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Modules, Settings, various miscellaneous GM/Ref books; core rules not included generally unless they do something really off the rails.  Mostly referring to old school D&D and its mutant offspring.

For me, I like generative tables of things. RaPL's "Guest" creator is one, and the alien weaponry from Carcosa is another. Seeing how the various components on these tables could interact makes my mind buzz with ideas, which is what's most useful to me for supplements.

What do you all most look for in these supplements?

I look for things that will save me some work, generally. I like lots of interesting characters that are fully fleshed out, some interesting plot hooks (maybe something a bit mysterious). And art. Good art is a plus.

Quote from: WrongOnTheInternet;904687What do you all most look for in these supplements?

These days? In no particular order:

- Originality. It doesn't have to feature entirely new concepts, mind you. Merely toying with old solutions, using them in clever, uncommon way would be good.
Tables, generators - I feel there are so many of them in the Internet already, not to mention I have my own library of stuff I wrote, that I'm neither actively seeking them, nor I'm especially interested in them. I'd rather look for something ZAK S wrote in either "Red, Pleasant Land" or "Vornheim", rather than "50 new system agnostic herbal recipes".

- Intuitive style of writing. I don't give a damn about how awesome ideas are there. If I don't understand it, have to consult translators and online wikipedia-like libraries every other sentence, to the trash it goes. Chuubooos something, something magical something", or Nobilis are such books.
I favor the style where fluff merges with rules, so it resembles reading a story, as presented in plenty of horror games.

- Nice design. As stupid and pretentious it might sound, I'm repelled by bad choice of fonts, awful imagery, etc, as presented by say, RIFTS, or plenty of Savage Worlds' sourcebooks - to the point that I'd rather have someone explain the game to me, rather than read it on my own. On the other hand, great looking books describing boring stuff are almost sure to land in a trash bin. Fragged Empires, or plenty Achtung! Cthulhu adventures are perfect example of it.

- Honesty. This is VERY important for me. I can't stand books written mainly for the purpose of getting money, what might be observed in PFRPG's ecosystem (especially in 3rd party's books), or when the game is supposed to be a vehicle for some propaganda (Chill 3rd).

That's it, more or less.

They need to be books, like the core rules. Not PDFs. They need to bring something to the core rules that were not covered at all by the core rules. Maybe it's a setting book that is made for the core rules? That's pretty much what I look for now.

I try to get books that will actually be useful at the tabletop.  My record on this is a bit spotty.

Reusabilty. I want stuff I'll use more than once.

I want things that will help me arrange the NPCs in relationships, and clarify what relationships are popular in this setting. It might be power structures, marriage customs, knightly orders and their relations with peasants, a single NPC with allies and enemies detailed, even ecological structures for wilderness beasts fit there:).

Quote from: JesterRaiin;904745- Honesty. This is VERY important for me. I can't stand books written mainly for the purpose of getting money, what might be observed in PFRPG's ecosystem (especially in 3rd party's books), or when the game is supposed to be a vehicle for some propaganda (Chill 3rd).

That's it, more or less.

Didn't know Chill 3e is about propaganda, care to share;)?

Quote from: AsenRG;904754Didn't know Chill 3e is about propaganda, care to share;)?

I must have missed that part while reading it.

A mid-long range campaign or linked scenarios that enables a thorough exploration of the particular system, setting and features of the game. I want a sensible plot which the rules of the game can enable and npcs that are living, breathing interesting antagonists and support characters; again, built using the game rules with no left field, plot enabling "cheats".

What this campaign then does is give me a solid understanding of what the pcs do in this game and provides a launch point for my own plots and schemes.

This would always be my initial want for a game/setting that was new to me. Other stuff can wait.

Something I can't quite do for myself, at least not easily.  A good dungeon map since mapping isn't my strong point, weird and baroque creatures, items, spells or situations, or rule subsystems I can't quite come up with myself.  However, products that are all inspiration but leave the details or rules to the reader to come up with are of little value to me.  D30 Sandbox Companion, Wilderness Alphabet and Narcosa all come to mind as things the OSR reviewed highly but didn't actually do anything for me.

