd been thinking.

[Agent X]

Rulebooks

1. 4th Edition Champions

2. 5th Edition Champions

3. Advanced D&D

4. AD&D Options

5. Legend of the 5 Rings

Supplements

1. Greyhawk

2. Temple of Elemental Evil

3. Against the Giants

4. Strikeforce

5. Classic Enemies

[jtelson]

Top 5 in no particular order

GURPS Timeline - Can't believe I didn't see this anywhere else - Great information for any campaign set in a realish world.

Feng Shui - Butt Kicking Hong Kong Style - what could be better.

Wraith:The Oblivion - Dark Champions is only a slightly dim world compared to one where you start off dead and then things get bad.

FUDGE - For those rare things that Hero can't do.

GURPS Psionics - Hands down the best treatment of Psionics available.

[SuperPheemy]

Too Many Options. I'll just have to break it all down into categories... Like the Oscars, except without Michael Moore making a (expletive deleted) of himself.

SuperPheemy's TOP 5 Lists! (insert fanfare and music here)
Taped Live from SuperPheemy's Cubicle of Solitude

Top 5 Games new to SuperPheemy's Library
V. Victorian Age Vampire
IV. Spycraft
III. The End
II. Lord of the Rings RPG
I. Silver Age Sentinels (d20 edition)

Top 5 Games SuperPheemy's never had time to play or run
V. Aeon (renamed "Trinity")
IV. Aberrant
III. Kult
II. 7th Sea
I. Fading Suns (2nd Edition)

Top 5 Classic Games that have molded SuperPheemy's gaming career.
V. Traveller
IV. Twilight 2000
III. Champions (Third Edition and Fourth)
II. Star Frontiers
I. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (first ed.)

Honorable Mentions for the Top Games in SuperPheemy's Library.
Vampire: the Masquerade
Vampire: the Dark Ages
Werewolf: the Apocalypse
Shadowrun
Cyberpunk
The Morrow Project

And finally, the TOP 5 GAMES IN SUPERPHEEMY'S LIBRARY
V. MAGE: the Ascension: Terrific concept for a game. Best take on the Modern Magic genre, I've ever seen in 20+ years of gaming. So deeply philosophical that it's durn near impossible to run or play. The game that launched a million drunken discussions on the nature of reality, spirituality, and God.
IV. Deadlands: The most recent breath of fresh air I'd seen before the current gaming boom. This game struck after White Wolf's World of Darkness had grown stagnant and boring. Absolutely the best example of using game rules to enforce mood and genre.
III. Call of Cthulhu: Classic, classic, classic. No other game has ever been capable of producing so much fear in my players. Despite new systems, better mechanics, flashier product competing on the shelves, Call of Cthulhu remains the Horror Role Playing Game that all others are measured by.
II. HERO 5th edition: The Phoenix has risen. With this edition HERO may have reached the same plateau Cthulhu enjoys with regards to rules. New editions of HERO may follow 5th, but there remains very little room for improvement on the mechanics. It is the only game system where I have had as much fun creating the details of the campaign setting as I have running adventures in the setting I created.
I. Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition: It may be sacrelige to say so here, but D&D 3e revived tabletop roleplaying. This game has become a touchstone for the great majority of gamers both veteran and rookie. With the simultaneous release of the OGL, D&D3e ushered in a new generation of game designers and companies. D&D's rising tide has lifted all boats.

[buzz]

Originally posted by SuperPheemy
This game has become a touchstone for the great majority of gamers both veteran and rookie. With the simultaneous release of the OGL, D&D3e ushered in a new generation of game designers and companies. D&D's rising tide has lifted all boats.

Could not have said it better myself. Booyah, SP! :cool:

[Celtic Cowboy]

While not my favorite games or systems some of these have the most memories with them, because at least at the time it was "like wow" - at least at the time.


The Fantasy Trip - Started playing with Melee and Wizard and moved to TFT as soon as it came out. First gaming moments came from this little set of books.

Car Wars - devoted far too many years to playing this game with a small group of friends.

Champions - 1st-4th (actually can't get my current group to make the jump to Hero and 5th) Spent years with this game and a small core group.

Amber DRPG - with the right group of people this is a great game. I only ran one long adventure in it - but it got to the point people where so "in the Amberite" mode of backstabbing all I had to do was sit back and make rules decisisons for a few sessions. Their plots against each other where better than the ones my NPC's had going. :)

Shadowrun. Rules heavy and sometimes just rules weird - but and awesome setting and detailed world.

Honorable mentions

Deadlands - if only for the best wild west adaptation and creative rules (cards, chips) that really fit the genre well.

Tunnels & Trolls - lousy freaking game, but loved some of those adventures.

Gurps Flight 13. Years ago the current group had a Gurps fantatic that ran us through this, it's one of my strongest "player" memories.


Group has had a lot of good games with DnD and stuff, but none of them have that memorable feel that some of the early systems conjure up.

[Ron]

In no particular order:

Champions 4th edition
Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia
The Grand Duchy of Karameikos
Call of Cthulhu 20 years anniversary edition
The Traveller Book


Uhm, two books by Aaron Allston (D&D RC & Karameikos) and another by Sandy Petersen (CoC), sounds reasonable to me.

