291 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
291 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
=======================================================
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Results for Rating Form #3: Dungeon Master's References
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=======================================================
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Compiled by: brooks@odie.ee.wits.ac.za (Goth)
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==============
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Points Ratings
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==============
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In order for a product to appear on the points rating table, it must
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have at least five votes. Products are listed in points order, from
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highest to lowest.
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/-------------------------------------------------------\
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| - Key - |
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| Score = the product's average rating |
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| Low = the lowest rating anyone gave this product |
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| High = the highest rating anyone gave this product |
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| Voters = the number of people who rated the product |
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\-------------------------------------------------------/
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Product Score Low High Voters
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------- ----- --- ---- ------
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Monster Mythology (DMGR4) 6.5 2 10 34
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The Castle Guide (DMGR2) 6.4 3 10 31
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Arms and Equipment Guide (DMGR3) 6.2 2 10 34
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Campaign Sourcebook/Catacomb Guide (DMGR1) 6.0 0 10 31
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The Complete Book of Villains 5.8 2 9 23
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Creative Campaigning (DMGR5) 4.3 0 9 23
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========
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Comments
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========
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This next bit is a selection of comments people have sent in. I've
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removed some remarks which were very similar, especially for products
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which provoked large quantities of comment and I've done some minor
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editing for grammar and spelling. Other than that, this is how they
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were sent in.
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General Comment on the DM's References
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--------------------------------------
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I haven't used any of these, and have no intention of doing so. Let
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those with less than 10 years FRP experience buy them.
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The Castle Guide and the Arms and Equipment Guide are my favourite
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things from TSR.
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I really like most of the DMGR series.
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Recycled Dragon. All of this stuff is highly unessential. OK, but
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unnecessary.
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Campaign Sourcebook & Catacomb Guide (DMGR1)
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--------------------------------------------
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The sample dungeons are bland and unimaginative, but the hints on
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staging the game can be worthwhile.
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The Campaign book gives a lot of general info about designing
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campaigns, encouraging good role-playing, different campaign themes,
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and of course how to design dungeons that are more than just a hole
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in the ground. I found all of this info to be immensely useful for
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both enhancing adventures and also to help get the creative juices
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flowing. The only problem (if you could call it one :) was that there
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was *so* much info, it can be hard to remember the good stuff...
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I recommend this for all novice GMs.
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This is by far the best of this series. It's one of the few of TSR's
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leatherette handbooks that is actually really, really good. This book
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would be great for turning beginning DM's into journeymen. It seems
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to me that this book is like one huge Dragon Magazine article, but in
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my opinion, that's a good thing. We could, however, have done without
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the "empty dungeons", which are too abbreviated to be useful.
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No DM should start without this book. The best I ever bought from
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TSR.
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The Castle Guide (DMGR2)
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------------------------
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The Castle Guide was very useful, plus I got more than I expected
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after looking through it. Of course it goes into much detail about
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building castles, but it also goes into a lot of useful information
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about knighthood, life in a medieval castle and its surrounding
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village, and even how to have jousting and archery competitions.
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I give this manual high marks, with only a few negative comments. For
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one thing, some of the formulas used for computing the cost of
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building a castle and the time it takes were a little confusing (this
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coming from someone who has taken calculus for about 5 years now...).
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Plus I think it was unrealistic in assuming that everything from a
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simple hut to a multi-walled concentric castle has the same time base
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for construction. I think they should have added a few scaling
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factors to reflect upon the size of the project... According to the
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descriptions of the materials used to build a castle, a 10x15 section
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of wooden wall takes 2 man/years to build (if memory serves). [The
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construction time of a 10x15 section of wooden wall is actually
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listed as one man week, but the information on page 60 of the CG
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would indeed seem to suggest that the minimum time for building
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*anything* is half a year. Would anyone who has used these rules like
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to comment on this? - Goth]
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I had tons of fun with the Castle Guide... planning hideous things to
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happen to people who wanted to build castles. Only thing was, all 2nd
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Edition games I ran or played were low-level or Spelljammer.
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This book is useful for those who want to plot out an entire castle
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which is going to see some battle. Also, some of the notes on
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feudalism and taxation might be useful. But basically this is a book
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that you could live without.
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Arms and Equipment Guide (DMGR3)
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--------------------------------
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[This gets mentioned a couple of times below, so I thought I'd be a nice
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Goth and clarify the mistakes here. Several errors from the 1st print of
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the PHB are reprinted on pages 108-109 of the AaEG. The corrections are:
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Weapon sizes:
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- Composite long bow, L
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- Flight arrow, S
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- Sheaf arrow, S
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- Light quarrel, S
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- Light crossbow, M
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- Javelin, M
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- Short sword, S
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and the Club damage vs L is 1d6 (not 1d3). - Goth]
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The Arms and Equipment guide, although useful just to see what the
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weapons (or at least one particular version) looks like, doesn't
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contain _any_ new material. It's the only place (except for Oriental
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Adventures) where I've seen a picture of a mancatcher, but
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Palladium's various weapon books are much more useful, and contain
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_much_ more information. Even in the AD&D product line, "Aurora's
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Whole Realms Catalogue" (about the most useful supplement TSR has yet
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put out), although not about weaponry, is much more useful as a
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reference guide to equipment, or anything else that the PCs might
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conceivably want.
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I liked the Arms and Equipment Guide. It described well those
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millions of swords that were in the middle ages, and really helped
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designing different clothes to my characters. Also I like the partial
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AC system for horse barding.
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The Arms and Equipment Guide makes some of the same mistakes that
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were in the first printing of the 2nd Edition Player's Handbooks.
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DMRG3 is a decent supplement.
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Get the Palladium product instead. It's got tons more detail, and has
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weapons from all cultures.
