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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lancelot" data-source="post: 4712072" data-attributes="member: 30022">Dungeon Master's Guide [1e] - A terrible rulebook but a fun read, thanks to Gary Gygax's torturous prose. Like most of Gary's work, it's schizophrenic in tone. It's just a game and the DM should feel free to call it as they will... but if you're not playing by the written rules, you're not really playing D&D. And I've never liked the concept of DM-as-adversary. Everything you've heard about this book is probably true, including the "random prostitute table", the succubus artwork, the funky cartoons, the overpowered items, and the general wackiness. Ah... the good old days. 9/10.Fiend Folio [1e] - Amusingly, Dragon Magazine actually ran some editorials/reviews that offered heavy criticism of the FF (wayyy back in the day). They though many of the creatures were functionally useless, lacked theme or motivation, were too similar to existing creatures, or were just plain wacky. I can't say I agree with them. Yeah, it's got the flumph... and the flail snail... and the forlarren. But that's part of it's charm. I liked the Folio much better than Monster Manual 2, and it added many great D&D creatures to the game (death knight, githyanki, githzerai, ettercap, meenlock, etc). 8/10Fires of Dis - One of the better Planescape modules. Classic planar exploration, without getting too esoteric for some of the slower players. Who wouldn't want to go to Hell and meet Dispater? There are a few weaknesses, particularly the ending. If you play it as written, the endgame is blindingly obvious... which is okay, if you have unsophisticated players. However, I found it more interesting to remove some of the blatant clues and see if the players can figure out what is going on in time. 8/10Shady Dragon Inn - Well, it's an inn. And some very bland pre-gens. I didn't get much use from this, even in the BECMI days that it was good for. Call it a 4/10. Stats and pictures for some of the "official D&D characters" (Strongheart, Warduke, etc) is of minor interest, but they're available in the Expert module Quest for the Heartstone anyway.Tales from the Infinite Staircase - Planescape adventure compilation; about 10 adventures, running about a dozen pages each. IMHO, this is the weakest of the three Planescape compilations (Well of the World and the Great Modron March are much better), but there are still some interesting ideas here. Off the top of my head, the adventures include: a classic exploration to rescue someone from a demon, a worm-infested demi-plane, a githyanki astral outpost, a visit to Jangling Hiter in the Hells, a flooded formian hive, a "deserted" library in the shadow of the Spire, a trip through Limbo to the spawning grounds of the slaad, and a murder mystery on the Air Elemental Plane. There is a weak backstory supposedly linking these adventures, but I discarded it altogether and just used them as stand-alones scattered throughout my own campaign. It's not as bad as the module Into the Abyss, but it's still below par for Planescape. 5/10.</blockquote>

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