[Thia Halmades]

Top 5 for any system. Well, shoot. That assumes I read all the stupid things, which I don't, I troll 'em for rules. Hrm. I'll go with things that inspired me, as a subset of 'top 5', so "Top 5 books that have inspired me."

Battletech Technical Readout, 3050 - the book that got me sold on giant robots, after growing up watching anime on TV. Love me some giant robots.

RIFTS(TM) - Some of the best ideas ever slapped into one RPG, with the worst mechanics evarz. I still think back to the art in those books with no small measure of fondness.

Ravenloft, 3rd/3.5 edition, Sword & Sorcery Studios/Arthaus - The greatest recreation of a setting ever, and the only 'out of the box' setting I've ever used, and likely ever will use. They do an amazing job of creating an evocative place, with many genre conventions including letters, diaries, and first person, EAP style views through character's eyes, Just great material that is in no way system dependent (you can easily convert Ravenloft into HERO without batting an eyelash).

Vampire: The Masquerade/Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Mechanics aside, this really awakened my desire to do Urban Horror Fiction, which is still my strongest setting. I was doing an Urban game in d20 that failed; it'd work in HERO very nicely.

HERO, 5th Edition Revised - the single most comprehensive rules set I've ever owned, and one of the few books I've read through the whole way, cover to cover. Major nods for getting out of my way and letting me build whatever I like. That's huge, so it's up there. Amusingly, I never got into Champions back in the day.

Honorable Mention:

Shadowrun, 1st Edition - the first book that really caught my imagination outside of AD&D. I still love Shadowrun, but as Brian Clevinger put it, it's almost impossible to do anything without turning your local Sloppy Soy run into a full blown shoot out in a convenience store.

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, AD&D 2nd Ed. - For having the first comprehensive deity structure I'd ever laid eyes on. Fast, efficient, and darn handy to have around.

[Old Man]

Fantasy Hero, 1st Edition - The only version of FH that didn't try to turn the game into Champions.

Campaign Classics - I'm cheating, but ICE's Campaign Classics series are still outstanding sourcebooks. Pirates, Robin Hood, Vikings, and Mythic Greece are the best of these.

Harn.

Warmachine: Apotheosis - This book is beautiful! I have no desire to actually play the game but just leafing through the pages is a treat. DOJ has a lot to learn about production values.

The Traveller Adventure - An outstanding campaign story arc for Traveller, it also includes valuable information for motivating players and their characters and keeping the campaign interesting.

[Radar]

Champions, not sure which edition (the George Perez cover), although our group has played Champs since the original edition.

Monster Manual, 1st ed - I was the artist of the group, forever drawing everyone's characters or homemade monsters for the DM. Anything with memorable art and lots of it always sticks in my mind.

Strike Force - made me realize we could go beyond the villain of the week, and I still refer to it as I ramp up to a new campaign I'm putting together now.

Villains and Vigilantes - A lot of the power combinations didn't make sense or fit together due to the random method of gaining your powers, but it did give me some insight and inspiration to try and think creatively when I didn't get exactly what I wanted. Plus, Jeff Dee's costumes designs were wonderfully wonky.

Champions 3-D - fun scenarios

Deities and Demigods - much the same reasons as the Monster Manual above, but I'm also an avowed mythology nut.

[tkdguy]

I'm going to classify it by system, rahter than pick a specific sourcebook or rule book. Here are my picks, in no particular order:

HERO 5th Edition, which has become my system of choice
AD&D 2nd Edition, which cleaned up 1st Edition, and doensn't get enough credit IMO
Castle Falkenstein, which almost caused me to forget how to play AD&D after playing it for a while(yes, that really happened)
MERP, which gave me many hours of fun, and the critical hit tables were used in my group's AD&D game
Star Trek RPG (FASA), which let us play Starfleet officers

[Baphomet Jones]

Admittedly, I have little or no exposure to half of the stuff listed by most people so far, but responses have sparked my interest in many of them. Based on what I am familiar with:

Talislanta 4th edition: great world,and an elegant VPP-like magic system
Call of Cthulhu
Hero 5th, because you can use it for all kinds of stuff
Skyrealms on Jorune: another really cool setting
Bugs in the System: an old Star Frontiers adventure that taught me that catastrophic technical malfunctions in space can be just as exciting, and even more dangerous than a ship full of man-eating space pirates, because you can just shoot a life support failure.

[hancock.tom]

I have to pick actual books?

In no particular order:

1. Tangents, for the Alternity system - great supplement

2. Dark Sun boxed set (AD&D 2E) Nostalgia factor - many fun games here

3. FRED of course

4. Gamma World - many editions

5. Call of Cthulu anniversary edition

Honorable mentions:

Legend of the five rings (loved the story here)
Alternity, Stardrive, Dark Matter (strange system but it worked and the supplements were great
Trinity, Aberrant, Adventure (had lots of fun even though the system was broken)
AD&D2e - lots of good memories here, especially ravenloft, dark sun, and planescape settings.... Many middle school/high school weekends spent on this system.

[daeudi_454]

In no particular order...
Dark Champions
Mekton Zeta+
Immortal: The Invisible War (1st ed) <great art, cool new mechanics, lots of resource material- but very bad binding>
Toon!
GURPS Time Travel

Honorable Mention: RPGamers Bible, Slayer's Guide to Women, GURPS Steampunk

[OddHat]

Too many to pick, but:

GURPS Voodoo. Still the best magic system I have seen in an RPG, and a compelling world with room for almost every flavor of adventure. Just superb work.

