A solid product let down by poor scanning. There's really no other way to put it. The creatures in this compendium are creative and interesting for the most part, though there are occasionally a few that are just plain silly. (A race of space gorillas? Really?) I especially like the Plasmoids--curious, blob creatures with human intelligence and some surprisingly interesting quirks. The infinity vine is another standout and demonstrates the neat mechanics that went into Spelljammer. Unfortunately, this entire product is let down by the quality of the pdf. Even at 100%, the text just doesn't look very clean. The pictures of the creatures that go along with each entry have also suffered and sometimes are so dark that it's hard to pick out the details that exist in the physical edition. To be fair, I know it's not always easy to scan a black and white document, but when comparing this compendium to the gorgeous scans of 3rd and 4th edition products on this site, the different really is obvious. Ultimately, I would only purchase this if you're extremely curious about Spelljammer or if you have fond memories of playing it back in the day.
As an addendum, if this product gets updated with a higher-quality scan, then my rating would rise to roughly a 3.5.
Rating: [2 of 5 Stars!] |