Ok
I am not some professional "reviewer" on printed materials. But I just received my free copy of the titled mentioned "guide", I think for being nice enough to provide a nice scan for one of the rare modules that's listed in the guide.
I haven't even read the entire guide yet, so take what I am about to post as my "first impression" and just that. Though I am not sure it will get much better.
And, this is not meant to make anyone mad or piss anyone off, but these are just my observations.
I was expecting a nice hard cover book to be able to put on my shelf (as I was looking to buy one, not get one free) and was thinking of something along the lines of a "Dungeon Master's Guide" in size and heft.
Let's just say the "guide" is ~57 printed pages, which includes the cover page, credits, introduction, contents, index etc... about the size (if not smaller) than some of the "super modules". It's also a soft cover book as well.
So at first thought, my brain said "cheesy", and I turned it over to check the price to see what they were looking to sell these for .... $20.00 !!! no way would I ever pay $20.00 for this, sorry, but ~$10.00 at most... just my personal thoughts.
The paragraphs of information throughout the booklet are informative as far as basic information on the modules, books, board games etc that are covered with info like ISBN, original prices etc, but most of the info is already here at the Acaeum, or other places on the web, though the point of the booklet is to put it all in a single place for the reader.
The problem I have with much of it is, it looks like someone just cut and pasted white blocks for titles like Dungeons & Dragons using the original font in a rectangle black on white block pasted against a "parchment" back ground (all the pages in the book are a tanish/gold busy parchment color).
I am 47 and I consider myself to have good eyes, since I don't need glasses and I still do some long range open site shooting with "pistols" and rifles and have no problems reading things from far off and up in my face as well. But ....
The scans/pictures of the items in the booklet are about he size of your thumb print, say around 1" tall by 3/4" wide. So attempting to read much on each pictures is a tad difficult.
Also, throughout the booklet, there are "personal" notes by the author that are printed in RED in a CURSIVE font with little cheesy RED arrows point to things that the notes reference. Red was not the best choice on the page color is all I can say.
Sorry, but I wasn't impressed with the end result.... but who am I to judge, I haven't ever put together pages of material to create something like this... and I can't see anyone buying this off the shelf if they had it in their hands first before plopping down $20.00 for it.
P.S. as side note, I know there are those that are in the Gary Gygax corner and those that are in the Dave Arneson corner... and I am not here to defend either corner. But as you read the credits and opening pages you realize the author is in the Dave Arneson corner. While this should be fine, I think when creating a "guide", neither side should be leaned toward or you might lose buyers/readers.... here is the line in the booklet that I did not appreciate:
... "In the beginning, there was a man called Dave who had an idea. He met a guy named Gary who liked the idea. And they shook hands."...
I personally wish my name was not listed in the credits of this booklet, I was that disappointed in it.
If you should get a chance to read a copy, please feel free to tell me I am clueless and to shut my face if your opinions differ on this