Gurps Black Ops. Wonderful game world with silly rules choices.

Nightlife, by Stellar Games. It died too soon. This was the World of Darkness two or three years before Vampire came out, free of self pitying angst and played for laughs. I still sometimes GM it.

Villains and Vigilantes. My first superhero game.

AD&D 2nd ed (iirc). My first RPG.

[gamerz123]

My List (No particular order)

Champions Universe -- A truly Fantastic Foundation for a Supers game.

The Valdorian Age -- Excellent writing and the first Sword and Sorcerery environment I've tried that feels like Sword and Sorcerery.

Sengoku -- This is simply the best source on Feudal Japan in English anywhere.

Tales from the Floating Vagabond -- There are times when you just want to drink a Singularity and wield a weapon rated "Don't Point That Thing At My Planet!"

Shadowrun 2nd&3rd Edition -- It takes Gibson on tangential Simsense ride that works, Chummer.

Sidekick -- My Introduction to HERO and still the book I turn to first.

Hero 5th -- A little intimidating at first, but (almost) EVERYTHING'S in there. :)

Honorable Mentions

Fantasy Hero
Hidden Lands
MERP
Rifts
Star Wars d6 ("Wild dice" are just too cool...)

D&D 1st Edition (My first RPG.)

Serenity & Army of Darkness-- I really like the idea of having most or all of the game book written in the voice of a great protagonist. Wouldn't work in most cases, but when you have the right persona, it's golden.

[Thia Halmades]

Gamerz123 - Dood - I'd totally forgotten about TF2V. I was too concerned about making sure it was funny, when I should've just run it and let the funny handle itself. Good old Spitz, he got reincarnated in my Ravenloft game.

[Doc Democracy]

I'm amazed the Justice Inc has only been mentioned once so far. It is easily the most inspiring Hero System book I ever bought.

Having said that, the grey cover Champions, was an epiphany to me at the tender age of 15 and I'm still playing the system 25 years later...

I have found it difficult to choose between many Runequest books. I could go for the RQII rulebook or the newly printed Cults Compendium but I think that the Pavis and Big Rubble hardback has the advantages of ancient gaming memories and having everything in a big hardbound book....

Like many others I have to give Deadlands a mention - it showed me the value of stuff and having it on the table.

I think that my nostalgic choice has to be the Dungeon Masters Guide from the old AD&D. How long did I spend with that random dungeon generator making maps and keys that would never be used? Too long...


Doc

[TheQuestionMan]

My Top 5 RPG Books
01. Shadowrun 1st Edition - The Setting not the rules.
02. Hero System Fifth Edition Revised - I cannnot articulate it.
03. Fantasy Hero Fifth Edition
04. Dark Champions Fifth Edition
05. GURPS Vikings



Cheers

QM

[Marketeer]

Hm... RPGs and RPG books that have influenced my gaming career...

I'll skip Champions and its various supplements, on the ground that it's too easy:

1) Torg: Ok, the mechanics are atrocious. However, the premise of the universe--that different realities have invaded earth, and that each reality has fundamentally different laws of existence--was vivid, cool, and different.

To my knowledge, it was the only RPG where player input had a direct, regular, and systematic input upon the story and evolution of the game. I believe (although I couldn't cite a source for this) that John Wick, years later, would use that as one of his inspirations for Legend of the Five Rings.

2) In Nomine: Contemporary war between Heaven and Hell, where the minds and hearts of humanity matters. Excellent quality control across the entire line, with each supplement exploring the universe and the Celestials involved in a way that felt appropriate and flavorful.

3) Legend of the Five Rings: Duty, honor, and glory. The only RPG game tightly tied in with a CCG, where players really care about the fortunes, battles, and successes of the various Clans involved.

4) The Universal Brotherhood (ShadowRun): One of the best modules I've ever read, for any system. Fantastic, evocative, flavorful, and succeeds at disturbing you precisely when it wants to.

5) Nightbane: Prior to departing Palladium for Eden Studios, CJ Carella penned a vivid universe of urban horror.

[Super Squirrel]

In no particular order:


Stronghold Builder's Guidebook
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
Hero System Fifth Edition Revised
The Valdorian Age
The Ruins of Zhentil Keep


SBG is the best sourcebook I have ever encountered for building castles, forts, etc and includes a rough guide for pices.

FRCS is how a campaign setting should look when it is written. I also ran a campaign in FR for something like three years. It was an amazing game.

Hero is obvious I would think.

VA is an amazing setting that I'm really enjoying more than any other settings I have run before.

RoZK was my favorite "adventure" for the longest time. I refer back to it for motivational purposes from time to time.

[Constantine]

My top five favorite gaming books/setting/systems in no particular order:
Champions - I love me my superhero gaming
D&D 3rd - This revived my gaming group, and, as other have mentioned, revived the whole tabletop gaming industry
Birthright campaign setting - I loved this setting. Politics, evil gods, world magics with a little bit of Highlander thrown in for good measure. I mourn that they never translated it over to 3E
Vampire - I was a lonely boy traveling to Virginia by train and reading this rulebook, and I was just fascinated. Many vampire gamers were to be found in Virginia, and this game has many happy memories for me.
Cyperpunk 2020 - Pure nostalgia pick...

