The Wild Beyond the Witchlight Review

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• The full colour art continues in this book. Locations, characters, and more are here and in the similar style we’ve come to expect.

• The high quality art continues to the maps. They are full colour and looked great as handouts to the players. This is especially nice, since the first area is a carnival that they can see and plot the next attraction to visit.

• The character summary section is nicely done, and I hope future adventures continue with this organization. The major characters are summarized in their own sections. Stats, traits, flaws, and bonds are all listed with some character background. Their personality is summarized into “Roleplaying Cards”, which covers just the summary of their personality and their alignment, personality traits, flaws, and bonds.

• There are a few handouts, which is nice to see. Really, I hope adventures going forward put more effort into making things easier to run, and easier to track. Many people pay for adventures to make things easier for us to run.

• In terms of organization, it’s probably one of the best books we’ve seen in a while. Multiple sections are separated, and a story tracker is provided.

• Sections of the adventure have non-combat solutions. Many players like negotiating, so it’s a nice to see the options provided when many other books don’t even spare the space for 1-2 sentences for such possibilities, or what happens should players lose combat.

Could Go Either Way

• Parts of the adventure, like items the players look for, are randomly determined. This adds replay-ability. And as someone who has run the same adventure multiple times before, I welcome alternate ways to replay the adventure. However, it does make reading the adventure more challenging and makes the reminders eat up word count. Personally though, I think this is a plus.

Cons

• The stats for some characters use a simplified stat block. This means that if they are a spell caster, you won’t get all of their prepared spells listed. Instead they only get a few daily use spells, and often powerful at will. Think you can adjust it yourself? You could, but some characters don’t add up. Based on their spells, their proficiency should be higher.

• No PDF*

* Denotes nitpicking.

The standard cover for the adventure. Pretty good, though I could've also gone for some Feywild scenery.

Introduction

We have another large spanning adventure. This time, taking place in the Feywild. A location that hasn't got much attention in this edition yet in terms of adventures. Though it has got some in the past. In this adventure, we are back in the Feywild. Interestingly, it also focuses on ways to avoid combat. We have a fairy tale atmosphere, villains straight out of a fairy tale, characters, and an adventure with some twists and turns.

What do I think of the adventure? It’s an interesting one. I like the non-combat resolutions, and think this is a good adventure for new players. Combat can be kept low, and role-playing as well as character mechanics can go to the forefront. It’s not perfect however. The middle portion can feel a bit repetitive, so I think it’s important to make each of the villains different. The final location though? Love the concept. I ran the opening carnival twice. Once as intended in the adventure, and once as an attraction. I then ran the whole thing beginning to end. My players were experienced, and they loved to role-play. The two combined made the adventure go well, since they played to its strengths. Which is also why it took so long for this...but it also wasn’t so bad due to most of the adventure being playable without combat. Which my players avoided. A lot this time. Including some brand new players. In fact, I’d say players are encouraged to play avoiding combat.

The Adventure

New Player Options

This really is an adventure. A little bit is given here for players though. There’s a couple of backgrounds, lots of trinkets, and two new races. When I say that, I mean there’s a lot of trinkets in the table. I always like seeing these, as they are nice useful things to put in occasional desks players may check. The adventure gives an option for the adventure to involve the player’s childhoods. But there isn’t too much crunch here in terms of new mechanics. It’s really about exploring and interacting.

The new races are roughly in line with what we’ve come to expect. They are significantly more powerful than the original ones. Humans in particular continue to have their value diminished due to the ability score bonus being worse than the +2 and +1 of the new ones when using the variant with a feat. And these races often have at least one feat worth of bonuses. Though the flexibility and potential for combat may still entice some. Just keep an eye out for this, as some minor adjustments (custom feats, minor magic items, expanded background option, etc.) may need to be made if used alongside some of the weaker options.

New Monsters

There’s not much here either. Most monsters and characters are existing creatures, and races. Most are also based on simplified character sheets. If you like seeing the full spell lists of characters, this will be a bit of a problem. Also if the characters expected to find a spellbook from the body of a dead wizard. Making it even worse, the stats don’t note their level in their class like cleric, and their spells known can even contradict their proficiency bonus. Provide us both versions please. This should be easy, and can even be provided through the website without losing anything. The very least I’d like to see is the character’s level, so I can make their list myself.

What You Need to Play

The Monster Manual, Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide are referenced at the start of the adventure. The standard collection of books we’ve come to expect. I miss the days when the basic rules were enough. But this is normal now.

Non-Combat Options

One of the big things of this adventure is that there are many non-combat options. And even combat options often have non-death results. So it makes it a pretty good adventure for new players, or those that like the exploration and role-play components most. This doesn’t mean it’s the easiest adventure to run. It’s a bit better than some others due to the layout, and also it’s more linear than some others. The non-combat options will also help make it easier for new Dungeon Masters to run, though I do suggest you learn how to manage combat quite quickly. But it also will require some prep time. Especially the conclusion due to a rather complicated lock devise. What this does better than some other adventures is that it provides papers to fill out to keep track of adventure elements. These are especially useful for those parts of the adventure that can change every time the adventure is run. I’d probably say it’s somewhere in the middle. I hope thinking of ways to make it easier for Dungeon Masters to run continues to be a priority in future adventures.

The Adventure Itself

The adventure itself goes from level 1 to about level 10. As is common, levels are given out for particular events in the story. The nature of the story also means that combat can play a far more negligible role than other previous adventures. So the challenge becomes navigating and role-playing. A nice change, though combat is not completely absent, which is my preference anyway. This also comes along with a more constrained story than some previous adventures. It’s not as much of a sandbox. It’s more like multiple smaller and constrained sand boxes one after another. There’s still wiggle room, but there’s also an order to the sandboxes as well. This can be beneficial for newer players I think, as it gets them role-playing and interacting with different skill checks. But it may not teach them enough about combat for other campaigns. So don’t be afraid to run a few scenarios before this campaign, or before whatever more combat heavy campaigns you have planned after. It can obviously also be an issue. I know many of my previous groups really do like combat encounters with a twist or puzzle element. Though they also liked the occasional break, this is quite a long campaign in that style.

The opening provides two different options to bring players in. They both work, but I think there’s an obvious choice. This is because it forces more role-play, and also makes the campaign more personal. I do appreciate the other options, and it’s easy to come up with other motivations. Such as being a hired hand for another player. These sorts of options are often essential for players who want to make their attachments during gameplay. Put another way, some players like to write big backstories. Others prefer to keep it simple, and discover their character through role-play. And once they find a dynamic they like, or experience things as their character, they push forward forming their character through those interactions. Some level of both is impossible to avoid, but the balance can shift from player to player. So in general, I recommend asking the players on this one. But I think most would prefer the motivation that ties into their backstory.

The adventure itself is fairly well laid out. There is an introduction section with a hook early in the adventure that players take part in. It’s also randomly generated (or can be, if you don’t prefer to decide yourself), adding some mystery about where they need to go. They then go through a fairy tale like realm, and engage with 3 hags. Finally, it ends in a puzzle stage. A palace frozen in time, with some adversaries being free to move and attempt to half the party’s progress.

