Webster's blog listings. Feed Zend_Feed_Writer 1.10.8 (http://framework.zend.com) http://community.wizards.com/webster Let's Review: Alternity Part 2: Player's Handbook
As my post claimed earlier, at the time the Alternity books were the most colorful game books to date. What's neat was the covers of the two core books created a larger mural.

The book starts with the obligitory "What is Roleplaying" section that most people who play RPGs would skip over.

A formating note; Most RPGs have two columns at most per page. Alternity used three columns. This reminded me of the early red box set D&D games. It's a nice touch, but too often words are broken. If the word can't fit the line, it should have been moved down to the next line. The more I look, the more noticeable the breaks are.

After the introduction is Chapter 1: fast play rules. I've covered much of this from the previous post. The fast play rules were a quick introduction to the most basic elements of the Alternity game. The GM book has the corresponding adventure, also as Chapter 1.

The fast play rules contained pre-generated characters. It was also available in an "intro to Alternity RPG" box. And if I remember right, the fast play game was also an insert in Dragon Magazine.

Chapter 2 covers Hero Creation. It introduced a few "races" (Aliens) that players might want to try out. The idea of playing just a human, when most folks were used to playing dwarves or elves seemed boring at the time, I suppose.

Chapter 3: Heroes in Action covers the basics of how to play, how damage is handled and so on.

Next up is the chapter on Skills. Skills can be broad, or specialty. You must have a broad skill before you can specialize.

The rest of the book covers standard RPG things such as perks and flaws, equipment, vehicles, weapons and armor, and computers. Alternity PHB also has a chapter on mutants, cybernetics, and psionics.

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]]> Sat, 27 Apr 2013 04:50:16 -0500 http://community.wizards.com/webster/blog/2013/04/27/lets_review:_alternity_part_2:_players_handbook http://community.wizards.com/webster/blog/2013/04/27/lets_review:_alternity_part_2:_players_handbook
As my post claimed earlier, at the time the Alternity books were the most colorful game books to date. What's neat was the covers of the two core books created a larger mural.

The book starts with the obligitory "What is Roleplaying" section that most people who play RPGs would skip over.

A formating note; Most RPGs have two columns at most per page. Alternity used three columns. This reminded me of the early red box set D&D games. It's a nice touch, but too often words are broken. If the word can't fit the line, it should have been moved down to the next line. The more I look, the more noticeable the breaks are.

After the introduction is Chapter 1: fast play rules. I've covered much of this from the previous post. The fast play rules were a quick introduction to the most basic elements of the Alternity game. The GM book has the corresponding adventure, also as Chapter 1.

The fast play rules contained pre-generated characters. It was also available in an "intro to Alternity RPG" box. And if I remember right, the fast play game was also an insert in Dragon Magazine.

Chapter 2 covers Hero Creation. It introduced a few "races" (Aliens) that players might want to try out. The idea of playing just a human, when most folks were used to playing dwarves or elves seemed boring at the time, I suppose.

Chapter 3: Heroes in Action covers the basics of how to play, how damage is handled and so on.

Next up is the chapter on Skills. Skills can be broad, or specialty. You must have a broad skill before you can specialize.

The rest of the book covers standard RPG things such as perks and flaws, equipment, vehicles, weapons and armor, and computers. Alternity PHB also has a chapter on mutants, cybernetics, and psionics.

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]]> 0 Let's Review: Alternity Part 1: Player's Handbook
When it came out, it had the highest price point for an RPG to that date. At $29.99 each for the PHB and the Gamemaster's Guide, the books were also the most colorful. The production value is very high for the core books.

Alternity can be seen as a pre-cursor to d20 and even d20 Modern, (the latter which would include story elements, characters and settings from Alternity.)

The dice system for skill checks and such was a bit funky. You rolled a control die of d20, and then added or subtracted a situational die. The problem with the system was the goal was to always roll low. Traditionally, rolling a 20 on a d20 was a good thing and rolling a 1 was very bad. Here, rolling a 1 was desireable. The control die and situational die were rolled and added together, and compared to a target number.

