An adventure designed for multi-table convention play, this consists of seven main scenarios, and a more generic eighth scenario also intended for larger groups, all meant to be run simultaneously; then a grand finale where all the players participate in parts of a single massive battle. The individual scenarios are fine, if a little contrived at times; the finale is ambitious but complicated, possibly quite fun if run well, but I can easily see it falling apart without serious preparation. Fortunately, they do have a suggested division of labor for organizers, and some troubleshooting tips near the end.

As a "D&D Next" adventure, it uses an unfinished version of the 5E rules, but it should be fine for general 5E use. (It's also interesting to see some of the prototype versions of various 5E monsters.) However, due to its expectation that multiple tables will participate, some modification would be needed for a single home group.

An amusing monster with a fun theme. I did notice a few minor hiccups in the stats (a reference to "hellcart" proficiency and to Will saves), but nothing significant.

A great introduction to Dungeon Crawl Classics as a game, this short adventure has everything DCC is about - lethal stakes and high weirdness. It's probably best run as intended, as a "funnel" for 0-level characters, but it also works just fine as a game for full-fledged player characters. The only complaint I have is that it's priced a bit high for such a short module.

Note the PDF version here is expanded slightly from the original print version, with an extra area ("The Summoning Pits").

The second of the two core player books for D&D Essentials, Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms covers some less traditional, but still fairly significant, options for the game. The book appears to be designed to stand alone, so it duplicates a lot of the material from its sibling, Heroes of the Fallen Lands (which itself streamlined material from the Rules Compendium). I consider this a plus - however, this review will only focus on the new or different material.

Classes: Chapter 4 of HOTFK covers four classes in much the same way as Fallen Lands - advice on how to play and develop them over time, then benefits spread across three tiers (Heroic, Paragon, and Epic). Similar to Fallen Lands, all classes here choose one generic Epic Destiny - this time it is the "Destined Scion", a tiny bit more flavorful than the other book's "Indomitable Champion", but still honestly pretty bland.

Regarding each class:

• Druid: The default build is the "Sentinel", and you choose from one of two seasons, spring or summer, similar to the Cleric's domains. (It disappointed me that we didn't also get fall or winter.) The Paragon Path is the "Steadfast Sentinel". This particular class design felt strange to me, as it's much more martial than I expected of a druid - many powers even rely on weapon attacks. Instead of turning into an animal, as with 3E or 5E's druids, you get an animal companion. The companion is neat enough... but given the choice, I think turning into an animal is cooler. Overall, while the class is functional, it feels conceptually muddy - and probably the least interesting in the book.
• Paladin: The default build is the "Cavalier", who chooses from one of two heroic virtues to uphold, Sacrifice or Valor. The Paragon Path is the "Valiant Cavalier". Unlike some versions of the cavalier in other editions, the mounted combat elements are fairly limited. However, the overall design is solid, with an emphasis on smites and auras that feels very much like an ancestor of 5E's paladin. The Sacrifice virtue, which lets you burn up healing surges to help teammates, is more interesting than the more traditional Valor. Nothing really bad here overall.
• Ranger: There are two builds available, the "Hunter" (which emphasizes archery) and the "Scout" (which emphasizes two-weapon fighting). I definitely liked the "Hunter" (Paragon Path: "Peerless Hunter") better, with its wide array of cool archery tricks and powers - probably my favorite option in the book, in fact. (It also feels more appropriate as a "nature warrior" than the "Sentinel" druid.) The "Scout" (Paragon Path: "Intrepid Scout") is not as well-defined, perhaps a bit of a rogue/ranger - it seems meant for players who want to be Drizzt clones. (Though that's perfectly fine! Just a bit more limited.)
• Warlock: The build here is the "Hexblade", who chooses from one of two pacts (Fey or Infernal). The Paragon Path is the "Legendary Hexblade". The lore gets particularly interesting here - for example, the "Hexblade" is actually using loopholes to steal devils' power, rather than making a traditional deal. However, it's also muddled by the non-pact power options, which draw from multiple thematic sources (fey, fiend, and others). The "Hexblade" plays differently than I'd expect from a warlock, much more martial - more like a warlock-paladin of sorts. It actually looks more fun than 5E's Hexblade, in fact! However, I was disappointed that there wasn't a dedicated caster option to contrast with the "Hexblade". (In fact, every class in the book is a martial-magical mix.)

Races: Chapter 5 reprints the Human (from Fallen Lands), and also includes the Dragonborn, Drow (who seem to get a lot of attention in this book), Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, and Tieflings. The Dragonborn and Tieflings particularly shine here, as they also get to show off 4E's default setting. (The latter are pretty close to their 5E presentation, but the former have some key differences.)