The introduction is fun. In fact, I ran it twice, though once in a more modified state. It takes place in a mystical carnival, so it was a breather session where the players could enjoy the sights, while also looking for someone. The real nice thing here is that there is enough here to be like a mini-guide to running the Witchlight Carnival. It’s also beginner friendly. The carnival mood also changes based on player actions, and there’s a few small subplots going on at the carnival to help fill things out. Some tie into later parts of the adventure too.

There are three realms, one per hag. They are all a bit different, and have their own theme. This should be handled with care, since I can see it feeling repetitive. But the differences between them are big enough that each one can be made interesting in its own way. The appearance of each also plays into their themes. There’s also a supporting cast for each location, and extra subplots. Each hag also has her own weakness, which further plays into the more relaxed combat nature. It turns it into more of a puzzle, which I think is a good thing, but it’s something that can be group dependant.

The realm of Hither is a swamp area. The side content here is very solid and entertaining. The court of Bullywags is particularly fun, and I played into the schemes with a hint of comedy. The exploration of the hag’s lair is more standard, but can also be made interesting by using the weakness, and playing into the character.

The realm of Thither is a forest, and contains a hag and stolen children. It’s the most fairy tale the adventure gets, and really playing into it was appreciated for my players. Even going as far to make sure to do a voice like telling a kid a story. The side content is good too but the main area with the hag...I’d suggest reading it carefully. And especially notes. There’s just many ways for this to go, particularly if your players will try to save the children.

And finally, the realm of Yon. The opening art to the chapter is also beautiful, and one of my favourites in this book. The same goes for the design of the hag herself. It’s Shakespearean, with the hag having a flair for the dramatic and loving to have plays put on for her enjoyment. There is also a prophecy element, that further plays into the theatrics. When I ran this, it was my favourite of the three, and my players felt the same. It also takes some setup, but absolutely I’d say the trick for me was playing up the theatrics. My players also improvised a tragic play on the spot. Which was entertaining for us all. The role-play opportunities are very good on this one.

And finally... the ending. The palace of the archfey the players have heard about since the start, frozen in time. Really, this is a very solid ending. Other characters are frozen in time too. It’s a setup that leads to good role-play, and potential combat scenarios. Also it leads to interesting visuals. It’s a suitable payoff to the mystery built early with what happened to the archyfey. You’d expect something serious to have occurred, and this fits. Some fun encounters, including the possibility of combat. Puzzles, role-play chances, and the setup means it’s fairly easy to add rooms, change rooms, or add more frozen time fun. I really do like this ending. It feels like an event, and makes sense in the context of the adventure.

 

The alternate cover for the adventure. I really like this one. Though it's not as obviously fitting as the standard.

The Art and Book Build Quality

The art again maintains its quality. The large scale maps in particular are evocative and in character with the adventure. Characters get portraits often, along with their descriptions. The big bads also get portraits, making it easy to show players. Which I really like. Always do this please. It makes it easy to show the players and have them on the same page when it comes to the general appearance of the big bad they meet. Come to think of it, it’d be cool to get a few set piece pictures to show players when they enter a room. Anyway, it’s more of the same. If you liked previous books, you’ll be at home.

I had no issues with condition of the book on this one. But as always I’ll say to flip through and check the binding if you are picking it out from the store. Most people will probably order online at this time, which won’t afford the same ability to check the book.

Price

For the suggested retail price of this product, you can check here. The cost is the same we are used to for adventures of this size at $50 in the States and $65.95 in Canada (poor Canadians, the price went a little in the years I've been reviewing). As usual though, taking a quick look for sale prices can find you a good deal.

What I felt was Missing

A PDF of the adventure would be nice (like always I mention this). Having the supplement containing all of the creatures to run the adventure would also be nice...but looks like this ship sailed. Some big pictures that can be shown for set piece encounters before it starts would also be cool.

Please provide spell lists for characters, along with the reduced stat blocks. If I want to have them do more, or help in utility ways, it makes life easier. Sure I can do them myself, but the way they’re written I need to decode them because their spells and proficiency modifiers don’t line up. 

 

It needs to be said that since combat is not emphasized, this is not a good adventure to get in order to re-use combat encounters. I know some people who look for maps, and entire combat encounters to re-use and modify. If this is what you wanted, this will not be the adventure for you.

Free Stuff

Nothing to see here. Yeah, I know. I miss opening adventures being free too.

Summary

It’s a good adventure. Combat is not de-emphasized, so if you’re a combat loving group it may not be the best choice. In such a case, a Dungeon Master can adapt around it...but it’ll be significantly more work. It also makes it a good choice for new players who want to role-play, and may not have a good handle on combat yet. Though I do suggest that new players do get to experience the combat to see if they like it. The characters are good, the areas are interesting, and the final area is great in concept alone, and I like it otherwise. A palace frozen in time. It’s also a great concept to build your own version, or to add to what’s there. However, there is a repetition of three locations in the middle, one for each hag. These don’t have to be repetitive, and I’d say effort was taken to make them different. But when running, I’d keep an eye out to make sure it doesn't’ feel too samey. In general, I was surprised by how much I liked this one.

New Year 2022

It was a good year for D&D things. I hope to still do more game reviews. I'm also in the process to catch up on my D&D book reviews. I'll be getting my review The Wild Beyond the Witchlight soon. After that, I have 3 more reviews to get through. I may make use of a faster review style for those, though it'll depend on the books themselves.

I'll keep focusing on D&D things in the new year. And I'm looking forward to it. I hope to go back to making more resources for Dungeon Masters again. Pre-made encounters, locations, items, that sort of thing. I truly missed it this year. But I want to catch up on my reviews too.

In general, Candlekeep Mysteries ended up being my most used book I think. A new player of mine loved the setup and had their character living there. So it transitioned into a campaign making use of these adventures very nicely. I hope to see another adventure anthology series. I also hope more adventures go up to level 20 in the published adventures. 

Thanks for a wonderful year. I loved reviewing, I loved reading, and I loved writing. And I'm looking forward to more in 2022.

Cities of the Black Scroll 2 Review

 Review copy courtesy of Black Scroll Games.

Pros

• The art continues to be great. Really, it’s amazing what is able to be done here. I particularly like these sorts of sets due to my lack of drawing ability, and they always get a good reception.

• Day and night tiles are provided as we’ve come to expect.

• Printable and Virtual Table Top versions are ready out of the download.

• Lines can be toggled in the PDF.

• Many items are provided in the sets too. So we can further populate the maps we generate. The Docks and Canals set also has some boats. And open water tiles. So you could even build an open water map with it.

• The whole series is incredibly complete with these tiles. Just about everything you could want to build a city or town is here. What’s left in that’s not covered now? Open forest? Though not in this series, Black Scroll Games has a set that can be used for underground dungeons.

Could Go Either Way

• It’s still a matter of taste with the art. I absolutely adore this style still. And so do my players. I think many others will too. So take a look at some of the images to make sure it’s a good art style for you.

• Some sets use PNG, some use JPG, and some use both for the Virtual Table Top (VTT) files. I’d ideally like one format throughout, and it’s a bit odd to have both formats in one set. But it’s not a big deal.

• The items in some sets have small amounts of the background on them as a border. So the boats have a border of water. In some cases, it can be fairly large. This only affects Virtual Table Top (VTT) files, as the physical files can always be trimmed to a sharp edge.

