Raging Swan Press has produced "GM's Miscellany: Dungoen Dressing." This is a book of advice, random tables and crunch to aid a GM in quickly customizing dungeons of any size. It is 339 pages including a front and back cover, several pages of credits, indices and tables of contents. It is not intended to help build the dungeon itself; rather this product helps to generate the details that define the setting.
As with all products I've used from Raging Swan the book is well edited and laid out in an easy-to-use alphabetical format. The first chapter gives the prospective GM several bullet-pointed lists of advice and tips on considerations when designing their own dungeon. It goes on to detail dungeon features from "Altars" to "Wells" and ends with tables for generating riddles and treasure hoards. Each section from the features on includes unique details such as appearance, characteristics and suggestions of use. Most also include mechanics and "crunch" so that they can be seamlessly integrated into your design.
This book will not generate a dungeon for you.
I feel I need to make that clear as it was an assumption of mine when I first received it. The tables and aids in this book are only intended to build upon your own ideas and design. That being said many of the details depicted within can be used to create unique dungeon settings from an "inside-out" perspective. If you randomly generate the first door your PCs will see this might spark an idea for why its there and what's behind it.
In this respect the first chapter is invaluable, giving the dungeon creator all manner of questions and concerns to think about while designing. Details such as food and water within the dungeon, why it was originally created and what function(s) it now serves in the game world help the prospective GM make a dungeon that makes sense in their intended setting. This is a hallmark of Raging Swan Press; helping GMs by challenging them to really think about the game they're creating.
I would conclude that at the intended price point this is a fine addition to the modern GM's design arsenal. It contains just enough detail and character in each of the features to either drop them whole hog into any setting while still remaining vague enough for GMs to customize these details easily on the fly. I can confirm this through use as soon after I received this product it was employed in my own games to the delight and consternation of my players. This book is versatile and bountiful so it will serve its GM well for many dungeons to come.
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