Pyramid Review
Dungeons (for d20)
Published by Alderac Entertainment Group
Written by Nancy Berman, Noah Dudley, Peter Flanagan, Mike Mearls, Jim Pinto, John Seavey, Eric Steiger, Serge Stelmack, Greg Stolze, Ree Soesbee, and Steve Wright
Illustrated by Julian Aguilera, Storn Cook, Liz Danforth, Jonathan Hunt, A. Bleys Ingram, Scott James, Richard Pollard, and Mike Sellers
Edited by Ree Soesbee and Rob Vaux
128 pages; $19.95
So far, Alderac Entertainment has taken a "short and sweet" approach to their d20 offerings, presenting the Adventure Keep series of brochure-sized adventures. Dungeons is their first full-size d20 book, but it's not really a single work. As you might guess from the long list of authors above, it's a collection of essays and tips. The tips are good, but design problems keep the whole of this collection from being as good as the sum of its parts.
There are four main sections. "Tips and Tricks" explores general principles of dungeon design from both the player's and the gamemaster's perspective. "Dungeon Types" describes eight basic styles of dungeon -- from fortresses to subterranean communities to the ever-popular madman's lair -- and presents suggestions for designing each style. The "Player" section focuses on new skills, spells and prestige classes for dungeon-delving player characters, while the "Dungeon Master" section presents monsters, magic items, traps, and some short sample dungeons.
Each section accomplishes its basic goal, progressing naturally from topic . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: June 8, 2001
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