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Has anyone yet laid eyes on this book? I'm asking because I've seen the cover art shown here, black with the feint drawings and gold text, and the one that Amazon has up with what looks like a purple worm and a totally different composite overall. I prefer the black cover, seems ominous, something that a book about surviving the depths of a mad wizard's lair would look like rather than just an adventurer's guidebook. Can anyone shed some light on this?
- Chris Shadowens
Has anyone yet laid eyes on this book? I'm asking because I've seen the cover art shown here, black with the feint drawings and gold text, and the one that Amazon has up with what looks like a purple worm and a totally different composite overall. I prefer the black cover, seems ominous, something that a book about surviving the depths of a mad wizard's lair would look like rather than just an adventurer's guidebook. Can anyone shed some light on this?
- Chris Shadowens
If you look closely the one pictured here is the 3E and the one at Amazon is the 3.5E.
If you look closely the one pictured here is the 3E and the one at Amazon is the 3.5E.
What? Where do you see that? And when was there a 3rd Edition Dungeon Survival Guide? I have the 1st Edition Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, which has a Jeff Easley cover and looks nothing like either of the covers shown. Looking at WotC's site they also show the black & gold cover plus they've mentioned before about Amazon getting early-art covers (the leather-bound Monster Manual is a good example, which Amazon STILL has the promo-art for instead of a pic of the actual book.) Guess I'll just have to wait until I see it at the bookstore or if if one of my fellow gamers picks it up.
- Chris Shadowens
I finally got a look at this at the local book store today - big disappointment. I was hoping for updated maps - like the way WoTC recently posted new versions of the maps from the classic Giants series. A book full of cool maps and new artwork (artist interpretations of King Snure, etc.) would have been great. This thing is like a poor catalog of stuff you can't even buy anymore!
I'll echo DMR's statement.
I read this last night. It took less than 30 minutes. It's a small book.
It's a 2 page write-up/background of a bunch dungeons/modules. Recycled artwork throughout the whole book. It lists the big classic dungeons like White Plum Mountain and Castle Greyhawk. It also lumps new dungeons in with it... I can't recall what they are right now but I haven't played through them, they're on my shelf.
When I was done with it I thought it was a hard cover catalog of dungeon modules. Not worth the money at all. If you already have the modules in the book it doesn't add anything. It does give spoilers though... not that they are listed as such either...
I finally got a look at this at the local book store today - big disappointment. I was hoping for updated maps - like the way WoTC recently posted new versions of the maps from the classic Giants series. A book full of cool maps and new artwork (artist interpretations of King Snure, etc.) would have been great. This thing is like a poor catalog of stuff you can't even buy anymore!
I prefer to think of it now as a $20 WotC-sanctioned bug smasher. All I need to do is superglue it to an appropriate handle.
I sat down and looked at this in the bookstore today. Honestly, I wouldn't mind a coffee table kind of book that looked at the iconic dungeons of D&D and even had some anecdotal comments from some "survivor" characters from those dungeons.
The problem is, not only did I not agree on the dungeons included, but I really hated having more or less the same iconics, the old standard 3rd edition ones, doing the commentary on all of the dungeons, no matter what world they appeared in.
The comments from the iconics also bugged me in that we get things like Lidda saying that she's never really been afraid of mummies, but she hates mummy rot because she has to do blah blah blah rules related things to get it cured. Wow . . . that really helped to convey the feel of the Desert of Desolation series.
On top of that, most of the page it taken up with huge recycled art that may or may not have to do with the adventure, a little bit of actual text on the dungeon, the stupid iconic comments, and then the tiny little picture of the original adventure.
Seriously, I'm a sucker for nostalgia. They didn't have to do much to get me to buy into nostalgia, but they didn't even manage the bare minimum for my tastes.
This is possibly one of the worst products ever published for any edition of D&D. I bought it thinking it might make a good gift for my best friend's son who has joined our games but it's trash.
Crap. I can't believe Chris Perkins, the writer of some of D&D's best adventures when he used to regularly contribute to Dungeon magazine, would sully his reputation with this rubbish.
I thought this would be a pretty cool item, and preordered it; it came in the mail the other day. I was very shocked at two things--its obvious small size; and it seems to be a catalog more than anything else. Nonetheless, my daughter thought it was very cool and I just gave it to her. She read it all the way through and is very interested in playing. Thus, I'd say it's probably a money-maker for the Company, as it will draw in a younger crowd and a new set of buyers.
