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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="Nail" data-source="post: 2008855" data-attributes="member: 224">Overall Rating:  3 stars (but a *high* 3 stars....maybe jus' 3.5 stars...)A break-down of the factors:      Presentation:  4 stars  (good enough....)      "Cool Idea" Factor: 4 stars  (for most of it...)      Game Mechanics: 3 stars  (Playtesters!  Where are the playtesters!)      Value for my Money: 3 stars  (I paid $30??!! It better be good...)So.....I have to admit I bought this book on a whim.  I said, "Hey, I'm in the mood ta buy a d20 product....an' look!  It's being touted on EN World.  What the heck...I'll support them an' get me a highly rated book too."  So I plunked down my $30 (!!!, including the shipping) an' felt like a good net-izen.Am I happy I did?  Is all happy-happy in my world after I received this book?   Errrrr......no.I knew with a name like "Traps and Trechery" that I'd be gettin' a book about traps.  (The book's got 174 pages, and 118 o' that is traps and puzzles.)  An' I was also sorta hopin' for a book about treachery....you know, thieves guilds, PrCs, feats, special equipment, an' such.  Hey, the advertisement said so, didn't it?I'm afraid the book's a bit short with the treachery part, an' what's there is...err.....it could use a bit o' work.This book could have been great, and blown any WotC presentation out of the water (like that pathetic peice of excrescence: Sound and Silence).  The "Thug" class is a great example of this.  An excellent concept overall: an NPC class equivalent to a rogue, like the NPC warrior is to the fighter.  Fantasy worlds need these guys...after all not every low-life scum the PCs meet should be a Rogue.  Being a Rogue implies training, focus, and exceptional talent.  Being a thug jus' means you've worked the streets and picked up a few skills, but have little talent and no future.  Perfect!  ...But the PrCs in this book are poorly developed, the feats and skills are uninspired, and the thieves guild stuff is just....lame.  <engage sarcasm shield> I'm fairly confident I could have figured out how thieves guilds use blackmail or protection rackets as a source of income.  Telling me how corruption and banditry work is just insulting.  And the much vaunted "d20 stat blocks for thieves guilds" is a huge waste.  Why couldn't they have given me some more crunchy bits, like how the size of guilds varies with city size, how many guilds are viable in a given population center, what is the range of income a given sized guild can expect, what are the levels of the guild's members,...........etc, etc, etc.Note to other d20 publishers: Please don't waste my time with fluff.  Do your work an' give me the crunchy bits.  It's your *job*."Okay, okay", you say, "but what about the traps section?"Be patient, young jedi.........First, about the poison section.....  If you've read the other reviews, you'll see a pack of people (Monte Cook, fer one) that was impressed by this.  Well.....it was interesting.  It did give me ideas.  And the mechanics are mostly worked out.  But I was hoping for even more.  They give a classification system, like allergens, psychotropic poisons, and narcotics, but with little in the way of game mechanic-outcomes.  These are just stuck in for flavor, an I'm left with the job of filling in the rules.  I can do that, I guess, but I was hoping a book on treachery would do it for me.Okay, now to the traps and puzzles:The traps section was very interesting.  It got me thinking quite a bit about how traps work, how I can design them in the d20 system (DCs, Crs, attack and damage, etc) and how to make them "cooler" for the players.  (BTW, this is an EXCELLENT consideration, and one that should be stamped onto all DM's foreheads: If stuff <like traps> ain't fun for the players, what's the point?)  I loved the diagrams, and I'm still trying to figure out how to use those in a game as a "post-trap", "de-briefing"  hand-out.  If you like Grimtooth, et al, you'll love this (although, you've also actually seen most of these already, in one form or another).But again, my quibbles are with the game mechanics.     #1) They give a "Stat block" format to each trap, complete with search and disable DCs, CRs for the whole trap, etc.   Hey, that's great.  But if you look at most of the rest of that stat block, you'll find it doesn't actually add anything -- it's just filler.  "Construction type", "Activation type", "Mechanism", etc are just flavor.  They don't determine cost, DC, or CR...or anything else.  They don't simplify the description.  They don't provide an "abstract" of the trap's abilities.  (Compare a spell stat block to a trap stat block.  You'll see the difference pretty quickly.)  I kept getting the impression that half of the stat block was there just to make it "look official".  Guys => knock it off.    #2) The construction times and costs don't seem in line with other sources, or even common sense.  For example, "Blackstone's Killer Kennel", a complex mechanical trap, costs 2000 gp and takes 2 weeks to build.  But it's composed of a 30 foot diameter circular room, with at least 5 ajoining rooms (to keep the beasts in -- hey, it *is* a kennel, after all).  I'm left wondering if the "cost of the trap" is really just the cost of the mechanisms and gears, and just BYOD (Bring Your Own Dungeon).  And what about upkeep costs? Up-keep is crucial!    #3) The magical trap cost (gp and xp) is *way* off.  They forgot that for magic items (of which a magical trap is one type, I'm sure) have a base price determined by: (Spell level) x (caster level) x (some factor, see DMG).  I went in and re-did a few of the costs......as you can imagine, most costs are off by a factor of 2 to 9 or more.  But I suppose this is a sorta "errata"-type mistake, and easy enough to fix.  Just remember to add in the cost of the mechanical trap too.    There's more, of course, but it's all minor quibbles.The puzzles section was good, but...err....stolen.  I've got a few logic puzzle books, and I'll quote you the pages T&T stole out of 'em, if you like.*************************OVERALL IMPRESIONS*************************Hey, I know there's alot of grumblin' here.  "It's my job."  And I'll use the silly book occasionally.  The presentation overall is good, the "cool idea" factor is moderately high (but for just the traps and poison sections), and the book does fill (much of) its niche.  But it could be better.  I'll give it a 3 star, though it might deserve a 4. Maybe my standards are too high.  I must admit, I've bought few d20 books, so my perspective is limited.  But darn it, if yer gonna publish d20 stuff.....well, make sure your mechanics are sound, the useful info is there, and it's not full of fluff.  Give me the crunchy bits!Give me somethin' ta work with, er yer back side'll feel me boot-leather!-Nail</blockquote>

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