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