Fin's top ten

[Finarvyn]

Here's a list of my ten most important OD&D resources in my opinion, ranked mostly in order but not totally. (My order changes somewhat depending upon my mood)
1. Core white box
2. Greyhawk supplement -- thief and paladin, expanded spell list, expanded magic list
3. First Fantasy Campaign -- inspiration, examples of early campaign design
4. Best of the Dragon, V1 -- classic articles from Dragon and SR, inspiration, ranger
5. Ready Ref sheets -- random tables for random reasons
6. Blackmoor supplement -- assassin and monk, example of early module design
7. City-State of the Invincible Overlord -- this is my go-to city for every campaign
8. Chainmail -- mostly the Fantasy Supplement, historical and inspriational
9. Eldritch Wizardry supplement -- druid
10. Gods, Demigods & Heroes supplement -- material on Conan, Elric, etc.

Something like that. As I said, my order may vary occasionally. There are also a few other things that I sometimes use like the Monster & Treasure assortment, World of Greyhawk folio (AD&D), monochrome AD&D modules, AD&D Monster Manual (pre-AD&D) hardback Arduin Trilogy, and the like.

What's your top ten?

[cadriel]

1. The Little Brown Booklets - go-to sources for D&D rules.
2. Supplement I: Greyhawk - for other rules etc.
3. Ready Ref Sheets - indispensable both in prep and during play. I probably use them more than the rulebooks.
4. The Arduin Grimoire - I sometimes use its critical hit table, which is horribly imbalanced and wickedly fun. (Those 4 are the ones I regularly reference during play.)
5. Supplement V: Carcosa - I use the generator for Spawn of Shub-Niggurath when I want a weird creature in my games
6. Dungeon of the Unknown - I use the generator for globs and gloops when I want an ooze of some sort. (this is currently PDF only)
7. The Dungeon Alphabet - I use this for inspiration when coming up with room details
8. Supplement II: Blackmoor - I occasionally skim the monsters and consider inflicting the disease rules on PCs.
9. Metamorphosis Alpha - this is a pretty much OD&D-compatible book of sci-fi powers, monsters and tech.
10. Empire of the Petal Throne - this is a pretty much OD&D-compatible book of fantasy with a very non-Tolkien flavor.

Edit to add: Honorable mention - First Fantasy Campaign. I'd like to use its equipment stuff but I never actually have used it.

[Deleted]

Here's my list of the ten most important OD&D resources in my opinion:
1. OD&D - The three Little Brown Booklets
2. Supplement I: Greyhawk
3. Supplement II: Blackmoor
4. The First Fantasy Campaign
5. The Arduin Grimoire Trilogy
6. Adventures in Fantasy
7. Chainmail
8. Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry
9. Best of the Dragon Volume 1
10. Ready Ref sheets

[tetramorph]

1. LBBs
2. Tony Bath's Setting Up a Wargames Campaign (rules)
3. C.S. Lewis' Discarded Image (legendaria)
4. Ready Ref Sheets
5. Chainmail
6. Jason Cone's Philotomy's Musings (essential to "get it")
7. Wayne Rossi's The Original D&D Setting (enlightening)
8. James Edward Raggi IV's The Random Esoteric Creature Generator (weirdness)
9. Paul Gorman's Magic Swords for Swords and Wizardry (awesomeness)
10. Dave Arneson's The First Fantasy Campaign

Don't like the supplements much, to tell the truth. Don't like AD&D material: too many rules.

Finarvyn and @theperilousdreamer: How do I get a hold of a copy of the Best of Dragon Volume 1?

[makofan]

Here is what I actually use

- 3 brown books
- Greyhawk
- Ready Ref Sheets
- Petty Gods
- City State of the Invincible Overlord
- Monster & Treasure Assortments
- Mines of Khunmar
- Modules B 1-4
- Treasure by Courtney Campbell
- Tricks, etc by Courtney Campbell

[tetramorph]

How do I get ahold of the Courtney Campbell material, makofan?

[makofan]

angband.oook.cz/steamband/Treasure.pdf


angband.oook.cz/steamband/Tricks.pdf

[tetramorph]

Nov 23, 2015 11:19:56 GMT -6 makofan said:

angband.oook.cz/steamband/Treasure.pdf


angband.oook.cz/steamband/Tricks.pdf

Awesome.

Thanks, man.

[Deleted]

For my game, here's the magnificent 7:
1. LBBs/Single Volume OD&D/Delving Deeper
2. Judges Guild Initial Guidelines - for Ready Ref/City State essentials
3. Strategic Review #1 - for solo dungeon generator
4. Mythmere's City Encounters 
5. The Best of the Journal: The Pettigrew Selections - for EPT style underworlds
6. Whitebox Heroes - extra classes
7. The Grey Company Spellbook (from RedBox NY gamers) example spell: Monkey Butler

[simrion]

Would Chaosium's All The Worlds Monsters warrant an honorable mention?