Worse, because of this setup Alternity had the same problem some mechanics in early versions of D&D had was that a "bonus" was subtracted rather than added, and penalties were added. It's counter intuitive. If your boss said you earned a bonus this year, you wouldn't expect him to take money out of your paycheck.

The situational die could be adjusted by steps as well. You could improve a d4 to a d6 if the GM thinks you have a situational advantage (or bonus). Likewise, you may end up rolling with a step penalty, in which you'd look down the table a number of steps. Say the bad guy has good cover, the GM might rule you have a 3 step penalty to hit. Now instead of a -d4 bonus, you might end up with a +d6 penalty.

In addition, there's a degree of success. There are five degrees. Most of the time the positive three were noted. Ordinary, Good and Amazing. If you hit with an attack, depending on what you rolled, you could roll for more damage. A D&D short sword may be 1d6 for everyone, but in Alternity, if you roll well, you could end up doing more damage, and if you rolled an Amazing attack, still more, and may even change the catgeory of damage. (Short sword in Alternity, on an ordinary roll, d4 wound damage, on a good result d6 wound damage and on an amazing attack roll, d6+2. (I say here again, a plus in this instance is a good thing, but most of the time it's bad. Very confusing.)

There are three types of damage in Alternity, Stun, Wound and Mortal.

As you can see, it can get complicated rather quickly. But, let me throw in one more stat example to show how it flows.

A character has these as skills:
Modern Ranged Weapons   13/6/3
      Pistol     Rank 1             14/7/3

Now, if the character uses any sort of modern ranged weapon such as a shotgun, they would roll a d20 and use a base situational die of +d4. Using a pistol, however, only a d20 would be rolled as the specialty in pistols would have a base situational die of d0.

The first number before the slash is to get an ordinary result, the middle for a good result and the third for amazing.

Let's say this character uses a pistol. A roll of 15 or higher is a miss. 14 or lower is an ordinary hit, 7 or lower is good and if the roll is above a 3, it's an amazing result.

For a pistol, (.38 revolver) damage is listed as d4w/d4+1w/d4m. The letters indicate what type of damage (stun, wound, mortal) is done.

BLAM! A 5 is rolled in the first round, a good result, so d4+1 of wound damage is done.

BLAM! A 3 is rolled this turn (The dice think they're playing D&D and are rolling low on purpose!), good enough for an Amazing result, and d4 mortal damage is done this round.

That's the basics of the game mechanics. The PHB has plenty of other topics as well.

The first part has fast play rules to get into the action. Character creation follows and introduces a number of "new" races. Sure, one can play a human, but RPGs allow other races to be played.

Since it's a science fiction game, fantasy races such as dwarves and elves won't do. Aliens are introduced as playable characters.

The skill system is flexable, but unfortunately some key rules are burried in the paragraphs, rather than clearly laid out. There are broad skills, and specialty skills, which can be improved.

The PHB also covers everything from vehicles to computers, mutants to cybertech to psionics. Almost any sci-fi setting can be played. Indeed, many of the Alternity books are inspired by elements from popular sci-fi shows and books.






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]]> Sat, 23 Feb 2013 05:31:37 -0600 http://community.wizards.com/webster/blog/2013/02/23/lets_review:_alternity_part_1:_players_handbook http://community.wizards.com/webster/blog/2013/02/23/lets_review:_alternity_part_1:_players_handbook
When it came out, it had the highest price point for an RPG to that date. At $29.99 each for the PHB and the Gamemaster's Guide, the books were also the most colorful. The production value is very high for the core books.

Alternity can be seen as a pre-cursor to d20 and even d20 Modern, (the latter which would include story elements, characters and settings from Alternity.)

The dice system for skill checks and such was a bit funky. You rolled a control die of d20, and then added or subtracted a situational die. The problem with the system was the goal was to always roll low. Traditionally, rolling a 20 on a d20 was a good thing and rolling a 1 was very bad. Here, rolling a 1 was desireable. The control die and situational die were rolled and added together, and compared to a target number.

