Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentire Vale (Unreview)

Choose Your Own Adventure…

You find yourself sitting at your computer, staring at the screen before you. It seems a mysterious figure known as “Weem” has written an article on his website. At a glance, the work appears to be about a Dungeons and Dragons product he recently received. He goes on at length about how he came have it before finally arriving at what he calls the “Unreview”. You now have a very difficult choice to make…

If you choose to read about how Weem came to have the new Monster Vault, turn to page 1.
If you choose to simply read the Unreview itself, turn to page 2.
If you can’t be bothered with any of this, turn to page 3.

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PAGE 1
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The Matt James Show

So, a little while back (we’ll call it about two weeks ago) Matt James (@matt_james_rpg) was hosting one of his shows, and I figured I would drop in and listen as I have before. This particular show was an unboxing for the recently released Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale (video follows this article), a Wizards of the Coast product for which he contributed to.

The show was interesting as usual (Matt’s an interesting guy after all), and despite the fact that I have not played 4th Edition since December 2010, I found myself very interested in this product. But this was of course Matt’s product – obviously he would be trying to build excitement for it, and it had worked… well played.

Now, here’s where things got really interesting… at one point he mentioned he would be choosing someone from the chat (essentially from the people signed into uStream and watching the video) and sending them a copy of the Monster Vault from the show. I looked to see how many were signed in… 8 (many more were watching but not signed in)… “Huh”, I thought, “Interesting odds… but I never win anything… but… what if I did?”. Immediately I felt bad… it’s been clear to anyone who visits my site the fact that I have been playing Pathfinder these days, not D&D. If I won, would anyone be upset at the idea it may not be used?

Immediately I did not want to win.

I hope I don’t win… Oh who am I kidding, I won’t win, settle down… I considered leaving the chat to avoid the chance, but the product had been intriguing me the more Matt discussed it. In the last month I HAD picked up the “Essentials” Dungeon and City Tileset boxes, as well as the first Monster Vault, all for use in Pathfinder. I bought the Monster Vault for the tokens really, and I would most certainly use the tokens from this new Monster Vault, at the very least.

Fine, I will stay… if I win, I will use the tokens… but I won’t win, so it’s no big deal… The show eventually came to the end, and to the time at which a winner would be determined. Matt would roll using a dice app (yea, he had no dice at his desk). He numbered everyone, I was number 8, and rolled…

…and I won.

I am one of those people that feels bad when they win something, regardless of the circumstances, and this was no exception. Although I had earlier convinced myself I would use the product, I felt bad for the others nonetheless. However, after having had a chance to look it over (and with the benefit of the passing of time), I can say… too bad suckers, I won and it’s mine!

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The Unreview

So, I don’t really do reviews.

It’s not that I don’t think I would be good at them, it’s just that I don’t want to say anything bad about a product/idea even if it is legitimately bad. Every once in a while though, I’ll talk about something I do like. One could call it a review, but I see it more of a sharing of tastes… like a, “here’s something I dig”, for example.

So with that said, I dig Monster Vault, Threats to the Nentir Vale.

Fluff, and Toilets

One of the things I have never been fond of with 4th Edition is monster info. Specifically, the lack of fluff. At this point, I have been around long enough and gamed long enough that I understand much about many monsters and can make up the rest. The fact is, I don’t NEED a lot of fluff, but I WANT it. Having decent fluff is what makes the difference between a book I will only look at once, and one I will take with me many times to that place where the reading magic happens…

…on the toilet.

Oh whatever, admit it – you do your best reading while pushing one out, don’t even give me that look.

Anyway, yea, I need my stat blocks broken up with chunks of fluff. Without fluff in-between, it feels like a brick, and I won’t want to buy it. A book full of stat blocks? I could make one of those from the Monster Builder in no time.

Monster Vault (NV) has the perfect balance for me between the two, after all, there can be TOO much (at least for a book intended to serve up a good number of monsters). In this case it was just right. I actually wasn’t sure what “just right” would be until I read through this – it’s exactly what I am looking for. On top of it all, the fluff is GOOD! My head was spinning not only with one-off or short adventure ideas, but whole campaign ideas as well. This was a book I knew I would be spending some time in the bathroom with (ok, that sounds bad… let’s just keep going).

The Listings (Creatures, etc)

What I really loved about this was the variety. There were listings for families, and various groups. For example, in this Monster Vault, there is a listing for “River Rats”, a “gang of common street thugs and con artists” comprised of stat blocks representing these various people. One of the things I took away from this book was that you could probably do a campaign setting book in this kind of format. There seems to be a LOT you can learn about the Nentir Vale just from this MV. It’s not just monsters, but it’s people and groups, factions and more. A full setting book could do more of course, but this is an interesting way to present the information.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite listings so far (I have not yet finished reading it all)…

1) The Cadaver Collector – These are big armored constructs that essentially go around scooping up the dead for nefarious uses by their masters. Awesome stuff! Combine that with some cool powers like imaling their enemies to one of the many spikes on their bodies and carrying them around with them during the fight? Yes please.

2) Wandering Tower – This is a wandering tower (really Weem?) that changes its appearance. I mean, it’s still tower-ish in appearance… it’s not appearing as a traveling wand merchant or anything like that, but it has various structural forms to choose from I would imagine… It might decide based on the seasons… no white tower after labor day, for example. Anyway, this reminded me of a sentient fort I created in my first 4e campaign that gave the players a lot of trouble. Lot’s of fun, and again with the fluff – there was a lot for this listing and it was great. I came away with a lot of ideas here.

3) River Rats – I mentioned them above for a reason. This listing makes me want to make a halfling rogue and seek out Kelson… I’m ready to throwdown for the River Rats!

There are many other cool creatures in there, epic stuff like Dragons and more, so don’t let my current favorites downplay the epic in this book. I just happen to love the smaller scale stuff.

The Tokens

Yes, tokens. As I mentioned before, I’m not even playing 4e right now, but the tokens I love. I bought the first Monster Vault recently just for the tokens for my Pathfinder campaign. In fact, recently I pulled out this latest Monster Vault (NV) at Gator Games and said, “Mmm, tokens” before my brother reminded me, “Dude… you just won that book… you will have it pretty soon”… oh yea, I forgot.

The quality of these tokens (like those in the first MV) are rad, and the selection is great as it includes things I will be using again and again. For example, there are a lot of human/human-like tokens that will come in handy with my current Pathfinder campaign. We’re playing on Mystara with much of these early levels likely to be spent in a large city (Glantri).

The only problem now is… how in the hell am I going to organize and store all of these?

The End

The set also comes with a double-sided poster map which is cool, and that’s pretty much it. It was easily worth what I paid for it (ok, I didn’t pay for it so that was easy) – seriously though, this is one of my favorite 4e products. There are many reasons to get this, even if (like me) you are not currently playing 4th Edition. I want to thank Matt James for his show, which is awesome, and for the chance to win this product.

If you want to see the Monster Vault (NV) on Amazon.com, turn to page 4.
If you want to follow Weem on Twitter, turn to page 5.
If you want to follow Matt James on Twitter, turn to page 6.

Matt James Unboxes the new Monster Vault

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDCi-ZPCQuw