Book of Templates: Basics is the latest in a series of sourcebooks about templates from Silverthorne Games. The zip file containing the book weighs in at 1.6 megabytes, with the single PDF file it contains being only marginally larger at 1.8. The book has a hyperlinked table of contents and bookmarks.
The book is 45 pages long, with one page for credits, one for table of contents, one for the OGL, and one with ads for other Silverthorne Games products. Oddly, although the storefront on RPGnow shows a front cover, no such cover is in the product itself; the book opens with the credits page. The book has no artwork per se. However, there are borders along opposite pages of a deep gray. Likewise, sidebars are in a verdant green, and tables use light shading.
The introduction opens by saying that this book was made for convenience more than anything else. It?s designed to give you all of the System Reference Document and Modern System Reference Document templates all in one place. A note here also mentions that sample creatures were not included, since these templates are so ubiquitous that sample creatures would be unnecessary. Curiously, the introduction says that each template entry should have an introduction to explain the rationale of the template, any notable appearance changes it causes, and notes on creating monsters with this template. However, none of this information actually appears in the templates in the book.
The first section of the book is ?Fantasy and Epic Templates.? Every template from the SRD is listed here. Additionally, a few others have been added. ?Awakened Creature? is a template to apply to animals or trees that have been subjected to an awaken spell (which is given in a sidebar). Likewise, the ?Dire Creature? template from the Tome of Horrors is here as well. Interestingly, the 3.0 ?Psionic Creature? template is given, 3.0 psionic rules and all, though the ?Phrenic Creature? (using 3.5 psionics rules) is given almost right next to it.
The second section, ?Modern and Future Templates,? has the templates from the MSRD. Note that this includes templates of creatures for whom the Modern d20 version is different from the Fantasy d20 version, such as skeletons, zombies, and lycanthropes.
The book closes out with an appendix full of indices. Here, the various templates are grouped alphabetically, by CR increase, by level adjustment, and by genre (fantasy, modern, epic, or future).
Altogether, the Book of Templates: Basics does exactly what it set out to do, no more and no less. It groups together all of the standard templates, including related information, into a single source. While there are a few errors in the product, these are more organizational than mechanical, and all of the templates are virtually flawless, and ready for immediate use. If you need a book that codifies the basics and standards of d20 templates, look no further.
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<b>LIKED</b>: It was a nice touch that this book included related sidebars for templates that needed them. For example, the Worm That Walks template had a listing for the Gathering of Maggots epic spell. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It was odd that the introduction described a format that then wasn't used in the product. Likewise, the depiction of a cover which then didn't appear was a strange discrepancy as well. Also, the index of templates by genre lists the first column as being "level adjustment."<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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