Cons

• Some tiles, such as the village set, lack empty building tiles. Ones that come to mind as very useful are the houses in particular. The sets also provide many items, so we could populate the interior ourselves if we had some empty building tiles.

• The sets can be inconsistent in how the tiles are provided. Some have PDF files for day and night, as well as folders for the Virtual Table Top (VTT) day and night (Village and Docks and Canals). This is what I’d like to see. The Cemetery Set and Moats Set provided day and night folders for the VTT, but no separate PDF files for printing. In these cases, you can toggle them in Adobe Acrobat Reader as they are provided as layers. I just wish it was consistent, and my personal preference would be for all the sets to have separate files. That way different software, or even browsers, can be used.

* Denotes nitpicking.

Introduction

I reviewed the original release of tiles for Cities of the Black Scroll. But my work there isn’t done, as more sets in the series have come out. For the sake of brevity, and due to much overlap, I’ll be covering them here all at the same time. And put simply, I really like it. As a series I think the tiles are an amazing product, and I imagine the backers behind the Kickstarter are very happy right now. While my review is based on a review copy, I have used previous tiles from Black Scroll Games almost exclusively in my online D&D campaigns due to their appearance and convenience. And generally, these tiles continue to meet or exceed my expectations.

Four sets will be summarized here. They are: COTBS Cathedral Modular Map Tiles, COTBS Cemetery Modular Map Tiles, COTBS Docks and Canals Modular Map Tiles, and COTBS Moat Modular Map Tiles.

What’s In A Set

Sets are well organized. Inside there are draft tiles, which can be used to plan which tiles are needed for your designs. They are smaller than real tiles, and grey scale. So you save on ink. I’ve liked this feature since I first saw it, and I’m glad they continue doing this.

A PDF of basic instructions is included. They also detail what’s found inside, and often also include sample layouts using the tiles.

The tiles themselves are provided in PDF form, ready for printing. If you print regular sized paper, it will come out perfectly to scale. If you’re using Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can also toggle on and off the grid lines.

Finally, Virtual Table Top (VTT) files are also provided in PNG and JPG form within specially labeled folders. The delivery is nice, however, the mix of formats is a bit strange. Some sets have both formats mixed together. I’d ideally like one format used throughout, and that being PNG. I wonder if worries of file size occurred.

Files for outdoor tiles often also have day and night versions, for both printing and Virtual Table Top (VTT). These are provided for all the outdoor sets.

All in all, they are very complete sets. In fact, the most complete Virtual Table Top (VTT) and printable sets I’ve seen.

The Art

The art continues to be great. As far as tiles for Virtual Table Top (VTT), the sets are the most complete I’ve seen. The art style is also wonderful. If there are comparable sets in this area, tell me in the comments. I’d be happy to hear about them.

Historically, the lighting has been one of the big highlights for sets done by Black Scroll Games. The way it was shown flowing into rooms, as well as light from torches and light sources in the night tiles always looked great. What they’ve done before, but they’ve done gain with the outdoor sets, is night versions of the tiles. Given that I often run horror themed games, and Halloween is right around the corner, it’s a very nice feature. Don’t care? Don’t use the tiles. If you do, you can make day and night versions of the maps. And these maps live up to the quality Black Scroll Games have done in the past. They’re absolutely lovely.

What I felt was Missing

It’d be nice to see more items and props provided. The ones provided for the docks set is perfect. But I wish the village set in particular had more items. Chairs, tables, scarecrows, horses, plows. It’s a lot to ask, and probably unreasonable, but such would make the sets absolutely perfect. Though it could also make for a good prop set in the future on its own. And would be compatible with other maps.

The item tiles in themselves have small borders of background. So for example, the boat will have some water around the edge. These look amazing when placed on the board with no background, or to make it easy to see on a water tile. Some may not like this, and would prefer sharp edged items instead. There doesn’t appear to be an option for this without doing the trimming work yourself. This of course would only come up for Virtual Table Top (VTT) use as no-one can control how you cut out the items. An option could be provided here, but I’m also not sure it’s worth the trouble or extra download size for the set.

Consistency between the sets would be nice. This comes from the multiple file formats, but also from some sets using layers for day/night and others having separate files. Everything is there, and it’s mostly consistent. But a little more would help it be less confusing for customers.

Summary

All in all, these sets continue to be my favourites out there. Each new sets makes the system more complete, and the appearance and quality continues to be outstanding. I look forward to seeing more from Black Scroll Games, and I’m sure I’ll use these tiles often in the future. The only things I can think of is more items, particularly in the sets missing them. This would be more work, and the sets are already very complete and useful. And more consistency in file format and how the day/night tiles are accessed. This is quite minor. I continue to be impressed with what I’ve seen here. I’ve used these sets quite a bit already, and will continue to do so. My most used are the Docks and Village sets, as I feel they are the most plentiful. Maybe it says something about my campaigns that docks or boat rides happen so often. The boats and items provided in the Docks set in particular are useful just for naval campaigns.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft Review

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• More full colour art. Including maps of regions (but not battlemaps)

• Many different setting types covered for players as different domains of dread.

• A new adventure included with the world building book. Really, more Dungeon Master centred books should have such things. It’s a good way of showing examples, gives more material to adapt from, and provides more maps that can be used for battles.

• The survivors section for rules is particularly nice. Easy to use for one-shots, session 0 adventures, and quick aside scenes. And the content fits well in a short page count making it easy to understand.

• The section on curses is also a standout.

• Also the section on paranormal traps.

Could Go Either Way

• This isn’t really a guide to Ravenloft, but more a primer on running horror games with some briefly described settings to pull inspiration from. If you want a guide to Ravenloft, Curse of Strahd is more what you want. The name is misleading.

• There are some new monster here, but not much.

• The darklord of a domain is usually just an existing creature. Even modifications to them are rare.

• I’d have liked to see some new variants of existing monsters, including lower Challenge Ratings. A bunch of new lower level zombies maybe. We got some of this with new zombie types, but typically higher level. And also as stat blocks, but not rules.

• I’d have liked to see a collection of horror items and cursed magic items that adventures could be made around.

Cons

• No new battlemaps outside the 1 new adventure.

• There’s not much crunch here. Not many mechanics, monsters, or traps compared to the page length. It’s mostly high level help for horror, and descriptions of domains without battlemaps or other things to fill it out.

• Some Domains of Dread described are missing a map.

• No PDF*

* Denotes nitpicking.

The standard cover for Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Also my preferred cover.

Introduction

It should come as no surprise that my favourite book until now has been Curse of Strahd, given how often I compare other books to it. The settings is fun with many good side quests, the maps are good, and of course it has the villain who lent his name to the cover. Horror in general is a rich genre to draw on. From holding off seemingly endless undead in order to survive on more night, to trying to find the werewolf among the villagers, or breaking a family curse caused by a contract with a devil, the possibilities are endless. It is from this place that this new book comes.

Despite the name, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is really advice for running horror themed games, and sample settings that can be found within the mists. That’s the large strokes. Though there’s many small additions as well. So what do I think? It’s light on new mechanical things and battlemaps, but I can see it being useful for the Dungeon Master new to running horror. Some of the new additions such as weaker survivor characters, and curses are interesting and involve mechanics. Most of it is however about rule building and running such games.

