After reviewing Paizo's "Dungeoneer's Handbook", it only seems fair to review Wizards' offering on the same topic, "Into the Unknown: The Dungeon Survival Handbook". This is a 160-page hardcover book costing $29.95. It is presented like most of Wizards' 4E products in a clear and readable format with a fair bit of art.

The book is designed for both players and Dungeon Masters. Although it contains a moderate amount of rules material, far more significant is the wealth of advice and inspirational material for players and DMs alike. Of course, tastes may vary and you might find the material too much aimed at the new player. Let's have a look at what is actually in the book.

Chapter 1: Dungeon Delvers
This chapter gives new rules options for player characters. About 24 pages are given over to new Character Themes, which can be added to any character. A Theme gives new (minor) features to a character at levels 1, 5 and 10, and gives the option of taking utility powers at levels 2, 6 and 10 instead of one of your class's powers. The list of themes is as follows: Bloodsworn (sworn to destroy an enemy), Deep Delver (skilled at surviving underground), Escaped Thrall (escaped from a underworld slaver race), Trapsmith (skilled at making traps), Treasure Hunter (after treasure above all else), Underdark Envoy (skilled at diplomacy and manipulation), and the Underdark Outcast (an exiled loner from a deep race).

24 pages, 7 themes. That's a lot of real estate! The rules material for each fits on less than a page with the remainder being made up a description of the theme, notes on how to play them and build them, with two or three sample motivations and behaviours for each class. In addition, a sample character for each is described in terms of origin story, values and motivations, roleplaying and how to create such a character.

The next section of this chapter details three new Races, covering the Goblin, Kobold and Svirfneblin. Apart from the basic rules options, each new race also gets about two pages of new feats and racial utility powers. Further space is used for role-playing and ecology notes for the races, including suggestions for integrating them into a party. This takes up 18 pages in all.

The chapter ends with a selection of new Dungeon-Themed Powers, consisting of both class powers and skill powers. There aren't a great number of powers for any one class – the rogue gets the lion's share with three new powers, the wizard doesn't get any! – but there are a total of 24 class powers and 20 skill powers here. What is most interesting about the powers is how they are presented: each is associated with an organisation or philosophy, and details are given to help build the story and role-play around those organisations. So, you get "Fear of the Dark" (powers related to surviving in dark places), "Secrets of the Deep Guides" (an organisation who explore and navigate the underdark), "Shadows of the Ziggurat" (characters under the influence of or fighting the aberrant creatures of the Far Realm), "Seekers of Lost Lore" (what it says), "Thieves' Guild of Maelbrathyr" (inhabitants of a city that was dragged beneath the surface of the earth ages ago), "From the Vault of the Drow" (powers created by the drow), and "Battle Tactics of Cor Talcor" (a dwarven fortress of warriors). This section uses 20 pages.

Chapter 2: Strive to Survive
The next section of the book is filled with advice for players – and some inspiration for Dungeon Masters. Taking up 46 pages, it begins with explaining some tips for delving into dungeons, covers various dungeon types, the major denizens you can expect to meet there, before describing eight of the classic dungeons of D&D's past, and ending with a few new items – mundane and alchemical – the party might need.

Alas, there is no section on mapping, but there are the Top 5 Rules of Dungeon Delving: Don't Split the Party; Map everything; Gear up; Track time and Know when to turn back.

The Expert Delving Tactics covered are Climbing, Darkness, Secret Doors, Stealth, Clear the Rooms, Rest Stops, Sustenance, Water Dangers, Traps, Hazards, and Rituals. The advice covers appropriate rules when necessary, but also covers quite a bit of advice for non-rules-based play. The section on secret doors notes that you can automatically find doors by actually pressing and prodding the area where you the door is – see if water drains away and the reaction of a candle flame. This advice feels very AD&D in nature, and is obviously dependent on your DM letting you play in that way. All the advice is aimed more at the new player of D&D than old experienced hands, but there's material here that I believe my players would benefit from.

