What 3.Everything material should I buy in meatspace?

[radthemad4]

I live in a country where TRPGs don't exist, and where you can't order stuff online due to delivery issues. I can get pdfs fine though. Once in a while, relatives either go abroad or visit from abroad so I figured I could get some stuff that way.

So what should I buy for 3.Everything?

Dice is a no brainer, but what other FLGS or online ordering exclusive materials do you guys use?

Also which books are way more helpful to have physical copies of instead of digital copies?

[fectin]

I like vinyl mats, like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQrgTI6ah4E
Wet-erase markers only. Not dry erase.

[shadzar]

some kind of tokens or markers for tracking things like actions used or something like that.

nothing you cant find anywhere i guess, you could use snacks and just eat them as an action is done, then get a new "set" next turn.

also if using a grid, you want some kind of marker for placement of things. if you want real ones, then maybe some kind of miniature that can be found abroad cheap if not actual metal miniatures or DDM or heroclix or whatever you prefer.

you really need nothing game specific outside of the books with the rules and maybe your preferred character sheet. anything else not for collection or brand-name buying purpose you could jsut make sue of whatever you have.

[Seerow]

For physical books, I'd go with Core + Spell Compendium + Magic Item Compendium. Core gets you all of your general reference rules, and Magic Item Compendium + Spell Compendium get you the majority of your non-core Magic Items and Spells. Things like feats and class abilities you can write onto the sheets, but Items/Spells you tend to get enough of that doing that will get to be a pain.

[NineInchNall]

Basically you want physical copies of the things you'll pass around the table and things that are too content-rich to sift through on PDF. The three core books, as well as Magic Item Compendium and Spell Compendium fit the bill, as Seerow said.

I also like having hard copies of PHB2, Tome of Battle, and Expanded Psionics Handbook around, since the people I play with tend to use a lot of material from them.

The main campaign setting books are more useable in physical form, but the setting-specific splats are fine in PDF.

[OgreBattle]

Print out the tgd Tomes pdf. It's nice to flip through for inspiration and the world building segments (the dorfs vs goblins, different kinds of evil, etc.) are fun to read

[JonSetanta]

At bare minimum, the core three; Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and the first Monster Manual (has all the iconics)

I got by for a long time on just that.

[K]

The Monster Manuals and the DMG and PHB (if you DM).

If you are just a player, you don't need any of it. Just print out the rules bits that you might need and other bits (PrCs/spells/feats from weird splatbooks).

[radthemad4]

I like vinyl mats, like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQrgTI6ah4E
Wet-erase markers only. Not dry erase.

That looks pretty cool. I'm sold.

Print out the tgd Tomes pdf. It's nice to flip through for inspiration and the world building segments (the dorfs vs goblins, different kinds of evil, etc.) are fun to read

I can get those right now. Thanks. Wish I'd thought of that. Any other printer friendly (I can print stuff cheaply at university, but only in black and white) resources available online that you'd recommend?

Okay, so for physical books: Core, Monster Manual, Spell Compendium and Item Compendium. Thanks guys.

[fectin]

You might want to look for used copies. The price dropped fairly hard once WotC reprinted them.

I like to have more than one copy of the PHB kicking around because everyone needs to look up armor/weapon stats or spell effects; YMMV though.

[ishy]

Is the magic item compendium really worth buying?

Never seemed like an all that useful book to me.

[NineInchNall]

The newest printing of the core 3 is pretty with some foiling effects on the covers and binding. They also include all errata as well as the polymorph subschool.

While more expensive than getting the older ones (new or used) they're really quite nice.

Is the magic item compendium really worth buying?

Never seemed like an all that useful book to me.

While most of the items are reprints from other books, there are some new ones, and there a lot that are adjusted (read made cheaper), and clarified body slots and activations. There are also some potentially useful rules adds in the back, like using detect magic to ID items for free. (I think this use of the spell was actually reprinted in the Rules Compendium.) Anyway, it's actually quite useful in the same way as Spell Compendium: you don't have to cross-reference as many books.

[...You Lost Me]

I think it's pretty useless. That and the DMG (which exists to have vague DM advice + magic items). Anything you really care about from there is on the SRD.

If you're playing Tome, print the pdf. If you're playing not-Tome, I'd recommend 2 PHB's, the Monster Manual, and Player's Handbook II.

[radthemad4]

The Wood Elf pdf of the srd here seems kinda cool. Printing and photocopying this will tide me over till I get the actual books whenever an opportunity opens up. I'll check for used, thanks.

I'm playing Tome with some Pathfinder stuff (e.g. skill system, some of the new spells, unlimited cantrips, some pfsrd NPCs and monsters), but Tome doesn't have spells, monsters and items. I started with Pathfinder as the rest of the Internet made it sound better than 3.5, but I've already quasi grokked it, so I'm slowly getting rid of the stupider parts while keeping the stuff I like.

[Starmaker]

There are probably some intermediaries wherever it is that you live, making mad bux shipping iphones through the mail from the US. Make a list of the books, get a US mail forwarding address, order the books from various sellers at minimum prices with cheapass domestic shipping, then arrange for the whole bunch to be sent to you in a single box.

Fair warning: owning books no one else plans to acquire EVAR may lead to sorrow and disappointment. Purchase at your own risk.

