MoaET: What is It?
Heya Joe!
The short answers to your questions: Yes, yes, yes, yes, and maybe.
...
Okay, I guess I can provide a LITTLE more information than that. The book covers encounters of all kinds. There are indeed massive monster listings, divided by climate, terrain, subterranean, daytime vs. nighttime, etc. that draw from the core rules and the Tome of Horrors. In my original draft, there were some creatures from the Creature Collection books 1 and 2, but they may or may not have been removed/replaced in the editing process.
In addition to the monster listings, there are tables for weather, travelers and caravan generation, miscellaneous nonmonster encounters, unique or extremely rare monsters, and some others as well.
The book does not cover urban/city encounters, because I feel those should be unique to each city, and would be impossible to place in a book of this size with anything even vaguely resembling a comprehensive treatment. It is instead intended as a tool for DMs to aid them with general overland, underdark, overseas and underseas voyages.
It can also be used in conjunction with other existing modules and adventures. One problem with many published adventures is the small amount of room dedicated to random encounters; an extensive dungeon crawl could have the group running into a half dozen of the same monster types again and again. Not so with this list! There are I believe over 600 monsters cited on the tables, which should provide more than enough variety for any campaign.
What about game balance? Does it take CR versus the party's level into consideration? The answer to this is, yes and no. Many of the more powerful monsters in D&D are also generally quite rare, and the tables reflect the relative rarity of monsters--and these rarities vary from table to table, so while a young white dragon may be uncommon in arctic terrain, it will be nearly impossible to roll on a tropical encounter table. Otherwise, however, the table does not cater directly to EL--as it should be; the wilderness is a dangerous place, and by allowing the risk of overpowered (or underpowered) encounters, you keep the PCs on their toes. However, there will be tips for using such encounters in a campaign of any level. For example, if you manage to roll a great red wyrm while your PCs are all first level, wandering the countryside, you could simply have this be a flyby sighting. Or maybe the PCs crest a ridge, and see the dragon fighting some high-level wizard on the ground, with the casting of titanic spells. Higher level PCs may investigate; low level PCs will have no one to blame but themselves if they don't adopt a low profile.
Ultimately, this book is intended to serve as an aide and inspiration for DMs, particularly to add an element of the unexpected to their campaign. It is no substitution for good DMing.
To see examples of the table at work, go to
this thread at the Necromancer Games forum, and click on "Rolls from the Mother of All Tables." There I have posted some examples of the tables at work.
