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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="Pauper" data-source="post: 2010060" data-attributes="member: 17607">Before I begin this review, two stories:The first is <a href="http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/misc/forgottenrumsstory.html" target="_blank">on Sean K. Reynold's site</a>, and is a humorous take on the relationship between R&D and sales in your atypical game company.The second begins back when WotC was better known for making card games than RPGs.  Apparently in an attempt to improve the sales of products in their Ravenloft line, TSR began adding a blurb to the cover of some Ravenloft sourcebooks and adventures - "Suitable for all D&D campaigns."  - even on products that were tied so closely to the Ravenloft setting that it would have been fiendishly difficult (pardon the pun) to make them fit a more traditional setting.What do these stories have to do with this product? Let's take the second story first.This product, more than any other produced by Arthaus/White Wolf/Swords & Sorcery Studios/etc., and even more than most of the actual TSR products that actually bore the 'suitable for all D&D campaigns' blurb,  could bear the blurb without shame. While there are a number of references to mechanics which are core to the Ravenloft setting and do not apply to other settings (such as Fear, Horror, and Madness checks), the references aren't pervasive and in many cases can be edited out of the material with little difficulty. For instance, spells that refer to 'powers checks' can simply have those references removed to make them usable in alternative D&D settings.And there's a lot of material to use. Over 30 new spells. New weapons and weapon modifications. The 'heartseeker' enchantment, which does for piercing weapons what 'vorpal' did for slashing weapons. New adventuring gear and 'medical gear' like straightjackets and leeches. You might think you get short-changed a bit on feats, until you realize that the entire chapter on 'higher alchemy' (alchemy that does more than make tindertwigs or alchemist's fire) is entirely feat-driven. New prestige classes, introduced not by a vague description like 'Gondoliers are merry paddlers of people from place to place', but with descriptions of individuals fairly typical of the type to give you an idea of what kinds of people become members of these PrCs.And this brings me to the first story. People who like 'crunchy' will find plenty to like in this book, but it's the added stuff that has little to do with rules material that makes this an outstanding book. The book is presented as a series of essays from former associates of the famous monster-hunter Rudolph van Richten - and when you get to the back of the book, you find the game stats for the folks who've been telling you all about this stuff! Each character also has a 'dread possibility' which can help inspire plots and adventures in any DM's campaign, not just one set in the Dread Realms of Ravenloft. This book is excellent evidence for why 'crunchy + story', done well, is better than just 'crunchy'.So why isn't this book a 5-out-of-5? It would be if I were reviewing it on a Ravenloft-specific site. Someone who isn't running a Ravenloft game will have to do some amount of work to make some of the material suitable for her own game, though, and not everything here is likely to be an 'automatic' approval in a game should a player want something 'kewl' (like the Pistoleer PrC). Still, it's an excellent book and well worth taking a look at. Next time you see this on the shelf of your local game store, pick it up, glance through it, get inspired, and realize just how good this book is.</blockquote>

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