Any experts know which of that stuff is worth buying for investment/resale purposes?

Thanks!

The majority of the stuff has been on sale in one form or another for quite some time, off and on. Dark Druids will most likely never see another release by the Trolls, and the Codex of Erde is being remade into something else, but there are dedicated C&C players looking to get them until that happens -- if the leatherettes were the most recent print (they're one or two behind) then they could be worth getting. But, essentially... all of this is stuff the Trolls have been trying to clear out for 3+ years. I doubt it has re-sale value unless you find someone who has none of it and is looking to get a lump collection.

Of course, that has nothing against the quality of the works, but that is subjective.

I merely posted the news about the sale in case anybody was looking to fill a few holes in their collection.
I still have a problem reconciling why TLG pumped out so many modules before they have released their Castle Keepers Guide.

astenon wrote:Any experts know which of that stuff is worth buying for investment/resale purposes?

Thanks!

I have some of the items in question.  

The various Kublai Khan modules might be collectible...although not as playable modules IMO.

The Codex of Erde is not bad but not collectible at the moment.  Give it a decade or so.  It has been on sale literally for years.

The various C&C modules are not bad values at $5 but my inclination is to hold out for $1 each.  (Which is what their D20 modules went down to.) That's what they're worth for at least a few years.  These items have been on sale for a long time at these prices.  

In spite of some ardent supporters I cannot see C&C surviving for much longer.  I hope I'm wrong, actually.  

I think Troll Lord Games had a good run with their D20 modules, and for a time they had the big opportunities.  

The Lost City of Gaxmoor was one of the best D20 modules and it is often still available for cheap.

I think Dark Druids is worth your time.

Hall of Many Panes, for Lejendary Adventures, is often on Ebay for less than $10 and it is a thick boxed set by Gary Gygax.

The Yggsburgh publications are worth hunting down.  I also like the map supplements to City of Yggsburgh, except (as I have ranted before) the frickin' maps should have been in the hardback book in the first place.

Poor shipping practices and poor quality control hindered Castle Zagyg:  The Upper Works (for C&C) but even the pre-destroyed copies they sent out are likely to grow in value even more than their current inflated price.

Castle Zagyg: Dark Chateau is currently selling for insane prices.  (And a glance at my shelf reveals that my copy is not there...where the hell is it?   )

The various Gary Gygax Worldbuilder series books, such as The Canting Crew are all collectible.

What you will note is that these publications are not on the list of items for sale.  Troll Lord Games lost the rights to the Gygax publications and they jettisoned D20 for a grab at C&C.  

Troll Lord Games has sold adventures for four different systems, starting with their own Sword and Sorcery, D20, Lejendary Adventures and Castles and Crusades.  The earliest versions of their After Winter Dark line of publications were for Sword and Sorcery.

There has been a ray of hope for Troll Lord Games with James Ward writing new materials and attempts to keep pushing C&C items.  They are still an active company.

James Ward's series of fantasy tower modules might do a lot better on RPGNow but they suffer from one of the worst listings I have ever seen.  It is difficult to see what you're getting and there are two $1 modules and a $10+ module for sale with virtually the same name...and no text to explain.  It almost seems like they're being vague on purpose because they know the quality of their product.  (Here's a clue:  Words in English telling us clearly what we are getting rather than literally a blank page with a title and a price.)

I'm hoping they survive.

I really do wonder what some of these people are thinking when they set a price on a used book.  On Amazon:

$999.99 for East Mark Gazetteer
$988.88 for Dark Chateau

serleran wrote:
If I did not partially agree, I would be offended, being one of those "non-talented" authors. It is easy to write rules. It is not easy to make them interesting.

I would not agree that the Troll Lord Games modules are not interesting or that their writers are not talented.  That's a pretty harsh judgement.

If it had been written in a different era, Lost City of Gaxmoor would be a classic...a Dark Tower sort of publication.  There are really a number of good things to say about that product.

The modules written for the After Winter Dark setting, such as Vakhund and its two brother modules, would have profited from being issued as a single module.  One of them actually has a battle in it, but overall there is not enough adventure for three modules.  (Maps!  Maps!)

I really liked Dark Druids.

If you read back (somehow) on my posts you'll find my review of Yggsburgh where I loved the product (maps!   ) but mourned the failure of the overall project in advance as doomed to failure because of its price and schedule.

I think Troll Lord Games left the D20 ship too early.  Now, they should consider allying with Paizo and supporting Pathfinder.  I do not believe that Castles and Crusades is viable.  

Pathfinder is the logical heir of 3rd Edition D&D...and WOTC helped make it happen by abandoning Dungeon and Dragon magazines to the ether, leaving Paizo with their hardcore customer list...an angry list.

Mind you...this has nothing to do with the relative merits of Pathfinder or Castles and Crusades.  I just think the market favors Paizo.

I'll be cheering for Troll Lord Games to survive.

(And I bought a couple of inexpensive Towers of Adventure PDF publications just the other day.  My main response is...mystification.  There's almost literally nothing there.  One is left wondering if the PDF file was corrupted in some way.  Certainly, there is nothing to indicate I should buy the more expensive product of the same name.  

I saw that James Ward was interviewed in Troll Lords' house magazine about the Towers of Adventure products.  I wondered, "What the hell did he talk about?"  It would be like discussing thin air as a building material or the color of clear.    I must have missed something.)

FormCritic wrote:In spite of some ardent supporters I cannot see C&C surviving for much longer.  I hope I'm wrong, actually.  

Not that it's a new one since the same thing has been said by others since before the game was released, but what made you come to this conclusion?

I hope you're wrong too.

and the writing is not sufficiently unique and talented to make collectable by virtue of the author's ability.

I just wanted to point out that mbassoc2003 is not saying here that the authors are untalented. He is saying they are not talented enough to make a product collectible. I dare say that is true of 99% if all gaming authors out there!

FormCritic wrote:1)  All the others have failed.

2)  Troll Lord Games itself seems to be in disarray.

3)  Pathfinder.

Define failure. Better yet, tell us what games you are thinking of, since this statement is incomplete. It does not tell us which games have failed, and it's also inaccurate since it assumes that all other games have failed, which is patently untrue. Unless of course you're thinking that Pathfinder is the "one true game", since you mention it as reason three that Castles & Crusades will not survive.