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Campaign sourcebook & catacomb guide. Any good?
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ashmire13
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Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 6:29 pm

Hi guys, is this book/guide any good as an item to build on for the DM? I may be able to pick one up soon from a pal for not much, but don't really know if its worth it or if it adds anything to the game.

I still play 1st ed rules, but thought maybe something from the 2nd may improve things or make a change.

Cheers

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Theleb
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Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 7:13 pm

I recall reading it quite a while ago and not being particularly impressed. It might be useful for a novice but for someone who has been playing the game and reading a lot of other dungeon material for a while it won't be much use I imagine.

copycat
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Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:17 pm

The section on mapping was useful, but that was all.

Those who can, don't. Those who should not, do.

Kamelion
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Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 8:50 am

It's stat-free, so good for any edition.

It has lots of advice onn understanding players, different types of playstyle, handling problems, making your games better etc. If you don't have a resource like this, it is well worth the buy. Otherwise you can skip it. It's good, but not as good as, say Robin's Laws of GMing, for example.

deimos3428
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Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 11:24 am

As I recall it was one of the better books in that series. In my opinion, most of the DMGR books are quite well done, in comparison with the PHBR ones, at least.

Mars
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Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 12:25 pm

If you are looking to pick one up, a reasonable price is probably $5 or less.

JohnGaunt
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Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 12:47 pm

Mars wrote:If you are looking to pick one up, a reasonable price is probably $5 or less.

The DMGR series of books have covers that are either textured plastic or the usual softcover cover; the cover material varies by printing. I've never been clear on which books and printings had which types of covers.

Regardless, the more you have, the nicer they look sitting on the shelf:

( Stolen from brenfrow's site ( http://home.flash.net/~brenfrow/dd1/dd1.htm ))

2112 DMGR1 Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide
2114 DMGR2 The Castle Guide
2123 DMGR3 Arms and Equipment Guide
2128 DMGR4 Monster Mythology
2133 DMGR5 Creative Campaigning
2144 (DMGR6) The Complete Book of Villains
2151 (DMGR7) The Complete Book of Necromancers
2164 (DMGR8) Sages & Specialists
2170 (DMGR9) Of Ships and the Sea

ashmire13
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Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:31 pm

Cheers for the advice guys, it's only a £ so I'll probably take it just for interest.

Thanks

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ashmire13
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Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:36 am

Could anyone advise on whether the Villains book or the Rogues Gallery are worth reading/having as well please? The reviews on Amazon can sometimes appear a little tooo 'this is the best book ever!' if you know what I mean!

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JohnGaunt
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Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:19 am

ashmire13 wrote:Could anyone advise on whether the Villains book or the Rogues Gallery are worth reading/having as well please? The reviews on Amazon can sometimes appear a little tooo 'this is the best book ever!' if you know what I mean!

I packed the The Complete Book of Villains book away, don't have the first version of the Rogues Gallery anymore, and have never seen the 2e Rogues' Gallery, so I can't be specific in my examples.

Villains is a little boring; if I haven't figured out bad guys, their motivations, and their backgrounds from fantasy fiction or real life news, I'm in worse shape than I thought.

I couldn't get through much of it before becoming bored. It does look nice as part of the dark-blue set, and it's not as plentiful as most of the others in the set.

The 1e Rogues Gallery is basic NPCs. It's got the old-school cover and basic stats for NPCs. IIRC, it has the names of characters from Gygax's campaigns. It should be cheaper than the three books mentioned above and more useful for quick, pre-rolled, generic NPCs. And it should be cheap, too.

Having never seen the 2e Rogues' Gallery in the wild, I can't comment on it. Maybe it's the rarest of the three, though that's not saying much.

Dragonsfoot is another place to ask this question. Maybe their reviews section has something on one of the books.

ashmire13
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 6:14 am

Cheers I'll have a look.

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