Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Promotions/Press
DM's Guild Five-Star Freebies
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="zoroaster100" data-source="post: 6809132" data-attributes="member: 8538"><p>I have downloaded a bunch of products already from the DMs Guild, and paid at least something for most of them, but only have had a chance to really examine a few yet. I mostly bought monster stats, but also some expanded rules on alchemy, poisons, etc. and a few player options PDFs like the Gunslinger. Here are my thoughts on a few of the ones I've bought, read, but not yet used in my games:</p><p></p><p><strong>D&D Denizens: Goblins</strong> - 4 out of 5</p><p><strong>D&D Denizens: Orcs</strong> - 4 out of 5</p><p><strong>D&D Denizens: Drow and Driders</strong>- 4 out of 5</p><p><strong>D&D Citizens: Dwarves</strong>- 4 out of 5</p><p><strong>D&D Citizens: Elves</strong>- 4 out of 5</p><p>I'll review all of these together. They are all by Scott Holden, layout by Pauline Benney. I think the concept for these is great, at least for busy DMs like me who have little time to prepare and like using a variety of these basic monsters and NPCs in encounters. I read through the stat blocks and they seem fine at a glance, but I won't know if there are hidden problems or if the Challenge rating is accurate until I use them in play against my players in one of my games. I would tentatively give these five out of five stars for content (pending how they work in actual play), except for the layout. While the PDF looks nice and clean, the stat blocks are frustratingly difficult to read because the PDF has two columns and the stat blocks are not kept together so that they are often broken up between one column and the next or one page and the next, and it is easy to get confused in the middle of running a complex encounter and read the stats from the wrong goblin or orc, etc. in a combat. The layout requires I rate this four out of five stars, but I would still recommend these for DMs looking to spice up encounters with humanoids and demihumans which I think are among the most interesting encounters, along with humans.</p><p></p><p><strong>Monster Mausoleum</strong> by Stacy Janssen and David Noonan - <strong>5 out of 5 stars</strong></p><p>This one was a great buy. It has a wide variety of classic undead from various books from prior editions, updated to Fifth edition with a good execution of their essential powers that made their original versions terrifying in play. The stats look well put together at reading. I still have the same caveat that I have to use them in play before I really know if the Challenge ratings are accurate but just reading each entry made me really want to run each of these in my campaign. And unlike the products I rated above, the stat blocks are well laid out so each combat stat block is on its own page and easily identified. This is exactly the kind of monster PDF I'd like to see more of in the DMs Guild and will fill the need for more monsters for my games in the months to come.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="zoroaster100, post: 6809132, member: 8538"] I have downloaded a bunch of products already from the DMs Guild, and paid at least something for most of them, but only have had a chance to really examine a few yet. I mostly bought monster stats, but also some expanded rules on alchemy, poisons, etc. and a few player options PDFs like the Gunslinger. Here are my thoughts on a few of the ones I've bought, read, but not yet used in my games: [B]D&D Denizens: Goblins[/B] - 4 out of 5 [B]D&D Denizens: Orcs[/B] - 4 out of 5 [B]D&D Denizens: Drow and Driders[/B]- 4 out of 5 [B]D&D Citizens: Dwarves[/B]- 4 out of 5 [B]D&D Citizens: Elves[/B]- 4 out of 5 I'll review all of these together. They are all by Scott Holden, layout by Pauline Benney. I think the concept for these is great, at least for busy DMs like me who have little time to prepare and like using a variety of these basic monsters and NPCs in encounters. I read through the stat blocks and they seem fine at a glance, but I won't know if there are hidden problems or if the Challenge rating is accurate until I use them in play against my players in one of my games. I would tentatively give these five out of five stars for content (pending how they work in actual play), except for the layout. While the PDF looks nice and clean, the stat blocks are frustratingly difficult to read because the PDF has two columns and the stat blocks are not kept together so that they are often broken up between one column and the next or one page and the next, and it is easy to get confused in the middle of running a complex encounter and read the stats from the wrong goblin or orc, etc. in a combat. The layout requires I rate this four out of five stars, but I would still recommend these for DMs looking to spice up encounters with humanoids and demihumans which I think are among the most interesting encounters, along with humans. [B]Monster Mausoleum[/B] by Stacy Janssen and David Noonan - [B]5 out of 5 stars[/B] This one was a great buy. It has a wide variety of classic undead from various books from prior editions, updated to Fifth edition with a good execution of their essential powers that made their original versions terrifying in play. The stats look well put together at reading. I still have the same caveat that I have to use them in play before I really know if the Challenge ratings are accurate but just reading each entry made me really want to run each of these in my campaign. And unlike the products I rated above, the stat blocks are well laid out so each combat stat block is on its own page and easily identified. This is exactly the kind of monster PDF I'd like to see more of in the DMs Guild and will fill the need for more monsters for my games in the months to come. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Promotions/Press
DM's Guild Five-Star Freebies
Top