[Enforcer84]

THis is my shrine to Jeff Dee, Martin something...aw heck here we go.


Dieties & Demigods
Rifts: Pantheons of the Megaverse
Strike Force
Champions Universe (4th ed)
Avengers Assemble!

[PhantomNarrator]

Most of my true favorites have already been mentioned - Mage, Gamma World, Top Secret, Over the Edge, Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, Ars Magica, so forth.

I'd like to mention some more obscure gems:

1. Lords of Creation - The Amber game before Amber.

2. Cyberpunk 1st ed. - Friday night firefight. The other editions had less impact.

3. Villains & Vigilantes - perhaps heretical on a Hero board, but you know.

4. Space Opera - Traveller was a better game, but this hit the spot for me.

5. Nephilim - what Man, Myth & Magic was trying to do.


On the other hand, if I was stranded on a deserted island with my gaming friends, I'd rather have my copy of:

1. HERO 5th ed. Duh.

2. Pulp Hero. Thank you again Steve.

3. Call of Cthulhu. Some get it, some don't. The rest go insane.

4. Over the Edge. Yes I'm strange.

5. Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia - by the redoubtable Aaron Allston:king:

[taxboy4]

well, too many good ones to name but can't go past the books that hooked me into role playing...

Originally, it was Warlock of Fire Top Mountain... (never did finish that.....)

The Red Box set of Basic D & D, name of the silly multi classing then....

Then MERP, which hooked me into ROLEMASTER (loved those crit tables!!)

and finally hooked on FRED...

its like drugs only more social...(Roleplaying)

[Old Man]

Originally, it was Warlock of Fire Top Mountain... (never did finish that.....)

Ha! That takes me back. I did finish it, but I have no recollection of how it ended.

Then MERP, which hooked me into ROLEMASTER (loved those crit tables!!)

You know, it's funny; the first time we encountered the RM crit tables, we got them as third-generation xerox copies and we had no idea what they were... so we used them for AD&D. It's pretty horrific when you're fifth level, rolling for crits that do up to +100 damage...

[tomd1969]

I've decided that including Hero books would be disingenuous, since we are on the Hero Discussion board. However, I do want to highlight some pre-DOJ and DOJ Hero books, as well.

NON-HERO

Call of Cthulhu If this is not the best RPG ever, then it is certainly one of the best RPGs ever. The rules are easy to use, the campaign setting top-notch and very evocative. Ia! Yog-Sothoth! :thumbup:
In Nomine While the rules need a lot of help (I'm currently contemplating using 5ER for it), the setting is really first rate, particularly after Elizabeth McCoy took over the reins as Line Editor.
Nephilim: Occult Roleplaying This game has a lot of the things I'm looking for in a campaign setting: mystery, magic, and a philosophical foundation to it that can't be beat. Too bad that Chaosium lost faith in it. This is another game that I'm attempting to translate into the Hero System, although most of what I have isn't even on paper yet.
The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep As others have said, this is, hands down, the best adventure *ever* created. It has the depth that I'm looking for in an adventure. IMO, an adventure that I buy from a store should be something that lasts for more than a 4 hour session or two. It should be a far-reaching campaign, and/or something to knock my players' socks off. TCMON did both, IMO.
Vampire: The Masquerade Way back in the day, I was a Goth wanna-be. This game appealed to my Inner Poet in ways that very few games have since. The simplicity of the game design meant more time for telling of a compelling story. PRE-DOJ HERO

Ninja Hero Believe me, it was hard to choose between this one and my #2 choice. They were both very good for what they were going for. Ninja Hero was a breeze to read, and very evocative of the genre.
Dark Champions: Heroes of Vengeance Again, hard to choose between these first two.
Underworld Enemies Some of the creepiest villains I've ever seen.
Star Hero I remember the excitement when this was released. Sci-Fi RPG using Hero? NO WAY!
The Ultimate Mentalist I actually preferred this supplement to The Ultimate Martial Artist. I almost chose The Ultimate Super Mage and/or Mystic Masters, but ultimately, I had a chance to use TUM more often than either of those supplements. Maybe someday DOJ will find it in their hearts to publish a Psychic Wars Supplement. DOJ HERO
I'm going to forego FRED and 5ER (since they should be obvious to everyone, anyway), and say that these will be choice "0".

The Mystic World/Arcane Adversaries As you can see from my choices for non-Hero books, I'm a fan of magic in the modern world, and this fits the bill nicely for me. I think this is mostly my own ambiguity of living in the modern world: Where is the magic?
The Ultimate Mystic Ultimately, a companion piece for the above (at least, the way *I* use it). My dream is to one day do a totally Mystical supers campaign.
Star Hero Once again, Star Hero gets a mention here. This supplement surpasses the original in utility for Hero GMs.
The UNTIL Superpowers Database Finally, a Hero Supplement which provides the player with the ability to (if he so desires) pick and choose pre-made powers for his character--Pick the powers, pay the point costs, and away you go.
DEMON It was between this one and VIPER, but I think DEMON wins out just due to the fact that these guys are Evil with a capital "E."

