Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book Review
RPG Crawler posted a very extensive and favorable review for Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book as part of his new series, Shelf of Many Things:
If you're into gaming check out his channel (covers a variety of content and also does let's plays), and sub if you like what you see.
To clarify a few things from the review:
While this whole thing started as a 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons hack, over time we stripped out and changed so much that there's virtually nothing of it left; so if you don't like 4th Edition don't let that stop you from giving it a look. Someone else said that it reminds them of B/X or Rules Cyclopedia, though personally I think crunch/rules-wise it's more like 5th Edition with some 3rd Edition-isms (like the saving throws).
I suppose the use of levels instead of Hit Dice for monsters, and skill list is very close to 4E, though I swapped out Heal for Medicine, and instead of "training" in a skill and getting a +5 mod to it right away, you start with +1 and as you level up can gradually scale it up to +5. There's also no universal half-level bonus, or universal level-bonus for monsters. Oh and skill DCs don't continue to scale by level.
Buying the PDF gets you every PDF version available: black and white (with no background at all), color with no background, color with a parchment background, color with a lightened parchment background (in case you like a parchment background but think that the original version is just too dark). You don't have to choose (or, more accurately, you can't choose: you just get everything automatically).
If you want to buy a physical book, definitely choose an option that comes with the PDFs at no added cost, because you also get a bunch of extra content that isn't in the core book (nearly a hundred pages worth). This includes more races and classes (including racial classes and more talents), core classes with 20 levels, some advice on using monster parts, more monsters, magic items, a Vancian spellcaster, a primer for A Sundered World with Black Book rules, and so on.
If you just buy a physical book and want the PDFs, let us know and we'll set you up. We also keep adding more free PDFs to the core product over time: if you buy it and feel something is missing or just want to see how we'd handle something, email us: we might end up adding it to a future Appendix D issue.
Not really a clarification, but usually people mention Mike Mignola when talking about the art, so it was refreshing to see RPG Crawler compare it to Darkest Dungeon.
You can now get a physical copy of Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book in whatever format you want!
It look a lot longer than expected, but we finally released The Jinni. As with our other monstrous classes, this one is more faithful to the mythology (so don't go in expecting elemental-themed jinn).
After putting it to a vote, the next couple of classes on the docket are the warden (think 4E D&D warden) and apothecary (gotta go see what they're all about).
Dwarven Vault is our sixth 10+ Treasures volume. If you're interested in thirty dwarven magic items (including an eye that lets you shoot lasers) and nearly a dozen new bits of dungeon gear, check it out!
Just released our second adventure for A Sundered World, The Golden Spiral. If a snail-themed dungeon crawl is your oddly-specific thing, check it out!
By fan demand, we've mashed all of our 10+ Treasure volumes into one big magic item book, making it cheaper and more convenient to buy in print (which you can now do).
If you're into gaming check out his channel (covers a variety of content and also does let's plays), and sub if you like what you see.
To clarify a few things from the review:
While this whole thing started as a 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons hack, over time we stripped out and changed so much that there's virtually nothing of it left; so if you don't like 4th Edition don't let that stop you from giving it a look. Someone else said that it reminds them of B/X or Rules Cyclopedia, though personally I think crunch/rules-wise it's more like 5th Edition with some 3rd Edition-isms (like the saving throws).
I suppose the use of levels instead of Hit Dice for monsters, and skill list is very close to 4E, though I swapped out Heal for Medicine, and instead of "training" in a skill and getting a +5 mod to it right away, you start with +1 and as you level up can gradually scale it up to +5. There's also no universal half-level bonus, or universal level-bonus for monsters. Oh and skill DCs don't continue to scale by level.
Buying the PDF gets you every PDF version available: black and white (with no background at all), color with no background, color with a parchment background, color with a lightened parchment background (in case you like a parchment background but think that the original version is just too dark). You don't have to choose (or, more accurately, you can't choose: you just get everything automatically).
If you want to buy a physical book, definitely choose an option that comes with the PDFs at no added cost, because you also get a bunch of extra content that isn't in the core book (nearly a hundred pages worth). This includes more races and classes (including racial classes and more talents), core classes with 20 levels, some advice on using monster parts, more monsters, magic items, a Vancian spellcaster, a primer for A Sundered World with Black Book rules, and so on.
If you just buy a physical book and want the PDFs, let us know and we'll set you up. We also keep adding more free PDFs to the core product over time: if you buy it and feel something is missing or just want to see how we'd handle something, email us: we might end up adding it to a future Appendix D issue.
Not really a clarification, but usually people mention Mike Mignola when talking about the art, so it was refreshing to see RPG Crawler compare it to Darkest Dungeon.
Announcements
You can now get a physical copy of Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book in whatever format you want!It look a lot longer than expected, but we finally released The Jinni. As with our other monstrous classes, this one is more faithful to the mythology (so don't go in expecting elemental-themed jinn).
After putting it to a vote, the next couple of classes on the docket are the warden (think 4E D&D warden) and apothecary (gotta go see what they're all about).
Dwarven Vault is our sixth 10+ Treasures volume. If you're interested in thirty dwarven magic items (including an eye that lets you shoot lasers) and nearly a dozen new bits of dungeon gear, check it out!
Just released our second adventure for A Sundered World, The Golden Spiral. If a snail-themed dungeon crawl is your oddly-specific thing, check it out!
By fan demand, we've mashed all of our 10+ Treasure volumes into one big magic item book, making it cheaper and more convenient to buy in print (which you can now do).
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