But contra the above, I have run a couple of vanilla published modules that I probably could have duplicated in principle.  The key thing then is they need to save me time.  So that means easy to open up and run without too much time outlining and prepping, and plug-and-play in terms of being able to drop into a wider game.  So a book of lairs or a book of dungeons is something I actually can get some use out of.

what ever interests me and i can use more then once

I'm gonna steal Jester's categories 'cause they're interesting:

- Originality.
Well, I don't know.  There isn't much that's really original, but sometimes things are presented or combined in a fresh way that makes me take notice.
- Intuitive style of writing.
Yes! Mostly, for me, this means condensed and saying more with less.  I have limited time and get bored easily. Not everything needs to be explained in minute detail.  I just need enough to understand critical points and to inspire the imagination.  Excess verbiage buries the important bits, and excess description and explanation takes the imagination out of it.
- Nice design.
The older I get, the more this matters to me.  I won't bother reading tiny, crammed font.  I am a lot more likely to use something with a nice clean layout, clear font and plenty of inspiring art.  I think I am the same way with rules and systems.  I greatly appreciate rules that are simple and streamlined as long as they are effective.  I also like my art to be a little raw and unpolished leaving more to the imagination.
- Honesty.
It's pretty clear when an author is inspired rather than just doing a job.  It is nice when an author's voice comes through and you can catch the vibe and spirit of the work at hand.  Same goes for art.

Of course all of the above are just personal preferences.

Quote from: WrongOnTheInternet;904687Modules, Settings, various miscellaneous GM/Ref books; core rules not included generally unless they do something really off the rails.  Mostly referring to old school D&D and its mutant offspring.

For me, I like generative tables of things. RaPL's "Guest" creator is one, and the alien weaponry from Carcosa is another. Seeing how the various components on these tables could interact makes my mind buzz with ideas, which is what's most useful to me for supplements.

What do you all most look for in these supplements?

Utility.

Reusability.

I don't buy settings because I have yet to see one that doesn't suck.

Modules need to have stuff I can use again after they've been played. They still end up modified to suit my game, but they must have something I will reuse.

Supplements need to be more than "here are rules we didn't put in the rulebooks because we need to hold stuff in reserve to sell you more books." I like the original Traveller style.

Ideas.

I tend to use supplements as an ideas bank, picking things from the supplements as I need them. If I run scenarios then I will have to change them to adjust the power levels or to make them fit into my campaign, so I am not really bothered bout the stats or rules.

Background is useful for generating ideas and fleshing things out.

Infectious enthusiasm of the author.  Kevin Sembeida makes me want to game.  SK Reynolds makes me want to fall asleep.

Oops

I look for well-researched realistic rules for things I don't have rules for, or that can help me improve my rules for things. So things like _The Desert Environment_ - things that make good games out of situations like travel, climbing, weather, vehicles, spaceships, trade, crafting, tunneling, whatever.

I went on a buying spree of lots of stuff game-people say are great products to own. 90% of them are boring crap with no utility for me. I think the last supplement that came out that I actually used and continue to use is Vornheim. I've used every table in that book at least once. Which sucks because I've spent money on products I don't like, will never use, and probably won't even be able to pull anything useful out of. That's kind of aggravating. I could have used that money for steak or drugs or ribs.

So, I guess I look for stuff like that.

I like strange and non-cliche monsters.
I like spells with subtlety and long reaching effects.
I like mechanical things that make GMing easier and more fun.
I like system agnostic stuff.
I like softcover books with black and white art inside.

Quote from: everloss;905318I went on a buying spree of lots of stuff game-people say are great products to own. 90% of them are boring crap with no utility for me. I think the last supplement that came out that I actually used and continue to use is Vornheim.

Out of curiosity, what books have you bought that people say are great that are actually crap?  I generally can find use for most of the supplements I buy, even if that use is extremely indirect.

Quote from: WrongOnTheInternet;905552Out of curiosity, what books have you bought that people say are great that are actually crap?  I generally can find use for most of the supplements I buy, even if that use is extremely indirect.

GURPS supplements are routinely lauded.  Every one I have is so damn boring that my eyes bleed.

I want stuff that's innovative, but not in stupid ways. That can be immediately usable for my campaigns with little to no conversion necessary. And of course lots of random tables.