If the remaining titles are done in a similar vein, it's not a bad marketing premise. By introducing the game to a young audience in small, easily-digested bites, rather than three giant 1000+ page books, you'll get a substantial group by this summer who's very interested in the game. I should mention that my kids' reactions to the DSG suckered me in, and I preordered the remaining titles.
I looked at this book the other day in the book store, and it looked like a complete piece of caca.
It's all of about six pages long, and none of those six pages has any crunch. Nor do they have any fluff, really. They don't actually have anything at all. This book is an attempt by WotC to just trick you into giving them $20. And since they no doubt spent a good portion of that $20 on production of the book, it's not a particularly effective trick.
Yep. Looks like Wizards agrees with us on the pointlessness of purchasing their books until 4e comes out (if even then). Thus, they are giving us products that won't even tantalize us in the slightest.
Just saw this in a bookstore today and I thought it was a joke. Nothing of any value...not even any new artwork.
The only Wizards book I have any hope for in the 3.5e rules is Elder Evils (which is gonna be a 3.5e/4e crossover book anyways).
I saw it for the first time Friday. My opinion of it was that it was aimed at young people aged 10-13. WotC has released a couple of books aimed at "children" recently and this seemed to be one of them. They also recently released a book of monsters for the youths.
I could see that personally the book would be of no interest to me at all and yet I could see purchasing it for my kids (maybe for Christmas) who did not get to play many of the older modules (though mostly cuz I haven't loaned them over yet) because they hadn't been born yet. They would eat it up and think it was cool.
EDIT - A caveat. It was overpriced for what it is. The aforementioned book of monsters was IIR $13-14.
I saw it for the first time Friday. My opinion of it was that it was aimed at young people aged 10-13. WotC has released a couple of books aimed at "children" recently and this seemed to be one of them. They also recently released a book of monsters for the youths.
I could see that personally the book would be of no interest to me at all and yet I could see purchasing it for my kids (maybe for Christmas) who did not get to play many of the older modules (though mostly cuz I haven't loaned them over yet) because they hadn't been born yet. They would eat it up and think it was cool.
EDIT - A caveat. It was overpriced for what it is. The aforementioned book of monsters was IIR $13-14.
I think you hit the nail on the head: my five year old loved this book.
The book is overpriced, for me, but when I take a look at my daughter's bookcase, it's very-very similar to all her other HC books, which all run anywhere from $6-20. I patronize my favorite website/online retailer (Paizo, of course) as much as my wife allows, but you can get this book from other sources for substantially discounted cost ($11). As one poster wrote, it's "craptacular"--and for my 32 year-old self it certainly is, but my 3 and 1/2 footer carried it around for a week--"Daddy, what's a tom-buh?" And she's pointing at a picture of S1...ahhh :-) what happy days.
*edit:--not so cool to my wife, this last Sunday, when my daughter decided to re-christen the 2ID Warrior Chapel (we're stationed in Korea) the "Chapel of Evil"... :-/
As several posters pointed out, this book may be aimed at a younger audience. This would fit to the notion that 4e will in general aim at the younger audience, with a more "video-gamey" feel. There is no solid evidence yet besides the hints collected at ENworld, but this book could be seen as pointing in that direction.
Now I´m interested to hear what the preview books will entail - "Advertisement the audience pays for?"
Still, it is wait and see for me, but the more time passes, the more sceptical I get.
Stefan
*edit:--not so cool to my wife, this last Sunday, when my daughter decided to re-christen the 2ID Warrior Chapel (we're stationed in Korea) the "Chapel of Evil"... :-/
lol.
The other day this lady tried to pick mine up, as Chinese people often do without asking, and my daughter says, "Don't touch me you silly Chinese."
Really, I have never said that before.
KA
from the P.R.C.
*edit:--not so cool to my wife, this last Sunday, when my daughter decided to re-christen the 2ID Warrior Chapel (we're stationed in Korea) the "Chapel of Evil"... :-/lol.
The other day this lady tried to pick mine up, as Chinese people often do without asking, and my daughter says, "Don't touch me you silly Chinese."
Really, I have never said that before.
KA
from the P.R.C.
Many elderly Korean women suffer from extreme osteoporoses and walk at a near 90 degree angle. We were on the train headed for Seoul when an elderly woman walked by, making for the next car. My daughter, who speaks fluent Hangul, said in a sufficiently loud voice (translated--and all elderly are grandmother or grandfather to my daughter's mind), "Mommy, Grandmother looks like a monster." We were aghast. Like you, we've never said anything like that to her.
DM Jeff
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Modules, GameMastery Maps Subscriber)