The section on Dungeon Types is very interesting and of especial use to DMs. It covers Caves, Crypts, Death Traps, Floating Castles(!), Ice Palaces, Magic Laboratories, Mines, Prisons, Sewers, Volcanoes and Warrens. Each is described in terms of Variations, Exploring, Dangers, Inhabitants and Rewards. I really like the format here, because it provides good suggestions for both players and DMs. A few sidebars provide additional suggestions for DMs on the challenges that might be faced.

The section on Dungeon Denizens gives two or three paragraphs to each monster, with rumours and knowledge about the various threats – such as Otyughs, Drow, Mind Flayers and Rust Monsters. This is much more aimed at the new player, although a few of the notes made me chuckle. "In dwarven culture, not killing a rust monster one encounters is a crime, and some adventurers claim that dragons hired them to clear out nests of the creatures lurking near their hordes."

The section on Infamous Dungeons is one of my favourites, covering Castle Ravenloft, Ghost Tower of Inverness, The Lost City, Pyramid of Amun-Re, White Plume Mountain, Tomb of Horrors, Temple of Elemental Evil and Gates of Firestorm Peak. Chris Perkins has a sidebar explaining what this section is about – 'This section provides fodder for your imagination, a "behind the curtain" peek at eight dungeons littered with the gnawed-on skeletal remains of adventurers from bygone D&D campaigns. If any of these descriptions whet your appetite, urge your DM to take a crack at running them… If [converting them to 4E] doesn't interest your DM, then at least you can use any description that sounds appealing to give him or her an idea of the kind of dungeon you'd like to explore.'

Each dungeon also comes with a background associated with it – Barovian Escapee and Blessed of Zargon to name two – that can be used in a campaign featuring the dungeon or one similar.

The final section gives a few items that I've missed from 4E's lists – such as the bull's eye lantern and ten-foot pole – as well as a few new ones, such as the ruby lenses and vial bandolier. Six new alchemical items – including aboleth slime and stone eater – end the chapter.

Chapter 3: Master of the Dungeon
The final chapter in the book – all 17 pages of it – concentrates on the Dungeon Master's role in running a dungeon-based campaign. This isn't so much as rules elements, though there are some here, but rather on elements to think about when crafting the campaign. "Involving the Characters" discusses how to give the characters a personal stake in what is happening and making them better immersed in what's happening, including additional hints for characters using one of the themes from chapter 1, as well as looking at issues dealing with exploration and mysteries.

"Creating an Underdark Adventure" looks at tricks to give the feel of an Underdark adventure, and includes a skill challenge for underground challenge. "Dungeon Makers" gives suggestions of personalising dungeons depending on who made them, and "Special Rewards" ends the chapter with a few unusual items of power (and companions) the group might be rewarded by during the adventure.

Two appendices finish the book.

Appendix 1: Build Your Own Dungeon concentrates on the steps of actually designing and writing down your dungeon creation.
Appendix 2: Random Dungeons gives a number of random tables to help design dungeons with, looking at "involving the characters", "who, what where?", "why and how?", and "populating a dungeon". You can get some goofy results, but they're likely to be a starting point for a DM lacking inspiration.

Conclusion
The expanded size of Wizards' "Into the Unknown" compared to Paizo's "Dungeoneer's Handbook" gives the former a distinct advantage: it has more room in which to cover the subject. And it uses it well. The focus of the book is interesting: it gives a lot of advice for new through intermediate players on how to play the game, but it combines this with a major focus on story, plot and character. The mechanical elements of the book are minor compared to this: the book seeks to give inspiration, not just tools.

With respect to the the actual mechanics, the new races and themes work really well. The new powers are more hit and miss; some work well and others seem entirely too weak or flavourless.

However, if you're getting this book just for new mechanics, you'd be better served by picking up a subscription to D&D Insider, where all of the new rules elements also appear. Because the book tries to help you infuse your game with more story and character, it's a hard one to properly assess. Do you really need the advice and ideas? I can only give you my reaction to it, which is largely favourable. Parts of it don't really work for me, but the far greater part I find very enjoyable to read. I hope that, if you have it, it gives you the same enjoyment.