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The meat of the book is in Chapter 1 Dungeon Fantasy Templates. A template is is a quick guide to creating a particular type of character. Written properly it lists all the attributes of a genre character type while still allowing the player to make interesting choices. All of the templates in this product are very well written allowing the creation of characters that are interesting to play and very effective in filling their assigned role. Each template is at about the same power level and they all play well together (except for the Barbarian, he's a dick and keeps beating up the other characters and stealing their lunch money). The templates presented are: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Holy Warrior, Knight, Martial Artist, Scout, Swashbuckler, Thief, and Wizard.
Chapter 2 Dungeon Delvers' Cheat Sheet is character creation with the training wheels off but your dad still holding on to the back of the seat. This chapter just lists the advantages, disadvantages, and skills appropriate for a dungeon crawl. While this is a real time save over using the Basic Set alone I don't like it as much as the templates in Chapter 1. Using templates frustrates many of the worst munchkin excesses of your players without you ever having to say no. Using Chapter 2 means that Neville the Necromancer with his ST3/DX3/HT3/IQ24 will be showing up at your table again. As an added bonus this chapter adds a new advantage, a new talent, and a new perk but I'm not going to tell you what they are just to be mean.
Chapter 3 tells you how to divide up the spells from magic into Cleric stuff, Druid stuff, and Wizard stuff. It's only two pages long and it covers the bases but it seems somewhat lacking. There should have been EVIL Cleric and EVIL Wizard stuff too (and maybe evil Druid stuff too, but how could you tell? Even good Druids stick people into Wickermen and set them on fire). There is also no mention of cool familiars for wizards. Plus, I wish there were some ready made elementals for summoning and some cool things for druids to shape change into here as well.
Chapter 4 Powers is another skimpy chapter at two pages. More of a getting you started thing than a full toolbox for using powers in a dungeon setting. On the plus side it makes the GURPS Bard way cooler that the D&D one.
Chapter 5 Gear , the last chapter, lists all of the equipment your players need to start their grand adventure (or murderous killing spree depending on your point of view). It's very thorough and includes all of the necessary cool things like how to make an axe a DWARVEN axe of hitting things really hard or how to turn a bow into an ELVEN bow of excruciating impalement.
Notice something missing? How do I play an elf? Or a dwarf? No rules are included for playing nonhuman characters. You can charge into the dungeon waiving a Dwarven axe and clad in Dwarven plate armor but you can't play a Dwarf waiving a Dwarven axe and clad in Dwarven plate armor.
Despite what I consider to be several glaring oversights I rate this product as "Gee Whiz Cool!" Even Nick, who wears a "If you're not using THAC0 you're doing it wrong" tee is having fun.
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