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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="frandelgearslip" data-source="post: 2011062" data-attributes="member: 19631">This product is $34.95 for 238 pages with average text density.introduction:  The introduction of the book contains a one paragraph description for all the darklords of ravenloft.  Since over half the darklords have yet to be described in 3rd edition this is an extremely useful resource for people who want to know who the darklords are.  The only thing that could have been added was one line stats for the darklords instead of just descriptive text.ch1:  This chapter describes how one can arrive in ravenloft.  Next there is a section on 13 tips for creating atmosphere in ravenloft.  These tips are useful and I already use several of them.  There is also 3 sidebars of rules related information in these sections.  The ones on how to handle the lack of common and what happens to pcs from lack of sleep are useful, but the gem is the sidebar on making combat more dangerous, which shows in-depth knowledge of d&d rules which is unusual for arthaus products.  Other sections of this chapter include remidial information on using voice and gestures when playing npcs and using music in the game.  This information is fairly obvious and including 6 pages on using music in the game seems a bit excessive.  The chapter concludes with information on using pacing and cut scenes in the game.  The information on pacing is excellent and includes things I, a dm of over 10 years, have never thought of.  The information on cut scenes on the other hand was not any good.  For one thing it does not cover the fact that cut scenes by there very nature hurts suspension of disbelief, plus the example cut scenes were incredibly corny (including the sterotypical villian kill underling).ch2:  Opens up with info on how to create ones own domains in ravenloft.  This information is useful and probably a big help if one wants to create their own domains.  There is also some tips on building communities in ravenloft and the information is okay.  There are also some sample communities given.  Next comes a discussion of the widely varying cultural levels in ravenloft.  This section was ridicolous as there is another indepth several page discussion almost indentical to this one in the campaign setting book.  Why they see the need to repeat information is beyond me.  Next in the chapter comes expanded info on sinkholes of evil  This information expands on sinkholes and describes the effects of sinkholes and the types of negative emotions that could be tied to them.  The best part was rules for rank five sinkholes where the location begins to get an intelligence of its own, which is great for all those horror stories where the house itself is evil.  Finally comes some information on conversions for races and prestige classes coming into ravenloft along with some information on psionic conversions.  The outcast ratings listed for the various races and monsters seemed a bit low to me.  An elf is a 3, but a vampire is only a 5?  Also included in this chapter is advancement charts for the npc classes like there were for the base classes in the dmg.ch3:  Starts with info on using the various domains in ravenloft.  The information is okay but for the most part is readily apparent without having to have it explained.  Next comes information on campaign types and a sample campaign for each type.  The campaign types and sample campaigns are fairly bland and obvious ones, such as vengeance and bandit lords and a lot of them don't particularly match the feel of ravenloft.  The chapter ends with the worst part of the whole book the discussion of villian types.  First off the discussion had little thought to it and most readers probably already thought of most of that which was discussed.  Furthermore the discussion was so generic that it had little application to the actual ravenloft setting.  For example the warlord is listed with orcs among his example minions even though orcs do not exist in the ravenloft campaign setting.  ch4:  This chapter deals with fortune telling in the ravenloft campaign, including info on every card of the ravenloft tarroka deck.  There is also a description of an npc class the prophet.  The information is excellent since fortunetelling and future hintings are often used in ravenloft campaigns.ch5:  This last chapter details magical and cursed items including depth rules and suggestions for creating cursed items.  Several of the magical items were not thought out including a wonderous item that turns its user into an instant darklord if they fail a powers check.   In general they did not particualarly fit the ravenloft campaign and are not as interesting as those described in the relics and ritual books.  The section on creating cursed items was interesting and thoughtful, but it looks like the authors ignored it when creating the sample cursed items.In the end this is an extremely varied grabbag of information of varying quality, so it should come as no surprise that it ends up a 3.</blockquote>

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