[Killer Shrike]

The World of Greyhawk box set
Man, I agonized over this one... taken out of context, compared to setting stuff that has followed.... well, say no more right? But, again, I was young and discovering that the modules I owned like Tomb of Horrors and the Slavelord stuff actually took place on the map in hex whatever-whatever... it did not, absolutely could not get cooler than that. Hours lost to staring at the various heraldry printed on the inside of one of the covers, and deciding which would be the best for my fighter (Grand Duchy of Geoff, in case you're curious). I'm such a goob -- I had those maps tacked up to my bedroom wall.

Ill go you one better -- I had mine LAMINATED and THEN put it up on the wall. I actually bought used boxed sets as well so I would have extra maps. I havent looked in a while, but at one time I had 5 copies of the Greyhawk map, 3 from WoG and 2 from FtA. ;)

[Killer Shrike]

Ordered by "as I thought of it", and more than 5:

The Campaign and Catacombs guidebook for AD&D Second Edition: This was an almost mechanic-less book, just cover to cover of really good world building and GMing advice, and a neat new (to me) way to do semi-3D mapping on an isometric grid.

The City of Greyhawk Boxed set: This was the best city supplement ever IMO. It had it all, and the matched set of maps (subterranean, surface, and artists perspective) were awesome. Many hours of enjoyment reading and running adventures therein.

Mage 2nd Edition: An incredible concept. Mindblowing in a way.

HERO System Rulebook #500: the thin blue rules-only 4th Edition book. I went thru these things like tissue paper; I just wore the poor things out. Never have so few pages provided the grist for so many campaigns in so many settings and genres. This is my rulebook. There are many like it, but this one is MINE. The new 5th edition rulebooks are better and what I gladly use now, but if I live to be 100 and game up until I croak, Ill still likely never get so much use and enrichment out of any game supplement as I got out of this one.


Warhammer Fantasy RPG 1st edition: love it or hate it, they still managed to cram a PHB, a GMs guide, and a Bestiary into one multi-columned small printed tome, with copious (though crude) illustrations. This was probably the first game that showed me that not all Fantasy had to be class and level based when I first encountered it, and though I never got to play it as much as I would have liked, it had an impact on my GMing style for years to come -- its Career model heavily informed the modular and template oriented approach I developed over years of evolution among other influences.


Marvel Super Heroes Advanced: this is the game that got me into Superheroic roleplaying. If I hadnt played MSHA I wouldnt have been intrigued by the Champions 4e hardcover, I wouldnt have perused it and realized that it could be used for ANY game, and I wouldnt have become an unrepentant HERO System fanatic. So, in a way, MSHA was the gateway drug to the heavy stuff. But the game was good on its own merits. It was silly at times, and had some mechanical flaws, but it was a lot of fun, fast, and the names were great -- who doesnt want Unearthly Strength? Viva la FASERIP!


The Ultimate Powers Book: a supplement for MSHA -- really THE supplement. It was a pile of powers, some of them pretty interesting and unusual like Catalytic Control. Many of the Power definitions were pretty vague vis a vis actual adjudication / effect, but still this supplement added incredible new depth and possibility to the game and is a great source of ideas for superheroic powers in general.

[Springald Jack]

In no Order:

GURPS Cabal
Simply the best occult conspiracy ever envisioned and slotted for any type of role in any type of campaign where traditional occultism has a basis in fact.

Nobilis
The most beautiful rpg book I have ever seen. The most beautiful and awe-inspiring and horror-inducing setting I have ever seen. A highly functional (if world specific) diceless engine.

Unknown Armies 2nd ed
A gorgeously slick (and sick) rpg. The original took a genre that seemed dead (secret magic horror-occult) and made it totally new. Neat symbolic magic that has a cost and yet is still worth pursuing.

GURPS Fantasy (the new one for 4th ed)
Even if I hated GURPS as a system (which I don't) the in depth examination of fantasy as a genre for gaming would be worth the price of the book. The sample setting (a highly sorcerous Rome) is neat too.

Mutants and Masterminds 2nd ed
While many on these boards of course disagree I think the tagline is right. It is "The World's Greatest Super-Hero RPG" Neat mechanics (Toughness save, How I love thee) great power stunt rules and a suprisingly good given the size breakdown of the Supers Genre.

Honorable Mentions
Mage:the Ascension 2nd ed
Planewalker's Handbook
GURPS Steampunk
Suppressed Transmission 1&2
Transhuman Space
BESM 2nd ed revised

[TheQuestionMan]

In no particular order (LOL)
Hero System 5th Edition - Because I can collect it all. DoJ has done an excellent job on this. Thank you everyone.

GURPS - For the 16yrs playing in GURPS Fantasy and other Campaigns and One Shots. For the incredible Supplements and Licenced Products. Everything Pre-4th Edition (Well almost everything).

Shadowrun - For the writing, inspirations, and beauty of story. I hate it for the rules, but then I always GMed and played a grand total of 15 Sessions (That inclueds 5 different games *Sighs*)

Battletech/Mechwarrior 3025 to 3048 - In memory of the Special Areospace Services. In both House Kurita & House Davion. Both who went Merc.

Role Master - Not the System, but the Epic Fantasy Campaigns run by William Blue. Good times. especially with a GM who could rattle off the results without consulting a Table.



Cheers

QM

[Eosin]

I need to add my chorus in here.

My Top RPGs

1. Dark Champions (4th)
Completely changed the way I saw gaming and got me interested in Hero. If this book hadn't come out, I would not be playing Hero System now.

