An Incredible Resource, and a Must Have for GMs
Full Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book for review purposes. I will review it fairly.
This book is amazing. It is 339 pages long, with a few pages dedicated to fluff, cover pages, and multiple elaborate Table of Contents for various content. When I first read this, I'll admit that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. This book was everything I was expecting, and so much more. When I saw the number of pages I figured that there'd be more pages dedicated to fluff, OGL layouts, etc and only a moderate portion of content. I was very wrong. It's so much more than that. This is book is something every homebrew GM needs to have in their collection. Not only does it give you varied details on how to design a dungeon, it gives you subcategories on each of the designs. You don't just get dungeon layouts, you get the characteristics, the secrets within, the features, varied traps besides what you'd see in the core books, riddles, legends that go with the dungeons, smells, magical premises, extra dimensional portals, treasure hoards for all player levels, etc, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. If nothing else, if your players are the overly questioning type of what the walls look like, how high the ceiling is, what's on the ceiling, what direction is the wind coming from and what odors come with it, this book can definitely help out with that.
Being a relatively seasoned GM and having read a number of "dungeon crawls" over the years, as well as adventure paths and scenarios run with groups, I have to say that this book is a love letter to all the old school dungeons of yesteryear that I wish had come out a decade earlier. I can't help but think that if this had been released sooner that I would have gotten so much more out of the other dungeon crawls I'd read. While reading this I had nothing but ideas of my own design, and how I could change or improve on the upcoming games I'll be running with my players. For me that really means something as I'm not very good at coming up with anything of my own. I usually borrow maps and just replace the encounters, but keep the write-ups. With this, I can come up with something much more original.
This book will help you design practically any dungeon your mind can think up. From the very simple to the overly elaborate. For me, the real selling point is the riddles. I suck at coming up with those, and personally hate them when I come across them as I'm not one to think outside the box that well. That said, I know a lot of players who feel that it's not a true dungeon crawl until they meet a sphinx with three riddles loaded. For them, this book will satisfy their need to answer the unanswerable.
The bookmarks take you to every possible location you need to go, as well as the Table of Contents is linked to each subject. This alone is a major selling point for someone like me as I do not always have to go back and forth as I'm not one for memorizing where I wanted to go. While a couple of them are somewhat broken, I've talked with the author, and this is getting rectified.
Along with the different Table of Contents on varied subjects, there are also random tables for encounters, smells, sounds, chest contents, dressings and features, characteristics and appearance, and statues. Not only that, but there's subtables for things like portcullises, statues, entrances, chests, and other things you didn't know you needed. The wealth of information is in overabundance, and as a GM you will never know how grateful you will be of such things.
Finally, the treasure hoards. The thing your players entered the dungeon for in the first place. Not only is there a hoard for each CR level a PC might face, but it's also got 12 variations of what they could find in the treasure pile. It can be anything from a mixture of gold and jewels and no magical items in sight to only magic items with a small amount of gold to round it out.
Conclusion: Get this book! This handy guide is an absolute must for any GM. Whether you've done is a million times, or you're not that great at it, this book can always give you something that you didn't think you needed to add in.
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |