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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MadTinkerer" data-source="post: 2009686" data-attributes="member: 1883">[EDIT: This is the last time I'm editing this review. The first time I wrote it, I was a little cranky and every time I edited it, I was up too late. Well I'm editing it one last time to get it right.]Ahhhh... d20 Modern. It's not often that a game of any kind exceeds my expectations after getting my hopes up so high. This is a really sweet book.I'm not going to go into it's contents too much. Paragon Badger did a pretty good summary of what's in the books, even if he made a few minor errors (The Allegiance system IS Alignment but without any kind of restriction.). Instead, I'm going to tell you what I really liked (Good), what bugged me (Bad) and how much errata Wizards will need to put out (Ugly).Good: Raving Flaven, there's so much good stuff about this book. The Skills and Feats are beyond compare: the BEST bunch of skills EVER created for a Modern-day RPG and the best bunch of Feats ever seen in a d20 book. In spite of a few nit-picks the Basic Classes are great and the Advanced Classes are good.All of the "basic"(Action Movie sans visual effects) Advanced Classes are great, although I'm a little disappointed that while a Strong Hero with the Brawl Feats is a good option, Martial Artist A.C. renders the Brawl Feats less useful by virtue of the Living Weapon Class Features. Otherwise, all of them are excellent.The Mage in the Urban Arcana Campaign Model(optional campaign template) is really neat: to compensate for having the same spell progression as a Wizard 3 levels later, Mages get 7(!) skill points per level and Class Features that emulate Craft Item & Metamagic feats at a faster rate than Wizards gain Bonus Feats AND d20 Modern Bonus Feats on top of that. The other "FX" Advanced Classes are similarly neat, especially the "Don't raed from the book!" Occultist.The Gamemastering section is good, it reminded me of the Alternity Gamemaster Guide, but without the fluff. The guidelines for determining CR and EL is really nice, going way beyond the D&D DMG.I love these Iconic Characters! Unlike the D&D PH Iconics which were merely okay and easily forgettable, these guys really stick out in your mind and make you want to be them. If only they would actually settle down and decide what character concept they want to be(see below). I also love the iconic villain (who only appears once on page 210, but that's enough) and the monster illustrations. The Vampire Clown, for example, is very reminiscent of Stephen King's "It". The new monsters are also pretty good: the Puppeteer reminded me of the Goa'uld from Stargate SG-1 and the Tooth Fairy is a very X Files version of the famous fey (although perhaps not as useful as the other monsters).Bad: There aren't enough Talents. It's pretty close to satisfying me, but I really think there should have been a few more talents added, especially for the Fast Hero(only 2 talent trees and no chance to improve initiative via talent?) and Smart Hero.[EDIT: Quick note here: I did get used to the problems detailed in the next two paragraphs eventually, but it really was as confusing and distracting as I described at first. As such, I'm leaving them in, even though it seems a bit petty now.]Some of the illustrations seem out of place or at odds with each other. I know that unlike the D&D iconics, these guys have several "alternate" versions of themselves (parallel universes?) depending on the campaign, but in a few pictures, it's actually hard to tell which Iconic you're looking at because the short-haired Martial Artist(Roxanne) suddenly has long frizzy hair and is sitting on a motorbike wielding two shotguns or the mild mannered Field Medic(Elliot) is suddenly holding a cross and holding onto the back of a black sedan for dear life as a skeleton is driving wildly (Lily is supposed to be the iconic Acolyte, though I suppose Elliot could also be an Acolyte in an Urban Arcana campaign). Another specific complaint about Roxanne's depictions is that Battle Mind Roxanne on page 306 and 50 is dressed differently and has completely different hair and makeup than Martial Artist Roxanne on page 167, which is fine, but on page 299 she is  using a psionic power BUT LOOKS LIKE MARTIAL ARTIST ROXANNE! And what is up with Roxanne's skin on pages 128 and 216? Was she supposed to be the iconic vampire at one point?  Having one or two alternates for EACH iconic would have been sufficient, but having 3 or more for some, PLUS the inconsistencies is frankly disorienting. Sometimes even when the caption tells you the name of the character, I found myself flipping to the Advanced Classes section to check which Basic Class the iconic was supposed to represent. ("Oh... Stephanie the *Tough* Hero...") It would have been easier if the illustrations for the basic classes included both iconics of that class. At least Wizards provided the "desktop wallpaper"(really a reference guide to what the iconics look like). By the way, this isn't true for every iconic: Moondog and Troy are always instantly recognizable. Ugly: Not much, but I did notice that the Fast Hero's Defense progression is messed up. In the Mecha Crusade mini-game in Polyhedron the Wing Commander's Reputation jumps from +3 to +34. Maybe there's a nest of gremlins in the Wizards editing room?The Martial Artist was a little confusing with regards to the Brawl Feat, but the official boards has cleared this up. Another nit-pick: As also pointed out on the boards, the Ignore Hardness Talent Tree is just plain wrong. Maybe there's a nest of gremlins in one of the Wizards editing rooms.That's about it. It really is worth 5 out of 5 in spite of my nitpicking in this review. Currently I'm running a "scooby" or investigative adventure. I'm hoping to finish it up soon so that we can start a Mecha Crusade campaign. I love d20 Modern.</blockquote>

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