Dungeon Survival Guide

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I ordered this along with Practical Guide to Dragons and Practical Guide to Monsters. My 12 year old son will enjoy all of these.

I'd like to hear what he thinks of the Dungeon Survival Guide. I think the Practical Guides are great (although still not as good as DiTerlizzi's Field Guide), but this is just ... odd.

 

[takasi]

He's just starting to DM now. From the previews, I thought this might be a good way for him to look at all of the "classics" without wading through all of my boxes in the garage.

 

[Cincinnatus]

My local game store is *giving* these things away. Buy $75 worth of stuff and get this POS for free. I bought it anyway (I'm a completist for WotC stuff) and the owner mercifully gave it to me for $10. He said he would "feel dirty" charging me full price for it.

 

[Michael Dean]

I saw this at my local gamestore yesterday and had to laugh; the front and back cover is waaaay thicker than the actual pages. I'm just wondering, from a practical standpoint, who thought this was a good idea at Wizards? Forget the content, isn't there some minimum page length before going to hardcover is called for? The finished product had to make somebody embarassed when they finally got it in their hands.

I think the moral of the story for me is that I better wait until 4E comes out before I plunk down any more cash for Wizards' products.

 

[bento]

You all are judging this book against other RPG titles. It's not an RPG title, it's a children's book. It's published under the Mirrorstone imprint, which has also given us children book series like the Knights of the Silver Dragon, Dragonlance the New Adventures and Star Sisterz.

The book is aimed at children who read books like Wizardology and Dragonology. The price / page count for the "Ology" books are typically $15 for 40 pages. I'm sure WoTC has cross-merchandised it on the Wizards site for D&D parents who want to buy something for their kids to share their love for the game.

So, not every product is aimed at you. I plan to buy the book for my 7 year old son the next time we're at Walmart, where I'll find it in the Children's Book section as I've found the two previous books in the series.

 

[Cincinnatus]

It's really not, though. It's branded under the new 4th Edition "Dungeons and Dragons" logo unlike the other two Practical Guides. It's not mentioned on the Mirrorstone site, only the main D&D site.

It reads like it's written for kids, but it hasn't necessarily been marketed that way.

 

[GreatLemur]

I ordered this along with Practical Guide to Dragons and Practical Guide to Monsters. My 12 year old son will enjoy all of these.

That's more or less what I was thinking: Totally intended as a gift product.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The book is aimed at children who read books like Wizardology and Dragonology. The price / page count for the "Ology" books are typically $15 for 40 pages.

That's not the whole story, though, since the flat boring pages aren't the draw for the Ology books: It's the pop-ups, the pockets with STUFF in them, the goody in the bubble and all the other stuff.

 

[WhatGravitas]

It's really not, though. It's branded under the new 4th Edition "Dungeons and Dragons" logo unlike the other two Practical Guides. It's not mentioned on the Mirrorstone site, only the main D&D site.

It reads like it's written for kids, but it hasn't necessarily been marketed that way.

And the 'practical guides' have good artwort. This only uses recycled artwork. I thought of getting this as a 'coffee table' book, but after flipping through it... well, the book next to it, 'Dragons of Eberron', is rock solid!

Still, less than impressed, and it's awfully thin. And why is this a hardcover? The covers are thicker than the content.

I really hope that it's not indicator for the "Wizards Presents"-preview books. Ugh.

Cheers, LT.

 

[bento]

That's not the whole story, though, since the flat boring pages aren't the draw for the Ology books: It's the pop-ups, the pockets with STUFF in them, the goody in the bubble and all the other stuff.

True, but if you look at most kid's picture books in general, you're paying $12 to $20 for anywhere between 30 to 80 full color pages. Here's a ramdon sampling of popular full-color picture books that don't have as many tactile parts as the Ology series:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: 32 pages at $15.80
Make Way for Ducklings: 68 pages at $17.99
Caps for Sale: 48 pages at $16.99
Pyramid (DK Eyewitness Series): 72 pages at $15.99

It's really not, though. It's branded under the new 4th Edition "Dungeons and Dragons" logo unlike the other two Practical Guides. It's not mentioned on the Mirrorstone site, only the main D&D site.

It reads like it's written for kids, but it hasn't necessarily been marketed that way.

Maybe something happened (4E launch?) from the time it was given the green light by the Mirrorstone editor and when it was finally published. Amazon.com lists it as a Mirrorstone book.