Much like the Player Companion for ShadowDark, this book largely acts as supplemental material for what would be found in the core rulebook.  More types of hazards, more types of treasure, more types of monsters.  Useful stuff.

The book begins with a section on hex crawls.  Expanding on what is in the core ShadowDark book, author Greg Christopher suggests putting in a higher frequency of points of interest, which I definitely agree with.  If you’re going to explore, you should have something to find, even if that thing isn’t game-changing or mind-blowing.  So, instead of having a point of interest in a hex on a D6 roll of a 1, it is assumed that every hex has one.  To help with this, there are several D20 charts, each for a different terrain type.  There are also new hazards, expanded settlement creation, and shop creation charts. 

I haven’t thought very long or hard about this, but the next section sort of feels like it should be in the Player Companion.  For Priests, Wizards, and Fighters, there are new options for downtime.  Instead of the carousing presented in the core book, there are acts of devotion, magical study, and combat training.  Nothing for the Thief, sadly.  

The next section is about dungeons, with some expanded dungeon creation charts, as well as charts for rolling up NPCs and rival parties.  We then move into monsters, and here we have a bunch of new critters.  There’s a new chart for rolling random monsters, with those from the core book as well as a bunch of new ones presented here.  I like that the charts are divided by level.  Not that I really believe in play balance, nor that in a game as swingy as ShadowDark there’s much hope in achieving it, it’s nice to have a general concept of how powerful a foe might be.

The last chunk of the book is an expansion on treasure, with more charts, including boons, potions, and more.  And there’s a big pile of new magic items to throw at your PCs and see what they get up to.  

Like Player Companion, I wouldn’t say this is a must have, but maybe a “probably should have.”  If you’re running a lot of ShadowDark, the material in the core book could start getting a bit samey and repetitive.  So, fleshing out the charts and adding more variety is going to be useful.  I’m glad to have this in my arsenal, and if I’m ever able to get some long-term gaming going, I’ll be glad I’ve got it.  

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