This Will Not Help You With Curse of Strahd

If you wanted a book to help you run the adventure Curse of Strahd, this is not it. That adventure describes the location in far more detail. Really, it’s a setting book combined with an adventure. At most this one may help a little bit if you want to continue the adventure after the end of Curse of Strahd by having the players enter the mist and enter other horror themed domains. That said, if you do this, be prepared to spend a lot of time developing the settings. Interior maps basically don’t exist here, and descriptions are fairly short. At least short compared to what is needed to easily ran an adventure in. Really, this book is to inspire and help someone flesh out these ideas (with a little bit of mechanical flourish for horror specifically), but isn’t enough to run them on their own. Hopefully one day we’ll get an anthology, with one adventure per domain Candlekeep Mysteries style.

It’s A Horror Help Book

The majority of the book describes Domains of Dread, how to create dark lords, and general horror game advice. This is the vast majority, and I don’t think one should approach this book expecting anything else. There just isn’t enough of the rest of it. While it’s a nice touch and adds value to the book, I particularly like the low level adventure and advice on describing creatures, the real meat is the advice. It is good advice in many cases with good examples. The advice also covers a fairly wide assortment of topics. If you’re not confident with running horror, this book is good advice. It’s a book for thinking, with not many things that can be dropped into a campaign. Though some such things are included too for added value, if you go into it with that hope you’ll be disappointed.

The Domains of Dread

Before I go on, I’ll explain the concept of the Domains of Dread before we go on. Basically they are realms with their own unique dark lord, each one focusing on a type of horror setting. Travel between them is possible, and they are less than a whole world. Instead they exist outside of it, separated by magical mists. If you’re an older player and have experience with it...you will probably be disappointed here. That description alone is probably different than you remember. It does provide the ability to experience many different kinds of horror as players jump from one domain to another, and allows each Dungeon Master to easily add their own domains not detailed in the book.

Each domain is described in 6-8 pages. So really, they’re the seeds to campaigns and settings. But to do any actual playing, there needs to be a lot of Dungeon Master work. We usually have a map unless it’s Bluetspur. I wish we got a map here too, could really show off the mountain, and would make for a great piece of art. Anyway, the map is a good starting point, and most settlements at least get a paragraph. The rest needs to be expanded by the Dungone Master. Adventure ideas are provided. I’m glad to see these starting points. But these are again just a sentence each in a table. Helpful, but a lot of work is needed to run anything. It’s really the start to a campaign that a Dungeon Master will need to fill in.

One thing I hated was that they stated which domain was first. It would’ve been trivial to leave it as a mystery and say “some people think that this domain was the first”. It was unnecessary and didn’t add anything.

There are 17 major domains, and some very short ones included at the end for extra. The Barovia stuff is very simplistic, so if you have Curse of Strahd it’s really 16. I’ll choose 3 to quickly highlight here.

Falkovia is a favourite, as it allows the classic never ending fight with undead. As could be expected from a horror game, as opposed to heroic fantasy, the undead aren’t the only horror to be found. The evil possible due to the desperation of humans is a thread.

Har’Akir is an Egyptian themed setting. It has a great idea for minibosses built into the setting through the servants of the Pharaoh. The location itself is different with unique obstacles that can be used due to the dessert. And the dark lord has a clear goal, with consequences for the success and failure of the goal that can lead to further adventures.

Richemulot’s central idea is about the coming of a plague. Being trapped in a city as things get worse, with a plague causing death and horror is an interesting situation that is fairly rare in campaigns. Well, if it doesn’t involve zombies.

New Player Options

There is a bit here. Mostly this is in the form of backgrounds for player characters, which help to tie them to various domains. However, if you’re looking for subclasses and the like, you won’t find it here. I wish there was a bit more here. One that comes to mind is horror themes equipment. Even if not magical, some new descriptions could go a long way.

New Monsters

There is a limited number of new monsters. In total, we’re looking at 32. This is a bit disappointing, as it also extends to darklords of domains. Also, the creatures tend to be low to mid CR. I wouldn’t mind more lower CR creatures, that can also cause some damage to high level characters. Whether that’s by slowing them down, or other factors. I also want more of an even spread. It jumps from CR 13, to 19. Especially very high level CRs remain largely unfilled in this edition. Almost all have some kind of quirk or gimmick to prevent them from being about hitting for hit points. I like this part.

The big standouts creature wise for me are the Necrichor, Swarm of Zombie Limbs, Boneless and Loup Garou. They have those quirks/gimmicks that make low level and mid level fights interesting, and can play up the horror. They can also make very decent oneshots. Shout out to the Bagman that while not having a stat block, the steps included can be followed to create a creature. I put it here for concept alone.

New Magic Items

This is where we’re really sparse. I’d have loved to see a section on some new cursed magic items. The kind of items that can have entire adventures built around them. Of course, these items don’t need to be built to only be given to players. A cursed item given as part of contract only meant to be given to an NPC is also a great element for an adventure. Or even some food stuffs and the like described in certain settings. Games, trinkets, clothing items.

New Rules

Most of the book is fluff, focusing on helping describe different worlds. There are some new mechanics. And by some, I mean they fit in about 10 pages of the book. The nice thing about it is they are simple and easy to use. The bad thing is if you wanted many options and mechanics to drop into your games, you won’t find it here.

We have rules for haunted traps. These are like traps, but skinned to look like horror things. Did an experienced Dungeon Master need it? No...but it’s nice to have some references and ideas. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure we’ve been doing similar things for years by now. I imagine it’ll help some newcomers. Really that’s what they are. Specially skinned traps for horror D&D games. So if you have the Dungeon Master’s Guide and liked the traps, you’d probably like this part.

There are some rules for curses. These are pretty brutal, and don’t map to something existing in previous books. They almost read like special magic effects, but make sense for a horror centred book. I imagine they can inspire some new adventures, and well as work as examples to make your own curses. They aren’t strictly necessary, and pretty simple. They involve a procurement or trigger, a burden (what happens), and a way to break the curse. They take up about 1/4th of a page. Again, pretty simple. But nice to have it all written out to make it easy. I quite like this idea myself, as well as the formatting.

And survivors. These are like super low level and weak player characters. If you wanted more player options...this is not it. However, if you wanted to provide players with a challenge, this is one way. I can see many people not using this rule due to it giving players fewer options than a normal character. I usually lean more into the atmosphere, and can work within the rules to make do what I want. And level 1 characters are already quite easy to bring down. However, it could be a good way to introduce the game, or a simpler way for groups that care much more about the roleplay aspect, as the weaker characters can play into horror nicely.

Lastly, there are fear and stress rules. Along with suggestions for players to act scared within the game. I quite like these elements, since playing into the atmosphere is fun as a player too. It also helps with that important skill of separating the player from the character. The advice on role-playing may be the best part here. The rules themselves are simple and make sense. Fear involves making roles when something scary happens, and if failing receiving a temporary penalty. Stress involves tracking how stressed a character is, and applying a more permanent penalty until the character gets rid of its stress levels somehow. This is also simple, and remains viable even for high level characters. What I don’t like is that by the nature of which rolls it applies to, it once again disproportionately targets non-spellcasters.