Worse, because of this setup Alternity had the same problem some mechanics in early versions of D&D had was that a "bonus" was subtracted rather than added, and penalties were added. It's counter intuitive. If your boss said you earned a bonus this year, you wouldn't expect him to take money out of your paycheck.

The situational die could be adjusted by steps as well. You could improve a d4 to a d6 if the GM thinks you have a situational advantage (or bonus). Likewise, you may end up rolling with a step penalty, in which you'd look down the table a number of steps. Say the bad guy has good cover, the GM might rule you have a 3 step penalty to hit. Now instead of a -d4 bonus, you might end up with a +d6 penalty.

In addition, there's a degree of success. There are five degrees. Most of the time the positive three were noted. Ordinary, Good and Amazing. If you hit with an attack, depending on what you rolled, you could roll for more damage. A D&D short sword may be 1d6 for everyone, but in Alternity, if you roll well, you could end up doing more damage, and if you rolled an Amazing attack, still more, and may even change the catgeory of damage. (Short sword in Alternity, on an ordinary roll, d4 wound damage, on a good result d6 wound damage and on an amazing attack roll, d6+2. (I say here again, a plus in this instance is a good thing, but most of the time it's bad. Very confusing.)

There are three types of damage in Alternity, Stun, Wound and Mortal.

As you can see, it can get complicated rather quickly. But, let me throw in one more stat example to show how it flows.

A character has these as skills:
Modern Ranged Weapons   13/6/3
      Pistol     Rank 1             14/7/3

Now, if the character uses any sort of modern ranged weapon such as a shotgun, they would roll a d20 and use a base situational die of +d4. Using a pistol, however, only a d20 would be rolled as the specialty in pistols would have a base situational die of d0.

The first number before the slash is to get an ordinary result, the middle for a good result and the third for amazing.

Let's say this character uses a pistol. A roll of 15 or higher is a miss. 14 or lower is an ordinary hit, 7 or lower is good and if the roll is above a 3, it's an amazing result.

For a pistol, (.38 revolver) damage is listed as d4w/d4+1w/d4m. The letters indicate what type of damage (stun, wound, mortal) is done.

BLAM! A 5 is rolled in the first round, a good result, so d4+1 of wound damage is done.

BLAM! A 3 is rolled this turn (The dice think they're playing D&D and are rolling low on purpose!), good enough for an Amazing result, and d4 mortal damage is done this round.

That's the basics of the game mechanics. The PHB has plenty of other topics as well.

The first part has fast play rules to get into the action. Character creation follows and introduces a number of "new" races. Sure, one can play a human, but RPGs allow other races to be played.

Since it's a science fiction game, fantasy races such as dwarves and elves won't do. Aliens are introduced as playable characters.

The skill system is flexable, but unfortunately some key rules are burried in the paragraphs, rather than clearly laid out. There are broad skills, and specialty skills, which can be improved.

The PHB also covers everything from vehicles to computers, mutants to cybertech to psionics. Almost any sci-fi setting can be played. Indeed, many of the Alternity books are inspired by elements from popular sci-fi shows and books.






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]]> 0 Be a Better DM: Lesson 1 - The Most Important Rule
Those words have stuck with me my entire D&D playing career. It's not fair to have the first level characters go up against five huge red dragons.

Lately there's been a rash of anti-DM sentiment going around. The phrase "DM May I" is derrogotory. The DM is in fact a very important player. Rule, game, setting, adventure and other decisions lay on the shoulders of the DM. The DM is the person entrusted with running the game. All editions of D&D acknowledge this.

Looking at some of my older modules, the game itself tells the DM to use judgement. If an encounter is too easy, one module advises, add more monsters. Or have monsters from room 22 hear the noise and join the fight. In a multi part adventure, the DM decides when certain events occur.

The core books themselves give full authority over the game to the DM. 3e even gives it a name. "Rule 0". Check with your DM to see if your race/class/whatever is allowed.

