Worlds Largest Dungeon

This is a great tool for the "I wish I had the (choose one or more) [time/creativity/resource materials/ambition/support of my spouse/ create your own choice] to put together a dungeon for my campaign" crowd. Having over 30 years of experience in the pencil/paper FRPG world and about 20 different campaigns as player or DM, I can tell you - this is incredible. At first blush, you'd think that going through the entire Monstrous Compendium and using at least one of everything would be a bit like the "random denizen roll" dungeons of the early Gygaxian era (remember the 1d100 monster generator charts from the early days?). On the contrary - this actually has a flow and reasonable explanations for what is where. At $100, it's pricey - look for it used if you can find it. If you have $50 to plunk down on the newest WoTC rip-off plan, save it and buy this. You'll be amazed. Even if you don't run it, it's still one helluva story book.

While there are some glitches that could have been resolved with some better editing, this is easily the best DnD module I've bought. I have been running it as an adventure online since April and it makse my job a pleasure. The company supports the product. There are multiple story lines. The writing is well done. There is a huge variety of monsters. There are scaling hints through out. The stat blocks for every monster are included - no need to look them up elsewhere. They include open ended areas to expand the dungeon/prison. All you need is this book and the free SRD and you can have thousands of hours of fun. Note that I haven't read the entire book. I'm on page 355.

The book is hardbound and is very sturdy. It is bound in such a way that it will lay flat pretty much wherever you open it to. The layout is two column with pretty small text (I'd venture a guess and say around 6 - 8 pt.). Illustrations are grayscale and sparse. That is to say, you get an AWFUL lot of content in this book. The maps are very nice, color and are folded in such a way that each quarter of the map is 8-1/2" x 11"; perfect for scanning or copying. The introduction spends a few columns going over the real-world whys and wherefores of the WLD. It then launches into a game-related backstory for the WLD. The backstory is important if you want to use it as a cohesive whole. The designers include notes at the beginning on alternate ways of introducing the dungeon. It gives well over 20 reasons/hooks. After all the introductory stuff is out of the way, a mere 12 pages, we get into descriptions of things that aren't on the map. These include empty rooms for when the DM doesn't want to use what's in the region, or when they want an extra room to customize the experience. There are also some above ground encounters describe that lead to the first room of Region A. The room descriptions is where the WLD really shines. They include grey-box text for the DM to read aloud, information on encounter conditions, tactics (including stat blocks for every creature/NPC in the room), and scaling info for DMs who want to make the encounter more or less difficult. The storylines of the 16 regions are all interconnected, but it is done so in such a way that you can take one region out and run it on its own. I think this is a very cool way to handle an adventure this large. DMs won't have to run the whole thing straight through if their campaign won't support such an undertaking; they can pick and choose parts of it. In addition to areas controlled by monsters, there are also "safe" rooms buit in where the PCs can recuperate in relative safety. All of these are in the dungeon in a way that fits in with the logic of the location. The 16 maps all connect and can be laid out and one giant, wall-sized map. The "outside" of the dungeon has passageways that lead off to areas not detailed, allowing creative DMs room to customize their WLD experience, or allowing them ways to get higher-level characters into regions built for more powerful characters, thus avoiding the regions for lower level characters (e.g. Region A, designed for levels 1 - 3). That's pretty good foresight on the part of the designers. The WLD is a huge undertaking for any group. I did notice a few errors, particularly in some room descriptions where they've been written as though the PCs enter from one direction, but there are multiple entrances to the room. But, these errors don't detract much from the enjoyment factor of this product. As I've mentioned, it's mind-bogglingly huge, and I can only imagine the amount of effort editing this monster was. I've seen more errors in TSR products (dur

This book (more of a module really) requires more unpacking and understanding than any other I have ever bought. Well worth the price it contains so many rooms, features, monsters and other accoutraments to make your average adventurer (read: my gaming groups) drool with envy. I am very pleased with this purchase, and I highly recommend it. A note of warning though is that you should be very ready to sit down and tdo a lot of reading should you wish to FULLY utilize this module in your gameworld. An 800+ page book is nothing to laugh at, even should you be a fast reader. The only downside I can consider to exist, is that AEG doesn't also sell a poster-stle huge map of the dungeon. Not wishing to reveal too much about this module, I will not say much more. Simply put then I bought it, loved it, and recommend it to everyone who enjoys a good ole dungeon crawl... for if you enter this one it may never really end ;)