Book of Challenges: Dungeon Rooms, Puzzles, and Traps (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying)
The greatest threat to any adventuring party is a devious Dungeon Master. This book is spring-loaded with ideas, both subtle and sinister, that will ensure every gaming session is appropriately hazardous, including:
Over fifty encounters designed to be dropped into any campaign.
Scalable scenarios that can be pitted against characters from 1st to 20th level.
Advice for creating your own deceptive and deadly situations.
Dungeon Masters who want to keep their players on their toes will be inspired by the invaluable material within these pages.
To use this accessory, a Dungeon Master also needs the Player’s Handbook, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and the Monster Manual.
User Ratings and Reviews
1 Stars poor
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.
3 Stars Good idea seeds, not much else
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.
2 Stars Well done, but worthless
I realy like the artwork and the level of detail of the different traps that are described.
So for that part, the book is surely worth your money.
However, there is no rules on trapconstruction (sure they are in the DMG and “Song And Silence”.
The traps you find have no calculated prices.
The advice on building puzzles is nice, but building a puzzle that fits in your campaign still is up to your imagination.
Some of the traps are smart, but all in all, I feel this book does not offer you anything.
As a DM setting up traps is the fun and joy of the game and if you need this book to do that, I think you should consider asking one of your players to take over DM’ing.
After all, what is being a DM about besides setting up traps and “ugly” encounters?
The content of the book would urge me to give it one star only, but the pro’s mentioned in the first lines have raised it to two….. (doubt doubt doubt doubt….)
1 Stars what a waste
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.
2 Stars Book of Challenges — a challenge to use it!
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.
Filed under: Dungeons and Dragons Book Reviews
