The “Book of Challenges” is the latest release from Wizards of the Coast for 3rd Edition D&D. It is the first soft-cover accessory with a blue cover, indicating the book is for dungeon masters. At 128 pages, it is slightly longer than the character class guidebooks such as “Sword and Fist.” It is also slightly more expensive with a cover price of $21.95 (US). The quality of the materials and artwork are all very similar to other soft-cover products from Wizards, i.e., relatively high, so I won’t belabor the point. Most of the artwork, including the cover, features the iconic characters (e.g., Krusk, Ember, etc.) facing various challenges.
The purpose of the book is to provide a wide variety of challenges that a dungeon master can drop into a campaign. These challenges vary considerably in terms of encounter level, content and style. In fact, most of the book is take up by challenge descriptions, ordered by encounter level. There are only four pages at the beginning that break from this format. They provide some introductory text and some simple advice, although the section on spell selection seems targeted more at players than at DMs. The rest of the section discusses scaling encounters and some simple tactics that shouldn’t be news to any experienced DM or wargamer.
Overall, the encounters are very well done. I particularly like the very first encounter, “A Familiar Situation,” because it breaks the stereotype of encounters for low level characters. It presents a much more interesting problem than, “deliver the note to the shopkeeper,” or, “you are attacked by four kobolds.” Some of the encounters are quite devilish, and should present a nasty surprise to players. I only have a few criticisms related to the challenges themselves.
The first is in the area of plausibility. Some challenges do a good job of explaining why complex puzzles exist. Hedge mazes, for example, are frequently created as amusements. They may become more sinister when the original occupants leave and more dangerous creatures move in. Other traps are clearly defensive in nature. The problem with some of the encounters is that some puzzles require fairly complex solutions. Is it likely that a defender will create a puzzle trap that they might accidentally trigger through a simple misstep? This is not an insurmountable problem. A sophisticated poison gas trap might be appropriate for the lair of a vampire, who would be immune to the danger of an accidental triggering. Some of the other encounters raise the question of what various monsters subsist on in the absence of hapless adventurers wandering by. If a specific area of the dungeon became especially dangerous, one would think that most intelligent creatures (and sources of food) would start avoiding that area.
A more serious criticism related to plausibility is that several of the challenges are based on ciphers or word games that are based upon the English language. Depending upon your group, this may or may not be a serious issue. If your players can accept that the puzzle is really in a different language, but has just been translated in some fashion to make it understandable to them, then you will probably be fine. Sticklers for what passes for realism in fantasy gaming may make your life difficult if a clue depends upon something as language-specific as the number of letters in a word.
One significant plus is that there are sidebars scattered throughout the text that provide some very helpful information. They are always relevant to the current encounter. Frequently, they explain how to deal with special situations such as cramped quarters or incorporeal creatures. Some of the best explain how to create similar encounters based upon things like mazes, logic puzzles or ciphers. These little pieces of wisdom go far toward making the book worthwhile.
If anything, the most glaring weakness of the book is that any player with the cash can get a copy of it. If your players are the type who memorize entries in the Monster Manual, they may be able to sidestep most of the challenges in the book. There are entries on scaling encounters to make them more challenging, but they mostly rely on adjusting the strength of monsters. In fact, the book goes to some trouble to explain why simply adding additional traps may not significantly change the difficulty of the situation. As a dungeon master, you are going to have to take significant liberties with the challenges to foil metagamers.
Is the book worthwhile? If you’re willing to put the effort into adjusting the encounters, the clever ideas and useful sidebars make the book worthwhile. Gamers who like goodies will also find a few new magical items scattered throughout the text. If you run simple dungeon crawls with power gamers, you’re not going to get a lot out of it, although some of the encounters simply add an unusual element to a combat scenario. Overall, it can be a great way to throw a little “Indiana Jones” flare into an adventure.
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