Wednesday, March 24, 2010

best of the best

So I've got this plastic clamshell-type container I bought in the hobby section of the local Target many years ago.  I'm pretty sure it was marketed as the perfect storage device for scrapbooking.  Anyway, I decided to see how much awesome I could squeeze into it and ended up with a sort of personal top ten list of out-of-print stuff.  Here's what I've got in that container, in no particular order:

'78 Basic D&D rules (Holmes)
'81 Basic D&D rules (Moldvay)
'81 Expert D&D rules
B2 Keep on the Borderlands
Best of the Dragon, vol 1
Ready Ref Sheets
The Dungeoneer: The Adventuresome Compedium of Issues 1-6
Rat on a Stick
Verbosh
The Unknown Gods
The Arduin Grimoire, vol 1


Okay, that's actually eleven items, but the '81 rulebooks are a single game split into two manuals.  Looking at all that stuff together and I can't help but imagine it as one sweet-as-hell campaign.

I'd love to see a similar list of out-of-print items from other folks.  Please share in the comments or post to your own blog!

11 comments:

  1. I have a binder that holds Moldvay Basic, Cook Expert, and B2. It also has a mess of note paper, graph paper, and hex paper as well as several pre-gen characters and some blank character sheets tucked into the side pockets. It's my "3-Ring to rule them all."

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  2. Nice! I'd never heard of the Dungeoneer compendium thingy.

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  3. Each campaign I run has its own binder filled with all the character sheets, illustrations, houserules and notes from that particular game. The resulting collection forms a pretty wild looking bookshelf in my bedroom.

    It also means many of my campaigns (at least those post high school when I started this practice) are fairly well documented.

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  4. Pardon me a silly question, but why two versions of Basic?

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  5. I'd be more impressed if the container was a repurposed puzzle box spraypainted and markered "JEFF'S AWESOME D&D CAMPIAGN...KEEP OUT UPON PAINE OF DEATH!", but I've got a bad case of "box fetishism"

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  6. Does it have to be all D&D?

    I did something like this last year for Gen Con. I wanted an "adventure pack" I could carry easily and bust out for pickup games. Couldn't be too heavy -- had to be something I could grab and run with quickly and easily.

    I took '81 Basic (Moldvay) and '81 Expert (Cook/Marsh) and B2. Then I also took a copy of Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard, and In the Labyrinth for a possible The Fantasy Trip game. I brought a copy of David O. Miller's fantastic charts and play aides document.

    Then, for pulpy, modern martial arts adventure (my other vice), I took a copy of Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game and the only supplement for it that is any good, Secrets of the Shadoloo.

    Add some dice, graph paper for D&D, hex maps for D&D, TFT, and Street Fighter, and I was good to go.

    I'd probably keep the same kit now. I guess if I thought I could fit it in, I'd consider slipping in the first edition Heavy Gear core book.

    That's my "travel kit" for unlimited gaming fun for whatever mood hits me.

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  7. I'd trade out B2 for the Village of Hommlet and substitute the AEC for the dungeoneer compendium - otherwise I'm right there with you.

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  8. @blair: that is an evil, evil idea and why are you asking about these stencils and spray paint I'm holding.

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  9. Erin: just because I like 'em both. Moldvay is slicker but Holmes has that raw OD&D feel to it.

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  10. Anonymous7:10 AM

    If only laptops were more readily available back in the ol' days. I've had to downsize my binder collections lest I face the wrath of SWMBO! Almost everything I have is on pdf.

    My emergency DM kit was once those Italian-made TSR mini-books of the DMG, PHB, MM, MM2, FF, UA, OA & the mini-box set of World of Greyhawk. And the 1st edition Dieties & Demigods (I just can't give up C'thulhu, sorry).

    Ciao!
    Grendelwulf

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  11. Your list and my love of mutants and wild mutations is compelling me to go dig up my copy of Metamorphosis Alpha. (70's version.) Other oldies but goodies for me would be Top Secret, Gamma World 2nd Edition, Star Frontiers, and Gang Busters. Good memories although I've yet to play MA...

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