The rest: Chapter 7's feats are largely repeats of those in Fallen Lands, though there are some categories of particular interest to druids, rangers, and drow. Likewise, Chapter 8's gear and magic items overlap with the other book's selection, though I think there were a few here not in there (and vice versa).

Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms is noticeably less iconic and necessary than Fallen Lands. Yet, the quality seems a bit more consistent here - there were more disappointments among the Fallen Lands class options (Cleric and Fighter) than in this book's options (only the Druid left me a bit cold). So they're about on par, in my view. If you can only pick one, of course, go with Fallen Lands. But if you want to see where D&D's lore stands apart from other fantasy worlds, be sure to get Forgotten Kingdoms as well. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

One of the two core player books for D&D Essentials, Heroes of the Fallen Lands covers the more traditional, basic options for the game. Much of the material here is a streamlined version of the Rules Compendium, so this review will only cover material unique to this book. As with the Rules Compendium, it's worth complimenting the clear and accessible presentation of the 4E rules, and they're clearly making an major effort to emphasize flavor throughout - although that flavor still can't hide the system's intense focus on tactical combat over other priorities.

Classes: Chapter 4 of HOTFL covers four basic classes, most with a few variations for theme or flavor. Each class writeup includes advice on customization and role-playing, which is pretty well-done overall (although I wish they covered more than a few specific race-class combos for each). Each class covers its Heroic (1-10), Paragon (11-20), and Epic (21-30) tiers. The Heroic tier typically covers the core expected options for the class; the Paragon tier focuses on a thematic Paragon Path and general improvements; and the Epic tier defaults to a dull and generic (if effective) "lndomitable Champion" Epic Destiny, alongside several stronger class-specific powers. Pretty much every level gives you something, which is a noble idea, but many of the improvements are just minor stat bumps or upgrades of lower-tier features and powers, which can get dull.

The classes are:

• Cleric: This comes with a default "Warpriest" build, and two domains you can choose from (Storm and Sun). The Paragon Path is the "Devout Warpriest". This class was honestly kind of a disappointment - while it functions in its "leader" role, it's less interesting than the Fighter (in martial terms) or the Wizard (in magical terms). (Maybe they had no choice but to do that, for niche protection, but other editions somehow managed to make the cleric more exciting.) They try their best to tie the cleric's powers to their faith, and make them sound cool, but unfortunately it doesn't quite work. It also doesn't help that the Cleric's range of power choices is noticeably limited compared to other editions of D&D; one suspects that the Cleric (and the Wizard, later) had versatility removed for balance reasons. The two domains improve things a little, adding some much-needed flavor, with the Storm Domain essentially turning you into Thor and the Sun Domain making you even better at boosting allies and hindering foes; but the result is still the least exciting of the four classes.
• Fighter: This comes with two builds, the "Knight" (defense-focused) and the "Slayer" (offense-focused). The "Knight" (which expects you to use longsword or warhammer) is the less interesting of the two, though it fills an important niche with its focus on attracting, blocking, and resisting enemy attacks. The Knight's Paragon Path is the "Stalwart Knight". The "Slayer" (which expects you to use greataxe or greatsword) has features reminiscent of D&D's classic Barbarian class, and is the choice for players who want to get into the fray and kill things. Their Paragon Path is the "Mythic Slayer". Both builds seem a little light on powers, but they get lots of other upgrades as they level. The Knight works in 4E's tactical focus, but comes off a little bland otherwise; however, the Slayer works in a more general sense.
• Rogue: The default build here is the iconic "Thief". This class focuses heavily on mobility and striking vulnerable targets, just as you'd expect of the archetype. Of the writeups in the book, this is the one that does the best job of selling 4E's tactical movement, with its fun descriptions of their various "trick" options. Their Paragon Path is the "Master Thief", and both their Paragon and Epic tiers emphasize stealth. No serious complaints here.
• Wizard: The Wizard's default build is the "Mage", which initially specializes in one of three schools of magic (Evocation, Illusion, or Enchantment). This section is notable for having more detail about 4E's default setting; in fact, the class overall has the most flavorful writeup, including history for a number of spells. The result is that even when the powers are bland, the flavor makes up for it. As with the Cleric, the Wizard has notably fewer spell choices than in other editions, split between spellbook and at-will options. Their Paragon Path is the "Enigmatic Mage", which gives them a little more flexibility. The schools give you some minor bonuses at Heroic tier and a few neat school-exclusive spells (associated with specific legendary wizards) at Paragon tier.

Races: Chapter 5 contains five character races - Dwarves, Eladrin (which fill the niche of other editions' high elves), Elves (essentially wood elves), Halflings, and Humans. Each section is mostly about background and role-playing suggestions, with less than a page of game stats. It's very welcome, and also gives the writers the opportunity to talk about the default 4E setting. Probably the most interesting chapter of the book to read.

