Bruce R. CordellCritiques

I ran this using an alternate online rules set that I made up. It's kind of a slog to read through. The entries for each room are way too long, I would hate to run it at a table, trying to take all that text in while everyone's waiting. It's really a dungeon crawl with an overall reason why crazy stuff is happening in the dungeon. Which is better than just a dungeon crawl where there's no overall reason for the whole thing, but I'm not that into dungeon crawls. Lot of empty rooms and a lot of rooms that don't really add to the story. Lots of traps.

The art was nice, though the cover art is kind of ridiculous.

This is my 3rd D&D player's handbook and I really like how they've gone back to a more traditional feel to the game while still allowing for (and giving support to) DMs and Players who are used to the miniatures and tiles based play of 4th edition. I'm excited to start DMing under 5e in the coming weeks.

Much improved from the previous editions. Much easier to deal with!

A very interesting campaign take that includes the original tomb of horrors. I found this to be evocative, although it is very grisly and dark.

I was a die-hard fan of 3.5e for a long time but 5e seems to be a worthy successor! I really enjoyed this handbook and look forward to giving it a spin.

I started playing in times of AD&D 2e and this system was unnecessarily complex even then and the worldbuilding was absolutely minimal. So when 3.5e came around it was very refreshing, books looked inviting, it felt epic, and it gave a sense of the world that adventures happen. 5e takes it to the next level - mechanics are simplified, but it doesn't limit player's options; the book is full of story hooks and many are baked into character creation (read: mandatory); it provides glimpses of different settings and sets basic themes of each (multiverse in the 1st core book!).

5e seems to be fast and intuitive mechanic-wise and gives a lot of inspiration for both DM and PCs to build an epic story. It gives a variety of options to chose from and basically everything you need to start playing (even without other core books). A lot of OP combos, powers, and spells seem to be nerfed or eliminated, so I hope for a balanced play where every choice (race/class/etc.) gives a player an awesome experience.

My only issue with this book is the lack of a short core mechanics summary. The index is very poor and frustrating, there is no glossary (like in 3.5e), and the book is full of "You will learn more about it in Chapter X". So when you want a summary of what the Proficiency Bonus is for, you need to skip through 4 different chapters of the handbook to get a full picture.½

Yes I sometimes sit down and read a D&D supplemental rulebook cover to cover. Wanna fight about it?

Guys, that's official. I'm addicted to DnD.

The 3.5 edition (rules adopted by Pathfinder) version of the iconic Castle Ravenloft adventure, this book includes materials to make a fairly long campaign for mid to high level players. A good portion of the book is devoted to the maps and layout of encounters and Castle Ravenloft in particular, so there isn't as much Ravenloft information and lore as I would have liked (which is fair enough as this isn't necessarily a campaign setting). It does provide variations on how to run with adventure, with other materials being npcs, towns, events etc. It's what one would expect to see in any pre-made adventure, but larger.

What I do enjoy is that Expedition here varies in some content from the 5e edition, Curse of Strahd. NPC's in both also have some differences. If you don't mind converting, you can merge the material from both editions to expand the total adventure. Running Curse right now, I'm feeding material in and I can say that I feel there are certain things that Expedition does better. The story and material surrounding Donivich and Doru is much more interesting in Expedition, and NPCs like Kavan the Grim or Madame Eva have altered roles or motivations. I kept Curse's Madame Eva but brought in Expedition's Kavan, as well as an encounter at a locale in Expedition that was empty in Curse. They merge well.

For anyone looking to run Ravenloft, I would also recommend reading a few of the books, especially [I, Strahd] by P. N. Elrod to get a better feel for the lore and history, even if it's non-canon. I found setting lore lacking in the adventures alone. Knowing more of Strahd's perspective on his own history (canon or not) also helps to add more dimension to his actions and motivations in my opinion.½

I simply could not finish this. It seems to be forgotten realms thing more than anything. Every FR book I've read has been so cliched and filled with descriptions that made me roll my eyes, but some have had a story that actually interested me. Sadly, this series just doesn't.

I suspect if you like FR stuff, you'll like this. I just can't seem to get into FR and so I think I won't be reading anymore in this universe. I leave it to those who love it :)

A typical Forgotten Realms book. Not good enough to get excited about, but not bad enough to stop reading the series.

I really enjoyed the War of the Spiderqueen and the Lady Penitent series, so knowing that this series follows up the demise of Mystra, that is the main draw for me.

Possibly the best D&D edition so far crawls out of its baby bed. It's still to soon for this baby to grapple with its elders but the die has been cast with force. The newest D&D has new things that seem so fundamental in retrospect it's hard to realize they haven't always been there. Full review coming up on my blog.