The House of Lament (Adventure)

This is an adventure included in the book. I quite like this one, though it is on the shorter side and fast tracks the characters from level 1 to level 3. It also takes place in a domain of dread, making it easy to toss players into it. It’s also not very long, taking up 20 pages total including art. I’m quite fond of the art at the start of this adventure too. It’s a fun haunted house that is less combat heavy than Death House, but possibly harder to run if we exclude combat balance. The combat balance is easier though, which I think is a welcome change to many. The final encounter can still be a bit tricky, also depending on the players and their characters.

The basic concept is that of a haunted house. At the start players make their way to the house, run into a friendly NPC (or two) who is an investigator at the house. The identify of the investigator is left to the Dungeon Master with options included. They make their way through the house, and as they do so things get worse. There’s multiple villains to choose from, which is a nice touch. So it works for multiple playthroughs. It also makes use of the spirit board prop to hold a seance, which having used it helps add to the adventure. I think it’s also easy to reuse the map, to make your own villain, and to make your own investigator.

There are a few issues. However, they’re not too bad. The adventure is not ready to run out of the box, and you’ll be forced to select your villain, investigator, and think through the rooms. The interactions with the investigator in particular are not very well detailed. Though depending on your players and choice, there can be quite a few interactions and when I ran the adventure, it turned into a mini side quest. Will the investigator accompany the party? Also not very well detailed, and affects the difficulty. The haunts in each room also can require some planning. Since we can add more haunts, or replace some of the suggested ones. In fact, the adventure calls them “suggested” at the start, which is a nice touch. The suggested ones, as well as the tables are both solid. The house also awakens at some point, where the haunting activity becomes more intense. And since it’s written for multiple playthroughs in mind, figuring out when the house should awaken, and which haunts should occur when can be confusing. Make sure to read through it multiple times, and make notes of your plan.

The seance using the spirit board can heavily influence the adventure. However, your players can ignore them as written. This may have been intended, as the players can push further into the house. That makes sense. That intent isn’t communicated in the adventure very well. And some events depend on the seance, or at least which one is chosen. Even the ending. Two easy ways around this are to have certain doors closed to prevent passage until after the seance. Though this feels railroady, and I’d highly recommend not doing this. I did use those points as a good chance to add a paranormal event. Like them opening the door, and seeing their own backs opening a door in the hallway beyond. Then when they sometimes still proceeded a bit before going to the seance, it helped with the creepy factor. And made them more likely to go to the seance. If things really go south, a haunt can give some clues that would be given during the seance.

Finally, there’s the difficulty. As usual, the number of players is listed as 4-6, but encounters aren’t adjusted for number of players. Two of the final encounters listed can be particularly challenging, so be aware while preparing to run this adventure. And be prepared to adjust things for the final encounter.

What’s Required

You will need the Monster Manual. Basically all of the big bads details in this book outright reference the Monster Manual. The residents and creatures that haunt some of these domains are also contained in that book. Some, however, specially reference new creatures only found in this book.

Alt cover for Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Still looks pretty good, but not as abstract or design centric as previous ones.

The Art and Book Build Quality

The art is what we’ve come to expect from this edition. I do prefer the standard cover this time. I say this basically every time, but the art has been consistent, and often even using the same artists. I would’ve preferred some more dark and brooding art made in a realistic style. Also a 2 page foldout or two would’ve been nice, like we saw in some of the core books. There are also maps for almost all of the domains of dread. Almost. I wish all of the mentioned ones did have a map of some sort. There’s already very little per domain, so the lack of a map really hits hard.

As always, I recommend checking the books if you can. The binding, struck pages, and misprints should be of particular focus. A quick flip through of the book is what I usually do, along with a close look at the binding. Unfortunately, the current times mean you may not have the luxury of picking it off the shelf and will get whatever copy you are sent.

Price

The standard price continues to apply. Due to recent situations, you’ll probably buy it online though. Wish there were a few more pages for the price as I always have. 100 pages could really help. Still, as a horror help book I’m sure many new Dungeon Masters would find it useful.

What I felt was Missing

This book really needs more crunch I think. More monsters. More maps. More adventures. I would love to see a Candlekeep Mysteries style anthology. One short adventure per domain of dread, and that each one is self contained means it can easily be strung together as the attempt of the players to escape the domains after being sucked it. It’s basically begging for it, and each adventure could also work as a mini-guide to each settings. Sort of how Curse of Strahd also doubles as a setting book very effectively.

If we didn’t want to go down this route, even some encounters would be nice to see. Battle maps, creatures, some kind of horror twist in the encounter. And each one specially made for each domain.

Free Stuff

Nothing to see here.

Summary

The title is very misleading. This is not required for Curse of Strahd, and I’d say you won’t find a better introduction to Barovia than that adventure. It is instead a bunch of advise for running sessions where horror is an emphasis, with some high level example settings. Each setting is a domain with a darklord and runs 6-8 pages. There is a bit of content such as fear and stress rules, curses, haunted traps, rules for weaker characters called “survivors”, and new monsters. There is also a short adventure included, which is pretty solid. However, this mechanical and usable content are a minority and not enough on their own. The advise itself is good, and I see it being very helpful for new Dungeon Masters who hope to run horror. The new mechanics are short and simple, so easy to add. The examples, and high level horror advise are also solid.

All in all, this is a decent book if you expect the above. It’s hard to recommend this book before many previous books, especially the adventure books. This is largely due to the lack of mechanics and crunch, and if you’re an experienced Dungeon Master you probably already know how to run horror. If you want that advice, it’ll provide. I wish it was longer though, with more crunch. And as a result generally I’d recommend many other books in this edition before this one.

Dungeons & Dragons: Candlekeep Mysteries Review

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• The layout of this book is really solid. It starts with background knowledge for the setting of Candlekeep itself, and then branches into many short adventures. The tips and organization is also well done, making it easier to understand than many other adventure books in this edition.

• There’s a total of 17 adventures between level 1 and 16.

• More full cover art. It’s a highlight of this edition, and keep it coming. And with more realistic pictures please.

• The adventure provides advice on certain elements of the adventure that can be changed, as well as alternate locations if you don’t play in Candlekeep or the Forgotten Realms.

• More maps, and these have colour. As the book says itself, “a good map is all a Dungeon Master needs”. Well, roughly.

• It has that balance between a little bit of setting building for Candlekeep, but also the main meat is the adventures. I’ve felt for a while that these books are strongest when it can act as part setting book, part adventure, part spare parts to steal from, and inspiration.

• Tear away map of Candlekeep is also provided. I loved when this started with Curse of Strahd, and I hope they continue with it going forward.

Could Go Either Way

• The adventures themselves are on the short side at 10-15 pages long. From my experience this translates to around 2.5 hours on the low end, and 5 hours on the high end. This is influenced by play style, since it's been my experience that treating the adventure as a dungeon delve shortens the time. This estimate is also for the content in the book. There are situations where rooms can be avoided, and many adventures leave hooks for adding more adventure of your own making. However, this shorter length also makes it easy to drop into your own campaigns as the occasional side quest.

• The adventures don’t really fit together, except for the central framing device of being discovered from the books of Candlekeep (or other library).

• It’s still a little on the short side, but longer than some others.

Cons

• The vast majority of the maps are not coloured. For an expensive book like this, I’d want colour. That said, you might find some of these easier to use and modify on the fly as thet don't have interiors detailed. However, most do have them detailed. You might also prefer the art style.
  