Feats: Chapter 7 covers feats, which are closer to 3E's approach than 5E's, focused on specific situational bonuses and additional combat options (though less complex than in 3E). The "Divine Devotion" category is the most flavorful, with each representing dedication to a specific deity.

Equipment: Chapter 8 covers gear and magic items. The lists are much slimmer than in other editions, and the magic items are honestly pretty dull overall, even if the level system is promising from a balance standpoint.

Heroes of the Fallen Lands actually disappoints a little compared to the Rules Compendium, because unlike the Rules Compendium, you wouid expect a player-centric book to really sell you on the role-playing side of the game. This is likely one of the best possible versions of 4E... but as someone who passed over that edition, this book doesn't make me feel any regrets. Still, I can respect this for what it is. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

Technically the first dedicated official rules expansion for D&D 5th Edition. It's short, but it does have four neat race write-ups and a selection of neat new elemental spells. Very good stuff, just unfortunately brief...

Full disclosure: This is the book that turned me away from D&D 4th Edition. Over a decade later, I've given it another chance... and while it's not as bad as I thought at the time and has its merits, it's still the least interesting core monster book D&D has produced.

First, the positives. There are a massive quantity of monsters in the book, one of the largest of any edition. Granted, many of these are variants of individual monsters, but this is still a strength: nearly every monster has at least two "flavors" you can choose from across various levels or themes. The monsters also span a wide variety of levels and environments, providing a monster for just about any situation.

Every monster is designed to have mechanically interesting abilities for use in tactical combat, and each comes with specific battle tactics and pre-made encounter groups (complete with XP totals), making it very easy to construct battles. I also liked that each monster came with tables of lore skill checks, broken out by skill and difficulty class, so you know what to tell players when they ask what they might know about a given creature.

The book ends with a section on "Racial Traits", which provide rules for NPC or PC versions of a number of monsters, adding value for players as well. (This listing includes gnomes, which were infamously just monsters at the start of 4E.)

Unfortunately, most of these positives have negatives that balance them out. Most of the variants are only differentiated by statistics and names, with many not even getting a thin explanation for why or how they differ from the base monster. (This can be particularly frustrating when a monster or variant looks or sounds really cool, and you learn barely anything else about them.)

It's obvious that much more time was spent on the statblocks and combat than on flavor; at best, one suspects they thought catchy names for powers were usually flavor enough (they're not). Even the lore tables, as neat an idea as they are, tend to provide very little in terms of story ideas, and most monsters only get a few sentences beyond that. This makes much of the book a fairly dry read, if you aren't a big fan of combat rules and statistics.

And sometimes even the mechanics aren't that interesting: a number of variants are little more than a bigger, meaner version, or a version with slightly adjusted powers.

Meanwhile, the racial traits are pretty bare-bones, and seem split between interestingly flavorful powers and ones that seem like tactically minded filler - and even the latter sometimes have very limited utility (looking at you, goblin and kobold).

There are other oddities as well. Illustrations don't always tell you which monster is which variant. They also don't provide encounter groups for every variant. The book appears to lack any good monsters, with even traditionally heroic creatures like angels and unicorns being "any" alignment or just "unaligned." (It's been suggested that the designers wanted to make sure every monster in the book could be a viable target.) Some monsters are based on templates, but they only provide examples here, pointing you instead to the 4E DMG for the template rules. They shy away from providing stat blocks for mundane animals, with most only listing fantastical variants; reading between the lines, I guess they thought stats for mundane animals would be pointless. They even rename dinosaurs to "behemoths" for some reason.

Fortunately for 4E, they fixed many of the above issues in the Monster Vault. Some of this book's positives were lost, but the lore especially is much better. I would strongly recommend the later book over this book. (Unfortunately for 4E, the Monster Vault was too late to help save it.)

In conclusion - while I appreciate the strengths of the 4E Monster Manual now, more than I did back when it was new, there are still too many drawbacks for it to be among the greatest D&D monster books. Even in 4E, it was outdone by its successor, the Monster Vault. Still, it may have some value for especially creative DMs who are willing to fill in the lightweight lore, or those who want a wide variety of tactically deep monsters to spice up their combat. But if you're trying to sell someone on D&D, this is not the book I'd start with... (Originally posted on Goodreads)

The core monster product for the D&D 4th Edition Essentials line, the Monster Vault is a boxed set that includes the Monster Vault book; an adventure, Cairn of the Winter King, and accompanying battle map; and a bunch of high-quality monster tokens for the creatures in the book (which you can use in place of miniatures).

