Supplement Four
Mongoose
I picked up this book. I can't say I'm that thrilled with it. It's more of a historical discussion of a sampling of ruins than it is a book that a GM can use to stock his game with "dungeons" in his game.
There's a section of Creating Ruins, which can be helpful if you're the type of GM who likes to create his own scenarios. I actually like that kind of thing, but I just don't have time for it. I'm much more prone to buy a published adventure and then adjust it to my tastes.
Another, similar section of the book gives a GM an idea of what ruins are like in different parts of the world.
The major meat of the book are essays on a dozen ruins known to exist in the known world. Here's where my major disappoint in the book lies. I was hoping for ready-to-go ruins that I could slap into a game or adapt for a campaign.
That's not what this book is about. All it does is give you history on these places and describe what the places are like (not too many maps in the book, either). I wanted to see fully-fleshed out ruins--complete dungeons to explore--not templates that I've got to populate with bad guys.
So, the first part of the book is a ruin creation system done with rolling on tables. Next, you get "atmosphere" type discussion on the types of ruins you are likely to find in certain parts of the Known World. And, the highest page count goes to 12 specific places that are not completely fleshed out for adventuring.
The last section of the book is the most useful. There, certain aspects of ruins are discussed, like cave ins and collapses, traps, and ideas on treasure.
The only other useful thing about this book is, sprinkled throughout, are monsters and NPCs that you can use in your game.
If you're the type of GM who likes to create things from scratch, then you might find this book useful.
If you're not into building dungeons from the sand up, or you're looking for pre-fab dungeons (as I was) to slap into your game, you will be highly disappointed with this book.
I say give it a "pass".
It's really the first Mongoose Conan book that I'm sorry I purchased. I can tell you that I will probably never use this book. In that sense, it's wasted money for me.
And, I hope that Cities of Hyboria doesn't follow the same pattern.
There's a section of Creating Ruins, which can be helpful if you're the type of GM who likes to create his own scenarios. I actually like that kind of thing, but I just don't have time for it. I'm much more prone to buy a published adventure and then adjust it to my tastes.
Another, similar section of the book gives a GM an idea of what ruins are like in different parts of the world.
The major meat of the book are essays on a dozen ruins known to exist in the known world. Here's where my major disappoint in the book lies. I was hoping for ready-to-go ruins that I could slap into a game or adapt for a campaign.
That's not what this book is about. All it does is give you history on these places and describe what the places are like (not too many maps in the book, either). I wanted to see fully-fleshed out ruins--complete dungeons to explore--not templates that I've got to populate with bad guys.
So, the first part of the book is a ruin creation system done with rolling on tables. Next, you get "atmosphere" type discussion on the types of ruins you are likely to find in certain parts of the Known World. And, the highest page count goes to 12 specific places that are not completely fleshed out for adventuring.
The last section of the book is the most useful. There, certain aspects of ruins are discussed, like cave ins and collapses, traps, and ideas on treasure.
The only other useful thing about this book is, sprinkled throughout, are monsters and NPCs that you can use in your game.
If you're the type of GM who likes to create things from scratch, then you might find this book useful.
If you're not into building dungeons from the sand up, or you're looking for pre-fab dungeons (as I was) to slap into your game, you will be highly disappointed with this book.
I say give it a "pass".
It's really the first Mongoose Conan book that I'm sorry I purchased. I can tell you that I will probably never use this book. In that sense, it's wasted money for me.
And, I hope that Cities of Hyboria doesn't follow the same pattern.
