This is a great resource for anyone wanting to write their own materials or just to help finesse some published adventures. I stepped into the role of DM about 1 1/2 years ago and have been running a weekly game plus a couple one-shots per month. I've relied on other's materials for those but have found as I become more skilled and comfortable in my role that I want the freedom to move in my own directions; I just want to do it really well so my players are happy. This resource was recommended in a video on how to create a strong adventure so I came to check it out. It is worth every penny to me. So much so that I also purchased the book from their website and am anxiously awaiting it.
This isn't just a book of role tables but those are what I have already spent time diving into. I don't believe I could simply roll and an adventure would magically create itself but the inspiration and ideas really get your creativity flowing and the adventure/encounters almost feel like they are writing themselves. I created my first one-shot by using these roll tables and some advice from the book and my players had a blast!
This is a great resource and is easy to use. It isn't solely roll tables although those are many and vast. It also includes the basics you need to know about how to create an adventure including different types, varying the play to include all the pillars, motivations for your players to get involved etc. I'll be recommending this to anyone who runs the game!

I'd give this 4.5 if I could. It's a fantastic product with more inspiration than I could use in a lifetime, whether you are looking to flesh out something specific, or create and adventure or dungeon procedurally. For that it deserves a 5 star.

My small gripe is the sometimes inconsistent editing of the headings and how they are referenced in the table of contents. The sections that have the same level in a table of contents sometimes don't have the same header text size. And sometimes the section text in the table of contents does not match the header text on the page it references exactly.

Further to that, the bookmarks in the PDF are a huge mess. There are duplicate bookmarks, some out of order, and some nested when others that should the same heading level are not.

Navigating a tome of this size digitally would be far easier with consistent headings stylings, and digital bookmarking.

This is a fantastic resource for game masters. The random tables will help get you out of any recurring ruts or stories that you find yourself falling into while also leaving you plenty of room to flesh out the story and chase squirrels. This book will not write the whole adventure for you but it will give you interesting threads for your imagination to start weaving together something fun. When your players spill wine and chocolate all over your tapestry of awesome ... well, just roll with it.

As others note, this is a collection of tables that you can use to jumpstart your brain to write adventures. I participated in the Kickstarter and freely admit to being quite skeptical about it when it arrived but after giving it a read, I decided to give it a go and see how it works. Turns out it's a very clever collection of tables indeed and after a couple of weeks I have two complete adventures I am really pleased with, that no way I could have come up with myself. It's very useful and I am a convert. Just give it a good go. Interestingly the end adventures I completed aren't really the results I rolled up but gave enough guidance for me to work through my own ideas.

I really like this book and am happy to recommend. Glad I have the hardback though - it's a monster!

Nothing but collected random "plot" tables. Worthless. The writing is best described as pretentious. The book misses the "comprehensive" mark by a mile. Sadly, refunds aren't possible.

As a resource, this book is definitely 10 out of 10. This is a gold mine of inspiration and ideas. However, there are two things that prevent me from giving this masterpiece 5 stars: (1) The fonts are so small. I have no idea how the physical book would look like, but I read mostly in PDF. And wow. It's so hard to read even on a 1080 monitor. I can't imagine this being easy to read on phones and tablets either. (2) So much wasted space. Many of the pages have unused space. Leading me to think; if they made the fonts bigger, the page count would not change at all. The smaller font is definitely not to save ink because most of the pages have this horrendous black side panel. I have no idea why they made this great resource so hard to read.

The only reason I can tolerate them is because the actual content is just that good. I'm just so disappointed by how inconvenient it is to use. If you can tolerate the small font, it's definitely a must-buy.