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Ummm... Why is the mace not included in the "complete" weapon list?
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Arms and Equipment is great! It should have been included in the
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Player's Handbook. I would like to see more info and less fluff
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though.
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This is not a particularly useful book. The armor section is useless
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except for the describtion of banded and splint mails, which should
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have just been included in the PH. The only good aspect for the
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weapon section is the re-introduction of the broad sword, and the
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clothing decriptions could just as easily be looked up in
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Merriam-Webster. Campaigns can live without this one. Also, I would
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like to comment that this book, and portions of the Castle guide,
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tend to stifle novice DM's by implying that no one should run a
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campaign that resembles anything but pre-renaissance England with a
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few Monstrous Compendium denizens bounding around Sherwood Forest.
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The Arms and Equipment guide would have been a 10 had it not been so
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screwy in such silly things, they did mistakes like say that L. xbow
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is size S and the quarrel for it is size M. The armour doesn't have
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the prices. The weapons in the CFHB weren't included, at least not
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all of them.
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Of these books, only the Arms and Equipment guide is really worth
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owning, IMHO. Nevertheless, Aurora's Whole Realms catalog and the
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Complete Fighter's Handbook almost makes the Arms and Equipment guide
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superfluous.
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Good artwork, nice stories to liven it up, and an exellent addition
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for the non-historian. It could have been incorporated in PHB,
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though!
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Non-essential, but for anyone who needs to know that much about the
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various pieces of equipment, it's a good reference. Sometimes the
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detail comes in handy. The clothing section can add flavor to a
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character or NPC.
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I liked the Arms and Equipment guide simply because I enjoyed the
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historical infomation provided regarding the various weapons. It was
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not very helpful within the actual game.
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Monster Mythology (DMGR4)
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-------------------------
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The Monster Mythology is a good expansion to Legends & Lore but
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corresponds badly to the Priest's Handbook.
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Pointless, and contradicts several other sourcebooks. If a race is
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popular enough to demand its own sourcebook, then let its gods be
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detailed there. Also, when PC races' gods vary from campaign world to
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campaign world, how can a book of gods be generic, even if it is
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mostly for monster races?
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I love this book! I bought it 'cause the dwarves handbook had no
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dwarf gods, and was pleasantly surprised to see the pantheons of all
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the major non-human deities. And not just the PC races. Some great
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stuff here for campaign building, and fleshing out boring orc
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colonies. =)
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DMGR4 is not worth the money unless you really want to expand
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non-human gods.
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I don't like the idea of generic priests and that is why I need
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plenty of gods. This book provides perfect mixture of gods for every
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important non-human race I am using. I have found (maybe thanks to my
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rather bad English) no serious mistakes. Underlined and summarized --
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the book is really O.K.
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This is a good, solid supplement, and many of the priesthoods are
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well thought out. TSR made the gaming populace wait too long for
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demihuman specialist priests, and a few priests can help give
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humanoids some teeth against higher-level characters. I'm pleased
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with the re-introduction of some of the Demon Princes (and aren't
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Sess'inek and Panzuriel both new?). However, I don't think that
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_every _ monster species needs its own god/gods, and introducing a
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deity without a priesthood simply infuriates me. There is a good
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volume of information here, but like Legends and Lore, one DM can
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probably use only about 10% of it. And where's Orcus?
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Monster Mythology is a very comprehensive book: lots of information
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that I have found useful in creating NPC non-human priests. One
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problem is that these deities seem to "cross over" between the
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Forgotten Realms, Oerth, and others. Another problem is the lack of
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illustrations (it's not a very colorful book). Otherwise, I'd say its
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a good buy if you run a lot of NPC non-human priests or want to
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design a non-human temple around a specific deity.
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Finally a summary of rules for non-PC, priests, spheres and all.
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Imagine running into a shaman Kobold! Oooh, I like it!
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This book should have been included with Legends & Lore, but since
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it's not, it should be in your library. It's still too bad that the
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lower planes greater powers from the first edition were mostly
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removed. (i.e., demons and devils) They were a good source of deities
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for monsters. (I still keep my first edition MM, MM2, & FF around)
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Creative Campaigning (DMGR5)
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----------------------------
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Two parts in three of this book are useless, but I did like the
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section on freestyle gaming (I REALLY liked the section on freestyle
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gaming). The sample worlds, and sample adventures (illustrating
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structure) that they give you are so much waste paper.
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I am afraid the book has got wrong name -- Creative ha, ha, ha, may
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be Campaigning, but only a little.
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This useless book is just the perfect waste of a good $18 (plus tax).
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It seems too confusing for novice DM's and just about any journeyman
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DM could think up better ideas than this. Two long chapters are
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basically advertisements, one where the authors plug the historical
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references, and one "The Grand Tour" just hawks TSR's campaign
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worlds. TSR should be _ashamed_ for printing this one.
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Creative Campaigning had a few interesting ideas, but most of it was
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pretty lame.
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The Complete Book of Villains
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-----------------------------
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The Villains book is not too bad; it emphasises uniqueness and
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characterization of antagonists over heavy firepower, and gives
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examples of non-evil enemies.
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The Complete Book of Villains does an excellent job on what it covers
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but I think it's a little on the narrow side in that a DMG reference
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IMO should cover a wider scope of things, a book covering more
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recurring problems like monsters or even natural phenomena, instead
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of concentrating on single individuals. What it covers, it covers
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well.
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This one's pretty good, but it's nothing special. They should have
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left out the generic sample villains and the random tables, and spent
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more time on telling you how to customize villains.
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The Complete Book of Villains was good, however its application seems
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limited. I would never go to all the trouble it suggests to create my
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villain. But if you've got a lot of extra time on your hands... why
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not?
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=======
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The End
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=======
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