Customer Reviews

Dungeon Survival Guide (Dungeon & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

As a veteran gamer, I pre-ordered the Dungeon Survival Guide long before it was published. Based upon the name, I expected something between the classic Dungeoneer Survival Guide of 1st Edition, and Cityscape - a book exploring new mechanics of the Dungeon setting. What I received was a sad disappointment.

This book was mostly a compendium of comments about a number of different modules and adventures that have been published by TSR and WotC over the years. Each dungeon adventure is given a 2-page summmary, with a few highlights of the adventure and general description of the setting and purpose. It has absolutely no new rules, no new insights, or no new real material at all. For a veteran gamer, the book is a complete waste.

The Dungeon Survival Guide is actually aimed at novice players, probably to get them interested or excited about playing D&D. It is full of lavish illustrations, many from the adventures in question. But the book is short - only about 60 pages. Why this book was hardbound is a mystery to me.

Since I've been gaming for over 30 years, I hardly qualify as a novice gamer. I cannot tell whether this book would entice a novice into the game, but I doubt it. A new gamer is more enticed by a good gaming group and perception of fun than a "best-of" list of dungeon adventures.

If you're a veteran gamer, skip this book. If you're a novice gamer, skip this book and buy a Player's Handbook or some dice. Either will suit you better in the long run.

I should have looked harder before buying this thing. Based on the title, I thought it would be like the old Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, probably not the best book ever, but at least with some useful content.

Instead it's a few pages of generic information about dungeon dressing (like what materials walls and floors might be made of) followed by a bunch of 2 page "ads" about other Wizards products. If they'd even included someone else's adventure I might feel a little better about this. As it is I feel like I spent my money to buy a hardcover version of their adventure catalog.

My advice is to avoid this one completely unless you are a hardcore completist.

First off, I need to say that I had very high hopes for this book. The flyer I saw this spring with the picture of the purple worm (see Amazon's cover) was fantastic! The description went into detail about how the book would outline dungeons--I was personally looking for a way to use the book in campaigns.

Another part of what drew me to the book was a blurb on the Wizards of the Coast website (the publisher) they stated that "We wanted to do something along the lines of the Practical Guide to Dragons, but written to our usual college-age audience instead of to young readers. We brainstormed a whole series of these kinds of books, and the dungeon theme screamed to be the first one we tackled."

With that in mind, I expected the "manuscript" style book that would explain from an observer's point-of-view exploration of a dungeon. The result is a catalog of past adventures that are no longer published pastiched together with art from previous D&D books. (most of the artowrk is available on the D&D website for free.) It's like a too-brief, badly edited yearbook of adventure modules!

In addition, WOTC changed the cover art to a black-lacquered watermark--with a barely visible illustration. The book looks nothing like the "Practical Guide..." series and nothing like their other source books. Save your cash and buy the Dungeonscape or Dungeoneer's Survival Guide (used).

This is terrible!

I wish I'd had the reviews in hand when I pre-ordered this book. The original 'Dungeoneer's Survival Guide', published years ago, WAS a legitimate source book. But this more recent one is a phenomenal waste of money for anyone who has played D&D for more than a year. Overall, it's a collection of ads (with some explanatory text) about other products put out by Wizards of the Coast. That it passed itself off as a needed adventure accessory is a travesty. The good interior art doesn't make up for the paucity of usable information.

I'm very sorry I bought it. Don't make the same mistake.

Beyond dreadful, this is a complete waste of time and money.
This is the first time I've ever wished for negative stars, on which basis it rates a negative max.
As another reviewer said, wish I'd waited for a review.
This is NOT 'how to survive a dungeon', analagous to the Cityscapes and Dungeonscapes books.
This is marketing that you have to buy.
Bah.

That would be wizards scraping the bottom of the 3.5 barrel. Let's face it we're not going to see any new real content until 4th edition. Not that any book lately before this was any good. Wizards is going through a "let's print what's on my desk at the moment" phase. Catalog, sure print it. Notes I still have left after writing an earlier book? Sure print that as well. (Behind the screen)

The new layout is horrible. Notice how they've switched to a white background? Guess what, that's to save money. Less ink used.
Are they trying to make the print products now as horrible as they can so consumers will pick up the cheaper to produce electronic 4th ed. stuff?

Just say no and influence future products. Don't buy anything from Wizards until the quality improves, if ever. There are other games out there.

Wizards has published countless worthless D&D books over the years, but this has to take the cake as the biggest waste ever. Don't buy it, since you could just go to the local gaming or bookstore and read it in about 15 minutes. It should have been a free promo item or something.

Pre-ordered this a week ago...wish I had waited to see reviews. The book is so thin that I had trouble opening it! Seriously there are more pages in a Doctor Seuss book. The art and layout quality inside is VERY nice and hopefully a precusor of things to come in the 4th edition but the cover itself is lame, not at all the cover shown by Amazon in the description above. Rather it is an all black cover, with a barley visable image relief, that does not fit with any of my other D&D sourcebooks.

I just paid $14 to get a hardbound sales flyer pitching other products Wizards sells! The only thing I feel good about is that I didn't pay shipping (Thanx Amazon Prime)!

This book is definitely not targeted at anyone who plays or is thinking of playing D&D. There are absolutely no rules in the book - no new feats, no equipment, not even advice for players that they wouldn't already know by the time they finish rolling up their first character.

The book actually opens up by defining the word "dungeon", then goes on to describe what is meant by an "adventuring party" and gives short 2 sentence descriptions of "human", "dwarf", "elf", and "halfling". Pages 24-63 of the 64 page book consist of nothing but 2 page descriptions of various pre-printed dungeons released under the D&D logo over the years (i.e. Undermountain, Castle Greyhawk, Tomb of Horrors, etc...). It reads very much like a product catalog as each 2 page blurb ends with a picture of the original module and a 2 sentence description of the module - but there are no usable maps or anything, just a setting decription.

For people that already play D&D this product offers nothing to add to your game. People that don't already play would be much better served picking up a copy of Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies instead because they would at least get some advice and explanation of rules.

Shame on you Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast!

For twenty dollars you get enough text to barely fill two DRAGON articles, a lot (and I mean a LOT, when WOTC says "lavishly illustrated, they mean it) of old artwork stretched so much that it dominates each page, and two hard covers that do not close properly because the book is only @sixty-some pages.

Hasbro/WotC is taking a beating right now for the manner in which they are (mis)handling 4ed D&D. This will not help matters, nor increase confidence in the company amongst their customers.

Very disappointing and not recommended.