Collecting this stuff is getting harder and harder

[The1True]

You Yanks are going berzerk with your stimulus checques... I remember when used book stores were practically throwing this stuff away. I'm starting to think I should get a more serious insurance policy...

What's "The Jade Hare"? I've never scene that title before. Ditto for "Black Opal Eye"...
Anyone got any winners in their collection?

 

[Melan]

The TRV collectibles are usually utterly uninteresting as game supplements. Jade Hare is one disappointing RPGA module among a hundred, but incredibly valuable because it is "rare". Up the Garden Path is another disappointing RPGA module among a hundred, but incredibly valuable because it is "rare". Terrible Trouble at Tragidore is a third disappointing RPGA module among a hundred, and nobody gives a hoot because it is not "rare". Palace of the Silver Princess (orange) and tourney version Tsojconth/Tamoachan are the only ones that are worth anything.

I own one "super-rare", a playtest copy of Warlock I snagged on an auction for ten bucks plus shipping. It is trash.

Meanwhile, you can still buy a decent JG supplement or a Gamelord Thieves' Guild installment for money you will not regret, and these are actually good!

As for Noble Knight, their offerings tend to be overpriced. I haven't bought from them in a long time.

 

[The1True]

I own L3 Deep 'Dwarven Delve' and it is an extremely disappointing railroad. I believe Len Lakofka, who I'm a huge fan of, has disavowed having anything to do with this latter day reincarnation of his lost work however.

Agree, classic JG are all worth it (though the big names like Dark Tower, Thracia and Tegel aren't that cheap anymore...). Do you have any Thieves Guild recommendations?

 

[Melan]

Get the initial supplement first, which presents the basics (mine is three hole punched, but there were bound editions, I think). The modules all add extra guidelines and rules, and adventures. All I own are good; it is a relatively lower-powered, humanocentric variant of AD&D (lots of monster races running around, but high magical stuff is reasonably rare), and the materials are consistently well-written. I think I would have loved this setting/background guide if I got it when I was a kid, since it was doing the same thing we were doing unconsciously... but better. Janet Trautvetter's interior art is excellent, too; it has a slightly grubby human touch that is very close to how I imagine AD&D settings. It is definitely amateur art, but it is filled with life in a way TSR's usually isn't.

 

[EOTB]

Can vouch for the TG stuff. INT prereq necessary to convert to TSR mechanics is a soft 11, and usability factor is several orders of magnitude beyond most of what Bryce has reviewed in the past several years.

 

[The1True]

Cool. I will check it out!
I think I have mentioned that I used to play in a hybrid TG/Rolemaster campaign but I was left in the dark (deliberately I suspect) about the specific rules that were being used and given the Sword Law book to construct my character. And so began a lifelong hatred of the DM-as-God DM.

 

[Evard's Small Tentacle]

Heh. I think i have a good 60% of the adventure modules listed here (i used to blow my money on modules in the late 90s) that's sitting in my attic in boxes...off memory the most expensive item might be Egg of the Phoenix (it was super hard to get back then, and i got it in a bunch of modules someone was getting rid off). I might have more rare stuff, but have no idea about covers and printings and such.

 

[The1True]

Very cool. I'm curious if the Egg of the Phoenix on the list is referring to the I12 Mentzer/Jacquays collaboration or something else though?

 

[Malrex]

Looks like I would of made 30$ more going through Noble than ebay for Deities and Demigods w/ Cthulu, etc. I like the variable chaos of ebay though and usually hope a player actually gets their hand on things rather than a collector, but who knows.

 

[The1True]

EBay is great, but I keep getting screwed by dudes running a shipping scam. $20 for the module, $30 for international shipping :\

 

[Grützi]

Gotta Talk to venger about shipping and stuff. Dude has Premium experience with it

 

[EOTB]

Looks like I would of made 30$ more going through Noble than ebay for Deities and Demigods w/ Cthulu, etc. I like the variable chaos of ebay though and usually hope a player actually gets their hand on things rather than a collector, but who knows.