And yet some players don't even want there to be a DM. They don't want the DM to tell them what their characters can and can not do. Those folks should play another game, because that is what one of the DM's functions is.

Such players want to automatically succeed. "I want to walk into the lair, and without rolling any dice I jump on the dragons head, even though the dragons is floating 100 feet above me, stab him in the skull with my butter knife, then leave the cave with all 100 million coins and magic items of the hoard."

Why bother playing?

The harsh reality is, sometimes the answer is no. And when these players get a no, like spoiled children, they label the DM a Bad DM.

"I want to play a kender!"
"No, this is Eberron. There are NO kender."
"Bad DM! This game sucks! I can't play what I want."

This anti-DM sentiment seems to have started as role playing games evolved. Early games were a lot of work for the DM, so rules started showing up encouraging letting players help out. "Let the players make up some stuff!"

Eventually, they got the idea that they were the DMs in charge of the game and not the DM himself. 3e was the first version I ever saw players even being allowed to paw through the DMG shopping for magic items. 4e comes along, and suddenly all magic items are in the PHB.

Players helping out is fine. Sometimes you're stuck for an innkeeper's name. But to let the players be the ones running the game? Sorry, no. The DM has Final Authority. Always has, and always will.

I think most DMs are in fact fair. They have to balance a whole world of material. If you take the DM out of the equation, you're left with the classic example of coboys and indians, "Bang! You're dead' 'Am Not!"

As long as we DMs remember the most important rule, players have no reason to think we're terrible people. But, sadly, they'll still think that way if they don't get exactly what they want.
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]]> Mon, 17 Sep 2012 20:33:52 -0500 http://community.wizards.com/webster/blog/2012/09/17/be_a_better_dm:_lesson_1_-_the_most_important_rule http://community.wizards.com/webster/blog/2012/09/17/be_a_better_dm:_lesson_1_-_the_most_important_rule
Those words have stuck with me my entire D&D playing career. It's not fair to have the first level characters go up against five huge red dragons.

Lately there's been a rash of anti-DM sentiment going around. The phrase "DM May I" is derrogotory. The DM is in fact a very important player. Rule, game, setting, adventure and other decisions lay on the shoulders of the DM. The DM is the person entrusted with running the game. All editions of D&D acknowledge this.

Looking at some of my older modules, the game itself tells the DM to use judgement. If an encounter is too easy, one module advises, add more monsters. Or have monsters from room 22 hear the noise and join the fight. In a multi part adventure, the DM decides when certain events occur.

The core books themselves give full authority over the game to the DM. 3e even gives it a name. "Rule 0". Check with your DM to see if your race/class/whatever is allowed.

And yet some players don't even want there to be a DM. They don't want the DM to tell them what their characters can and can not do. Those folks should play another game, because that is what one of the DM's functions is.

Such players want to automatically succeed. "I want to walk into the lair, and without rolling any dice I jump on the dragons head, even though the dragons is floating 100 feet above me, stab him in the skull with my butter knife, then leave the cave with all 100 million coins and magic items of the hoard."

Why bother playing?

The harsh reality is, sometimes the answer is no. And when these players get a no, like spoiled children, they label the DM a Bad DM.

"I want to play a kender!"
"No, this is Eberron. There are NO kender."
"Bad DM! This game sucks! I can't play what I want."

This anti-DM sentiment seems to have started as role playing games evolved. Early games were a lot of work for the DM, so rules started showing up encouraging letting players help out. "Let the players make up some stuff!"

Eventually, they got the idea that they were the DMs in charge of the game and not the DM himself. 3e was the first version I ever saw players even being allowed to paw through the DMG shopping for magic items. 4e comes along, and suddenly all magic items are in the PHB.

Players helping out is fine. Sometimes you're stuck for an innkeeper's name. But to let the players be the ones running the game? Sorry, no. The DM has Final Authority. Always has, and always will.

