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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="Napftor" data-source="post: 2009042" data-attributes="member: 617">First off, I feel compelled to state that I am freelancing with Mystic Eye Games.  This does not influence my review of this product in any way, but for those readers who are hesitant to believe me, then it's your loss. Now, on to the product...Clocking in at 140 pages and an index, "The Hunt: Rise of Evil" costs a reasonable $19.95.  The cover is quite appealing and shows the buyer Dmitri Amadon, one of the people with a special knowledge of why the world (called Gothos) is under siege by nightmarish creatures.  He and his fellows are on "the hunt" for these monsters.  The artwork inside is good and readability is not a problem.  I must also note that the new book smell remains even after numerous openings (yes, this is a good thing).As any good worldbook should, "Rise of Evil" describes how magic works and is viewed in the world (after an intro and timeline which are also prereq's for a setting book, IMO).  Mystic Eye gives us 6 new types of magic present on Gothos.  Next is the world's gods, divided between the Pantheon (your more general types) and other gods (pagan and witch).  The layout of these is well done, complete with flavor text and domains.  I especially like the inclusion of the symbols for each god.  Being told what they are is all well and good, but seeing them is much more effective and it gives a GM something to show his players.The Lands chapter is next, each of the 10 nations reviewed in adequate detail.  You get to learn the following about each: name, ruler, resources, population, law, allies, enemies, history, religion, politics, people, classes, and important NPCs/locations.  An impressive 44 pages make up this chapter.  Almost all of the nations are based on old earth cultures, thus aiding the reader greatly with assimilating them.  Of special note is the presence of Freeport and Bluffside in Gothos.  For those people following those books, this is an extra bonus.  Classes and prestige classes come next.  I have to go on record as saying, "Thank God somebody has put out more core classes."  Not that the corebook ones are stale, but cariety is the spice of life after all.  Here we get 6 new classes (the merchant being my personal fav) and 9 new Prestige Classes, each filling a nuche in further expanding Gothos' flavor.After these come the races and cultures chapter.  Much like with the core classes comment, I was gratified to find region-specific human racial traits that differed from the standard corebook version.  Non-humans remain unchanged and this sits fine with me.  These are given brief descriptions of how they are treated and act in each region, paralleling how the humans are broken down.  And of course there are new feats (culturally specific, magical, and general) as well as a few new skills and other uses for some standard ones.  There are also appendices that provide useful information like Gothos' calendar (complete with holy days and events), a summary of other books the reader might find useful, and even a review of the relevant OGC from Mongoose's "Seas of Blood."Low points:*I wish the cities had been more detailed (what few are even mentioned).  Or at least provided with maps.  But the promise of web enhancements focusing on the different regions alleviates this frustration.*The maps are quite appealing, but some are not near the land text that describes them.  Romanus, for instance, has its map on page 54 while the text begins on page 65.  I don't believe this was necessary and makes referencing locations cumbersome, in my opinion.High points:*The Open Game Content use from Green Ronin (Freeport), Thunderhead Games (Bluffside), and Mongoose (Seas of Blood) is highly commendable.  With this worldbook, MEG demonstrates the cross-polinization of 3rd party d20 material the way the OGL wanted companies to do.* FLAVOR!  The dark feel of Gothos is really brought home throughout this book.  Even the duo-tone maps are forboding.  The timeline setup throws the present day (should GM's wish to begin here) not long before the most powerful Dream Rift in Gothos' cyclical history.  It's a bit much to get into here, but Earth and Gothos, though dimensionally separated, pass through each other every so many years and this causes things in the world to go crazy as the dreams of Earth folk can affect Gothos in earth-(or rather Gothos-)-shattering ways.  The whole place kind of reminds me of Chris Carter's "Millennium" tv show..."The time is near."  I can hear the Children of the Waking Dream saying to one another another of that show's taglines--"This is who we are."To sum up, the book is excellent, from concept to delivery.  But it is my policy to not give "5"s unless something is perfect (and what is?).  A "4" however, is the next best thing!</blockquote>

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