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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="gambler1650" data-source="post: 2010134" data-attributes="member: 11033">In my reviews I rarely give 1's, just as I rarely give 5's. While production qualities matter, the content is what determines a final rating. Good pictures or unique ideas won't save a product from a poor review, but it might push a good one slightly higher. Functionality first, then the flash if you please. Price is also generally taken into consideration. A quick summary of my personal ratings: 1 - Lazy, incomplete, shoddy effort. So disgusted I'm likely only to open it again to review it. 2 - Below average. Not completely unhappy I bought it since it probably has some good ideas. 3 - Average/Good. I got approximately what I expected in terms of content and quality. No major flaws and useful. 4 - Very Good. I got more than I expected. Inspired me enough to think about using it down the road. 5 - Excellent. The cream of the industry. I immediately want to use it somewhere. Excellent production values. I'd heard about the 'innovative' living castle concept and liked some of what I saw regarding the Sun and Scale world (almost aggressively not unique in campaign concept, but with some interesting ways to allow players to expand their own small empire) on the Gaslight Press website, so I picked up this product.  Fortunately I won't have to worry about going overboard in this campaign world in buying things as it's the only product yet available, with the other two well overdue.  So how was it?PRODUCTION QUALITY: For a module, the production quality is slightly above average.  The cover is attractive, though I would have preferred the very nice drawing be larger rather than a small box inset into the maroon cover.  The back is nothing special.  The maps on the inside covers are very nicely done, clear and easy to read.  The text is interspersed with drawings, most of them well illustrated and evocative, and there is good use of whitespace.  Nothing jumps out and wows me, but the overall feel is a polished one.Production Quality Rating: 4CONTENT: The Sun and Scale campaign concept is definitely 'old school'.  The world is one where human empires ruled and then were taken out by a reptilian culture, which was finally defeated.  The human empires are now trying to rebuild in a world of ancient human and the reptilian culture's ruins/catacombs.  The unique aspect is that the players are given an opportunity to carve out an empire for the rising Sun Empire on another continent and supposedly there will be rules put in play in future supplements for dealing with such issues.  The campaign world is only described briefly and certainly not in enough detail to understand everything (three gods, a small portion of the continent the players start on) but the world is generic enough in feel that it's not really a problem.  The adventure itself touts its Living Castle concept highly, which simply consists of a table showing each creature along the side, the times of day along the top (along with special columns for On Alert and In Retreat) and which room they're found in at those times.  This information is repeated in each room's key just for the creatures that can be found there.  Nice idea, and quite easy to use although some of the individual keys had minor errors which were easy to spot.On to the adventure itself (WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD)The PCs are contracted by the Empire of the Sun to carve out an empire on the Western Continent, with the blessings of one of the three small kingdoms on the continent, Meriador.  The PCs have to escort a group of settlers to a village near Gryphon Keep, currently held by Hobgoblins, and of course take out said Hobgoblins to make the new village safe.  There are a couple of minor encounters along the way from the first waystation the group stops in and the keep itself, but at the way station there's a pretty tough encounter that aggressive PCs might not be able to handle.  It'll require a more indirect approach but still needs action taken swiftly, and new players might find themselves either killed, or not having solved the crisis because it's a tricky issue.  The keep itself is pretty straightforward with multiple ways in, and if the PCs aren't careful they'llface a very tough fight by putting the castle on alert.  Remnants of the previous reptilian empireare in catacombs below and provide the most interesting parts of the adventure.  Otherwise it'sa straight clear out the castle type of situation with only a couple types of creatures to fight.  Oneof the nice things is that, unlike many adventures along these lines, the evil guys don't know allthe secrets of the things they have control of.  I also like that some of the NPCs are given personality and even 'What happens if the PCs win' motivations, although one of them struck me as odd.  A hobgoblin female pregnant with a leader's child is listed as raising her child up to hate the PCs if the leader is killed.  Assuming hobgoblins become adults reasonably quickly for a humanoid race, I'll assume he becomes equivalent to a first level adventurer in 3-4 years.  By this time the players should be at least 10th level... Not exactly a huge threat.The writing is good if somewhat dry, and the editing much better than average.  I do have a couple of minor issues with the adventure, mainly along the lines of not enough information to know why exactly Meriador is allowing the Sun Empire to build their lands right on their border without asking for anything except the security a border kingdom would cause.  Another issue is that the adventure isn't suited for a beginning DM or players since some of the encounters are obviously too dangerous for a beginning party to handle if they don't do so with more finesse than is usually seen in such beginning groups.  Another issue is that the treasures seem to be pretty Monty Haul (a +2 weapon, lots of GPs).  Now, given that this campaign is built around creating an empire, this mightactually be needed, but it doesn't quite seem to fit.The new items and creatures are pretty cool (the Ghost Armor is _very_ cool, probably causing initial encounters with the beings wearing them to make the players feel like they have no chance, but the armor has pretty stringent limitations).Some of the dangers seemed pretty... overdone.  Blackberry bushes that cause 1d3 points of damage for each five feet of movement could kill a first level character, and there's no guide to not apply this damage if the characters wear armor.  Same thing with the razor sharp egg shells... Sliced feet may be debilitating, but hardly fatal.  If I ran the module I wouldn't include these items.Content Rating: 4 (An extremely well put together adventure, but in my mind it's a bit on the mundane side and beginning groups will have problems with it most likely)  CONCLUSION: This campaign world looks to be one to keep an eye on assuming Gaslight Press ever gets out more of it.  A true frontier mentality with the players being able to carve out their own niche right from the start.  The adventure holds to that feel quite well and if the players are excited about this concept, the adventure itself won't disappoint.  I feel that the mundaneness of the adventure once in the keep is might become somewhat of a drag for experienced players, and beginning players will have a  lot of problems completing this.  Nevertheless, a very strong first effort and one that puts Gaslight Press on my personal map.Overall Rating: 4Adventure Module Ratings (Not included in the overall score)For a Beginning DM: 3 (The nicely put together 'Living Castle' will help the DM, as will the tactics sections for each of the major NPCs.  The situations the players will be put in will require the DM to make sure to give them some advice in the form of the guards that are with the settlers, or hints as to possibly good avenues of approach to keep from being overwhelmed.  Plus the DM will have to apply a bit of common sense with some of  the environmental hazards that are potentially fatal.)For Beginning Players: 2 (A lot of potential pitfalls and dangerous encounters.  I wouldn't expect a beginning group to survive intact.)Completeness of Adventures: 4 (More campaign info is needed to give the players a good idea of their place in the world, but the DM has little to do to prepare beyond reading the adventure).</blockquote>

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