The Library: Supplement Reviews

Things have finally settled down enough on my end that I can post again, which I am commemorating by introducing a new section to the Gaming Garden: sourcebook reviews for GMs.

I'll be grading each sourcebook in five categories, each with a rating from 1 to 5:

Pick Up And Go: How much work do you need to do to introduce this supplement to your game? Can you pick it up at lunch and use it at your game that night? Or do you need to carefully read over the new [mechanics/guidelines/arcane instructions] to make sense of it?

Depth of Ideas: How much inspiration can this give you for your own games? A sourcebook that has a good rating in this area will contain enough to spark multiple long campaigns or chronicles, while a premade adventure will score poorly in this category.

Prose: Is the text readable and free of spelling or grammar mistakes? Did the editor cut out all the developers' notes?

Readability: A lot of sourcebooks are useful in games, but fall flat as material to kill a few hours by reading. Can I pick this up and enjoy the sourcebook as an experience in and of itself?

Rules: This is a sort of catch-all category, responsible for the value of specific supplementary rules and statistics contained within the volume. The Rules category counts quantity and quality: high-quality, low-quantity rules in a sourcebook do not earn an automatic five in this category.

Finally, materials where artwork and presentation matters will also have a Style category.

It should be noted that many different gaming sourcebooks are different types of beasts, and that due to their nature, good sourcebooks will often score poorly in up to three categories. Consider the purpose of the sourcebook, and your reason for looking to purchase that sourcebook, when reading reviews. The following is an example of exemplar game materials for each score, one each for the World of Darkness and Dungeons and Dragons.

Pick Up And Go: Reign of the Exarchs / Red Hand of Doom
Depth Of Ideas: Requiem Chronicler's Guide / Manual of the Planes
Prose: Tome of the Watchtowers / Heroes of Horror
Readability: Invictus / Lords of Madness
Rules: World of Darkness Armory / Player's Handbook II
Style: World of Darkness Chicago / Monster Manual III


Additionally, I'm taking suggestions/requests for reviews. Just pop them off to the email on the right of this post.