I think most DMs are in fact fair. They have to balance a whole world of material. If you take the DM out of the equation, you're left with the classic example of coboys and indians, "Bang! You're dead' 'Am Not!"

As long as we DMs remember the most important rule, players have no reason to think we're terrible people. But, sadly, they'll still think that way if they don't get exactly what they want.
0 Comments - Leave a Comment
]]> 0 Let's Review - Forgotten Realms Fest 2012 - 3e Campaign Setting
I did play 3e FR a little bit, but I have to say of all the editions (including 4e), I like the 3e FR campaign setting book the best.

The big draw for me is two fold. First, there's the trade dress. The 3e Forgotten Realms campaign setting does a great job of making the book appear to be a collection of sheets of paper stacked up. My 2e book edges are naturally yellow, but this pre-yellowed versions adds to the effect.

While I'm not overly crazy about the fonts (as I am with Eberron), they are readable.

All the 3e FR books look great. The pages are a good quality paper too. They feel solid and not flimsy at all. They are smooth, unlike the 1e campaign books, but not quite glossy. I would say it's a step or two below glossy. (The pages aren't shiny.)

The yellow-brown tint mutes other colors, but they're still clear on what they're supposed to be. The blues on the maps aren't as vibrant in this edition, for example, but it's still clear the oceans are blue.

The other attraction to the 3e FR campaign book is the information contained inside. This book is packed. I actually picked up more FR books for this edition despite not playing it much simply for the information. I'm also a fan of Neverwinter Nights by Atari, and since the game engine used the same 3e rules, I figured I could use all those helpful books for making modules. (I'm still trying to figure out scripting, though.)

There is plenty to like about the book itself. As with other editions, there's the alphabets of the realms, characters of the realms and so on. The grand tour is simply "Geography" this time out.

There are edition specific rules of course, but this doesn't get in the way in the geography chapter, which is the bulk of the book.

I like the photo of the portal on page 60. It shows a bluish swampy area with steps up to a doorway in the middle of nowhere. Through the doorway, dragons can be seen flying around a mountain. The red tint on that side of the portal indicates either heat, or sunset. It's clear this is a place that is far, far away.

The section on domains made me realize there's more to cleric domains than I first thought.

Page 86 has the familiar alphabets, but sadly it isn't attatched to any translating character that we'd be familiar with. (You have to count 13 characters to figure out which one is M in dwarven.)

Pages 88/89 has yet another map of the Realms, but this is a trade routes map. It shows what country/area exports what good to whichever other area. Sure, we've read text that says wool and gems are exported from area B, but it's something else to see the trade routes in action. Wool from area B goes to area A, while gems goes to area C. In addition to the "regular" poster map, it would have been nice to have a second poster map with this information.

The big change in this version was the planes, and how they were organized/worked. Gone was the Great Wheel. Now the planes were more like a tree.

All in all, the 3e FR campaign setting is a very solid product, with enough information to run games for years to come.

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]]> Sat, 14 Jul 2012 03:42:56 -0500 http://community.wizards.com/webster/blog/2012/07/14/lets_review_-_forgotten_realms_fest_2012_-_3e_campaign_setting http://community.wizards.com/webster/blog/2012/07/14/lets_review_-_forgotten_realms_fest_2012_-_3e_campaign_setting
I did play 3e FR a little bit, but I have to say of all the editions (including 4e), I like the 3e FR campaign setting book the best.

The big draw for me is two fold. First, there's the trade dress. The 3e Forgotten Realms campaign setting does a great job of making the book appear to be a collection of sheets of paper stacked up. My 2e book edges are naturally yellow, but this pre-yellowed versions adds to the effect.

While I'm not overly crazy about the fonts (as I am with Eberron), they are readable.

All the 3e FR books look great. The pages are a good quality paper too. They feel solid and not flimsy at all. They are smooth, unlike the 1e campaign books, but not quite glossy. I would say it's a step or two below glossy. (The pages aren't shiny.)

