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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="Doomsdaisy" data-source="post: 2008201" data-attributes="member: 36">For anyone who is new to D&D 3e or Forgotten Realms, the FR campaign setting can be a great buy or a terrible waste of your money.  It all depends on your style of play, and preferences.The Forgotten Realms is quite possibly the most detailed campaign world ever created.  In 2e, dozens of sourcebooks, modules, boxed sets, etc. were published along with a raft of novels.  Unfortunately, in the last days of TSR, the quality of these materials was by no means consistent, especially the novels which suffered the fate of many licensed products used as cash cows.So, it is refreshing to see the FR campaign setting all in one book, but at $56.00 Canadian ($40US), I really wonder if the book is worth it.If you are a FR fan, have been playing it for a while, or have read a lot of the other sourcebooks and/or novels, buy it and quit reading this review now.For the rest of you, I recommend that you seriously consider what you want out of a campaign setting before putting down your hard-earned cash.Binding and Cover Appearance:  I could almost swear that the cover is flimsier than the three Core Rulebooks for 3e.  It doesn't have the glossy coating, instead it has a more matte coating, with a slightly greasy feel to it.  Not bad, just different.  Even after only two days of reading, the front and back covers are beginning to bow out a bit.  I inspected my core books which have suffered nearly 9 months of mishandling, and none of them show similar bowing.  The binding is also different.  It lacks the looseness of the Core Rulebooks, making it difficult to keep the book open to a specific page without some substantial 'breaking in'.  Overall, the binding is cheaper than the Core Rulebooks.  We'll have to see how well it holds up over time.Interior art, and pull-out map:  Some very helpful illustrations of races and detail maps of areas.  I liked being able to flip back a few pages rather than have to fumble with the poster map to reference a location being discussed in the text.  I still love poster maps, though.  I do think it was a mistake to not overlay a hex grid or better yet, latitude and longitude lines.  I'm the kind of person who wants to know exactly where on a globe something is.  So far, the only mention of such detail is a sidebar that says the city of  Waterdeep is approximately 45 degrees north latitude.My only complaint is that the interior art tends towards the small side, and seems infrequent.  Much of it seems to be used to illustrate important NPC's rather than help with mood or show locales of interest.  Much of the 'mood' art is done in a soft, grey tones that I found to be muddy and indistinct.  Personal preference, I guess.Don't get me wrong, the art is very good, but I found myself either wanting more of it, or wanting what was there to be larger or more distinct.Content:The variety of races throw a bit of a curve at folks (like me) used to the standard seven.  Most of them are well balanced, but there's a few that should give DMs pause before allowing them, especially since some of their penalties can be bought off with feats. The regional feats are a fun idea, and encourages people to put more thought about their character's backgrounds.  Or maybe you'll just end up with a lot of cookie-cutter characters where all the wizards come from one area, and all the rangers from another simply because your players want the feats those areas provide.  With the vast variety provided, I don't think there's really any danger of the latter except with the most aggressive powergamers.  The vast majority of them can be transferred to any campaign world with ease.The prestige classes are rarely groundbreaking.  Most of them offer one power or group of powers in exchange for something simple such as  Wizard's bonus feats, or a Cleric's ability to turn undead.  In contrast to the prestige classes in the DMG, Sword and  Fist, and Defenders of the Faith, the Forgotten Realms' prestige classes are quite easy to qualify for.  Some of them could be selected without hardly any planning at all since the requirements are things that I imagine most players are picking for their Wizards or Clerics.  Most of them are only 5 levels too.  This makes them fun to get, but without the long term commitment that one might feel towards a 10 level prestige class.  Only a couple of them are FR dependent, so you could easily transfer them to another campaign world.The Magic section includes more Domains than you can shake a stick at.  Though it seems kind of silly to bother to create a domain when its only available to one or two gods out of 80+ gods.  Apparently the FR gods like to micromanage things.  Where's the domain for Small, Squishy, Yellow Things that go Eep?In such a big book, I also was a little dissapointed at how few new spells were presented – only 38, many of which are domain spells for all those zillions of new domains since there were none existing that were specific enough for all those new domains.  The spells are all nicely balanced, though, and most will transfer to another campaign world with little work. What little new items are discribed seem unnecessary, or are redundant from other books.  I would have liked to see a LOT of new items to buy, find, or use, or none at all.  The two dozen new items and weapons detailed just seems rather pointless to have included since most of them are not that groundbreaking.  I did like the inclusion of two drugs that were essentially male and female versions of oral contraceptives.  That explains why adventurers never have offspring in every town they pass through.The geography and locations section is as good as any I've seen, though the authors seem to sometimes dwell on certain little areas that don't really strike me as all that interesting.  I get the impression that the authors are providing more info on regions that are well covered in previous 2e supplements or novels simply because it exists.  For someone like me who knows next to nothing of Realms history, I sometimes felt like I was in a history class where I should have taken a prerequisite course.The Deities section miffed me because while there are 80+ deities listed, most don't have information beyond their domains and favoured weapons.  Less than half do.  Why were the other 50 even mentioned if they're not important enough to really detail?The History chapter comes towards the back.  Here's that prerequisite class that I should have taken before reading the gazetteer.  This section is good, and should have been in front of the book.  Start with the beginning of the world and work forward... it makes sense.The Organizations chapter should also have been farther forward rather than tucked in the back.  It explains oh so much about the forces at work in all those countries that were mentioned before it.One thing that cheeses me off is the inclusion of two adventures towards the back.  To me, these seem to be a waste of space that should have gone to something that added more to the campaign setting... Like all those gods that weren't described.There are also some 'new' monsters too.  Most of them I recognize from 2e sources.  I'll never say a bad thing about new monsters.  The more the merrier.Overall, the Realms is quite different from the default Greyhawk setting of 3e.  Some major differences are:The Realms is a high magic setting.  First level characters get to start out with minor magic items (potions and scrolls mostly).  Magic teleportation portals litter the landscape, players will soon be throwing +1 weapons along the side of the road as deadweight, and characters will never be at a loss for where to sell or purchase magic items.The Realms have a lot of NPCs who are bigger, stronger, and tougher than the PCs will ever be.  I laughed at the section that told how one section extolled the DM to 'Make the PCs the stars' when practically every geographic region detailed had a major (15th – 30th level) NPC complete with an illustration.  It says a lot when the book begins with a preface by Elminster (the Reams' greatest mage) and then goes on with his statistics before practically anything else.  To me, this says that the authors are more fascinated by their own creation than with providing useful details that a DM for a 1st level party could use.The Realms have seen many, many hands adding elements.  Novels, sourcebooks, computer RPGs all added their own to the whole, and the whole is rather muddled at times since there will always be debates over what is 'cannon' and what isn't.  If you're new to FR like I am, your players may know more about it than you, and constantly be calling you on details.  There's a rule when buying fish – always buy fish whole, with the head, fins, and tail.  The more intact the fish is, the fewer hands have handled it between the time it was caught, and the time you bought it.  The fish which is the Realms has seen so many hands that it has been ground to a fine paste and put in a can.In closing, I applaud the authors for doing their best to squeeze the bloated body of the Forgotten Realms into can.  A 320 page oil drum, but still a can.Simply put, if you're a fan of the Realms, and this review infuriated you, you won't mind spending the money for the book.If you've never set foot in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, I suggest you read some positive reviews, flip through the book at your local game store or book shop.  If you want a ready-made campaign with the traits I listed above, go for it.  Otherwise, invest in another product or just make up your own setting.As for me, I'm keeping the book since it was a gift.  I'll take what I want, and leave the rest.</blockquote>

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