Noble pays very little when gamers sell their items to it (and really prefers to trade instead of paying cash to gamers for their items).

 

[Evard's Small Tentacle]

Very cool. I'm curious if the Egg of the Phoenix on the list is referring to the I12 Mentzer/Jacquays collaboration or something else though?

I believe that is what it is- it is a very odd module which i recall essentially trying to stitch together 3 (4?) adventures, and it had some off the wall stuff like slavery becoming prominent (but the slaves were actually zombies with illusions cast on them or something); the BBE was corrupting the good guys through the slaves, and the Egg of the Phoenix is a powerful artifact that one of the "NPC good guys" will steal for the BBE...there were a couple of silver dragons masquerading around who were protecting the egg or some such.

Maybe i will go back now and actually read the thing.

 

[Malrex]

I believe that is what it is- it is a very odd module which i recall essentially trying to stitch together 3 (4?) adventures, and it had some off the wall stuff like slavery becoming prominent (but the slaves were actually zombies with illusions cast on them or something); the BBE was corrupting the good guys through the slaves, and the Egg of the Phoenix is a powerful artifact that one of the "NPC good guys" will steal for the BBE...there were a couple of silver dragons masquerading around who were protecting the egg or some such.

Maybe i will go back now and actually read the thing.

My DM is running us through it right now actually. It has some decent ideas, but feels a little railroady to me...like you have to follow the storyline. We have the egg and heading towards Doc's Island...so not sure what's beyond that. Our group dynamic is a bit chaotic which makes the storyline/adventure tolerable to me, but we may be getting close to a TPK situation tonight...several died last week and the battle continues...

 

[The1True]

Is it possible I12 is a compilation of original Blackmoor adventures and that's what NK is offering big bucks for? I don't recall having to spend a lot for it and I purchased it fairly recently.
Strangely, some of the most valuable books I have are Planescape. There's a pretty dedicated fanbase keeping those books in demand.

 

[Evard's Small Tentacle]

My DM is running us through it right now actually. It has some decent ideas, but feels a little railroady to me...like you have to follow the storyline. We have the egg and heading towards Doc's Island...so not sure what's beyond that. Our group dynamic is a bit chaotic which makes the storyline/adventure tolerable to me, but we may be getting close to a TPK situation tonight...several died last week and the battle continues...

The module actually has "novella" components...

 

[Malrex]

The module actually has "novella" components...

Ahh..that makes sense as it feels like that is going on. I haven't read it so wouldn't know...but the few times that I did see the module from upside down--just saw text walls. Probably really need to read, re-read to run it properly, so I'm glad I can just kickback. Depending on what happens tonight and if most of the others die, my mage/thief may just try to runoff with the Egg and look for the highest bidder...heh.

 

[EOTB]

Is it possible I12 is a compilation of original Blackmoor adventures and that's what NK is offering big bucks for? I don't recall having to spend a lot for it and I purchased it fairly recently.
Strangely, some of the most valuable books I have are Planescape. There's a pretty dedicated fanbase keeping those books in demand.

I12 is a compilation of tourney adventures Menzer wrote that were previously only available for purchase to RPGA members in the early 80s. Jaquays was brought on board in 1987 (when Mentzer was on his way out) to stitch the mods together a la G1, G2, and G3 being stitched into G1-3.

It wasn't a big seller, and I don't think it was kept in print when 2E came out in '89. So probably expensive simply due to numerical scarcity.

 

[Evard's Small Tentacle]

Ahh..that makes sense as it feels like that is going on. I haven't read it so wouldn't know...but the few times that I did see the module from upside down--just saw text walls. Probably really need to read, re-read to run it properly, so I'm glad I can just kickback. Depending on what happens tonight and if most of the others die, my mage/thief may just try to runoff with the Egg and look for the highest bidder...heh.

Always the best reason to play thieves, or mage/thief...steal the lewtz and run away if things go south.

 

[The1True]

Always the best reason to play thieves, or mage/thief...steal the lewtz and run away if things go south.

Steal the lewtz and teleport away