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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="Psion" data-source="post: 2011133" data-attributes="member: 172">Monsters of the Boundless BlueMonsters of the Boundless Blue is a topic-specific creature book by Goodman Games, detailing a number of creatures that characters in seafaring games might encounter. The book is written by Gunnar Hultgren.A First LookMonsters of the Boundless Blue is a 64 page (66 including inside covers, which are used) perfect-bound softcover book available for $18.00 US.Andy Hopp does the cover and interior illustrations for the book. The interior is black-and-white (the cover illustration is a blown up version of one of the interior illustration placed on a blue background .) The illustrations have a somewhat sketchy old school look to them, not entirely unlike what you would see from a woodcut print.A Deeper LookThe bulk of the descriptive text in this book is written from the vantage point of Olin Drammerstad and Vilg Kepnear, fictional seafarers and zoologists of sort. Each creature entry takes up two facing pages. The descriptive text and illustration take up the bulk of the pages and has no game text. The left and right margins/sidebars contain all game mechanics text, including the d20 System stat block as well as a set of three encounters (for low, mid, and high levels) for each creature. Some creature also have additional entries, such as mundane or magical items associated with the creature or the narrative in the descriptive text.Fortunately, the book doesn't leave you floundering if one of these items strikes your fancy. The table of contents also calls out all game mechanics entities in the book.The narrative text is thorough and very much akin to the "ecology" articles of Dragon magazines of ages past.The book isn't all about creatures. It helps ground the personality of the supposed narrators by the inclusion of a Sea Delver prestige class. Sea delvers are good warriors, but gain class abilities that specifically prepare them for dealing with an aquatic environment, such prolonged holding of breath, improved swimming, and bonuses dealing with aquatic creatures.The meat of this book is, of course, the 28 featured creatures. Creatures run the gamut of types, excluding elementals and constructs. The book seems to be written using a mixture of 3.0 and 3.5 standards, as it has a "beast" creature type, but it also has a swarm (not introduced as open content until 3.5 revision.)Some sample creatures include: -Bulkhead: The bulkhead is the classical undead "Ghost Ship" type of creature. The one thing that distinguishes this book's take is in the narrative. The bulkhead does not always appear as a ship, and sometimes rearranges its parts to appear as other things like whales. -Calbreek: Familiar with the idea of a double headed snake? This is a similar concept applied to a (rather large) crab, with two heads and two complete sets of claws. They also have some other challenging abilities, such as fans that let them scatter opponents and a piercing shriek that can disrupt spellcasting. -Favilai: These are small fey with fishlike features and a manta-like hood (earning it the name "manta fey." Sometimes a boon to drowning travelers, the encounters introduce some scenarios in which these creatures are victimized by means of a new wondrous item, the sinister essence bellows, which drains the life essence of fey to power a ship. -Kaiptari: These dangerous piscine creatures are perpetually surrounded by a web of razor-sharp tendrils, a serious hazard to any passerby. -Naltchea: Superficially resembling a sea-borne mind flayer, these malevolent but aloof and sagely creatures are natural spellcasters (like rakshasa), but also have an ability to bend water to their wills. This creature has another instance of 3.0 rules, having the ambidexterity feat.ConclusionsI must admit that the book has a bit more narrative than I find useful, but if you are the sort who loved old Dragon ecology articles, this should appeal to you.However, to me the real decision making criterion in buying this book is simple: are you running a nautical campaign? If so, this book should fill out the rather emaciated picking for aquatic creatures in your game, and provides some decent adventure and campaign ideas to use them.Overall Grade: B- -Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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