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As you may recall, I'm currently refereeing a Dolmenwood campaign, which began a little over a year ago. Though I haven't posted about it in a few weeks, the adventures of Sir Clement, Fallon, Waldra, Alvie, and Marid continue on a more or less weekly basis. Currently, our merry band is investigating the ruined Abbey of St Clewyd under the instructions of Nedwynne Hargle, head of the Seminary of One Hundred Martyrs and Fallon's patron within the Pluritine Church. It's a fun campaign that I continue to enjoy, in large part because of just how delightful and imaginative the setting of Dolmenwood is.

Up until now, I've been using advance PDF copies of the Dolmenwood books and adventures in anticipation of the release of their print copies. Yesterday, I was very happy to receive a package containing those print copies, which, quite frankly, exceeded my expectations. They're absolutely beautiful books, as you can see here:

In case it's not clear, the larger books at the bottom consist of (from left to right) the Player's Book, the Campaign Book, the Monster Book, and the Maps Book. Above them (also from left to right) are four adventures: Winter's Daughter, The Fungus That Came to Blackeswell, The Ruined Abbey of St Clewyd, and Emelda's Song. I've made good use of all these adventures over the course of the campaign, so I can attest to their utility. 

Here are the four main books shown from the perspective of their spines, to give you a sense of their comparative thickness:

The Campaign Book, which is more or less the referee's guide, is by far the thickest of the four. In addition to all the usual stuff you'd expect to find in a referee's book, it also describes all the major factions of Dolmenwood, along with every single hex of the setting map. This has proven incredibly useful to me, as the characters wander across the Wood. The hex descriptions are all limited to a single page, featuring noteworthy features, NPCs, and locales, along with other ideas that might spark adventures. It's all very well done and, as I said, useful in play.

Speaking of the Wood, I also got a large cloth map of the whole setting, which looks especially impressive when laid out on a table:

The map looks like it'll very useful at the table, too, enabling players to plan their travels and referees to keep track of their movements. Both are important, since Dolmenwood is, in large part, a game of hex crawling through the civilized and wild nooks and crannies of the Wood. The Maps Book has many more useful maps for use by the referee, like maps of mortal and fairy domains, ley lines, elevation, treasure hoards, and more. Like everything else, it's great and useful stuff.

Dolmenwood officially releases next Friday, November 28. I'll definitely have some more to say about it in a week's time, but I was sufficiently pleased by having received my copies yesterday that I couldn't wait to show them off today.