Customer Reviews

Book of Challenges: Dungeon Rooms, Puzzles, and Traps (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I purchased this book hoping that I would be treated to something along the lines of an updated Grimtooth's. What I got was a mixed bag of good advice for building your own traps and challenges, coupled with traps that fell far short of that advice. Some of the challenges are so poorly worded that you have to read them two or three times to figure out what the text is actually describing. The figures vary from very well annotated to not anontated at all. The solutions to the puzzles are frequently ones that even experiences D&D gamers would never think to try, because they suggest utilization of abilities in a manner other than they were intended. Setting all of that aside, there is a bigger problem: most of the traps make no sense. Who would have built such ludicrous mechanisms? Who would have populated them with such an odd assortment of creatures? How do such creature survive if they depend upon PC adventurers wandering into these traps as their sole means of food?!? Aargh. It comes down to this: if you were a wizard powerful enough to build some of these traps, you would have used your powers to build better ones. Summary? Good advice, but I wouldn't bother with the traps.

A seasoned DM probably wouldn't get much out of this book, but for those just starting out, it provides a lot if inspiration for building memorable games.

this book turned out to be nothing of what i expected. i expected it to be a book of traps and various kinds of challenges in it, to give ideas to DM's who need a little help from time to time (as we all do). instead, what i got was a book that has four examples of particular challenges for various level of characters. i thought this limited the use of the book tremendously, and hence has been the book that i least spent time reading and using.

I'd hoped for a bit more emphasis on traps and puzzles, and instead found a tome filled with what I would describe as "encounters."

At the worst, there are some rather odd interpretations of what sort of odd encounters one might theoretically find in a dungeon, but there are so many presuppositions to the encounters as to render them useless in any but the most generic ways.

That said, there are some interesting ideas in a few of the encounters, and the scaling of the encounters to match party levels is solid.

If you're desperate to add some random (and I do mean random) encounters, take a look, but generally speaking I'd recommend finding longer modules with better story arcs.

The format of the book is less useful. I was expecting something closer to a Monster Manual but for traps, and I was disappointed. Each "challenge" is formatted like a mini-encounter rather than a single trap or puzzle explained. Some challenges are 2-3 pages long. I prefer a bit more quick-use format structure so I can just pull out the encounter and plop it into my adventure just like a monster from the Monster Manual. I prefer Traps & Treachery by Fantasy Flight Games which has that type of structure.

Having leafed through this book at the local bookstore my first impression was that it didn't have much to offer. I was ordering the Monster Manual II and figured I would get this as well to get the free shipping. With the savings in shipping I didn't pay much for this book, but I should have just paid shipping. My first impression was right. Anyone with any imagination at all can come up with stuff as good as this. I have owned the book for a couple of months and haven't used a single thing out of it. If you have ever run a game, or watched a good fantasy movie ( or Indiana Jones for that matter ) you don't need this book. Save your money and get some good treats for you next session.

I'm a recreational gamer and I DM less often than that. This book is full of great ideas for begining DM's to advanced DM's. There are so many encounters for various levels, plus there are helps to increase or decrease the CR for each encounter so that it can be adapted to make more or less challenging. I enjoy making my own adventures and this is a great addition to my core collection.

I thought this book would be chalk full of traps and challenge ideas for dungeons/caves etc, but it turns out to really just have four examples of setting where there are challenges. So you buy a book, to possibly place four ideas in your adventures and that's it. It is the worst buy I have ever made for a role playing acessory.

This book makes it sound like it's a primer for playing logic games with your players. And it's got those. But about half of the book is also how to make combat creative by putting the creatures on superior footing and giving them tactics to match. Even so, I'm still satisfied with my purchase.

While the book presents some interesting scenarios, most of it is rehashed information you can get from a book of logic puzzles or find in the AD&D 2nd edition DM's blue books (namely the Villian's handbook and Creative Campaigning) or even check out the Crypt of Lyranzad the Mad. If you want a bunch of one-shot encounters or traps, this book is fine, otherwise you can get as good ideas by buying a book of logic puzzles or riddles and adapting them as encounters.