The latest installment in RSP's acclaimed Dungeon Dressing-line is 13 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement, 2 pages editorial, 1 page ToC/foreword, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with a total of 6 pages of content, so let's check this out!
Not much gets players as excited as the treasure chest at the end of the dungeon - and here we get the tools to make them truly memorable. Following the series' tradition, we kick off with rules for compositions of the respective things, this time featuring all the hardness and hp for e.g. adamantine or darkwood chests neatly listed along sample lock-DCs, volumes, weight and cost modifiers etc. Supremely useful!
The first table provides us with 47 different entries on interesting characteristics that includes being actually two chests in one, lead-lining, openings hidden n ornamental skulls etc., with several of the characteristics actually having rules-repercussions. Speaking of rules repercussions - the massive list of 98(plus roll twice/thrice) Dressings also sports this nice peculiarity: Creaking hinges, half hit points, fake green slime, triggered traps - a neat and evocative selection.
And then there is the "bonus"-section of the file, in which we get rather interesting options for the dungeon dressing-line: First would be a multi-round, complex pit trap that is filled with molten metal from inside the chest - OUCH! The second trap is no less cool, animating the chest as a construct that tries to swallow you whole - stats, of course, provided! Better yet, the pdf also features a new creature the alluring mimic, a variant of the base creature that comes with an alluring song as well as a nice piece of original b/w-artwork.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to RSP's 2-column standard and the pdf comes in 2 different versions, with one optimized for screen use and one to be printed out. The pdfs come fully bookmarked.
Author Eric Hindley has created a great addition to the Dungeon Dressing-line, which, via its cool and devious bonus material made me cackle with glee. While I would have liked to see more shielding properties or contingencies vs. magic/unusual materials in the dressings, that is nagging at the highest level and should not deter you from Eric's excellent contribution to the series. My final verdict will be 5 stars, but sans the seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist out.
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