Recently there's Carcosa for LOTFP which is supposed to be a horror setting book for the DM but it's full of stuff like this >you hear creepy singing, you can never find the source
Which makes it completely useless to run lol
Stuff like that is useful for flavor and doesn't justify its own book. You also gotta be careful with the 'weird shit' flavor, because players quickly habituate to it and worse, they may ignore actual context clues based on prior experience with red herrings.
https://i.imgur.com/Izyyyyw.jpg
What are the worst and most unnecessary supplements ever released?
I'm going to be a gadfly and say the WFRP 4e re-printing of The Enemy Within. That adventure was always somewhat overrated, but it didn't need a re-writing in the slightest and it put the already embarrassingly behind 4e even further behind on releases actually useful to players & GMs.
>hear about the enemy within and how it's THA BEST MODULE EVAR!!!!!! >read the enemy within >it's a frickin railroad with a decent narrative I guess >it's praised because it was the FIRST railroad with a decent narrative
It also has a lot of moments where players will be going 'now what?', with nothing to naturally lead them to the next bit. It's not terrible, but it's not the best thing evar like people act. Hence why I think the reprint was a bad/dumb idea in the context it happened.
It's also full of spells that you'll never actually be able to use, and a hit die system that is overcomplicated shit for no reason. And rape obsessed.
I havent read the book, but B/X and OD&D are the two systems I play the most, and these OSR setting books and modules that add shit for flavor that has ZERO impact on the game experience make no sense to me
Things like you visit a village and you roll on a random table and now It is known that is this Village people speak with a funny accent.
So what there is nothing to be done with this shit! Id rather not have rolled for anything
Same for dungeons. Instead of a encounter table they put an whimsical dungeon event table, and the event is: the characters feel a chilly breeze pass by. Great, really great, now I wasted an encounter, a potential roleplay situation and my players time.
Of course I can reroll, or write my own tables, that is, in fact, what I do, but It is still crazy to me how writers will insert these useless pointless things for nothing but "flavor". A flavor that is not flavorful at all, because It adds nothing to the game.
The point of those is to add a fuel to the creative spark of the GM and group, a little thing to spin off into something more, or just add a touch of detail if no one bites the hook. Of course, if you prefer a curated experience, then they're not useful. And not worth money on their own, alone, unless there's thousands on offer, IMO.
Yeah, I cant see the intent behind these, but these pointless things generally ammount to nothing.
For example, what does rolling for economy of a Village changes by itself? Well by itself nothing, so I add kinds of markets in a village depending on their economy.
If they got a fishing economy, they have boats, spears and nets for sale; If they are a hinting village they have fusils, bows, dogs and horses. Etc.
This like this I feel are missing from these tables with too many pointless infos. Things that amplify the possibilities instead of Just being another things for your to tell your players that they will probably not remeber next time they come.
>Compares being a vampire to being black because police are just like vampire slayers >Adds nothing to the game outside of pronouns and removes the existence of women
World of Darkness is always goth gay Captain Planet. But even old-school vampire The Masquerade making fun of WOD 5E for being a borderline woke parody.
GURPS: Realm Management >Oh boy a splat all about administrating your own kingdom, this will be great for high-level fantasy games where the PCs eventually get their own fiefdom! I can't wait for it to build off the existing rules for crops, taxation, and heading massive organizations to make it a more cohesive whole. >Book comes out, it's a shitty boardgame completely divorced from GURPS both mechanically and stylistically, with massive loopholes that invalidate 60% of the game, critical assumptions it never states, and really basic editing problems like mercantile economies having a bonus to importing and a penalty to exporting.
It'd be one thing if this came from a new author or was an embarrassing fumble by a beloved veteran, but no instead they gave this project to a dude who seemingly specializes in bad adventure design, lazy lists of pregen powers, and poorly copying better ideas from better authors.
Home of the brave or rough guide to the UK for cyberpunk 2020
Home is super contradictory, it will say something and then say the exact opposite some pages later. It also states 100 million people died when the EU became the world economic power.
Rough guide is similar, weird meta plot, for some reason people overthrew the royal family and so now there is constant anarchy in the UK.
And then of course there's DGD for RED
What gets me with all of the porn books is that the sex is usually like a single roll check but shit like pregnancy gets 20 pages of rules including breach births and twins
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft (2021)
That's not even the worst supplement released for OD&D, much less of all time.
Spelljammer (5e)
Recently there's Carcosa for LOTFP which is supposed to be a horror setting book for the DM but it's full of stuff like this
>you hear creepy singing, you can never find the source
Which makes it completely useless to run lol
Recently? That book came out for LotFP like a decade ago. But yah, it is pretty dogshit.