The book: Starts off with an overview of the general rules for running monsters in 4E, then goes into the monsters proper. The selection of monsters is solid, covering both general fantasy creatures (dragons, orcs, vampires, etc.) and iconic D&D favorites (beholders, githyanki, rust monsters, etc.). Each is given a lot of monster lore (a significant improvement on earlier monster books from the 4E era), and the lore often provides interesting insights into D&D 4E's default setting. Each monster entry also includes a number of variants, allowing for more diverse enemy groups or for different types of challenges (or both). As for the monster statblocks themselves, they do an efficient job of laying out all of their options, often with evocative power names - though occasionally they can be dry reads for anyone not interested in tactical minutiae. I also found certain power descriptions (especially area attacks) lacking. (Natural language sometimes beats efficiency.)

Cairn of the Winter King: This adventure has a very cool premise (no pun intended), and starts out great. Unfortunately, once our heroes get to the actual dungeon, much of it feels generic, like it was randomly generated. There's some interesting ice-themed elements that help certain rooms (such as a room with frozen traps), but overall it's kind of a letdown after such a promising intro.

The Monster Vault is a must-have for 4E Dungeon Masters. I would recommend it for other edition DMs as well - not for the 4E rules, but for the lore and monster variants. It's not perfect, but it's definitely the most interesting general read from the 4E Essentials line. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

A lineup of unusual legendary magic items. The focus of these was clearly less on utility and power, and more on being memorable and eccentric. Note, however, that the formatting doesn't confirm to 5th Edition standards - it honestly reminds me more of how magic items were treated in the AD&D era - and the mechanics can sometimes be as strange as the items themselves (though they all seem to work fine).

Not a GURPS player; I bought this for the alternate world articles, and I only skimmed the first two articles (on rules for an alternative magic system and pocket dimensions). Of the new alternate Earths, Igor-1 and Stormbomb-1 are the most interesting, especially the latter. The Infinite Aisles are an amusing concept, but not very detailed. Patchwork, on the other hand, is extremely detailed... and honestly didn't do much for me, a bit too dry. (The author did put some serious historical work in, though, so it may work better for others.)

A late-era AD&D 2nd Edition adventure that feels like something of a throwback, closer to early AD&D 1st Edition dungeon crawls like the Tomb of Horrors than its more story-focused contemporaries. (It also reminds me a lot of adventures for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG.) Centered around a shrine of chaos, the quality of the adventure improves as it goes along, with the outer rooms being frankly kind of bland monster-in-a-room challenges; the middle rooms mixing interesting role-playing encounters with some rather complicated traps and puzzles; and the innermost rooms being strange confrontations with chaotic creatures. Both players and DMs will have to bring their A-game to make this adventure work, but I can see it being a pretty memorable experience for those willing to put the effort in. However, if you're seeking a more casual-friendly adventure, you may want to look elsewhere. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

(One note about the scan quality - while this is perfectly readable, it's slightly on the fuzzy side.)

A compilation of old-school-style monsters compatible with Labyrinth Lord (and therefore the 1981 edition of the world's most famous fantasy RPG). A decent set of beasties, as far as fantasy RPG monsters go - most aren't very innovative, but there aren't any bad inclusions. (My pick of the litter was probably the murkbeast.) There are some hiccups with the presentation, however: a few monsters were duplicated (presumably to avoid having to edit the bestiaries from the original adventures), the two goblin variants aren't clearly identified, and the kytyllen swarm is missing its statistics. (I'm also not sure it was worth including common monsters like giant rats or giant spiders.) But none of these are deal-breakers, especially when you get the product for free...

A third-party sourcebook on lizardfolk for D&D 3.5. This includes details on biology and culture, combat tactics, roleplaying tips, PC/NPC options (including two prestige classes), adventure hooks, and a sample lizardfolk settlement. The ideas in the book would be useful for a campaign prominently featuring lizardfolk, with the two prestige classes being the major standouts; however, the book doesn't stretch very far from the core concept, and would have benefited from more imaginative variations on the theme. Also, the assumption that lizardfolk have built-in instincts driving some of their behavior might not sit well with certain players (though it's easily ignored if so). (Originally posted on Goodreads)

An unusual subclass concept with some interesting and entertaining abilities. Might be a bit too specialized, however, as it seems best suited for an ally NPC rather than a PC... although I could see a pair of players making it work with a guardian-and-ward setup.

The concept of this class is interesting, and there are a lot of fun ideas in here. Unfortunately, the concept is also pretty specialized, and would require either a campaign centered around it, or at least a campaign with some very different assumptions from core D&D. On top of that, elements of the class step on the turf of core classes (especially the fighter) and they seem too powerful at times - especially once the subclasses are factored in. All of which adds to the feeling that this class wouldn't work well alongside standard characters. Lastly, the presentation could stand some improvement. Overall, this is a neat idea that needs a lot more work. On the upside, it is PWYW, so at least the price is fair...