I'm a huge NFL fan and I'm over on NFL.com a lot just checking out the latest football news. Not all the other nonsense around it. Recently they had the most overrated and most underrated players of each team listed. So I thought I would parlay that into Friday question here.
What gaming product do you think is the most underrated? And what gaming product do you think is most overrated?
For me the underrated product will be the Citybooks by Flying Buffalo. They have always been a favorite of mine since they first printed them. I guess I find them very useful in several ways. I can plug in one of those shops and have three adventures at the ready.
Overrated? Hmm. I'll have to think on that one a bit.
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I have to agree with Citybooks being underrated. However, I think that the "Portals" series from Judges Guild also deserves a lot more credit than it is given. It was greatly overshadowed by the "Wilderlands" series.
ReplyDeleteMost underrated is tough to say, but I do think the Complete books for 2nd edition are unfairly maligned (at least the ones for the basic classes). I can think of several I feel are overrated, too, but tastes differ.
ReplyDeleteOverrated: 4E
ReplyDeleteUnderrated: World Builder's Guidebook for 2E
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0786904348
I used this book as a basis for an Excel sheet that, when you press F9, would generate the bare bones of a complete world.
Tom! Sharing the spreadsheet? Purty please?
DeleteIf I can get it to work again. Apparently there is a setting in Excel 97 that allows it to work. I just need to figure out how to set it at my house (this was created a few years ago during downtime at an old day-job). :)
DeleteI concur on the Citybooks. If you combine them with the Midkemia cities (Tulan of the Isles, Jonril, and Carse) or Gamelords' Haven, you have very nicely detailed cities.
ReplyDeleteDude...there are more gaming products than NFL players. It's a totally unfair question unless you narrow it down to categories (like "OSR" or "pre-1990" or "sci-fi," etc.).
ReplyDeleteNow if you wanted to talk over-rated and under-rated game DESIGNERS, I could probably get on board.
; )
The most overrated gaming product, line and legacy for me is definitely Shadowrun. All of it (pre-4th Edition, I haven't suffered that one yet). Awkward rules and a crappy mish-mash of cyberpunk + fantasy that has always failed to impress me. Yet it's still going. It had video games and so on too!
ReplyDeleteUnderrated? I'll have to think about that one...