This book is a treasure. As you may have read in other reviews, it is a book of tables. that may sound unimpressive at first, but everything about this book is genius. It acts as a catalyst for your imagination in far too many ways for me to elaborate on here in this review. Whether you are designing a story, villains, plots, creating NPC's, towns, locales, monsters, and yes dungeons… The book breaks everything down into sections and you can work on whatever aspect of your adventure you want to focus on. I have had so much fun using this… That's something I haven't heard a lot of people say … It is so incredibly fun! For example, I have really enjoyed just sitting down on the front porch at night with a glass of wine and dice and using the monster section to randomly create bizarre, terrifying, and fantastical demons, beasts, and monsters that are unique and unlike any other creature I have seen in other RPG books! I then sketch out what they look like based on the framework the tables gave me to work with. Every section of the book gives you this kind of creative process, and aside from its practical nature, it is ridiculously fun. I backed the last kickstarter and can't wait for the hardcover to arrive.

Okay, this book is basically just a bunch of random tables to help you generate adventures, monsters, items, etc. for a fantasy setting. It's basically just a massive collection of Oracles (to use the Ironsworn lingo).

That being said, it's an incredible collection of oracles and just gets your brain turning. The biggest issue I have is that the tables are not hyperlinked in the document, so expect a lot of page-flipping. Though considering all the references between tables, it would probably just be web-app at that point...

Art is minimal but that's fine. Most tables have multiple columns and require multiple percentatile dice to roll. Every table just needs percentile dice, so you don't need to track multiple die types and can easily get away with a random number generator if you want. The whole thing is just crammed full of content.

I'd say this is highly recommended! But just be ready for the creative overload you will get as you go into this. I suggest that you start small and don't try to skim through the whole thing like I did the first time

I love this book so much I have two copies: the original and this new revised version. The random tables are as copious and useful as ever, and the new "apophenia engine" (where lists of random words and phrases fill the margins to jump-start your creativity) is a cool and unique feature. It's visually appealling if nothing else, and so far I have found additional inspiration in it enough times that I'm glad I have it.

With or without the apophenia engine, this is the kind of book that you will use again and again and again. And then again after that. There are tables for designing just about anything you'll ever need for your fantasy RPG game. I have a lot of other design/random table books, but this is the one I use most and the one I turn to first. If you only buy one book of RPG design material, this has got to be the one.

I have a print copy of the original and backed for a print & pdf copy of this book. This book is wonderful not just for the prospepective game master, but also for the rpg soloist. Filled with advice and more random tables than you can shake a stick at, it really helps when your creativity needs a bit of a kickstart or, for soloists, filling in the blanks. I truly think this is one book every GM/Soloist should own, I don't think you can go wrong here and very much worth every cent. I can't wait to get my hands on the print copy.

This book really helps me to escape when I'm stuck creatively. I already have the first version in hardback and the revised version was an insta-back.

Sometimes the hardest part of creating an adventure is getting started. It can be intimidating to forge new paths and this book helps get those free-association neurons firing. Not only will this tool give you eye opening twists and turns to your stories, but will keep your players constantly wondering what happens next. I love the way it collaborates with the GM to raise their game and narrative. I also run non-DND campaigns like Mothership and Blades in the Dark and use this to add texture to those games too by converting the spirit of this book to whatever environment we're in. Love it.

I have had the previous versions of the TOAD (Tome of Advenute Design) from Frog God Games, but this is Matt Finch's Mythmere's revised version. It is both expanded and updated. It has 514 pages all told and what makes this version really different is along the sides of the pages are a column with thematic words to get the old creative juices jump started. The first chapter is all about starting, then chapter two is about Monsters, chapter 3 is about dungeon design and chapter 4 is about non-dunegon adventure design. Each chapter covers a lot of information. Very well done and I am happy with this latest revision.

Old school goodness written concisely, if you can imagine that ! Everything you need for a 0 edition feel & play except dice & your imagination.

One of the original retroclones, Swords and Wizardry is a great choice for both new-comers as well as those who want something different. It has what I think is the best cover ever created. Simple choices in classes and races, and the single savings throw is nice. I don't get including both ascending and descending armor class; the multiple savings throws were tossed out, so why not just stick to ascending? While some will like all of the asides for alternative ways to play combat, etc. I think they start to get a bit distracting. I just like a game/rulesystem to present one "set way" and then let me house-rule if needed. The Core edition is a nice balance between the spartan Whitebox and the text-dense Complete.