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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ghostwind" data-source="post: 2011040" data-attributes="member: 3060">Into the black expands a GMs options for four underground environments. GMs get information on caves, catacombs, mines and sewers. Each one is explored in five ways: Environment, Plants and animals, rocks and minerals, hazards and monsters. For players, there are magic items, materials, substances and spells to add flavor to any game.I didn't know what to expect with this book. Would there be prestige classes for players to take in order to fully explore the underworld? Would it have rules for mining and how much mineral wealth could be taken out of the ground and sample maps?  A little yes but mainly no.The focus of the book is in giving the GM ideas on what lurks underground and how best to portray that through technical information. For example, when talking about plants, illustrations are few and far between, but information on what type of knowledge check, often dungeoneering or nature, are provided but the game effects are listed in a latter chapter. When providing stats for humanoids with information on using the creatures as a race, the effective character level isn't clear. The Pallemon, a humanoid that fought humanity long ago, are creatures with a CR 8 with a Level Adjustment of +10. When looking at these creatures with superior mental abilities, similar to another underground race we all know and love, I note that they have no racial traits. Not necessary for a powerful creature but what of the other creatures?The Cavern Giant for example, is a fairly standard giant in that it has the good old unarmed strike and stalactite, (think huge stone club) and has a level adjustment of +10 for a CR 7 creature. So far so good. It then provides racial stat bonuses. What it doesn't provided is information on things like racial hit dice which are important in determining the creatures effective character level, which does not equal it's level adjustment, unlike how it works here. The assumption that this is a ECL of 10 means that a 1st level fighter would be an ECL of 11 with 1d10 hit points as no racial hit dice, feats, or skills are noted.When talking about mines, its good to know about information on mining towns, common diseases and some of the gems and other goods, but where are the actual rules for mining? How much wealth can be taken from the land? While it's good to know that “the vital raw materials unearthed by the earliest miners gave rise to the subsequent slew of technological and societal advances”, what I want to know is how quick can people dig into these vertical and horizontal shafts and how much do they dig up? If Douglas Niles could answer that in 1986 through the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, it should be easy enough now.Material that can be aimed at players is found in the rear of the book. This includes new magic items, materials, substances and spells and is probably some of the easier material to quickly introduce into a campaign.  Now I'm an old fan of stuff like laen from Rolemaster, a volcanic glass that's razor sharp, and I'm always willing to look at other materials. These materials are expensive and exotic but have game effects that can help a low magic world compensate in terms of power. For example, diamond can ignore up to +2 armor bonus from armor, shield and natural armor so a creature with all three would loss 6 from it's armor class.In terms of new materials, these add a touch of personalization to a campaign. It's one thing to fight a stone golem. It's another to fight one crafted with animantrium, a material that increases the base cost of the golem, while granting it improved armor class and strength bonuses. Some of the themes could've been grouped and priced out as one. Many types of metals that augment certain spells by a one level when used. No need to have separate price information for each metal.Spells are arranged by class, level and alphabetical, but for arcane spells, school was left out. Spells range from Ghosthunter, a 3rd level cleric spell that allows weapons to strike incorporate undead, to the Biblical inspired 7th level arcane spell, Pillar of Salt.The book is sturdy and is priced competitively for its construction, but priced high in its page number value compared to other resources.  Books that run 128 pages are often $21.95 and those that are 96 pages usually go for $19.95. Art is well done by fan favorites like Danilo Moretti, Ed Bourelle, Marcio Fiorito and others, but sparse. The author writes intelligently, but very dry, like he's trying too hard to give the reader the full experience.  Layout is good with minimal white space, but chapters flow into each other with no separation. One big problem is that the dash '-' is missing making anything with a range hard to read like 15 20 instead of 15-20. The company is listening to readers who want the utility of an index.Another useful tool are the encounters. This ranges from the four environments and the monsters that inhabit them to the different types of rocks and miners you can find in each area. Into the Black expands a GMs understanding of the way the environments work but needs more art, sample maps, lairs and utility to go head to head with other products covering similar ground.</blockquote>

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