As an avid table-top RPG player, I found this latest edition of DnD to be the best yet to come out of Wizards of the Coast. Granted I have only dabbled in 1st and 2nd edition, but playing 3rd, 3.5, and 4th for the past 11 years or so, this 5th edition book seems to take all the good things in the last few tries and compiles them all together into this version. It was an enjoyable read especially if you read it out loud as I did to my newborn daughter.
Now for a little uber-nerdom fan talk - If you follow RPG politics you may know that a lot of 4th edition DnD game designers jumped ship over the past couple years to make their own kickstarter games like Numenera and 13th Age. It's rumored that they did this because they wanted to get back to basics but Wizards of the Coast wasn't having it because it's hard to make a "back to basics" RPG profitable. Having played these recent offshoots for the past couple years now, you can tell that Wizards of the Coast took the hint and decided to get back to their roots a bit and incorporate more "theater of the mind" and storytelling elements into their game mechanics. This is a good thing in my opinion, but some of it seems a bit borrowed. Numenera for instance, has a random roll list of bizarre items that you might come across as a player. The items tend to be weird and quirky, like a two headed cat fetus in a jar for instance. These items are called oddities and add a bit of strangeness to the world but rarely do they serve any real tactical advantage. That's ok because Numenera isn't really about combat, it's about discovery. DnD is however about combat a majority of the time This new version of DnD happens to included a random roll list called "trinkets" which appears to be very similar to the Numenera concept. When I came across the trinkets page in the new edition of this player's handbook it seems a little out of place. Wizards of the Coast also added the idea of "bonds" which seems to be directly drawn from 13th Age. I find this funny because these are probably the kind of concepts that Monte Cook and Rob Heinsoo wanted to incorporate into DnD before they left. Regardless of these interesting asides, the book is well put together, well edited, and contains decent art that isn't too cartoony. I look forward to checking out the new Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide soon. I have also been given a reprieve from DMing by my players since we have a new edition to the family and I don't have a lot time to plan out adventures. So another brave soul is DMing for now and I'm really looking forward to playing through this new system over the next year or so.

Basic guide to designing alternate worlds for campaign settings; useful even if you used a different game system.

The first adventure for 4E is ... the same.

Have you ever wonder where your magic sword has been forged from? Or,if there is something more your magic ring, staff, etc. could do? Maybe it is part of a set of magic items worn by the most feared wizard of all times. Weapons of Legacy can help you discover and unleash the power of magic that could be lurking in every item. Dungeon Masters don’t be afraid to let your party members have a magic sword, because you think they will be to powerful. Weapons of Legacy allow level appropriate powers to unleashed at the right times. The book gives ideas for how to quest for that hidden power. Add to a players gaming experience by allowing special trinkets to drop during the treasure looting.

Sandstorm has something in it for both the players and Dungeon Masters. Players can design characters with new prestige classes, abilities and spells. Dungeon Masters can design dungeons with new terrain types, along with combat rules to adjust for fighting on and in sandy terrain. As well as having new monster to add to dungeons! Don’t get lost in Sandstorm, find your way to a bookstore or library and read it.

Very pretty, but not a very good adventure. It would be worth two stars except has too many elements that are inappropriate in a Dark Sun adventure.

A collection of ideas for using the undead in 4th Edition D&D. It includes spells, magic items, artifacts, and lairs that can be integrated into a campaign, and some interesting metaphysical exposition. The bestiary is oddly ordered, with the actual whys and wherefores at the end of each section, necessitating that you read it backward in order to place a creature's attributes in context. An interesting read that sparked a few ideas for my own game.

So much information. To their credit, the writers of this new edition, had their task set out for them. I can't imagine how hard it would be to take this world that dozens of other books have already been written about and then cram it all into one book. That being said, this book is mostly just flavor text. A small amount of information about a great many different lands. At least there were a few pieces of hard details to use. I guess more will be available in the players guide.

The best part of the novel is Telarian, the supposed villain. In a misguided attempt to help, the diviner causes a great deal more trouble than he realizes. This is a good example of how the ends don’t always justify the means. Cordell really plumbs the depth of what that means, and how a misguided attempt at doing good can do so much harm to so many. To tell you more would ruin the novel, but in this one, our heroes and villains, while identifiable, all have bits of good and bits of darkness in them. It’s a yin and yang fantasy. In its style, content, characterization and all other elements, the entire novel shows that there is a little bit of good in everything (actions, words, deeds) as well as a little bit of bad.

Forgotten Realms fans will enjoy Stardeep. Those who love novels with elves will drool over this one. I recommend this as a good shared-world novel. It has fun action, unique characters, and a setting little explored, even by other Forgotten Realms authors. And if you enjoy it, Cordell has announced that this is not the end of Stardeep's characters. His next novel will continue their stories. I for one am looking forward to it.

Full Review at Grasping for the Wind½

This is a book dealing with other planes (or dimensions and worlds) for the D&D 3rd Ed. roleplaying game. I found it to be interesting and pretty inspirational. The art alone was pretty evocative, but if you like D&D and "many worlds" type settings then you don't need just the art to fall back on. However I'm given to understand that there is a more recently updated version with some rules changes which has superceeded it.

- Peter K.

Never before have brain-eating, mind-dominating, slime-coated cephalapoids been portrayed in such rich detail. These guys are non-player characters, and terribly bad folks, but this book details their biological and cultural quirks in such a way that they fascinate me anyway.

Good going Bruce Cordell.

- Peter K.½

An audio review of this source book is available in Nuketown Radio Active #9: http://www.nuketown.com/podcast/radioactive/9