[jdn2006]

1. Imagination
2. Creativity
3. Do-it-yourself.
4. Pencils.
5. Paper.
6. Dice.
7. People.
8. Place.
9. Time.
10. Fun.

[howandwhy99]

1. knowledge of Wargaming design & theory
2. OD&D - 3 lbb
3. Chainmail
4. Dungeon! the boardgame
5. Outdoor Survival
6. Wooden Ships & Iron Men
7. Supplement I: Greyhawk
8. Supplement II: Blackmoor
9. The Strategic Review (alignment copy)
10. B2 Keep on the Borderlands

Imagination is a requirement for play.

[tetramorph]

Just added 5 more to bring my list, above, to 10.

makofan, @relic, howandwhy99: I share with you all that the B# series is essential. I also share with you guys that all the Judge's Guild stuff is pretty essential.

[Red Baron]

Nov 23, 2015 17:40:03 GMT -6 howandwhy99 said:

6. Wooden Ships & Iron Men

Have you used this in gameplay?

We're doing seaborne adventure right now.

[howandwhy99]

WS&IM is a relatively fast game system for ship movement and combat that can be used in OD&D. It can relatively easily be welded onto the naval rules in U&WA. I've used it in my OD&D games. I even used in a GaryCon adventure about 5 years ago.

Close Action may be more popular nowadays, but I believe it takes longer to play. Wooden Ships for most single ship scenarios lasts around an hour. (Or less if you and the players both get good at at. You at the rules, the players with the game).

[ffilz]

Hmm, for me:

1. 3 LBB
2. CSIO
4. Wilderlands of High Fantasy
5. Greyhawk supplement
6. Monster & Treasure Assortment
7. Gods, Demigods & Heroes supplement
8. Ready Ref Sheets
9. Eldritch Wizardry supplement
10. AD&D Monster Manual

Other things I might turn to: Dragon for Ranger, AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, AD&D Player's Handbook, Holmes Basic D&D, Gary Gygax's Extraordinary Book of Names, Dave's Mapper, Treasury of Archaic Names, Campaign Hexagon System, and the rest of my gaming stuff that is too voluminous to list...

Frank

[Zulgyan]

Mine would be:

1. 3 LBB
2. Supp I: Greyhawk
3. Ready Ref Sheets
4. Best of Dragon #1
5. Supp III: Eldritch Wizardry
6. Supp IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes
7. Supp II: Blackmoor
8. Philotomy's Musings
9. CSIO
10. Wilderlands of High Fantasy

[LouGoncey]

Nov 23, 2015 14:48:46 GMT -6 jdn2006 said:

1. Imagination
2. Creativity
3. Do-it-yourself.
4. Pencils.
5. Paper.
6. Dice.
7. People.
8. Place.
9. Time.
10. Fun.

This is it -- This is the trail that leads to MEGA GAMING FUN!

[geoffrey]

There are four items I habitually use when playing OD&D:

1. the 1974 rules (natch)
2. GREYHAWK (cherry-picked)
3. James Raggi's Random Esoteric Creature Generator (because standardized monsters are for AD&D)
4. Matt Finch's Eldritch Weirdness (because those spells scream "awesome and 1974")

[LouGoncey]

The only essential book really necessary is the LLBs (I use the single volume one.). Are the B series really necessary? I would love to see some guy come up out of the blue and say, "We were poor and had no TV, but we got a copy of the basic game and just made a bunch of crazy shirt up." And he wrote it all on paper, and your mind just went KABLUEY!

[LouGoncey]

Geoffrey, Raggi's book of creature randomization is the closet I have ever could To me saying, "Now, this is essential!" Thanks for bringing it up.

[Zulgyan]

Nov 25, 2015 17:57:09 GMT -6 Zulgyan said:

Mine would be:

1. 3 LBB
2. Supp I: Greyhawk
3. Ready Ref Sheets
4. Best of Dragon #1
5. Supp III: Eldritch Wizardry
6. Supp IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes
7. Supp II: Blackmoor
8. Philotomy's Musings
9. CSIO
10. Wilderlands of High Fantasy

11. JG Dungeoneer's Compendium

[bea]

I... feel young, all of a sudden!

Not sure my list qualifies because I've never played OD&D; only AD&D, retro-clones and OSR games. This is what I tend to use every session:

1. LotFP or LabLord
2. A small booklet DeBracy made called Ye Olde Shoppe Ye Small Booke of Shoppinge, containing price lists for all items from LabLord?
3. DIY dungeons, lately mostly of my own making.
4. Character sheets, notepads and pens.
5. A stamp that says "DECEASED", to mark the character sheets of the less fortunate adventurers. (Only bring this when I DM at the local quarterly OSR con, but I seldom DM in between)

Now and then I bring something else to the mix (for example I always carry Vornheim, Forgive Us [there is a random table for NPC/PC names there that tends to be used a lot] and Whitehack with me too, but I seldom use any of them).

I really feel that I need to make a short compendium with all the rules I use in table or shorthand format. Or make a good DM screen.