• Keep an eye on the book quality. My standard copy had the last 6 pages with torn corners.

• A few issues with wording. The second adventure has this, where one section says a character is willing to give books as reparations, but a later section makes it sound like they’ll only do so if they get something in return. Meenlocks already have some interesting quirks due to their descriptions. Since they paralyze for up to a minute, they probably need to beat their target unconscious (for adventurers, probably this one), steal them in their sleep, or sneak up while they sleep. This means that after an hour, the affected character is turned? An example of such a scenario would go a long way to making it more clear. Of course, this issue exists from the book meenlocks were first included.

• No PDF*

   

* Denotes nitpicking.

Cover for Candlekeep Mysteries.

Introduction

We’ve had a lot of big adventures in this edition of D&D. We’ve also had a few smaller ones, but they usually came as an optional starting point to a bigger adventure, or from magazine material. Here we have multiple smaller adventures that are connected through the framing of Candlekeep, the legendary library in the Forgotten Realms. However, if you have your own settings it can also work in those. All you need is a library in your world, so the books can lead the adventure! And since they are bite sized adventures, you can use as many or little as you want. Or change them to suit your taste. At the time of writing I have run the first 4 adventures, and the first 2 adventures for two separate groups. I've also read the book from beginning to end.

 

What do I think of it? Well, the organization is probably among my favourites. And I really actually like this concept. I hope they do more of these anthologies for different locations and settings. Why not a Ravenloft one? Or Spelljammer? Or Planescape? The adventures themselves are solid. I just wish they were more variety in length. Maybe some double length features with that noted? That way there’s more variety of complexity. So with that, let’s jump into the specifics.

The alternate cover for Candlekeep Mysteries. I really like this one.

The Adventure

New Player Options

Nothing here. It’s all about the adventure.

New Monsters

Almost nothing here. The majority of monsters from the Monster Manual or standard rules such as the Monster Manual and basic rules/SRD. There are a few extras though. The Lichen Lich is a good example. These are all included in the adventure itself. The previously named example is a favourite of mine. It should be easy to tell that undead are my favourite type of enemy, so a new type that also combined the fungus of one of my favourite Demon Lords is something I’m happy to see. A swam of books is also here, challenging or annoying low level characters. There are also others. So in general there’s not much, but there’s more than I expected. Also be aware that some of the new monsters are from other books, but are included since they’re not in the Monster Manual.

What You Need to Play

The Monster Manual, Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide are referenced at the start of the adventure. As usual, the SRD will get you most of the way, but having all the books really helps out a lot.

The Adventures Themselves

The adventures in this book are all short adventures that can be dropped into a campaign as side quests. They’re about 10-15 pages long, and cover the level range from Level 1 to Level 15. The book jumps right into them after introducing us to Candlekeep, and doesn’t let up until the end. Each adventure is also standalone. There are sometimes suggestions about things that can be done in order to tie the adventure into your overarching story. However, they don’t reference each other. It’s best to think of this as a D&D anthology, all tied together through the setting of Candlekeep. They all don’t take place in Candlekeep, but they all do start from there and involve a book. 

 

They often include new dungeons and locations to visit, which also means new maps. I have a critique in the next section of the maps themselves, but they’re appreciated to help run the adventures. These dungeons touch on combat as well as exploration, which are signs of good quest design. There are often little puzzles or twists to keep it from simply being a dungeon delve. Getting from Candlekeep or the book in question is also addressed in the adventures, and can easily be adapted to other settings. In fact, the book itself suggests some alternate settings. The other thing this means, is that not all of the adventures could actually be set in Candlekeep itself. If that’s what you expected, this isn’t it. Instead, it serves as the starting point of the adventure.

 

The adventures are not a matter of using combat prowess to have players slaughter their way through a dungeon. Well, there’s some of that too. But there’s also conversation and friendly characters to interact with. So they generally cater to the different pillars of D&D and thought out. As they should in my opinion, since the clever character interactions and role-play are a big reason I enjoy these sorts of games.

 

The first adventure is particularly nice. It hits my sensibilities, and it’s something I would run for my players if my campaign was set in the Forgotten Realms. Not for every group, but if the opportunity showed itself. And I did run it for some new players. There’s a little combat, there’s a good hook, and there’s a puzzle and interaction. This sort of structure continues in the other adventures. Some can be finished without as much combat as you might expect, and role-play opportunities and creativity show. And there is some good variety. The amount of combat, the nature of the dungeon, and even the outcomes and rewards can vary widely both depending on the adventure, and the approach taken. 

 

Sometimes there are wording issues though. The second adventure has one pretty major one. One section says a character is willing to give books as reparations, but a later section makes it sound like they’ll only do so if they get something in return. I’m quite sure the intent was to make players provide some form of trade or help for the books in question, but it really should’ve been clear in both sections. I’d also mention this as general advice. Make sure different sections don’t say different things. Even similar but different things can be confusing, and take more time to try to decode the intent than should be required. Another issue is due to an existing monster, the meenlock. In this case this is a pre-existing confusion, but the adventure doesn’t make things as clear as it could. They have an ability to turn people into one of them by psychic torturing them. Hit 0 HP with torture? We got another meenlock. However, their paralysis lasts for a minute maximum, so the meenlock needs to beat them unconscious. Does a player get turned right after the first amount of damage? I think so as written, but an example would go a long way to clearing this up, especially for new players. How would it work otherwise? Sneaking to a character’s bedroom and torturing them as they slept, or stealing them as they slept. Still, these pale in comparison to some of the things Dungeon Masters need to untangled in the longer adventures.

 

These adventures due to their size, and the formatting, are probably some of the easiest to run in this edition outside of the starter sets. That said, they will still require some thought and planning. There are multiple ways some adventures can go, and some provide multiple options for the Dungeon Master to customize the adventure. Though these options are often clearly laid out with examples the Dungeon Master can quickly choose from. This makes the process far smoother than many others, though there will still be situations out of the box. The previously mentioned example of trading help for books? The kind of help that’ll be accepted isn’t specified. So you’ll need to use your Dungeon Master muscles. And due to their smaller size, it also makes them easy to change without unintended consequences 100 pages in. This is probably among the more versatile and easiest to re-use books in a long while, and I hope to see more in this style.

The Art and Book Build Quality

The art is what we’ve come to expect. I’ve said this many times, but it’s a good thing. Since it means these books are consistent in their presentation, and quality. In particular, this book has great environmental art in multiple places. The art with the ghostly dragon trapped in the lower area of Candlekeep is a particular highlight. The framing devise of these adventures all involve a book, and the books that kick off the adventures are all illustrated in colour. I really liked this too. The tear-away map is also like we’ve come to expect. It’s in the same art style, large, and full colour. The standard cover is solid, but not my favourite of this edition, or even the last few books. Rime of the Frostmaiden looked far better to me. The other cover though? I really like it. They keep the stylized design with high contrast, which gives it that old book appearance. 

 

So what didn’t I like? Well, the maps. Many of them are not coloured. They’re the simple style maps you’d be used to seeing in older adventures, where it’s just line colour. It’s functional, and you can still have fun with it. But with the price of these books, I want to see them all coloured. Not all of the maps are like this though. It’s usually the dungeon maps. The overland maps are beautifully coloured like I’d expect.