The yellow-brown tint mutes other colors, but they're still clear on what they're supposed to be. The blues on the maps aren't as vibrant in this edition, for example, but it's still clear the oceans are blue.

The other attraction to the 3e FR campaign book is the information contained inside. This book is packed. I actually picked up more FR books for this edition despite not playing it much simply for the information. I'm also a fan of Neverwinter Nights by Atari, and since the game engine used the same 3e rules, I figured I could use all those helpful books for making modules. (I'm still trying to figure out scripting, though.)

There is plenty to like about the book itself. As with other editions, there's the alphabets of the realms, characters of the realms and so on. The grand tour is simply "Geography" this time out.

There are edition specific rules of course, but this doesn't get in the way in the geography chapter, which is the bulk of the book.

I like the photo of the portal on page 60. It shows a bluish swampy area with steps up to a doorway in the middle of nowhere. Through the doorway, dragons can be seen flying around a mountain. The red tint on that side of the portal indicates either heat, or sunset. It's clear this is a place that is far, far away.

The section on domains made me realize there's more to cleric domains than I first thought.

Page 86 has the familiar alphabets, but sadly it isn't attatched to any translating character that we'd be familiar with. (You have to count 13 characters to figure out which one is M in dwarven.)

Pages 88/89 has yet another map of the Realms, but this is a trade routes map. It shows what country/area exports what good to whichever other area. Sure, we've read text that says wool and gems are exported from area B, but it's something else to see the trade routes in action. Wool from area B goes to area A, while gems goes to area C. In addition to the "regular" poster map, it would have been nice to have a second poster map with this information.

The big change in this version was the planes, and how they were organized/worked. Gone was the Great Wheel. Now the planes were more like a tree.

All in all, the 3e FR campaign setting is a very solid product, with enough information to run games for years to come.

0 Comments - Leave a Comment
]]> 0 Let's Review - Forgotten Realms Fest 2012 - 2e Campaign Setting
The look and feel of the books are different than the previous version. For starters, the pages are white with black text. There is also a splash of color. Not full color but dark blue is used for the headings, and the pattern at the top of every page.  Sidebards are shaded blue. Back then, having any color at all was a big deal, as most RPG books were nothing but black and white. The color gave the books personality.

The first book is the 128 page "A Grand Tour Of The Realms", and it follows the tradition of the 1st edition's Cyclopedia, but the Grand Tour does so in large sections rather than individual entries. Cormyr has a section, rather than just a paragraph, for example. Cities have maps similar to, if not recycled from 1e's maps. Whole areas are described, which is very nice. Gone however are Elminster's notes.

 Next up is the Running the Realms book. 64 pages of DM advice as well as listing major NPCs. Drizzt makes an appearance here. What's handy is that all the names have pronouncing guides. (Drist Doe-URR-den). The previous version also had pronouncers and in those days, it was always welcome especially since writers then tried to come up with the weirdest letter combinations and unprononceable names.

The thrid book is 96 pages of Shadowdale goodness. Often mentioned but not detailed at that point, this book is full of info on the area, and includes an adventure set in Elminster's stomping ground.

The back of the Shadowdale book has at that point the up to date FR Bibliography - Listing of all the FR books, products and accessories. (This sort of thing makes me chuckle at folks who complain about WotC's release schedule. WotC doesn't put out nearly enough products as TSR did back in the day.)

Ah... boxed sets. They were useful to holding all kinds of goodies, and this set held more than the three books. Also included here are 6 card sheets of trail signs, symbols, magic symbols, god symbols and so on, all in color. These weren't pre-cut cards either. Nor are they perforated. The card backs describe what's on the front, so you can show a kobold's symbol for "Safe trail ahead" to the players. They're cute, but pretty much worthless. No, I never bothered to cut up the cards.

Just as the first set, there are two plastic sheets with hexes on them for use on the maps. The maps are much, much more colorful and more filled in. My previous review describes one panel of a map, and to contrast here, this map shows where the deeper water is, it's added the Friendly Arm, the roads are now named. The colors are very vibrant in this set.

