"Most Overpriced Rulebook That's Actually Good?" Topic

Is there a set of rules which you think are great, but the price just seems too much?

ASL rulebook. Then again I've purchased three of them over the years.

DBA 3.0

General Quarters III

Flames of War, hands down.
I happen to think it's a great GAME. YMMV.
The rules themself aren't badly expensive at all. In fact, BF has replaced the rules themself free every time they upgrade to a new version.
But it's the supplements that kill me.
You know, I know, and they know that I will rush right out to buy the Bulge compendium, even though I have all the booklets already. This despite the fact that I will need to pay the mortgage, and food and medicine and ammo.
Who knows? They might give the 28th ID something to do besides be a BORING fortified zone with its weird geometry.

And there is 1941 in the Pacific that I will have to buy books for. Who doesn't want to lead Philippine Scouts and Stuarts against the Japanese?
Just take my money directly from my checking account. I don't want to know how much it costs.

I'll second DBA 3.0. By today's standards (no glossy pics etc) it is pretty overpriced. But it is a very fun game.

By Fire and Sword is a thing of beauty.

Think of it of (at least) 2 books/supplements in one, btw, and it doesn't seem so pricey.

Probably Impetus for me. 48 pages for £25.00 GBP?

ASL.

With Impetus at least there is the option to buy it as a PDF, which I did. I could never quite justify paying the 25 UK pounds, plus shipping for the hard copy…

I had scorned it as overpriced for years- until a while ago, I wasn't aware it had gone PDF. I was recently lucky to find a (new) copy in a store for $20. USD I don't know why it was so cheap, but I snatched it up.

I would name a number of recent publications- relatively thin, stapled rulesets that are over $40. USD IMHO, that's a price point for much thicker and/or hardbound books.

man I could have made bank. I charge 12ish bucks for a hundred pages.

If it's good, is it really overpriced?

Does page count = price?

I need to add some sentences to my rules….

Charles S Grants Programmed Scenarios.

By Fire and Sword, beautiful, expensive and a rather good game.

SAGA Crescent and Cross.
It's a game I'd like to try but here is Australia it retails at about $80 USD/$90 (then factor the dice into the sum…).

gaslight had such a small print run it hit the market at the upper edge of affordability.

General Quarters3 costs too much for its shape / actual design cost, but is real good.

Fire and Sword costs a lot but the book is huge, truly magnificent, hard bound(!!!) very comparable to bookstores beautiful big books and also truly good. Very worth it. Of course they could have done it cheaper but well you have numerous pics of the chaps who made it in period dress and a lot, a lot of info.

The GASLIGHT Compendium is also available as a PDF. On Military Matters has the book back in print as a soft cover as well.

Yep, Fire and Sword is stuffed to the gills with info. Unlike another hardback rules I own… not saying anything about the rules content or it's quality, but in comparison wordcount by page and chapter is considerably higher in Fire and Sword.

It's basically a lot denser. Having 200+ pages in a rulebook may seem a lot, but this other rulebook (that will remain unnamed) has a lot less meat / text. The font size is huge, there are large splash pages for each chapter (just basically text on them, btw)

So… By Fire and Sword is worth every penny. I was initally a little wary getting them sight unseen for that price, but I don't regret it in the slightest.

I second SAGA Crescent and Cross

Original box set of Empire of the Petal Throne was great, but always way above my budget in the 70s!