How Not To Get Eaten By Owlbears is the latest in a series of Dungeons & Dragons-themed books that concentrate on the setting and the lore rather than the game. As such, How Not To Get Eaten By Owlbears contains no rules or stats, nor does it require any sort of dice to enjoy. Specifically, this is an ‘in-universe’ style book that supposes you exist in the world of The Forgotten Realms and are planning on taking the rather foolish path of an adventurer.

Part guidebook and part setting tutorial, How Not To Get Eaten By Owlbears is a whistle-stop tour of Toril, aka the world of The Forgotten Realms. It’s a small, paperback-sized hardback book filled with glossy pages. Each page is crammed with illustrations, some unique to this book, but others have been recycled from other D&D books.  Despite not having game rules, it still sticks to the rules of D&D; it assumes that you’ll be equipping yourself as a warrior, wizard, monk or something similar and provides lavish Illustrations and guidance as to what to wear when you’re out diving dungeons and dealing with dragons. We also get a quick look at weapons, magic items and so on.

The rest of the book divides the Forgotten Realms into sections; of course, there is a map.  It has a ‘magazine’ feel, with lots of box-outs and sections such as ‘Cold Encounters – step by step’ and ‘Do’s and Do Nots for the Shadowfell’.  Tiamat has a tiny box out with the words ‘Five Heads! Five!” written next to it.

This approach, combined with a light-hearted, almost silly tone, makes this a lot of fun to read. It’s likely to entertain your experienced D&D player for a short while (and make perfect reading material for those quiet moments), but it’s mainly intended as a way of getting new people into the world of D&D. Pretty, funny, and portable.