And finally, there are 8 Monsterous Compendium sheets. These were monsters printed on pages with holes to put in a binder. While it sounds like a good idea in that you only had to take the monster pages you wanted with you to the game rather than a whole binder, the holes often tore out of the binder. (Not in my set here as I never put them in the binder. Besides, with my MC 1 and 2, I laminated each and every page. These pages weren't so treated.)

Problems arise if you want your entire binder to be in any sort of alphabetical order. One sheet from this set has a Lock Lurker on one side, and a Naga, Dark on the other. What if you got a new FR monster that started with the letter M? You couldn't put it between those two monsters.

All in all, it's not a bad set. It had a different style and feel from the first version. It lacks the "2nd edition" logo, and it was released in the later years of 2e.

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]]> Sun, 01 Jul 2012 04:16:15 -0500 http://community.wizards.com/webster/blog/2012/07/01/lets_review_-_forgotten_realms_fest_2012_-_2e_campaign_setting http://community.wizards.com/webster/blog/2012/07/01/lets_review_-_forgotten_realms_fest_2012_-_2e_campaign_setting
The look and feel of the books are different than the previous version. For starters, the pages are white with black text. There is also a splash of color. Not full color but dark blue is used for the headings, and the pattern at the top of every page.  Sidebards are shaded blue. Back then, having any color at all was a big deal, as most RPG books were nothing but black and white. The color gave the books personality.

The first book is the 128 page "A Grand Tour Of The Realms", and it follows the tradition of the 1st edition's Cyclopedia, but the Grand Tour does so in large sections rather than individual entries. Cormyr has a section, rather than just a paragraph, for example. Cities have maps similar to, if not recycled from 1e's maps. Whole areas are described, which is very nice. Gone however are Elminster's notes.

 Next up is the Running the Realms book. 64 pages of DM advice as well as listing major NPCs. Drizzt makes an appearance here. What's handy is that all the names have pronouncing guides. (Drist Doe-URR-den). The previous version also had pronouncers and in those days, it was always welcome especially since writers then tried to come up with the weirdest letter combinations and unprononceable names.

The thrid book is 96 pages of Shadowdale goodness. Often mentioned but not detailed at that point, this book is full of info on the area, and includes an adventure set in Elminster's stomping ground.

The back of the Shadowdale book has at that point the up to date FR Bibliography - Listing of all the FR books, products and accessories. (This sort of thing makes me chuckle at folks who complain about WotC's release schedule. WotC doesn't put out nearly enough products as TSR did back in the day.)

Ah... boxed sets. They were useful to holding all kinds of goodies, and this set held more than the three books. Also included here are 6 card sheets of trail signs, symbols, magic symbols, god symbols and so on, all in color. These weren't pre-cut cards either. Nor are they perforated. The card backs describe what's on the front, so you can show a kobold's symbol for "Safe trail ahead" to the players. They're cute, but pretty much worthless. No, I never bothered to cut up the cards.

Just as the first set, there are two plastic sheets with hexes on them for use on the maps. The maps are much, much more colorful and more filled in. My previous review describes one panel of a map, and to contrast here, this map shows where the deeper water is, it's added the Friendly Arm, the roads are now named. The colors are very vibrant in this set.

And finally, there are 8 Monsterous Compendium sheets. These were monsters printed on pages with holes to put in a binder. While it sounds like a good idea in that you only had to take the monster pages you wanted with you to the game rather than a whole binder, the holes often tore out of the binder. (Not in my set here as I never put them in the binder. Besides, with my MC 1 and 2, I laminated each and every page. These pages weren't so treated.)

Problems arise if you want your entire binder to be in any sort of alphabetical order. One sheet from this set has a Lock Lurker on one side, and a Naga, Dark on the other. What if you got a new FR monster that started with the letter M? You couldn't put it between those two monsters.

All in all, it's not a bad set. It had a different style and feel from the first version. It lacks the "2nd edition" logo, and it was released in the later years of 2e.

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