 

My standard copy also had torn corners for the last 6 pages. It was barely noticeable at first, but less than ideal. The better the initial condition, the better the books last. So as previously recommended, if you can take a look at the book for quality issues. That said, with the current global pandemic, you probably won’t have that luxury.

Price

It’s the standard $49.99 USD MSRP we’ve come to expect. Check here for more info.

What I felt was Missing

As previously mentioned, the maps aren’t in colour. That really would’ve went a long way to helping the presentation. And I think it leaves a bigger impression with players. Otherwise, more variety would’ve been nice. All of the adventures here are about 10-14 pages long. As an anthology, I’d have liked to see some longer ones, and shorter ones. 

 

I’d have also liked to see another 2-3 adventures, so that the book was around the 250 page mark. Around there is where I think the books should aim for at their given price point. Though with sales, they’re often still worth a buy.

 

I mentioned this before, but for creatures such as meenlocks some examples of play would go a long way to help. So that way they can see the mechanics as intended, since the abilities and how it interacts with combat can be tricky. Is it intended to turn a player into a meenlock in an hour because they’re already at 0 hit points? I’d say yes as written, but an example would make it undisputedly clear.

Free Stuff

Nothing to see here.

Summary

I really like this book. And I like this concept of D&D anthology collection. We’ve had many adventures in the Forgotten Realms, and it remains a popular setting. So having small side quests that can be dropped into existing games while using Candlekeep as a starting point is extremely useful. Though if that’s not your setting, they can be placed into a different library fairly easily. The quests themselves are also interesting, having new maps, locations, combat, and also character interactions. They’re all 10-15 pages long, which is on the short side. This is a strength, as it makes for easy side quests. But it’s also a weakness, as I’d liked to have seen more variety in length and complexity. Most maps not being colour is also a disappointment for me. I’d also liked to have seen a couple more adventures included, to increase the page count. If this description sounds interesting to you, I think you’ll enjoy it. And I hope to see more settings and locations in the future. Maybe even coinciding with new large adventures as they’re released.

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything Review

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• Lots of full colour art (as we have come to expect of this edition). Really, keep this coming.

• The puzzle section is well done. Actually, can we get an addition Dungeon Master’s Guide with extra traps, maps, items, and puzzles like this?

• The patron section is also well done. What this does is provide more information for making quest givers and patrons for the party. This is particularly useful for new players, since more experienced ones would come up with this naturally.

• The idea of the sidekicks section is also nice. It’s a form of non player character that can join a party, and is specifically made to be easier to play than normal. I like this idea, and it provides some mechanics out of the box for giving your fighter that squire they always wanted. And how to level them up. It’s easy enough getting them a guard, but harder to find a balanced way to have them level up with the party. There is one caveat I’d add. See the cons section.

Could Go Either Way

• Class options in might not be well liked, by Dungeon Masters in particular. Some seem to make previous options look more useless, and don’t provide fixes to existing ones. Rangers in particular get the worst of this treatment.

• This book is rather short. At 192 pages long, I wish it was longer.

Cons

• The sidekicks made using the rules provided seem to be significantly weaker than a normal player class. This is in theory fine, since you might not want them to outshine the main characters. Well, except it also mentions some players could prefer playing the simplified character. In this case, the player could feel significantly weaker later in the campaign and may need to swap to a full character class later. Regardless, they are treated like a character for calculating encounter difficulty... which doesn’t seem right especially at higher levels. It’d probably be fine if there’s not many in the party, but if every player has one I imagine it’d throw off the calculation heavily.

• No PDF*

* Denotes nitpicking.

The standard cover for Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

The alternative cover for Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

Introduction

So, I’ve got a bit behind with these. To catch up I’m going to try to do a shorter format for some books. I may also bring this format back for books that I have less to say about. That said, I do expect to go back to normal some time in the future. The way I’d describe Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is as part a Players Handbook Addition, and as part a Dungeon Master’s Guide addition. The new class options play to the players side of the screen along with the new spells, and the new items, sidekicks rules, help on social contracts and session 0, negotiating with creatures, magical phenomenon, natural hazards, and puzzles all play to the Dungeon Master’s side. So what do I think?

New Player Options

Just over 1/3rd of the book is dedicated to new sub classes for existing player classes and new player class (artificer). I generally think this is the weakest part of the book. Part of it is I don’t think they’ve balanced new options and even some of the old ones as well as they could have, or should have. Also for my own sanity I typically make players consult with me for any options outside the Player’s Handbook. However, there’s also another 12 pages of new spells, which I’m more happy to see. This is because they’re easily limited, and also give the Dungeon Master more options to play with. After all, our enemies don’t have to be perfectly balanced one on one to be part of an engaging encounter.

New Dungeon Master Options

This is where the book really excels. As previously mentioned it includes new items, sidekicks rules, help on social contracts and session 0, negotiating with creatures, magical phenomenon, natural hazards, and puzzles. Just over half the book is dedicated to these.

Of particular note is the sidekick rules. I love the idea, and I think we’ve all at one point or another given the players an NPC that will travel with them. I also like that it allows a new Dungeon Master to quickly have stats at the ready for a new ally. It also allows each player to have two characters, one less complex than the other as not to outshine their main character. What I don’t like is how this ties into encounter design. They’re treated as full player characters, but in terms of pure combat prowess they really don’t match up past level 1. This is seen most obviously at level 20, where they have a 5^th level spell at most. Yes, some classes follow a similar progression, but they get other abilities in return. That doesn’t really happen here. The more such characters are in an encounter, the worse the problem becomes. One probably won’t affect the balance too much unless the encounter is already balanced on a knife’s edge. However, if half the party is? I think they’d feel it.

The puzzles are also a nice touch. I also like how they take the time to mention ways to customize the puzzles. This helps with both fitting into the theme, and even though it may seem obvious such options can be easily missed. The ways to customize the puzzle also sometimes mention ways to increase the difficulty of the puzzle, which again is very helpful. Handouts are also provided to make them easier to run. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if they had a book in the future that is just half full of puzzles.

The magic items are well illustrated, and interesting ones are included. Again I wish there were more. However, I also wish they stopped adding items that increases a spell’s DC. Spells can already target a creature’s weak stats, and there aren’t as many ways to raise DC resistance as armour class. Previously, very early in the edition, magic items would increase the to hit of spell attack rolls, but raising DC was not done.

The other options tend to be on the smaller side, but they’re also welcome. They also don’t overstay their welcome, but are interest reads and the sort of inspiration I hope to find in books targeting Dungeon Masters. The exception is that the social contracts and session 0 sections probably won’t have much for more experienced Dungeon Masters. Really, I do wish there was more.

The Art and Book Build Quality

The high quality and quantity of art remains. My complains about maps being black and white are also not present, as no maps are included. I still wish more of the art was in my preferred realistic style, but that’s also consistent from other books. The covers are still great, and the quality of my books was good as well. The quantity also there, with many of the items having their own illustration. However, as always, if you’re in the store make sure to check for damage and to ensure the book has a good binding. If you’re ordering online, you won’t have the same chance.

Price

As usual the price is $49.95 in the States. You can check the MRSP here, or your local game store. They could have a deal. I do think this one is on the short side unfortunately. I wish they went back to the length of the core books.

