Night Druid's Review of Secret of the Spider Moon part 1.

Hey guys,

        picked up Dungeon today, and I've read through it.  Here's my thoughts
of it, chapter by chapter, first two chapters ;)  I'll post the rest
later.

Chapter 1: Characters
        Molds races & classes into the setting.  I actually like this type of
section, they're always fun to read.  Humans are pretty basic.  Dwarves
are either defeated slavesor crusaders to free their homeworld.  Elves
fill the role of the schemers, kinda a cross between Victorian English
nobility & Machavellian politics.  Gnomes remind me most of the humans
from Titan, AE; scavengers, desparate, homeworld blown up.  Halflings
are scam artists, looking for the 'big score', but not necessarily
evil.  Think the crew of the Ereka Maru from Andromida.  Half-orcs are
gutter trash, your typical criminal ("t'ain't my fault...society made me
do it!")
        The prestige classes are familiar to owners of the Complete Spacefair's
Guide.  The Master Scavenger is essentually good at looting and selling
scavenged stuff.  Planetar Explorer is a linguistics expert, which is
almost odd in 3e because the languages are fairly monolithic.  The
Spelljammer Ace has numerous powers related to improving spelljammer
speed, maneuvering, and armor class.  Definate balance issues with this
one, I agree.  Stellar Cosair is a cross between a rouge and a captain
(rally troops and stuff).  The Storykeeper is pretty odd, kinda like a
bard with altered abilities.  The pre-reqs are even odder: though the
class has +1 level to spellcasting as previous class, there are no
spellcasting requirement.  In fact, any rouge can easily take this
class.
        Hardly any new skills, mainly pilot, which is used to maneuver
spelljammers better.  The feats aren't the best, and most belong in a
general article, not wasting space here (not bad, but out of place).
The siege weapon feats were obviously written over the course of time,
because they are horribly inconsistant with terms.

Chapter 2: Space and Spelljamming
        Movement and combat with spelljammers.  Spelljamming speed is now
Cruising Speed, which seems to be a bit slower than Spelljamming Speed,
and depends on the helm used (2d6+2 or 1d6+1).  Natural Gravity deserves
a big 'huh?'.  It's pretty confusing, takes a couple of passes to figure
it out.  Of course, it doesn't address whether a fleet of spelljammers
could 'stop' a planet.
        Helms now are much weaker than our helms of old.  At most, they have a
speed equal to SR 1.  More likely you'll be moving at walking speed.
They're less maneuverable, slower, hard to control, and more fragile.
Ships are much smaller, averaging 30-120'. The rules around them,
however, are pretty inconsistant.  First off, major helms 'max out' at
colossal sized ships, yet they have awesome-sized ships with major
helms.  Secondly, they clean air, but there is absolutely nothing in the
creation rules that would give this ability.  Thirdly, the prices are
WAY off in regard to standard 3e magic items.
        Ships now resemble the standard d20 Vehicle format, except they use
hull points.  However, this is BADLY implemented.  There's no effective
difference between hull points and hit points.  Seems kinda tacked on.
Otherwise, combat greatly resembles the vehicle rules from Dragon.
        Now onto the ships themselves :)
        Human ships have the advantage of being bulky & carrying more cargo.
Elven ships have air that last longer, but smaller cargo holds.  Gnome
ships are junkpiles with no special benefits.  There are no special
benefits to drow or illithid ships as well, merely frightful appearance.
        I like the new tradesman.  Nice and elogant.  Small, but works for an
adventuring party.
        Hammership, hammership, hammership, what happened?  My first thought?
"Gee mommy, I rode the short bus to school all by myself!".  Gaakk.
They took one of the most elogant ships in the old SJ and put in a
compactor until they got it under 120'.  Uggh.
        The Archelon looks kinda like the loch ness monster, with one massive
hump.  Don't get me wrong; I like the idea behind the Archelon (Seas of
Blood had numerous town/city ships, and I find the idea intriguing :)
However, the size just does not match the picture.  The picture isn't
too ba; I really like the pavilians on top.  Just needs to be a bit
longer :)
        I'll skip over the elf & illithid ships, already went over them
numerous times.
        The single gnome ship, the Wreckship, resembles the small river boats
of oriental nations (watch any movie shot in Hong Hong or Singapore,
you'll know what I'm talking about).  Not bad, kinda like the Aspera
ships.
        This very well may shock people: I *LIKE* the drow ships.  All have
their legs facing forward, like a Mindspider.  They really don't match
up to the neogi ships; their layouts are too different, the scales won't
match up at all.  What I find curious is that the drow world is noted as
lacking in resources, yet they have the facilities to build ships &
cannons?

--
Adam Miller