Goodman Games Dungeon Alphabet

[Treebore]

True, but Toolbox is pretty close to being system neutral. To wit, before UT came out, I used Toolbox with AD&D, BD&D, and Tunnels & Trolls for quite a few years.

True, plus you can find Toolbox pretty cheap now a days, so you could get both easily enough, but UT also has waaaay more tables, so I would still say if you have to choose one, go with UT.

 

[jaerdaph]

I bought Dungeon Alphabet and I'm happy I did. It's a great nostalgia piece. The artwork was awesome. The tables brought back fond memories and gave me a few laughs. Is it as utilitarian as say Ultimate Toolbox? Of course not. Is it a great "coffee table" book for folks like me who've been playing RPGs for 30+ years. Absolutely!

 

[Treebore]

I bought Dungeon Alphabet and I'm happy I did. It's a great nostalgia piece. The artwork was awesome. The tables brought back fond memories and gave me a few laughs. Is it as utilitarian as say Ultimate Toolbox? Of course not. Is it a great "coffee table" book for folks like me who've been playing RPGs for 30+ years. Absolutely!

Maybe thats it then. I have only been gaming for 26 years.

 

[Nikosandros]

True, plus you can find Toolbox pretty cheap now a days, so you could get both easily enough, but UT also has waaaay more tables, so I would still say if you have to choose one, go with UT.

OK, thanks for all the information. I had already decided to get UT. Getting both is certainly an option, only I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't get all duplicated content.

 

[Garnfellow]

And FWIW- if you are the kind of person who loves random tables, you really need to check out the Beyond The Black Gate blog- Al is the second coming of Gygax when it comes to cool random tables.

Jeff,

Many thanks for the tip -- I think I may have checked out Beyond the the Black Gate early on but then lost track of it in the explosion of OSR blogs. But it really is one of the best of the best, and well worth following.

 

[grodog]

I bought Toolbox and Ultimate Toolbox and NG's Mother of All Treasure Tables, as well as Dungeon Alphabet, and I completely agree that it's not a reference work.

I think that Treebore's POV represents an interesting group of readers: folks who were never familiar with DA prior to its book publication format. I knew DA on Michael's blog as well as in Knockspell #1, so I'm definitely coming to it from the POV of "hey, Michael added some tables to his interesting inspirational DA essays." Someone who wasn't aware of its previous incarnations, and who owns the aforementioned books, will probably think that it's pretty lightweight in comparison.

I see the tables as one example of ways to leverage the design ideas for each letter's topic; there are certainly a number of other topics that would go into an exhaustive dungeon design book, but that's not what DA is: it's an ideas-inspirer, rather than a comprehensive resource (in my mind, anyway).

 

[jaerdaph]

Maybe thats it then. I have only been gaming for 26 years.

Yes, clearly you are doing it wrong/not long enough...

 

[Aus_Snow]

it's an ideas-inspirer, rather than a comprehensive resource (in my mind, anyway).

Which is exactly what Toolbox and UT are as well, fwiw. 'Ideas-inspirers' is as neat a description of both as one could hope for, come to think of it.

I've yet to see a comprehensive resource of any kind for any RPG, personally.

 

[JeffB]

Jeff,

Many thanks for the tip -- I think I may have checked out Beyond the the Black Gate early on but then lost track of it in the explosion of OSR blogs. But it really is one of the best of the best, and well worth following.

My pleasure

I don't read very many of the OSR BLOGS on a regular basis- Grognardia, SoTP&R, and Al's (BtBG)- but I always hit BtBG first every day and I love the fact he provides so much material that is useful to your game! Grognardia and many of the other BLOGs are mostly theory and discussion about the hobby's history and why "old school" is better, B&M'ing about 3E/4E, etc. They are fun to read (mostly), but not all that great as a D&D resource-if that makes sense. I'm constantly stealing stuff from Al's page to use-whether for 4E or, S&W/OD&D/MCM.

I absolutely cannot wait for his Warriors of the Red Planet RPG to surface-I cannot think of a single RPG product I've been more psyched to see in the past couple of years. The Previews are fantastic *AND* it's going to have some extremely professional well done art cough- unlike the majority of OSR products-cough

Side Note-I believe he goes by the name of Grimstaff here on ENWORLD.

 

[DaveMage]

...

Side Note-I believe he goes by the name of Grimstaff here on ENWORLD.

Um, he's right behind you!