What I felt was Missing

Some sort of new maps would’ve been nice. I always appreciate them as a Dungeon Master. The part about customizing spells should really be added to the basic rules, and/or new editions of the Player’s Handbook. It’s short enough to fit, but powerful enough that I think new players and Dungeon Masters could benefit.

Free Stuff

Nothing to see here.

Summary

In general what’s here for the Dungeon Master’s side of the screen is solid. I like what there is. And even if I won’t use the tables for natural hazards, I can still use the rules provided for events such as avalanches. Really, I just wish there were more events, more puzzles, more magical phenomenon, and more in general. That probably speaks to how much I liked that section. It’s almost like a light addition to the Dungeon Master’s Guide. I say light as that was a 300+ page tome. That said, I’m less wowed by the new class options. Though this remains consistent with my previous opinion of new class and subclass options in other books. If you liked additional options provided in previous books, you might like this too. It's a bit more extreme in the power department than some of the earlier ones in my opinion. Other than that, it’ll come down to the price vs. the page count and content.

Dungeon Master's Screen Wilderness Kit Review

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• The art on the outside of the screen is really gorgeous.

• Having rules within a screen like this is extremely useful during play. Many people build their own screens for this reason.

• Some of the cards are exceptionally useful. They cover things such as conditions, and even some healing potions.

Could Go Either Way

• The interior of the screen is basically the same as the ones previously released, including the art on it for conditions, which are also found in the Player’s Handbook.

• The cards provided come in perforated pages you need to break. This isn’t the same kind of cards some of the previous card packs provided. The addition is nice, but you may want a better material.

• The normal price could be a bit steep, especially since many people made their own custom screens by now.

• It’s a Wilderness set. I’d have liked a large map for forest battles, and maybe another environment on the other side (maybe snow). This sort of thing is more useful to me than pages from the rule book, and infinitely re-usable. This is especially true if the map is big enough so you can start in a different area.

Cons

• The box to keep the extras inside seems really flimsy. I wish they’d be some better way to keep them together provided.

Contents of package. Not a bad package at all.

Introduction

And so we have another screen product for this edition of D&D. There is value in a good D&D screen when playing in person (remember what that was like?), and I personally like to see more experimentation. Here, we see this in the form of additional goodies thrown in like status cards, item cards, and a hex page for overland travel. As the name suggests, wilderness and travel are aims of this product. It’s hoped all of this combined helps out in these areas of play. Does it? Yeah, it’s better in this regard than the previous one I looked at. However, it’s not without it’s problems. So let’s jump into the specifics.

The Screen Itself

I’ll go into this more, but the art here is a real standout. The outside of the screen looks very impressive. The inside of the screen has tables and rules ready to be referenced. It contains conditions like the screen from the core rules gift set, but the actions in combat have been removed. In their place are rules for travel, foraging, tracking, prices for services including travelling and lodging, weather, tables for damage by level range and DCs, object DCs and hitpoints, skills and associated abilities, extreme weather (cold, heat, wind), exhaustion, spell concentration, suffocating, jumping, light by light source, visibility depending on time of day, obscuring rules, cover, and encounter distances based on terrain. In general, I think this is a far better collection of rules for more experienced Dungeon Masters. These rules often come up once or twice a campaign, or once or twice in an arc of 5 sessions plus. Combat on the other hand usually happens at least once per session and much more often if dungeon crawling, and as a result is ingrained into the minds of the Dungeon Master. If something is forgotten, it’s something that wasn’t included in the table anyway like improvised weapons, or how bonus action spells force the action to only use a cantrip spell at most. That said, the original screen on its own would be more useful to a new Dungeon Master that hasn’t had those combat rules memorized. However, what they did this time is provide separate handout pages. And this takes us to our next section.

Additional Resources

They almost feel laminated, and contain some other helpful things such as condition cards, some additional wilderness rules and a table for random encounters (meant to be on the Dungeon Master’s side of the screen I think), and a sheet with the actions in combat. I like this since players would often need to see the actions in combat as well. And we Dungeon Masters often don’t want players to see the inside of our screen, filled with our rules, which we might change at a moment’s notice, and notes. As a result of these considerations, I think this a big improvement over the earlier screen. There are some other sheets for rules such as chases would players would also want to see. If anything, I’d have liked to see even more pages for different important aspects of the game. The way the packaging doubles as a folder for these pages is also a nice touch. In general, it’s well designed, though it’s flimsy paper and wouldn’t be able to take pressure very well unless everything is loaded inside.

There’s a sheet to track resources like food and water. Included is also sheets with cards that are used for conditions. They’re in perforated sheets, and need to be broken apart. These generally feel much cheaper than decks they sold before that were a similar idea. However, I think it’s good that they included it. They also included a hex map for travel which has numbers for easy navigation. I don’t think I’d trust to write on it with dry erase markers, but using tokens and putting them on the map would work well, and if you note the location of things on the map you can rebuild it before the game starts rather easily. It’s a nice addition. There is also a fold up container thing for the cards which is probably the cheapest part of the set. It feels flimsy, and I wish they came up with a better way. Though in honestly I’m not sure what that better way would be.

The outside cover of the screen is beautiful. I wish the books had more art like this.

The Art and Book Build Quality

To start off, the art on the outside of the screen is truly amazing. I wish all of the books used this style. It’s simply jaw droppingly beautiful. The inside of the screen has a bit of art for conditions and temperature, but they’re black and white simpler drawings. For reasons of being usable and not distracting I don’t mind this. However, it’s a definite step down from the outside. And finally the additional resources/pages included have no art on them at all. They’re quite packed so more art probably wouldn’t fit, and it’s a nice bonus.

As mentioned before, the fold up card holder thing is a bit disappointing and feels flimsy. I don’t think it’d last for very long in use. The pages themselves feel treated with something glossy on the outside, almost giving them a laminated feel. I’m glad they put the effort in there. The outside and inside of the screen feels like other Dungeon Master screens we’ve previously had. They aren’t glossy in the same way, and feel more like the hard cover of a book. That said, the card is sturdy and it stands well. One of the bends was strange in my screen though compared to the other two, which were very neat. The paper popped out a bit, but it seems to work well in use. Unfortunately, these packs are sealed in plastic so you’ll be at the mercy of luck. You can’t look for a better copy like you can with the books. 

Price

For the suggested retail price of this product, you can check here. It’s $24.99 at normal price, which can seem a bit steep, especially if you didn’t need a screen.

What I felt was Missing

It would’ve been nice to have a few more sheets of additional resources. Perhaps with the maps from the early core books? Tactical maps have largely been ignored in this addition unfortunately, though many players and Dungeon Masters I’ve talked to like using them.

Free Stuff

Nothing to see here.

 

The set from another angle.

Summary

In general, this is a good screen and additional resources. The art that’s here, and particularly on the screen, is amazing. The additional resources are a good addition, and the organization within the screen is an improvement the earlier screen. However, if you didn’t need a screen this won’t be the thing that converts you to using one. I’ve played with a Dungeon Master before who liked to walk around the room, especially with new players so he could help them out. I played with another you didn’t like to take up the space. If you wanted a screen though, this is a good choice. I think it’d really come down to if you think the price is worth it.