This review is for the 101 Collection 2 supplement written by Philip Reed, published by Ronin Arts, and currently available as a PDF from RPGnow for $7.95.

Target Audience: Game Masters running the D&D/D20 family of role-playing games.

Rating: 6 out of 10 golden apples. This collection could have rated higher but there’s just too much chaff.

I called the first 101 Collection a Monty Haul DMs Midsummer Night’s Wet Dream come true, and this is that tenfold! Seriously one look at the Legendary Treasures of Medieval Europe should have the average DM exploding with childish glee and diabolical enthusiasm to do something. Oh, sure, they wont know what, but they’ll get that gleam in their eyes that means trouble come next game session. You know what I am talking about! Just be aware that many things that sound great on paper can turn out to be really lame during actual play. This is compounded by the fact every game is as unique as the foibles of the Game Master running it. Try to keep that in mind when reading this review.

As I stated in the first 101 Collection review: If you know a DM who carries around a three ring binder or folder full of Xeroxed articles from Dragon magazine this product is made to order for them. Seriously, this package contains a treasure trove of PDFs that can be of great benefit to harried Dungeon Masters. What you get: Another 101 Treasures, 101 Divine Spell Components, and 101 Legendary Treasures of Medieval Europe. All distributed as a single ZIP file. However, within the main ZIP file are three smaller ZIP files containing (usually) two PDFs of each core product in PDF format: 1 full color and 1 black and white. (If a black and white PDF isn’t present then an ASCii text file is.) But is this collection really better than the first? Read on to find out.

Designed for Use With: D20. Best fits with D&D and OGL fantasy games.

System Mechanics: None. These PDFs are little more than massive treasure lists.

Characters: None.

PDF Issues: As with Ronin Arts other PDF offerings there are no immediately discernable problems. Search works. You can copy and paste to your clipboard for editing. The internal art is a nice addition, as usual.

Negatives: While the usefulness of such supplements is too subjective to properly summarize I think, despite the chaff, this collection will be of value to most DMs. Alas I would still like to have seen some charts keyed to random %ile dice for random determination of treasure.

Positives: The PDFs are well formatted and look professional. Content wise there’s enough varied treasure types here to keep munchkin players and history buffs happy for several campaigns to come.

I shall rate each PDF individually on a scale of 1 (a misplaced effort bordering on useless) to 10 (no Game Master’s toolkit should be without) based on perceived usefulness to Game Master‘s of the xD&D family of role-playing games. The mean average of the sum total of these ratings shall be used to assess this package as a whole.

Usefulness: Usefulness, like utility, of such products largely depends on the sort of campaign you are running and how much work you are willing to put into working with the material. So if you are a GM that does not like to do a lot of work then this material will not be very useful to you.

Another 101 Treasures: 22-pages of non-magical, but not quite mundane, treasures ranging from armor to rope ladders, clay jugs to platinum torch holders, an elven war hammer to a god blade, and... You get the idea. Usefulness Rating: 5

101 Divine Spell Components: I have to admit upfront that spell components never really figured into any games I ever ran, save on the rare occasion when something rare was required by some Wizard or another who hired the PCs to got get it. To me spell components were just fluff, a trope to use by way of jumpstarting an adventure. Also, in my games, I reduced them to a statistical roll. That’s right all my players had to do was roll to see if their character had the more common items on them, if not, it was another roll to see if they could buy it or find it in the region. To be honest I view the entire concept of spell components as superfluous. As, I think, do the authors if the following, from page 4, is any indication: “Divine. Arcane. Who cares?” My sentiments exactly. Who cares? More to the point any tome that tells the reader on page 4 that the contents don’t really matter, that even the previous tome can be used however a DM wants, rates low in my book. Of course you are free to disagree, as is your right. Usefulness Rating: 2

101 Legendary Treasures of Medieval Europe: While the introduction to this 40-page tome of treasures actually starts things off with “Rules for Medieval Artifacts and Relics” it’s actually a bit more than that. The treasure lists starts off with ancient artifacts as outlined in the section: “The Age of Legends”, including rarities like Aaron’s Rod, the Bracelet of Gilgamesh, the Eye of Odin, and (brace yourself) the Ark of the Covenant. Takes some right large bollocks to write that up! A few of more interesting items included are: Hercules’s Club, the Book of Enoch (I own a copy and I never knew it could do all that!), the Lamegeton, Gaebolg the Great Spear of Ulster, Sword of St. Peter, The Spear of Destiny, Blade of the Order of the Dragon, The Philosopher‘s Stone, The Necronomicon, and much more! The entire work is actually a progression forward through history up to medieval times. Yes, there are Medieval treasures here, but if items like the Ars Notoria or Mystic Robe of Simon Magus don‘t make you lose all interest in wanting to read about some boring old magical quivers or broadsword, trust me, nothing ever will. The only fault I can find here is that this tome was ill named as I certainly wasn’t expecting to be overwhelmed by the sheer quality (or historical range) of content. I therefore rate this as definitely worth having. Usefulness Rating: 10