Some love for the Judges Guild...
Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 12:51 am
Well, after about 20 years, I finally picked up some of the classic Judges Guild material. To be more precise, I tracked down and ordered some stuff which came in today.
I had only first heard about the Wilderlands only a couple of years back which would have been shortly after I started with C&C. From there, I was fortunate enough to grab the Player's Guide to the Wilderlands published by Necromancer Games at a very good price and locked on to James offerings through AGP.
The feel for the setting is something I have really been enjoying as well as the style of the material produced. Old School all the way! However, despite having many classic AD&D books and adventures, I have found that I had a gaping hole in terms of what I had compared to what I lacked with some of the Judges Guild material. Add to this the uncertainty (at least a what was a couple weeks ago) regarding the future of these products and AGP, I decided to look up and get some of the older products.
Despite the offerings of Necromancer Games as well as those by Goodman Games, I decided to avoid the 3.x incarnations and go for the truly original stuff. I didn't necessarily want to spend much of a fortune either so I decided to be selective. I tried to stay away from material that was using the Judge's Guild Universal System and I was mostly looking at adventure modules.
I was able to pick up:
- Citadel of Fire
- The Illheidrin Book
- The Caverns of Thracia
- The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor
- Skulls & Scrapfaggot Green
- F'dech Fo's Tomb
The last one was using the Universal System but just looked too cool. Obviously I'd love to get the Dark Tower, Tegel Manor, and a few other things but some of the prices for those items are a bit much from what I've seen. The Caverns of Thracia was the most expensive of the lot but still cheaper than the 3.x version put out by Necromancer Games. I point this out simply because I had considered getting the 3.x remakes but decided to go for the older versions instead. Owning a few pieces of history and all that is just cool.
Having not owned this kind of material before (and only seeing a couple of PDF versions of this sort of material), I have to confess at being a bit disappointed at the lack of a stiff cardboard cover which were standard with the TSR offerings. Many of them use the same paper stock for their covers as they do for their contents. This is only a problem for fear of causing additional or undo damage to them. I've decided to keep them in plastic to help maintain the condition of the modules because of this. However, I do understand why they were probably published in this manner and... it is a VERY small price to pay. These are just great!
I'll most likely continue and pick up the occasional thing here or there though I'm not going to go crazy over collecting either.
Just thought I'd share!
M
_________________
"You face Death itself in the form of... 1d4 Tarrasques!"
Partner to Brave Halfling Publishing
http://www.arcanacreations.com
I had only first heard about the Wilderlands only a couple of years back which would have been shortly after I started with C&C. From there, I was fortunate enough to grab the Player's Guide to the Wilderlands published by Necromancer Games at a very good price and locked on to James offerings through AGP.
The feel for the setting is something I have really been enjoying as well as the style of the material produced. Old School all the way! However, despite having many classic AD&D books and adventures, I have found that I had a gaping hole in terms of what I had compared to what I lacked with some of the Judges Guild material. Add to this the uncertainty (at least a what was a couple weeks ago) regarding the future of these products and AGP, I decided to look up and get some of the older products.
Despite the offerings of Necromancer Games as well as those by Goodman Games, I decided to avoid the 3.x incarnations and go for the truly original stuff. I didn't necessarily want to spend much of a fortune either so I decided to be selective. I tried to stay away from material that was using the Judge's Guild Universal System and I was mostly looking at adventure modules.
I was able to pick up:
- Citadel of Fire
- The Illheidrin Book
- The Caverns of Thracia
- The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor
- Skulls & Scrapfaggot Green
- F'dech Fo's Tomb
The last one was using the Universal System but just looked too cool. Obviously I'd love to get the Dark Tower, Tegel Manor, and a few other things but some of the prices for those items are a bit much from what I've seen. The Caverns of Thracia was the most expensive of the lot but still cheaper than the 3.x version put out by Necromancer Games. I point this out simply because I had considered getting the 3.x remakes but decided to go for the older versions instead. Owning a few pieces of history and all that is just cool.
Having not owned this kind of material before (and only seeing a couple of PDF versions of this sort of material), I have to confess at being a bit disappointed at the lack of a stiff cardboard cover which were standard with the TSR offerings. Many of them use the same paper stock for their covers as they do for their contents. This is only a problem for fear of causing additional or undo damage to them. I've decided to keep them in plastic to help maintain the condition of the modules because of this. However, I do understand why they were probably published in this manner and... it is a VERY small price to pay. These are just great!
I'll most likely continue and pick up the occasional thing here or there though I'm not going to go crazy over collecting either.
Just thought I'd share!
M
_________________
"You face Death itself in the form of... 1d4 Tarrasques!"
Partner to Brave Halfling Publishing
http://www.arcanacreations.com