Excellent reference work and resource. A, D, and D is a look at what dungeons are made of. Tables, descriptions and pictures of the many types of rooms you might find in a dungeon, along with descriptions of their purpose and possible contents. Lists of traps, and some very good writing about the nature, purpose and utility of traps. But beyond that, the author delves into the psychology of traps, from the perspective of the players and the DM, not something I've seen before. I normally don't go in for "GM advice" type of stuff, but Courtney Campbell's writing is succinct and very useful. This isn't an elitist "killer DM" screed written by someone who thinks they're smarter than you. It's a set of very practical tools that you can use in your game right now. All in all, this book is indispensable, in my opinion. As are all of this author's books. It's got me thinking of how I can use it, and that's a success as far as this type of product is concerned. Does it inspire? Does it set you to musing on how you can use it to enhance your game? Do you see how you can use it in conjunction with other products that you already have? When it comes to this book, the answer to all of these questions is, "Yes."

Incredible resource for Novice or the Intermediate GM! What I like most is the book starts with lists of the many different types of rooms that you may have in a dungeon/adventure then goes out of it's way to define and make what they are clear (differences between their counter parts very helpful with the many crypts) and provides easy to look at yet simple illustrations as examples.

From there, the book lays out the various types of traps-to the mundane or magical(overall very comprehensive), their purpose that gets overlooked in the dice rolls and the psychology of their intended use. And to go the extra mile, the book lists examples from other d&d adventure classics to prove their point, many from Gygax himself, which is a brilliant touch- I would reccommend that the reader go out of their way to list their own examples that come to mind also.

The book then covers the differences not just between the many traps, but tricks, tools, and dilemmas and the many variations how they can differ and work in tandem together. While also using an in depth topic on how to convey the trap without spoiling it or reducing it to a cheap dice roll or worse yet, an uncalled for TPK. The author states that consequences can be harsh but never unfair or out of reach and I agree, this topic can be hard for the novice GM and takes experience and he handles the topic very well. And to conclude the author compiles a huge list of things that could be used to become not what they seem.

Overall I found this to be an enjoyable read, reading this inspired me to think of situations on the fly or reminisce..But after playing and DMing for a total of 6 or 7 years most of this was mostly stuff I knew and agreed on or disagreed with due to personal taste. Personally I found the Author's introduction and certain parts on agency of D&D verbose to my liking and the final category covering the items was a redundant choice. Page 149 seems to be randomly blank? maybe this makes more sense in the printed version since I have the PDF... Which would bring me to the final gripe, this book when not on sale is a little too expensive IMHO even though it is well made.

So, who is this book for? I feel like this book would be best for the new GM who likely wants to run old school games or have modern games have a more weighted in choice or want a dangerous crawler or megadungeon and wants insight before they begin? or the person who wants to build that really cool trap but never started yet. Id recommend buying the soft cover for the price point and this book would pair nicely with the Dungeon Alphabet by Goodman Games for added inspiration.

All three books by hack & slash publishing have some interesting ideas and tidbits of information, hidden in mounds of random text, and need some serious editing. First of all the books lack a clear structure. It seems like several articles from the blog were just copypasted together for a book, without much editing or reorganisation. The sentence structure sways between what seems to be the authors personal notes & cryptric sentences like: „The reality of mechanical triggers is relevant only to inform our design of them for play in the game.“ Editingwise the difference between chapters & sub-chapers seem to be rather arbitrary, and all kinds of headings are the same size. There is no clear transition in between. Sometimes the images cover a part of the text. While the books claim to be system agnostic, they contain several concepts which have not been used since 3rd edition or even before (reaction rolls, constitution damage, only thieves can detect traps, etc.). Saves from staffs, rods & wands stems from AD&D and literally has not been used for more than two decades. Also I do not get why the author would assume that all player characters are female. The intro of the last book reads: „These ideas are the way I run campaigns, and the books were created as a reference for me. The fact that they are useful for other people is just a wonderful bonus.“ except that if you sell your ideas to others, I would except a bit more editing & clarity than just personal notes.

The Artifices, Deceptions & Dilemmas is somewhat useful. The book contains three sections: room lists, traps & dilemmas. Some of the lists in the book are cool & novel (for example the kinds and conditions of doors.) The room lists provide an inspiration on room types & what they may contain. Its useful, but something similar exists in the DMG and the Dungeon Dressings series does the same thing much better. The traps section has some interesting „meta“ parts on traps (which part of a trap should be detectable, what kind of interaction is doable), but again it will be tedious to find the usable parts. The trick section again has interesting & useful tidbits, which are hard to extract from the two dozen pages. There is just so much random stuff in those pages (vampires as metaphor for rape, and werewolves for alcoholism) with no discernable connection to the specific chapter or the rest of the book.

this book in particular of the 3 in the bundle has a lot of issues. there are so many things that arent explained, there are numerous errors in the text which makes it feel like it wasnt edited at all, and there are a lot of attempts made to explain the philosophy of design which use the authors personal vocabulary that are very difficult to understand as a reader. really disappointed with this book considering how good the pther 2 are.

Great book to help with populating dungeons with interesting rooms, traps, and tricks. The first section gives you the different types of rooms the adventurers might find and the types of things typically found in those rooms. The next two sections are on traps and their triggers. Lot of great examples and ideas on how to present them to your players. The final section was on tricks that your players might come across. Those things that aren't quite traps, but aren't normal. A great reference book to help you when running dungeons.

Do you play fantasy roleplaying games? Do your fantasy roleplaying games need traps, tricks, or trappings for their rooms? Do you need amazing artwork to inspire you for the content of your dungeons? If any of these things are true, then this book addresses those needs in the best way possible. There are descriptions of traps, how they work, how they are commonly used, etc. There's advice on tricks, and how to employ them. The book is well-written, and did I mention that it has amazing artwork that will inspire you?

A deluxe, lavish upgrade and expansion on Hack & Slash blog's Tricks, Empty Rooms, and Basic Trap Design. The surfeit of painstaking illustrations is a feast for the eyes. One of the most actually useful documents you can incorporate -right now- to enhance your game.