might be kind of a silly topic but what is your favorite rulebook,

The current edition of L5R books are gorgeous. Too bad their binding is so terrible.

Labyrinth Lord's are one of my favorite, information is formatted compact and nicely.

>>44195921
Earthdawn first edition. The game has issues, and nobody I know is actually willing to play Earthdawn, and I wouldn't be playing 1st edition anyway, but from a pure book perspective it's great. It's from an era when books had to be tight, before cheap printing and sizzle before steak led to massive book bloat. The art is solid, the concepts are well-expressed, it's a shame I don't get more use out of it.

>>44195921
Does it have to be a rulebook or can be be complete fluff? If fluff is allowed I think the Guide to Glorantha (kind of cheating because two volumes).

If only rulebooks I'd have to take a look at what I have (counting only physical books I have), but gut reaction is DCC.

>>44196469
fluff is fine as long as it's not a straight up book. anything world building related is cool.

DCC RPG is my favorite. Big book filled with old school art. Just reading the spells is fun.

>>44195921
The Hackmaster 5e monster manual.

It's a shame the game is so shit.

I was going to say either this >>44196210 or Unknown Armies.

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>>44196729
>>44196469
My nigga.

The hugeness of it for the cost of a normal book, at least where I live, and the appendices make it great too. Recapturing the tone of oldschool games is best accomplished by actually telling people what it was and how they can get into the mindset, rather than trying to replicate obscure rules.

Really dig the infinity N3 rulebook even though I haven't even played a game in 3 months. It's so less bad weeaboo than the previous books.

Mouseguard is also pretty in my shelf

>>44195921
Hey! I wanted to post a thread similar to this, actually.

Regardless of how good the game or content is, what are some really well written rpg books?

Bestiary is always the best book.

Probably the WotC reprint of the 2e Monstrous Manual. It's a very nice looking book that's a total delight to read.

>>44195921
Tie between 4e BHB1 and MM3... actually, with just those two books, and some hefty refluff, you can quite a robust campaign.

>>44195921
>Be silly topic

OP, this may be one of three decent threads on /tg/ right now.

I have a hardcopy of an RPG set in the city of Cadwallon, that looks spectacular, but the game itself is very lack luster.

>>44198641
Isn't that the same thing?

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Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords is my favourite because it added exactly the kind of flavour to D&D that I've always wanted, but had to go to other systems to find. The swordsage introduced an archetype that I didn't know I always wanted, and I loved the elegant simplicity of maneuvers and how even though they just amounted to "fighter spells" they made martials competitive in combat.

What I also love about Bo9S was how angry it made people. I loved drinking the tears of the westaboos who said it was too anime, or the idiots who kneejerked so hard they busted their computer desk and complained that it was too powerful. Those were some of the saltiest and most delicious tears I ever drank, and only made more delicious when people would bring up HEMA and the elaborate names and complex systems of stances and maneuvers that those European fighting styles had.

>>44200140
If 4chan had a 'like' button, I would mash it so hard for this post.

The special edition rereleases of AD&D 2nd edition. Lots of nostaligia about them for me, and they look nice as heck

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Purely out of nostalgia, the AD&D PHB. It was the first rulebook young myself ever owned. The cover basically laid out the tone I imagined for my fantasy game, too.

>FUCK DOORS I'VE GOT AN AXE AND A HELMET LET'S LOOT STUFF

>>44201475
>FUCK DOORS I'VE GOT AN AXE AND HELMET LET'S LOOT STUFF

This may be the name of an excellent new homebrew game...

>>44199383
Essentially, but aI was going to ask about text and layout exclusively, not art or tone.

Magic of Incarnum for D&D 3rd edition.

It was one of the least broken magic tomes made, it had really unique gameplay options, and it was pretty awesome all in all.

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>>44195921
>Doesn't have to be a good system just one you love having. can be because of the way it looks on the shelf, page formatting or whatever reason.

There is literally no better looking rulebook than Burning Wheel

>>44195921
Degenesis rebirth edition. Damn it is a nice book.

WFRP 1st Edition that art was sick and the fluff was pretty damn cool, also that starting adventure was great at well

Paragon Universal RPG, Core Rules.
Mostly because my name is in it under the playtesters section. I just hate that the only way to get them was through Lulu, and they fucked up the binding of the full-color edition something awful, so it fell apart after a month of light use.

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>>44200192
>a like button

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>>44195921
Mage the Awakening is a gorgeous looking book.

>TFW I'll never be able to legitimately play it because "THERE'S D&D & PATHFINDER INSTEAD"

>>44200140
I just loved it because it finally made making a character based entirely around chucking his opponents around like ragdolls a viable build in a game notorious for it's stupidly huge amount of nonviable builds

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This. Or maybe Thaumathology. But probably Low Tech of the sheer amount of interesting information.

>>44195921
V20 Mage .pdf is fantastic. Full of some truly SJW shit but also extremely convenient to reference and has a fuck ton of material on how to run alternatives to the 'default' setting. Artwork is pretty good too.