[radthemad4]

I know very little about ordering stuff by mail. I'll ask around, I might know a guy who knows a guy or something.

[Username17]

Fair warning: owning books no one else plans to acquire EVAR may lead to sorrow and disappointment. Purchase at your own risk.

Yes. The one person who owns a plot book for Shadowrun or Vampire is sad and makes other people annoyed. Because any plot elements introduced in a book that other players haven't read will not exist in a cooperative storytelling game. The other players will act as if those events did not happen, which means that they essentially did not. If one player has read Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand and the other players have not, then any and all references they make to Soul Eaters will be instantly retconned out of the story by the other people at the table.

The best things to own physical copies of if you're the only person in the group who will own one are catalog books and reference books. A catalog book is something that you go through on your own time looking for things to buy. So things like the Shadowrun's Augmentation. A reference book is something that you don't expect anyone to read all of, but instead look up specific information during a game. Like the Player's Handbook.

For D&D specifically, your best bets are the Monster Manuals and the Spell Compendium. The Spell Compendium can be loaned around to different players and specific information looked up during games when someone wants to cast an obscure spell. The Monster Books are filled with ready-to-use monsters and having their stats on-hand in tangible format at the gaming table is simply very helpful.

Going from earliest to latest, the Monster books get stupider monsters, higher rates of filler, and more standardized numbers. So the total number of monsters you might actually use is highest in the first Monster Manual, and about the same in the Monster Manual 2, Fiend Folio, and Monster Manual 3. After that, there is a huge drop off in quality. Monster Manual 4 is pretty bad, Monster Manual 5 is a war crime, and Elder Evils is so crap most people don't even consider it to be a monster book.

-Username17

[radthemad4]

I haven't considered buying a plot or setting book just yet, but thanks, I'll keep that in mind for when I do. I'll add Monster Manual 2,3 and Fiend Folio to the wish list, and print out the better entries from pdfs of the later ones. The free printer friendly srd pdfs I've found online are making the PHB and DMG seem less desirable though (I still want pictures of monsters alongside the stats). I'll still get them eventually, but the other stuff has a higher priority.

[infected slut princess]

Having lots of monster books is good. MM1, MM2, and Fiend Folio seem to deliver most of the interesting D&D monsters. But even MM 3, 4, and 5 and 3rd party monster books are acceptable because even though they are full of some seriously stupid crap, it's not unrealistic to get 15 or 20 good monsters out of a 100 and that's more than enough for most D&D groups over the expected lifespan of a campaign.

The Spell Compendium is really useful overall, but the Magic Item Compendium is full of garbage and really overrated. I hate that book so much, Weapon and Armor Crystals seriously make me want to burn all my D&D books and never play again they are so fucking dumb. It's too bad there are no Feat Compendiums, Class Compendiums, PrC Compendiums, and stuff like that.

Tome of Battle is good to have because it makes some nice options available for warriors.

and Elder Evils is so crap most people don't even consider it to be a monster book.

Why is Elder Eviils so much worse than other stuff? Is it even supposed to be a "monster book"? I remember it being more of a mini-adventure book, with some weird new monsters (very few) and NPCs with bad builds (very many). So basically like most published adventures, I guess. I never used anything out of it so I didn't pay a lot of attention.

[ubernoob]

Magic Item Compendium is full of garbage and really overrated. I hate that book so much, Weapon and Armor Crystals seriously make me want to burn all my D&D books and never play again they are so fucking dumb.

Seconding this.

[Tumbling Down]

Magic Item Compendium is full of garbage and really overrated. I hate that book so much, Weapon and Armor Crystals seriously make me want to burn all my D&D books and never play again they are so fucking dumb.

Seconding this.

Thirding it.

Maybe the MiC would have been better if it didn't nerf all the fucking items. What the hell good is a compilation of items if I still end up having to plow through a bunch of obscure eberron splats to locate the original items that still had their balls.

[Lago PARANOIA]

The fact that the Magic Item Compendium gets referenced more than the Arms and Equipment Guide makes me sad. Not because the A&E guide is good or anything (it's a hardcover book using B&W artwork, so looks really chintzy) but it's at least straight-forward and don't have a bunch of puzzling nerfs to it.

The whole 'essential books' thing is pretty much a grievous tax on sword-based characters. I can make a good cleric character with just the Spell Compendium, Spell Compendium + Complete Champion and/or Divine if I'm feeling greedy. As anyone who has ever played a psion or ToB character can tell you, having your best tricks spread out over several books is like having a DM Credibility Tax.

[Krusk]

the Magic Item Compendium is full of garbage and really overrated

I rarely sign in, but this was my purpose today. Beaten to it.

This book is a steaming pile. Sure its got tons of stuff, but 99% of it is terrible, and its impossible to sort through. I hate when my players break it out, because I know the game is going to grind to a halt while they try to figure out if some vaguely worded item is worth buying over something real (it never is).

[JonSetanta]

I'm going to agree about the item compendium there. I read a friend's copy and it sucked. Worthless.

Just stick with the core.

[fectin]

I kind of hate it too. It has some good stuff, but everything feels very clicky, very videogamey.
Yes, I do realize that's not a real criticism, it's just an elaboration on "I don't like it."