I just got this, so a quick rundown:
Matt's not exaggerating. It's easily about an inch and a half/3.5 cm thick. If I get angry at any of my players, I rest confident that I can club them to death with this book. (Joking... sort of.)
Things I Like
- The full description of the NPC and a quick rundown of the setup for the adventure
- A breakdown of the skills needed by the PCs to complete the adventure
- The 1d6 mini-adventure path after each NPC helps flesh out possibilities, even if you decide to discard them completely (sometimes it helps to know what you DON'T want to do)
- Better female representation. There are only illustrations at the beginning of the chapters, but women are shown in a variety of roles and ages and wearing actual clothing.
- Recurring NPCs and NPCs that tie into other mini-adventures. It helps with the flow of the game and makes the world feel "lived in".
- This book is VERY general. There's stuff in here that won't fit with 3I or SD or JD canon, but most of it fits with almost game you want to run. I could use it to run a Star Wars homebrew if I wanted. (I would recommend this book to anyone running a sci-fi game, regardless of system. It is that useful.)
- The adventures are interesting and varied. The mythological encounters add a slice of "otherness" to campaigns where you don't want to bring in Ancients. It's nice to see Mongoose thinking outside of the box.
Things I Don't Like
- No stats for the NPCs. For some of the bigger players or recurring characters this would have been really helpful. (Obliteron, for instance.)
- Doing this in LBB format is going to be nigh impossible given its thickness.
- ...Yeah, that's it. Did I mention this is dead useful?
How long do you think it will take to arrive in the shops in Newcastle Upon Tyne?