2. Book of the Righteous (Green Ronin)
This is how fantasy cosmology should be done. Stunning piece of work. Reads like some long lost pantheon from our past instead of a kludge of kewl gods.

3. DEMON
Like the Book of the Righteous, this title took a staple and turned it on its ear. Cliched and tired tropes given breath and fire with enough realism that it seems almost possible.

4. Sophia's Daughters (7th Sea)
Wicked cool secret society. Well thought out and well written.

5. BIRTHRIGHT Boxed Set (2nd D&D)
IMO the single best fantasy setting ever published. Divine blood, terrible monsters, war, and politics meshed into one small bloodstained track of land.

6. Delta Green (I can't leave it off)

Runner Up
Dark Champions (5th), Fantasy Hero, Dark Ages Vampire: The British Isles, MIDNIGHT, Star Wars: The Dark Side Sorcebook, Ussura.

[zornwil]

Hard to say and I definitely haven't read enough RPG books. That being said, the 5 that come to mind, in no particular order:

- original Champions - an elegant superhero roleplaying game that set the standard not just for supers but for points-based systems and mechanics' relationships to SFX

- Dogs in the Vineyard - innovative and a virtual treatise on how to write a targeted play experience RPG, with a conflict resolution system widely useable for other applications

- Savage Worlds - perhaps the most elegant "universal, generic" action/adventure RPG out there

- Deadlands - one of the most effective singular setting action/adventure books out there, to me its failures actually contribute to/are consistent with the whole (a couple flaws do need fixing for playability but are easily altered per play group IMHO)

I'm not sure I have a 5th. Perhaps Mutants and Masterminds 1st edition, even with its flaws, or Hero 4th edition, even with its flaws. I do think Hero 4th came about as close as a so-called universal system might with a detailed "complete" rulebook that is still readable and easily employed flexibly.

[Bismark]

Difficult to pick out the winners when you have been in this game as long as I have, but here we go:

1. AD&D 1st ed - got me into RPGing
2. Champions 2nd ed - got me into HERO (FRED being the 'most honourable descendant' of same)
3. Space Opera (insanely crunchy, but much more to my taste than Traveller- which did and still does send me to sleep whenever I try to read the rulebooks); managed to plunder tech/psionics/aliens from just about every major sci-fi novel and film produced up to that time
4. Rolemaster 2 - gotta love those tables...
5. City State of the Invincible Overlord (old JG 1st ed) - the first 'setting'-type supplement I ever bought

Honourable mentions:
1. Chivalry and Sorcery 1st ed - lots of crunch, lots of useful Mediaeval info, and - Saurians!
2. Traveller 1st ed - for getting me into sci-fi roleplaying even if the setting bored me rigid (it still does, on the whole - heresy, I know)
3. Aftermath! - how to write lots of subsystems that totally fail to mesh - but lovely flowcharts (and the first ruleset I came across that dealt with such things as grenades in confined spaces - BOOM!)
4. GURPS Space 1st ed (now superseded by Star HERO, but a classic)
5. RQ2 - fun setting, straightforward rules, ludicrous limb-severing and weapon-breaking probabilities, great religious cults
6. Darkspace - gloriously creepy supplement for RM2 by Monte Cook - sci-fi meets magic meets Cthulhu. Get or borrow a copy if you have not read it - the magical biotechnology is a hoot.
7. G1-G3 Against the Giants modules for AD&D 1st -the very first adventures I ever bought.

[Lord Liaden]

Guess I've avoided this subject long enough. :) I case it isn't clear, these are the books that were my favorites or which made the greatest impression on me. I don't dispute anyone else's choices.

Champions Fourth Edition: One of the first, and still one of the best truly integrated Universal RPGs.

Talislanta Fourth Edition: Is there a recurring theme here? ;) One of the great original fantasy worlds, and Fourth Edition is the epitome of a "one book" RPG.

VIPER First Edition: The book that showed what you could really do with a comic-book organization. No criticism of the current VIPER book intended, but overall the previous version is still my favorite.

Atlantis: The Lost World: The first fantasy worldbook I ever saw that actually gave me a whole world to play in, with a global range of lands, races and cultures, rather than one little corner of it.

Manual of the Planes First Edition: I'm still amazed at the wealth of imagination and useful info that TSR managed to pack into that relatively slim volume.

[copeab]

GURPS 3e

Talislanta 2e

Star Wars d6 1e

Traveller (LBB)

Fudge

[keithcurtis]

This seems to be a perennially necromantic thread.

Keith "Hey look! It's Agent X!" Curtis

[Northstar]

Corum - Supplement for the Elric!/Stormbringer rules. Aside from my still being a major fan of the Eternal Champion series, I love reading this one just for the sheer interest of the setting and the rules for Chaotic and Lawful magic. Really well written.

Fort Bevits - A campaign book for playing in the world of Lejentia, a short lived graphic novel series. This one details the bad guys of the world. Way too cool to describe in brief, so won't bother. Between this one and the Corum book, I could have colorful ideas for fantasy campaigns for the rest of my life.

A Guide to the Astral Plane- From the 2nd Ed. Planescape materials. Throw this one in too, and I have enough ideas for the next life, also. The section on the fate of dead gods is wonderful stuff, and the Githyanki were always the ultimate D&D antagonist race in my book. (Drow elves need not apply!!)

