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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="olshanski" data-source="post: 2010694" data-attributes="member: 7441">The criteria I use to evaluate a d20 adventure includes the following:1.  Interesting and varied encounters:  I look for unique encounters, allowing for a variety of role and roll playing. There should be opportunities for many different classes to excel or use thier abilities.2.  Motivations for NPCs and Monsters: or some detail of how they interact with their environment or neighbors.  3.  Logical: the adventure should obey a sense of logic that clever players can use to their advantage.4.  Writing Quality: this includes foreshadowing, mystery, and descriptions that bring locations and NPCs to life.5.  Ease of DMing:  Clear maps, friendly stat blocks, skill check numbers, player handouts and illustrations.MY OPINIONS AND PREJUDICES:I don't give much weight to text density and cost per page... I'd rather pay a lot for a small clever mystery than pay a little for a huge repetitive monster bash. I don't give much weight to new monsters, prestige classes, and magic items... they can add a little variety to an adventure, but to me they are minor decoration.I also believe that Dungeons and Dragons is not a contest of Players vs the DM, but rather the Players are trying to "conquer" a scenario with the DM acting as supporting cast and providing impartial decisions. I do not like adventures in which the DM is expected to adjust room content, monsters, and treasure on the fly. I do not like adventures in which players are rescued or helped by divine intervention or the intervention of powerful NPCs.THE BASICS: (not exactly spoilers)The adventure is 48 pages long, cover price of $10.95 American; I purchased on clearance from WOTC at 70% off.3.5 pages of credits/legal/advertising7 pages of adventure introduction and conclusion4 pages of NPC motivation/description13 pages of new rules/monsters/domains/traps19 pages of adventure (outdoors, underground)The adventure is designed for 4 characters of levels 4-6. There are suprisingly few encounters for the size of the book. The reason for the small number of encounters is mostly because a few encounters are very throroughly written, and there is a large volume of new rules. The encounter breakdown follows:Approximately 3 role-play encounters. (non-combat interaction)Approximately 3 combat encounters (which includes 1 of 6 wandering monsters)Approximately 10 environment encounters (rooms, tricks, things to examine)The adventure is fairly setting neutral but requires the addition of at least 1 god and one precursor civilization. The basic plot is an artifact recovery mission.The adventure is written for edition 3.0. There are references to monsters, domains, and items which are completely new, all new material is fully explained. The adventure takes place in two main areas, An outdoor wilderness and an underwater temple.THE SPECIFICS: (Some Spoilers Follow)1.  Interesting and varied encounters: (3/5)  The non-combat encounters are very interesting and original. The combat encounters are fairly standard, with the exception of the underwater setting. Two early encounters: one on a cliff-side and one underwater, provide some interesting choices for the party. Many of the rooms in the later part of the adventure feel a little bit like filler, serving only as a backdrop for the climactic battle. There are very few class or skill-specific encounters--for example: there is little chance for rogues to disarm traps or sneak around; there are few places for druids or rangers to track or commune with nature; there are no undead for clerics to turn, nor evil for paladins to smite.2.  Motivations for monsters and NPCs: (4/5)  Two very well fleshed out NPCs have excellent motivation and role-playing potential. One cliff-side encounter and one underwater encounter also contain good monster motivations.3.  Logical: (4/5)  It is very difficult to grade something in terms of "Logical" when it involves time travel. Nothing stuck out as being hard to swallow. There were some spiders that might not have had an adequate food supply. Some of the new traps were unusual, but logical within the environment.4.  Writing Quality: (4/5)  The writing is clear and eloquent. The stat blocks are easy to read. 5.  Ease of DMing: (2/5)  GOOD: The NPC encounters are brilliant and very easy for a DM to run. The stat blocks provide all the materials that the DM needs, immediately at their fingertips (without flipping to another book or to a monster appendix).BAD: There is no wilderness map for the first half of the adventure. The map for the temple (the second half of the adventure) does not have a grid. There are no player handouts. There are MANY instances in which the DM is instructed to "help" the players by having a powerful NPC provide selective aid when the players get stuck. The vast number of new rules and traps require extra work on behalf of the DM. A few new rules appear extremely unbalanced: Consider that this was written for 3.0, a proposed cleric Time domain makes Haste available as a 2nd level domain spell. Another proposed trap has no saving throw and allows a 9th level caster to trap someone for 10-100 years (a 5th level caster can trap someone for 1-5 days).I have an aversion to adventures where a powerful NPC tags along with the party and helps them when they get stuck.FINAL WORD:One particular NPC encounter (around page 20) was brilliant and will certainly find use in my campaign. The rest of the adventure will not be played.The heavy handedness of a powerful NPC tagging along with the party is not at all to my taste. Some of the traps seemed a bit too arbitrary. One of the monsters is a time elemental... There is a different version of the time elemental in the Tome of Horrors by Necromancer Games which I think is more creative. I believe that some WOTC books may have created a different version of the Time domain which is not as unbalanced as the one which appears in this adventure. I might be judging some of this too hard, since D20 has evolved significantly since this adventure was published. If this were one of the first adventures I've read, I would be very impressed. As it is, I cannot give this adventure more than a 3/5. If there were fewer new rules and more encounters similar to the NPC encounter on page 20, this adventure could easily have been a 4 or 5.</blockquote>

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