Ok, so is the new D&D Draconomicon worth buying?  Is it worth stealing? (C’mon you know someone who has a bootleg electronic copy, and if you don’t you wish you did).  Well, personally I’m just a fan of hardcover D&D books - if for nothing else the art and the feel of a solid hardback book in my hands.  Draconomicon meets those criteria - but does that mean I’m willing to shell out the cash for it?

Lets start with the good points - Art.  The art is good.  I like dragons.  Who doesn’t like dragons?  And a book about dragons better have pretty dragons in it.  Draconomicon delivers pretty dragons.  So on a scale of 1 to worth it - the art gets a worth it.

DM useful.  Again I have to give it a worth it here.  There are those out there who may diss on Chapter 3: Dragon Lairs, but personally I find 75 pages of stuff I don’t have to write myself very useful.  Can’t use it all the time - but can and will use it when needed.  Get an electronic copy (scanner anyone) drop an image into Microsoft Excel and bam you have a game grid sized map - I explained how to use Excel for maps a while ago.

Cool New Creatures - Mostly worth it.  Once again I tend to shamelessly use what is already printed.  Why then only a mostly worth it?  Draconomicon just doesn’t meet all my flavor expectations.  My opinion, my bias - essentially me just complaining for no real reason. Purple dragons - not so much.  Gray Dragons - reminds me of the stone guardians outside of the castle in Bard’s Tale.  I prefer dragons with color (just not really purple).

Overall flavor - Take out the Purple Dragons and Draconomicon will pass muster.  I like dragons, who doesn’t?  A whole book about them - well Wizards ought to publish at least a few.

For your convenience (and my own) I’ve placed a handy link to buy the product here at the end of the post.

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