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Dungeon Delving for Dummies: "Fantasmas de Saltmarsh"

"Ghosts of Saltmarsh" es la guía de aventuras más aburrida de Wizards of the Coast

Stephanie Moschella | Director de Medios Digitales

Fara los nuevos maestros de mazmorras, "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" es una guía de aventuras adecuada que sienta las bases de antemano. Sin embargo, para cualquiera que haya jugado a Dungeons & Dragons más de un puñado de veces, está extremadamente dirigida a los novatos y no a los jugadores experimentados. Hay muchos elementos interesantes, como un bosque embrujado de Shadowfell y vampiros ocultos; pero, al final, se queda corta en comparación con otras guías de campaña. 

Con siete aventuras y tres facciones nuevas, realmente no hay mucho contenido nuevo en esta guía. Se parece demasiado a los "Cuentos del Portal Bostezante", con un surtido de aventuras que pueden añadirse a cualquier campaña. No hay ninguna aventura de Saltmarsh que grite "barraca de piratas marinos". En todo caso, se pueden sacar cosas de este libro y ponerlas en cualquier otro sitio. Esta guía no transmite bien estas aventuras en absoluto, y hay poco o ningún carácter o historia cuando se trata de estas aventuras. 

Si los DMs estuvieran planeando dirigir sólo Saltmarsh ⏤ algo que yo intenté hacer ⏤ habrá muchas ocasiones en las que tendrán que tomar el control total y absoluto. Con la falta de equilibrio entre las aventuras que se juegan en los niveles inferiores en comparación con los niveles medios y superiores, los DMs tienen que lanzar un montón de regalos a sus jugadores. Es difícil empujar realmente los límites del estilo de juego cuando está casi preparado para que los jugadores fracasen. 

No entiendo por qué tanta gente dice que este es un gran libro de aventuras. Sé que ya es difícil criticar guías de campaña, pero es aún más difícil cuando el libro es una mierda. Las ilustraciones son increíbles, y hay algunos personajes que, si se amplían mucho, pueden ser grandes piezas en una campaña. Pero eso es todo, depende demasiado de que el DM tome decisiones para cambiar y mejorar los personajes, que al final, sólo el nombre del personaje es algo que Saltmarsh proporciona. 

La ubicación de Saltmarsh es genial, supongo: la ciudad costera en ruinas puede ser un comienzo interesante para las campañas; pero, sinceramente, en el primer par de sesiones, puede volverse extremadamente pequeña y claustrofóbica con rapidez. No dejaba de pensar en lo contento que estaba de haber nacido en los suburbios, justo al lado de una gran ciudad.

Revisión general: Si los DMs utilizan partes de esta guía de aventuras en sus propias campañas, pueden añadir un toque divertido e interesante. Sin embargo, no hay nada nuevo en esta guía, por lo que puede ser descartada. 4/10 Lo recomendaría tanto a los DM como a los jugadores. 

Póngase en contacto con el autor en smoschella20@mail.wou.edu

Dungeon Delving for Dummies: "Guía de monstruos de Volo"

“Volo’s Guide to Monsters” is Wizards of the Coast’s most detailed sourcebook 

Stephanie Moschella | Director de Medios Digitales

Imagine this scenario: a mother has two kids, one’s name is Combat and the other’s name is Roleplay. No matter how hard they try, the mother just can’t help but love Roleplay more. But she can’t just let Combat sit there and die ⏤ they need food, water, shelter and the base level of love so that they don’t simply just perish away. But Combat is ugly, slow, tedious, hard work and overall, a pain in her a-s. The thing is, with the right parenting, Combat can grow up into an exceptional adult. “Volo’s Guide to Monsters” might be the element missing to turn the combat hating players excited to roll initiative. 

This sourcebook is jam packed with information and in depth lore surrounding Dungeons & Dragons’ most notable enemies such as beholders, hags, mind flayers and much more. There are plenty of additional resources for dungeon masters including tables, lairs with maps, historical backgrounds and even some creature psychology that can help add an extra layer to games. 

Along with this, the book includes tons of extensions for player characters as well ⏤ with 13 new and interesting races in order to keep away from any standard or traditional races. There are tips on how to roleplay certain races, which I will always and forever ignore because they’re really just full of primitive racist stereotypes. Most of the time, these “tips” are problematic amalgamations of real life racism and DM’s should be aware of this in order to avoid any pitfalls. 

New races are always a plus, as they can expand worldbuilding and character creation, but it falls flat with the racially steered tips. Avoiding this section is quite easy, as Wizards of the Coast has done some careful, albeit minimal, backtracking in order to avoid this issue present day. 

The most important section of the sourcebook is the extensive bestiary that is dedicated to a variety of new creatures ⏤ some that weren’t even included in the Monster Manual. There is an excellent range of monsters with an easy to gauge balance for DM’s to recognize what they should or shouldn’t be using against their 5th level players. 

Content wise, any DM will benefit in buying and subsequently using this sourcebook. It is extremely detailed as stated by Volothamp Geddarm himself, “I wonder what a mind flayer’s brain tastes like.” 

Revisión general: This book is an absolute must-have for DMs as it is a treasure trove of monster lore. It’s an amazing addition to 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons with charming banter from Volo and Elminster sprinkled throughout. 9/10 would recommend to DM’s and players alike!

Póngase en contacto con el autor en smoschella20@mail.wou.edu

Dungeon Delving for Dummies: “Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide”

“Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide” is not Wizards of the Coast’s typical sourcebook

Stephanie Moschella | Director de Medios Digitales

Okay in actuality, “Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide” is technically not even a sourcebook. For dungeon masters ⏤ no matter how experienced ⏤ there will be absolutely nothing for them in this book. If you want a general overview of Faerûn and the Sword Coast area itself, then sure, spend $20 or so for this book. But, for people that have access to the internet, it is way easier to look up the information needed than to go searching through 50 pages. 

