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<blockquote data-quote="Retreater" data-source="post: 9250023" data-attributes="member: 42040">I don't recall saying everything MCDM produces is better than everything WotC produces, so I'm sorry if I gave that impression. I did say Matt Colville worked on Strongholds and Followers, and I think it was a pretty high quality offering generally speaking.I would say that his Flee Mortals is a higher quality than the Monster Manual (for my tastes). The organization is better and more useful. It has subsystems (companions, minions). It has what I think is a workable challenge system, and the art/paper quality is better too (IMO). So let me compare Where Evil Lurks to a &quot;lair&quot; book (like Candlekeep) - and this is just my preference. First, Where Evil Lurks has a small dungeon of 5+ rooms, chock full of encounters and treasure rewards. Each will easily last an evening of play. This is also because the fights are more involved and dynamic than typical 5e fights ... whereas Candlekeep might be &quot;go here and there's a Knight - use the stats from the Monster Manual.&quot; Candlekeep uses its page count for fluff and non-gameable content, where as Where Evil Lurks is packed with adventure, monsters, traps, treasure, maps. Where Evil Lurks is 4-5 hours of play. Candlekeep is &quot;maybe&quot; 1-2 hours? Where Evil Lurks also spans Levels 2-20, with something for every level (some levels have multiple adventures too.) Candlekeep has levels 1-16 (because WotC rarely writes above the teens?)&nbsp;So, yes, Where Evil Lurks presents drop-in &quot;monster of the week&quot; lairs, they are more fleshed out than what we find in a product like Candlekeep Mysteries. (Additionally, it provides new monsters from Flee Mortals and the relevant rules and subsystems.) I think it's a much better value and more inspired design, at least for my tastes.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Retreater, post: 9250023, member: 42040"] I don't recall saying everything MCDM produces is better than everything WotC produces, so I'm sorry if I gave that impression. I did say Matt Colville worked on Strongholds and Followers, and I think it was a pretty high quality offering generally speaking. I would say that his Flee Mortals is a higher quality than the Monster Manual (for my tastes). The organization is better and more useful. It has subsystems (companions, minions). It has what I think is a workable challenge system, and the art/paper quality is better too (IMO). So let me compare Where Evil Lurks to a "lair" book (like Candlekeep) - and this is just my preference. First, Where Evil Lurks has a small dungeon of 5+ rooms, chock full of encounters and treasure rewards. Each will easily last an evening of play. This is also because the fights are more involved and dynamic than typical 5e fights ... whereas Candlekeep might be "go here and there's a Knight - use the stats from the Monster Manual." Candlekeep uses its page count for fluff and non-gameable content, where as Where Evil Lurks is packed with adventure, monsters, traps, treasure, maps. Where Evil Lurks is 4-5 hours of play. Candlekeep is "maybe" 1-2 hours? Where Evil Lurks also spans Levels 2-20, with something for every level (some levels have multiple adventures too.) Candlekeep has levels 1-16 (because WotC rarely writes above the teens?) So, yes, Where Evil Lurks presents drop-in "monster of the week" lairs, they are more fleshed out than what we find in a product like Candlekeep Mysteries. (Additionally, it provides new monsters from Flee Mortals and the relevant rules and subsystems.) I think it's a much better value and more inspired design, at least for my tastes. [/QUOTE]

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