Sometimes it's the little things that make a difference. This "book" is a collection of what had been three separate PDFs, with the same content, which is just what the title suggests: 101 (or more) spell books, or components to use to enhance arcane spells, or non-magical treasure. Each item comes with all the statistics necessary to use it in D&D3 play, and with excellent descriptive details and easily adaptable history. Some of them are illustrated by Christopher Shy, who adds his own distinctive spin to each. You get two copies of the set, with PDFs laid out for on-screen viewing, illustrated in color and using color for page borders and highlights, and laid out for printout, in black and white with US letter size pagination.
This is wonderful stuff. Some of the items are quite powerful - and not just the magic items, there are some great epic treasures of mundane sorts here, too, like the warhammer of elvish make. Others are low-powered in themselves but hooks for extended storylines, like the ancient atlas offering a view of what used to be in some part of the game world. Many are just plain interesting, like the various musical instruments of exotic style and unfamiliar materials. Each one stands alone. Where it has implications, those are spelled out, with rules for some of those unfamiliar materials. There are new spells to go with the spell books, including a whole set of poison magical effects.
I've been running dungeon crawls lately, and found this the perfect complement to what I was doing. Since getting these books and printing them out for use, I simply haven't had any empty rooms. There's always been something suitable to add, with hooks for the characters to engage in the sort of roleplaying my players like, whether it's preserving the worn old battle flag for later examination and respectful disposal or debating the significance of the red metal in the set of daggers they found. (I adapted those out of the red metal shuriken, Phil.) Some of these set up for the adventures I plan to run next. Others enhance the richness of the environments at hand without lasting significance.
Each item here implies a whole story: they have makers and histories and cultures, presented in terms that make customization for most campaigns very easy. They have value of various sorts, often broken down by the cost of the raw goods, the price a knowledgeable collector would pay, and other such consideration. Most have special rules effects - usually straightforward skill bonuses - which Phil has noted clearly. Every item has the difficulty of an appraisal check and the kind of information a successful examination reveals beyond the item's appearance. Magical items are grouped by the sorts of spells involved, non-magical items by categories like clothing, instruments, armor, jewelry, and the like.
You can get this from RPG Now at http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1681 - as of this writing, there's a sale on, so that the already excellent price of $8 is down a buck more. This is really, really excellent value for the DM. For that matter, people running other sorts of games can also find some value here, for Chtulhoid artifacts, stolen treasure in a super-spy's lair, the goods favored by aristocratic space traders, and the like. It's clearly and unmistakably tuned for D&D and I don't want to raise any false expectations otherwise, but it may be worth looking at for just about any game where you want distinctive items of varying value and rarity.
Gamers who wonder what the PDF market can do when the technology's used by someone who really knows their stuff and who has excellent ideas should check this out. The two-format presentation (and the beauty and utility of the on-screen version, in particular) and the concise elegance of it all show the format at its best. And, to harp on the key point once again, it's useful.
Review Summary