Atlas of the Young Kingdoms, Vol. 1- And unfortunately the only volume ever printed. Details the northern continent of Elric's world. Extremely well written setting. The detail is very thorough without being egregious.

Tunnels and Trolls Fifth Edition. I'll probably get flamed for this one... but, what can I say, I'm a closet T&T fan! Haven't played in well over a decade, may never again. I like it becase it doesn't attempt to be highbrow, (which is refreshing once in awhile) and slightly mocks as well as pays tribute to the whole genre. Just pure, simple RPG fun.

[Phil]

Given that this is top 5 RPG books and not favourite game or anything, here are the ones that immediately come to mind that I shall probably disagree with in 6 weeks time! And in no particular order...

Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Ed - cleverly balances crunch and playability, presented beautifully, well written and thorough. Has cleverly kept the core of D&D while not being afraid of discarding a lot of extraneous material.

Star Hero - I'm ashamed to say I don't even own this, but having read through Doc Democracy's copy it is the best Sci-fi based rpg book I've ever read. As a discussion on the genre and different ways to look at it, awesome. Would benefit from fewer HERO references ;)

D&D3E DMG - Not my favourite game system, but some of the best 'how to run a rpg' type material I've ever seen. A strong read and universally applicable. Just ignore all the stuff it mentions in the early chapters about this game called D&D :smoke:

WEG Star Wars Sourcebook - never has a game produced source material that so well reflects and compliments the original material. To the extent that it has been quoted as a reference in subsequent star wars novels and such like. Superb full colour 'adverts' add so much flavour, possibly the best rpg supplement ever.

Aberrant Deluxe Edition - OK, so it's a bit extravagant, but it's a beautifully made book and once I actually bothered to read all that White Wolf fluff in the first 1/4 of the book, it really worked for me. As with M&M, good balance between detail and playability.

Just missing out is FREd, as I think it's a wonderfully well-written and throrough game. And Ars Magica just for the fabulous setting. But neither of these quite make the top because of one or two flaws (density for FREd, 'necessity' of additional source material for Ars Mag).

NB: Just out of interest, the two worst RPG books I've read are probably SAS and Rolemaster FRP. Neither are bad games, just very poorly written and laid out, making them among the two most difficult rpg products to just sit down and read. Although the same may apply to one or two Ars Magica supplements that we just such heavy going I used to fall asleep before then end!!

[OddHat]

Relecting my own Superhero fetish, and in no special order:

Nightlife - A very underated game. In one book Stellar Game's Nightlife presented a very playable world that could handle everything from comedy to soap opera, a simple mechanical system with room for robots, werewolves, spies, ghosts, and with modest tweaking almost anything else, a complete campaign setting, and a huge number of NPC archetypes that could be quickly re-made into friend or foe. Sure, the system had its flaws, but this was the modern monster mash goth game done for laughs well before World of Darkness. My wife and I still sometimes play it.

Champions, the Super Role Playing Game - Incredible for its time. The Big Blue Book version remains my all time favorite game book.

Godlike - Terrible system, incredible world beautifully presented. Toss the system and you have one hell of a WWII Supers setting.

Aberrant - Another fantastic Supers setting, and with playable enough mechanics. Pitty that White Wolf Syndrome interferes with what otherwise might have become a great draw for Supers gamers.

GURPS Voodoo - One of the best and most novel settings I've seen for modern adventures, and the single best magic system I've seen for an RPG. Throw in GURPS Black Ops and maybe GURPS Cabal and you have a modern secret Supers campaign that will stay fresh for years.

[CSgeekHero]

Wow, this requires some tough decisions.

Overall:
1. HERO 5th
2. The Ultimate Martial Artist
3. Forgotten Realms (original set)
4. GURPS 4th Ed. Basic Set
5. GURPS Powers

Core Rules:
1. HERO 5th
2. GURPS 4th Ed. Basic Set
3. AD&D DMG and PHB (aka 1st Ed. AD&D)
4. Star Wars RCR (I know, I am crazy)
5. MegaTraveller

Supplements:
1. The Ultimate Martial Artist
2. Forgotten Realms (original set)
3. GURPS Powers
4. Waterdeep Box Set
5. Pulp HERO

[BNakagawa]

Just about everything I could have put on a list has been previously mentioned except I think for this one:

The Fantasy Trip/In The Labrynth. First game I encountered with point-based character construction, skills and a host of innovations that turned up in later games.
Like trying to roll 3d6 low for hitting stuff. Armor that subtracts from incoming damage rather than making you harder to hit. Hex based movement system. Dex determines turn order and probability of hitting in combat. Lotsa good stuff in this one.

[Lord Mhoram]

Based on some other stuff on other threads, I got thinking about the top 5 for Supers play so here is that for me (sourcebooks here, not rules)

Algernon Files - from Blackwyrm games. The best character collection I've seen in years. Can't wait for the end of the year for the HERO version.
GURPS Supertemps - SJ Games. I love the characters, the concept and the history - they have made an appearance in every supers game I have run since I read it.
Viper - 4th Ed. - Hero Games. The greatest superagency write up. Scott Bennie is always amazing and this is one of his best works. The 5th version pales in comparison.
Demon - 5th Ed. - DOJ./HERO games. This one is the best orginzation/character book out for 5th, and may be the best Champions supplement for 5th period.
Freedom City - 1st Edition- Green Ronin. One of the best settings in superhero RPGs. 2nd edition may be as good, but right after I bought it, I lent it to my Champions GM (Who runs our New Champions game in FC), and I haven't had a chance to read it completely yet.