Stuff like that is useful for flavor and doesn't justify its own book. You also gotta be careful with the 'weird shit' flavor, because players quickly habituate to it and worse, they may ignore actual context clues based on prior experience with red herrings.
I'm going to be a gadfly and say the WFRP 4e re-printing of The Enemy Within. That adventure was always somewhat overrated, but it didn't need a re-writing in the slightest and it put the already embarrassingly behind 4e even further behind on releases actually useful to players & GMs.
>hear about the enemy within and how it's THA BEST MODULE EVAR!!!!!!
>read the enemy within
>it's a frickin railroad with a decent narrative I guess
>it's praised because it was the FIRST railroad with a decent narrative
It also has a lot of moments where players will be going 'now what?', with nothing to naturally lead them to the next bit. It's not terrible, but it's not the best thing evar like people act. Hence why I think the reprint was a bad/dumb idea in the context it happened.
It's also full of spells that you'll never actually be able to use, and a hit die system that is overcomplicated shit for no reason. And rape obsessed.
I havent read the book, but B/X and OD&D are the two systems I play the most, and these OSR setting books and modules that add shit for flavor that has ZERO impact on the game experience make no sense to me
Things like you visit a village and you roll on a random table and now It is known that is this Village people speak with a funny accent.
So what there is nothing to be done with this shit! Id rather not have rolled for anything
Same for dungeons. Instead of a encounter table they put an whimsical dungeon event table, and the event is: the characters feel a chilly breeze pass by. Great, really great, now I wasted an encounter, a potential roleplay situation and my players time.
Of course I can reroll, or write my own tables, that is, in fact, what I do, but It is still crazy to me how writers will insert these useless pointless things for nothing but "flavor". A flavor that is not flavorful at all, because It adds nothing to the game.
The point of those is to add a fuel to the creative spark of the GM and group, a little thing to spin off into something more, or just add a touch of detail if no one bites the hook. Of course, if you prefer a curated experience, then they're not useful. And not worth money on their own, alone, unless there's thousands on offer, IMO.
Yeah, I cant see the intent behind these, but these pointless things generally ammount to nothing.
For example, what does rolling for economy of a Village changes by itself? Well by itself nothing, so I add kinds of markets in a village depending on their economy.
If they got a fishing economy, they have boats, spears and nets for sale; If they are a hinting village they have fusils, bows, dogs and horses. Etc.
This like this I feel are missing from these tables with too many pointless infos. Things that amplify the possibilities instead of Just being another things for your to tell your players that they will probably not remeber next time they come.
Wfrp has a lot of good, free random table sets for that, actually usable context stuff.
Spelljammer 5E followed by The Radiant Citadel (also 5E).
Does Strixhaven count?
Pretty much every 5e book after tomb of annihilation has been borderline useless. Filled with rules telling you to make up the rules.
>Compares being a vampire to being black because police are just like vampire slayers
>Adds nothing to the game outside of pronouns and removes the existence of women
World of Darkness is always goth gay Captain Planet. But even old-school vampire The Masquerade making fun of WOD 5E for being a borderline woke parody.
GURPS: Realm Management
>Oh boy a splat all about administrating your own kingdom, this will be great for high-level fantasy games where the PCs eventually get their own fiefdom! I can't wait for it to build off the existing rules for crops, taxation, and heading massive organizations to make it a more cohesive whole.
>Book comes out, it's a shitty boardgame completely divorced from GURPS both mechanically and stylistically, with massive loopholes that invalidate 60% of the game, critical assumptions it never states, and really basic editing problems like mercantile economies having a bonus to importing and a penalty to exporting.
It'd be one thing if this came from a new author or was an embarrassing fumble by a beloved veteran, but no instead they gave this project to a dude who seemingly specializes in bad adventure design, lazy lists of pregen powers, and poorly copying better ideas from better authors.
Feels like every attempt at this ends up being bad. Like Kingdoms & Warfare from MCDM.
>what is ACKS 2
dnd
Complete Psionics
D&D Essentials
Home of the brave or rough guide to the UK for cyberpunk 2020
Home is super contradictory, it will say something and then say the exact opposite some pages later. It also states 100 million people died when the EU became the world economic power.
Rough guide is similar, weird meta plot, for some reason people overthrew the royal family and so now there is constant anarchy in the UK.
And then of course there's DGD for RED
> What are the worst and most unnecessary supplements ever released?
The book of Erotic Fantasy, A.K.A. "The supplement with rules for rolling for the circumference of your orifices"
What gets me with all of the porn books is that the sex is usually like a single roll check but shit like pregnancy gets 20 pages of rules including breach births and twins
The most autistic and book keeping heavy german rpg system / analog excel simulator has a supplement to make inventory Management more autistic