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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="Teflon Billy" data-source="post: 2011568" data-attributes="member: 264">My God, this book is beautiful.A strange way to star a review to be sure, but when a facet of a product is as overwhelming is the case here, it’s hard not to take notice.I’m going to start the review with the arch-handsomeness of this product, but I want to state right away that—entirely separate from its production values—this is without question one of the best RPG products I’ve seen up to this point in my life.First off, I’m a big fan of Bryan Hitch’s art (particularly in Marvel Comic’s The Ultimates, but The Authority is where he made his name) and the book is liberally plastered with examples of his work taken from the comics. In and of itself, this is nothing. I’ve seen dozens of licensed products where shots from the license were throughout the book and it usually looks cheap and half-thought out.Not so here. In most every instance of Hitch’s work making an appearance in the product it is to clarify or enhance some salient point being discussed in the rules (Hell…the cover does this, showing Authority team leader Jenny Sparks staring defiantly out from the cover, surrounded by her team, growling ”Game Over”)Guardians of Order’s art director (Jeff Mackintosh) needs to be bought a pizza (StrongBad reference). He absolutely blasted this one out of the park...metaphorically.The book is hardbound, and of the same dimensions as your garden-variety graphic novel. It is a nice, handy-sized, thematically-appropriate format for this project. It is full color up until page 305(!) where another 40-odd pages of supplementary material begins.Ok…now onto the content.The book opens with a well-written synopsis of both the issues of Stormwatch pertinent to the creation of The Authority in the Wildstorm Comics continuity, and the first twelve issues of The Authority itself.Normally, this is not something I particularly enjoy in a product (the Stargate RPG’s episode guides in the core rules are prime examples), but these read very, very well and as mentioned earlier include pertinent examples of the original art. Next come “fluff” writeups of the characters in the series, and it’s a fairly complete selection. Also included are locations featured in the series, different timelines that figure in the setting, aliens, god, secret societies…all tricked out in loving, non-statted detail (Stats have to wait for the end of the book)For the most part The Authority uses a barely tweaked version of the very flexible Tri Stat system that has served GoO so well up to this point (though it makes a nod toward the D20 version of the system used for Silver Age Sentinels, among others). Where the content of the supplement really shines is in the suggestions for actually playing a game modeling the power levels displayed in the Authority. It would be amazingly easy for Authority players to walk through a “normal” Superhero adventure. I doubt they’d break a sweat.But chapter 6 “Playing a Superpower” is a fantastic read. It clearly and entertainingly explains how to make a game where a player could just remove Italy entirely from the face of the planet viable. To my mind, most “how to” chapters in RPGs are content I find wasteful—this chapter, by contrast, is crucial.I almost literally cannot say enough good about this book. It’s situations like this where I am looking at a product that I bemoan the 5-point granularity of our review system. The highest rating I can give The Authority is a 5/5, so I will.But please understand that this is a strong 5 <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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