Honorable Mentions
San Angelo - Goldrush Games. To be honest the setting here vs Freedom City is so close as to make no difference. The only reason I went with Freedom City is that is still has support.
Grammercy Island - Palldium books. The best superprison I've seen published.
Teen Champions - a very very good book on the whole subgenre and nice setting pieces. Another great one from Allen (how we miss ye')
Normals Unbound - Hero Games. The best normals book published for a superhero game
Villany Amok - Another amazing book. It too was just on the verge of the top 5. Another great Scott Bennie book

[zornwil]

Just about everything I could have put on a list has been previously mentioned except I think for this one:

The Fantasy Trip/In The Labrynth. First game I encountered with point-based character construction, skills and a host of innovations that turned up in later games.
Like trying to roll 3d6 low for hitting stuff. Armor that subtracts from incoming damage rather than making you harder to hit. Hex based movement system. Dex determines turn order and probability of hitting in combat. Lotsa good stuff in this one.
Yeah, that's one on my list of ones to read.

[Questar]

Well, I have over the many years pretty well confined myself to playing HERO, with a few excursions into some fantasy RPG's. So bear that in mind with my list.


1. First Edition Champions ... Hands down the most important game ever for me. 95% of everything great about HERO was laid down here in the concept of constructing abilities (and weapons) through the use of advantages & limitations, and building according to flexible interpretations of the special effect of the power. (Along with building your own chosen type of character as YOU wanted, with a point-cost system, though I think that had been done first elsewhere.) This was the revolutionary "game engine" that HERO was built on. All the heavy lifting of game design was done here. It's #1 in my Hall of Fame.

2. Big Blue Book ... no new game design elements, but a beautiful job at melding the somewhat disparate elements of various genres into the first truly universal gaming system.

3. Ninja Hero ... a true game design addition with the concept of creating martial manuevers from various elements; an instruction manual on how to build your own custom martial arts. The campaign source material perhaps not as strong as some books, but the gaming mechanics of building "martial manuevers" is so powerful and elegant that this book has to go into my "Hall of Fame".

4. Primus and Demon ... versions of both of these organizations became staples of my campaign for years.


5. Champions Presents ... The first one, with the classic "Menace Out Of Time" adventure, an all-time favorite. I will also say that "Shades Of Black" is probably the best-written HERO adventure book I have ever read, beautifully put together on every level. But I have never actually run it in a campaign.

[Vondy]

Hero 5th

For me its a toss up. There are things I like about 4th better, but 5th brings a lot to the table and is an improvement on the whole. Its also my system of choice, and has been for a very long time.

Stormbringer 4th

This was my favorite pre-Hero fantasy system, both because of the alternative magic system, and the fact that it was true to the swords and sorcery genre rather than high-fantasy. 4th Ed was the best of the lot.

Jovian Chronicles 1st

I almost said Heavy Gear. I really like Dream Pod 9's worlds (and their system is okay, too). Its a toss up, but while the Heavy Gear line was better thought out, and more robust, the Jovian Chronicles Core Rulebook was far better than the Heavy Gear core rulebook, and did a better job introducing the setting.

Dark Champions 4th (I haven't seen 5th)

Hats off to steve. This is the best Hero supplement I've ever laid my hands on. It was incredibly well done.

Module I6: Ravenloft

There are a lot of classic DnD modules, and I could have listed many I loved, but this one was ahead of its time, and launched one of the first DnD forays into trying an alternate subgenre for the game. In this case gothic horror. Runners up: Village of Homlett; the Secret of Bone Hill; and the 1986 re-releases of the Slavers, Giants, and Drow series (in which they made them into a cohesive story).

[Cancer]

A cheat: I have already had a fire and lost all my RPG stuff. (The fire was while I was out of town, so I had no opportunity to make the hypothetical last grab.)

Of all the stuff I lost, the stuff I miss the most is the materials of my own creation. Anything commercially published, ever, can be replaced, given time, money, and Ebay. But the stuff I wrote up myself, and existed only in the old orange binder, can never be re-obtained, only laboriously re-created.

Truth be told, even the equivalent of that binder wouldn't make it to the list of five things I'd make it a point to save from my burning dwelling nowadays.






One spouse, two kids, two cats.

[zornwil]

A cheat: I have already had a fire and lost all my RPG stuff. (The fire was while I was out of town, so I had no opportunity to make the hypothetical last grab.)

Of all the stuff I lost, the stuff I miss the most is the materials of my own creation. Anything commercially published, ever, can be replaced, given time, money, and Ebay. But the stuff I wrote up myself, and existed only in the old orange binder, can never be re-obtained, only laboriously re-created.

Truth be told, even the equivalent of that binder wouldn't make it to the list of five things I'd make it a point to save from my burning dwelling nowadays.






One spouse, two kids, two cats.
That's a really good point. (Both the first one and the last one)

[Lemurion]

My top five in no particular order:

1) 5ER, got me back to HERO.
2) The DMG (the original one with all the Dungeon Dressing)
3) The Palladium Book of Weapons and Armour
4) Harn, the original boxed set.
5) Space 1889/GURPS Lensman (tie)