Mongoose Pocket Handbooks?

rcsample · January 15, 2007, 05:54:33 PM

Hey,

Just wondering if anybody has any quick comments on the usefulness of the following Mongoose Pocket Handbooks:

Pocket Player's Handbook

Pocket Conan Handbook

Pocket Modern Handbook

On a side note, anyone look at the Mutants and Masterminds Pocket Guide? I was wondering if it left any rules/content from the full size book out?

Thanks in advance,

Rich

Silverlion · January 15, 2007, 06:07:59 PM

Quote from: rcsampleHey,

Just wondering if anybody has any quick comments on the usefulness of the following Mongoose Pocket Handbooks:

Pocket Player's Handbook

Pocket Conan Handbook

Pocket Modern Handbook

On a side note, anyone look at the Mutants and Masterminds Pocket Guide? I was wondering if it left any rules/content from the full size book out?

Thanks in advance,

Rich

I've heard good things of the Mongoose ones--mostly they cut out setting bits, and art and just used rules.

While Pocket M&M I've not seen I believe it cuts out all the GM advice (and animals/thugs/villain examples in the back)

joewolz · January 15, 2007, 06:17:11 PM

I've heard the vanilla D&D pocket guides are pretty cool. I have a good friend who swears by them actually. He uses them so he doesn't have so much weight in his gaming bag.

My experience with the Starship Troopers one (in which I flipped through it, already owning the big one) led me to believe they'd be a good buy for a casual gamer of the system of choice, and a handy reference for more experienced players who don't want the weight in their gaming bag.

Pete · January 15, 2007, 06:21:47 PM

I absolutely love my Pocket D&D guides because they're a lot easier to take from game to game than a set of coffee table books. I find that it's a lot easier to navigate and find particular bits of info, like a particular magic item, in the DM's guide as well.

jcfiala · January 15, 2007, 06:49:01 PM

I like the pocket D&D guides, but I found it hard to navigate in the Player's guide very well - I seem to remember not finding the grappling rules, for one. The Pocket GM's guide is a handy and easy to carry reference to the magic items, though.

Dr Rotwang! · January 15, 2007, 09:08:50 PM

Yeah, the Pocket Player's Handbook was a little hard to move through, and can result in slowing of pace.

Still, it's a hell of a buy. If i were still playing D&D, I'd be using it.

ColonelHardisson · January 15, 2007, 09:41:48 PM

I have the ones for B5 and Conan. Both are nice to have, but can be a little hard to navigate, as others have said. The Conan one has a printing error where some material is repeated, which is confusing. It also leaves out the setting and critter info, so it's definitely geared towards players. Overall, I think they're worth it, especially for players who don't want to spend the money and can take some time to get used to where everything is in them.

Akrasia · January 15, 2007, 11:26:15 PM

I never purchased the 3.5 PHB. I purchased the Mongoose pocketbook instead. (Yes, this was largely motivated because I was intensely irritated by WotC's move to 3.5... but whatever.)

Amazingly, I managed to run a 3.5 D&D campaign from 2003-2005 with little difficulty.

Good buy!

Napftor · January 16, 2007, 09:11:57 AM

I use their 3.5 PHB and DMG religiously. I'll echo the slightly cumbersome use of the former but, since it's just the SRD, find it invaluable as a freelance writer. The only thing I need to use WotC's DMG for is the XP tables.

Warthur · January 16, 2007, 09:55:14 AM

I don't have the 3.5 rulebooks - I got the Mongoose handbooks instead. I'm never likely to run a D20 game, but I want the PHBs handy in case I play in one, and the Mongoose books were simply cheaper.