I'm a poor, broke kinda guy who usually uses his friends' books when needed. But recently I became the proud owner of two gift cards for Borders book store. There is no Borders or affiliate nearby, so I'm using them online.
Now, I have a very small game library, but I have decided to make Pathfinder my fantasy game of choice. This brings me to a conundrum on what book(s) to buy. (The gift cards aren't enough to buy many books - $50 total. I'm willing to pay a little over if something adds up to higher - in fact, I want to use all $50 - but not much beyond.)
I can't afford to buy an entire AP, so that's out. I'm running an AP (Rise of the Runelords) I borrowed from a friend, that just started, so I don't need any adventure sources anyhow. I don't think my group will get much use from the cards and maps. It's going to have to be a sourcebook.
I already bought the PDFs of the core rulebook and beastiary, and while having a paper version would be handy, having my laptop at the game table makes that less of a useful purchase. In other words, it can wait until I have a real job, after college. It also serves as an effective GM screen, so I don't need one of those.
So, out of the Pathfinder RPG and Pathfinder Chronicles products, I need to make a choice. Any advice? Keep in mind I'm running Rise of the Runelords, so something like the Cheliax or Andoran books won't be of much use until after this AP is done - which will probably take a while.
Right now, I'm leaning towards the Adventurer's Armory book coming out in April, or waiting for the new Campaign Setting when it comes out.
Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds
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The "Classic" books have some awesome stuff in them, and all of them have monsters that make appearances in RotRL. In particular, Classic Monsters Revisited has the goblin, bugbear, ogre and troll, all of which come into play (especially the goblins and ogres). With the background, flavor, and variant build ideas presented in there, I was able to completely engage my players, taking them away from the "standard" fare that they have been used to for the last three decades. They were freaked out by the goblins by the third encounter in the first book, and the ogres scared them to death. Especially the Degenerate builds I threw at them.
I poked through Classic Horrors the other day, and it has a section on hags, which also come into play in The Hook Mountain Massacre (and I wish I'd had access to it when I was running those encounters - the hag sorceress in there is phenominal).
Other than those and the AP books, the only thing I have made heavy use of was the RotRL Map Pack. I loved having the maps in front of me, and not having to flip back and forth in the book.
Beyond that, maybe the race books? Elves of Golarion and Dwarves of Golarion both have some really good player-focused fluff and crunch. Just gives you and your PCs some extra fun to play with.
Last, make sure to check the RotRL Messageboards. There is an incredible amount of good, and highly useful, information provided in those boards by DMs and players who have been running the path for the last two and a half years. They have done awesome work with maps, monster conversions, NPC ideas, adventure hooks, etc. and posted it all for us to use. Make heavy use of it. It's worth it.
Prices:
Classic series books - $17 to $20
Map Pack - $15
Race books - $10 to $12
Messageboards - FREE!
Hope that helps. Have fun!
Thanks! I will probably pass on the map pack, as it won't be of much use after I finish the AP (eventually) but the races and classics books likely will remain handy. And I have already well-perused the RotRL message boards. ;) My players found the goblin song mp3 to be quite funny and catchy. Buncha sickos. :D