The Sword Coast honestly is an extremely generic setting for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. It’s good for quick one shots with new and boring players or the Adventurer’s League ⏤ settings I don’t really define as actual D&D campaigns. 

There is a lot of lore here, and Wizards of the Coast does make it canon instead of flip flopping with conflicting lore like they did for the past 30 plus years. They retconned and reconstructed a lot of material into one convenient source book, but it still can only really be used in an god-awful traditional setting. 

However, WOTC will do anything for a cash grab, so they did cram some new content for character development. Besides the lore on the Sword Coast, other surrounding areas in Faerûn and a few deities, this source book puts a spotlight on class archetypes and new backgrounds. 

Not all classes get new archetypes and some only get expanded versions ⏤ which hinders a lot of character builds. However, there’s some interesting ones such as the Purple Dragon Knight fighter, the comprehensive Arcana domain for clerics and a storm related archetype for sorcerers. Bards and druids don’t get any new additions, but unless a player is trying to have sexy times with a dragon as an actual a-s dragon, there’s no point in playing these classes anymore anyways. 

Revisión general: For players that want an introduction to the Sword Coast region or D&D hoarders that want to collect all the books, go ahead and buy this. But, it’s pretty meaningless and not really worth the investment, so I would suggest just using online resources. 4/10 would recommend to DM’s and players alike. 

Póngase en contacto con el autor en smoschella20@mail.wou.edu

Dungeon Delving for Dummies: "El tomo de los enemigos de Mordenkainen"

“Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes” is Wizards of the Coast most essential source book

Stephanie Moschella | Director de Medios Digitales

“Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes” stars our friendly level 30 mad mage — he takes readers through the multiverse that includes realms like Greyhawk, Eberron and more. If dungeon masters have players that are looking to be thrown into some good ol’ political intrigue, there is some rich history here that can help with that. With six chapters that contain a plethora of new lore and dozens of options regarding general gameplay, it tops it off with a large bestiary of new foes to use against players. 

The first section of the book focuses on The Blood War, which was fought between demons and devils, each attempting to grab for power. They fought a lot in the lower planes, so if DMs were going to use this in a campaign, there shouldn’t be too much concern regarding players venturing there. Unless players have a pretty sadistic DM….

A large extension to the Tiefling race was added — many subraces, additional abilities and more personality traits can be used by players. Along with multiple race variations to elves, dwarves, halflings, and gnomes, there is also an entirely new race addition — the Gith. Players would be able to play a githyanki or a githzerai depending if they wish to hone their strength or intelligence skills. 

Although the race additions and bestiary are helpful, a large portion of the sourcebook is optional information to add into campaigns. It would be useful for newer DM’s and those that want a quick fix to creating lore, but for already ongoing campaigns, it can truthfully be disregarded.

For more modern DM’s, I would not suggest using any of the lore in this book. It dives deeper into why certain races are classified as “evil” compared to others, specifically the drow and duergar. This sourcebook provides a pretty lame excuse for being blatantly racist by deeming it as “world expansion.” From Mordenkainen himself, “dwarves are neurotic.” 

Revisión general: Between the name calling and race structured personality traits, this sourcebook typically sits on my bookshelf collecting dust. 5/10 would recommend to players and DM’s alike.

Póngase en contacto con el autor en smoschella20@mail.wou.edu

Dungeon Delving for Dummies: "Guía de Xanathar para todo"

“Xanathar’s Guide to Everything” is Wizard’s of the Coast’s most helpful sourcebook

Stephanie Moschella | Director de Medios Digitales

“Xanathar’s Guide to Everything” serves as a compendium of everything extra and more. With beautiful artwork scattered throughout and hilarious riffs from the notorious gang leader Xanathar himself, this is an incredibly useful guide for dungeon masters. This sourcebook is split into three chapters: Character Options, Dungeon Master’s Tools and Spells ⏤ alongside extensions on character names and advice for DM’s. Nevertheless, Xanathar and his pet fish, Sylgar, take readers on a wild ride through all the brand new content to play with. 

If DM’s have more role-playing than roll-playing players, the character option guide is a massive win. Combat-focused players might find this section a bit underwhelming, however, nobody cares about what they think. There are many revisited and revised class modifications such as the Samurai fighter and the Swashbuckler rogue, along with a completely new subclass, the Horizon Walker ranger. Another win for the four players out there that still play a ranger. 

A compelling addition are the racial feats at the end of chapter one ⏤ which cover races such as tieflings and gnomes. There are various supplemental tables that DM’s could use to expand a nonplayable character’s background with a roll of a die or can act as a helping hand for new players. 

This sourcebook covers those complicated questions that come up during games, like the rules around waking someone up, exhaustion, seeing someone cast and identifying the spell and what the hell adamantine weapons are. Knowing those little, but important, rules can make a game run smoother and improves the efficiency of the DM. It’s great to know what to do when a player falls off a cliff.

Half of the spells in the original 5th edition handbook sucked, so I always look forward to any new ones that come out. The major additions to the druid, sorcerer and wizard spell lists give a much wider variety for extensive combat play. From Xanathar himself, “danger is everywhere. Always keep one eye open.”

Revisión general: Although not everything is balanced, many things this sourcebook visited can help build an entire campaign. 8/10 would recommend to players and DM’s alike! 

Póngase en contacto con el autor en smoschella20@mail.wou.edu

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