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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="JediSoth" data-source="post: 2040566" data-attributes="member: 13882">Where to begin with this HUGE tome? Well, if you haven't heard, it's an 840-page, 1600+ encounter dungeon-crawl. It comes with 16 poster-sized maps, and contains encounters covering just about every creature-type (more on that later) in the SRD. I've had the WLD for about a week now, and I've read the introduction, lightly read Region A and skimmed Region B. So, this review will grow as I get further into it.The book is hardbound and is very sturdy. It is bound in such a way that it will lay flat pretty much wherever you open it to. The layout is two column with pretty small text (I'd venture a guess and say around 6 - 8 pt.). Illustrations are grayscale and sparse. That is to say, you get an AWFUL lot of content in this book. The maps are very nice, color and are folded in such a way that each quarter of the map is 8-1/2" x 11"; perfect for scanning or copying.The introduction spends a few columns going over the real-world whys and wherefores of the WLD. It then launches into a game-related backstory for the WLD. The backstory is important if you want to use it as a cohesive whole. The designers include notes at the beginning on alternate ways of introducing the dungeon, and there's a big thread here on ENWorld discussing alternate back stories for the dungeon. Plus, since it's modular (one of the designers describes it as a campaign toolbox), you can just leave out certain things that tie two areas together. I won't give away any plot details, but the WLD does go into reasons you might use to get the players to explore the WLD, both roleplaying and metagaming. It gives well over 20 reasons/hooks. It also has sections explaining terms used in the WLD like Encounter Conditions, and what skills are pretty much useless within the confines of the dungeon. The book also mentions that druids and wizards have it hard. In fact, it recommends just banning druids altogether, along with spells like Entangle and Web. The designers state that these spells are vastly overpowered in dungeon settings and they've designed the WLD so that none of the encounters use these spells. I suspect that the designers just don't like those spells (perhaps they have a campaign in which the players use those almost exclusively in conjunction with high-powered missile weapons). As for my players, I simply mentioned that the WLD was designed without those spells, and if they take them in there, then some of their opponents are likely to have them as well. The designers also recommend not allowing the Taking of 10s and 20s. They say it pretty much guarantees the finding of every trap and secret door without any chance of failure. I found that not to be the case. In my group, the rogue was taking 20s to look for traps, but the dwarven fighter got impatient and starting just kicking doors in. Naturally, he found the only trap that was in the area for them to find. Sweet sweet irony. I get the feeling by reading through the designers' suggestions that they play with a lot of meta/power-gamers. I don't think the typical group will need to worry about Entangle, Web, Taking 10, Taking 20, Druids and Wizards ruining the experience of The World's Largest Dungeon. I can speak with certainty that Taking 20 does NOT guarantee the finding of every trap. The group I'm taking through found one in Region A with a find/disable DC of 27, and the rogue had no chance even taking 20. They cleverly figured out a way to bypass it eventually, but I had the last laugh when they finally found the secret door that allowed them to avoid it all together after it had done some serious damage to them.After all the introductory stuff is out of the way, a mere 12 pages, we get into descriptions of things that aren't on the map. These include empty rooms for when the DM doesn't want to use what's in the region, or when they want an extra room to customize the experience. There are also some above ground encounters describe that lead to the first room of Region A.The room descriptions is where the WLD really shines. They include grey-box text for the DM to read aloud, information on encounter conditions, tactics (including stat blocks for every creature/NPC in the room), and scaling info for DMs who want to make the encounter more or less difficult.The Regions of the WLDAs I mentioned earlier, the WLD is broken into 16 regions, each with its own map and storyline. The storylines of the 16 regions are all interconnected, but it is done so in such a way that you can take one region out and run it on its own. I think this is a very cool way to handle an adventure this large. DMs won't have to run the whole thing straight through if their campaign won't support such an undertaking; they can pick and choose parts of it.In addition to areas controlled by monsters, there are also "safe" rooms buit in where the PCs can recuperate in relative safety. All of these are in the dungeon in a way that fits in with the logic of the location.The 16 maps all connect and can be laid out and one giant, wall-sized map (<a href="http://www.worldslargestdungeon.com/aeg_worldslargestdungeon.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>). The "outside" of the dungeon has passageways that lead off to areas not detailed, allowing creative DMs room to customize their WLD experience, or allowing them ways to get higher-level characters into regions built for more powerful characters, thus avoiding the regions for lower level characters (e.g. Region A, designed for levels 1 - 3). That's pretty good foresight on the part of the designers.Anyway, back to the regions. So far, I've read Region A, and parts of Regions B & C. They're pretty trap intensive, with Region C have more puzzle traps. A party with no rogues probably won't survive. The creatures in the Regions aren't just there as dungeon dressing, either. They are there for a reason, and the WLD goes into details on why they're there and what they're going to do about encountering the party. Some, like the fiendish stirges, are just out to suck blood. Others, like the orcs in Region A, are trapped in the dungeon and will cooperate with willing parties to some extent, assume the PCs don't just slaughter them out of hand.The idea of cooperation between humanoids and PCs is taken a step further in Region B, where rival faction of goblinoids are fighting for control and power. I look forward to seeing if my players will throw in with one of the factions, or just start killing them all.Region C is looking pretty cool so far. I've only started to skim it, but I've already seen an area that was built by celestials to test one's rightousness as well as an encounter featuring two iconic creatures that reeks of coolness in a wicked, PC-surprising way. I won't give away any spoilers, though.These are all the regions I've had the time to look at in depth. I've skimmed the rest of the book and have thus far, been satisfied that the way dragons are incorporated into the dungeon. Speaking of monsters, not every creature in the SRD is included, per se. They have every type represented. E.G. There is a dinosaur, but not all the dinosaurs. There's a few dragons, but not every dragon.ConclusionThe WLD is a huge undertaking for any group. I did notice a few errors, particularly in some room descriptions where they've been written as though the PCs enter from one direction, but there are multiple entrances to the room. But, these errors don't detract much from the enjoyment factor of this product. As I've mentioned, it's mind-bogglingly huge, and I can only imagine the amount of effort editing this monster was. I've seen more errors in TSR products (during the lean years of the mid-90's) that are half the size of but one region. A lot of people will balk at the $100 price, but astute shoppers can get this at substantial savings from online vendors. If you look at it from the prospective of 16 different dungeons (since each region can be run as a stand-alone adventure), then $100 breaks down to a reasonable $6.25 per region. If you want to challenge your players with a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl, the The World's Largest Dungeon is a good investment and will keep you busy for several years.</blockquote>

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