Kobold Guide to Dungeons is maybe 3/5, probably 2.5/5 unless I’m generous. It’s the 2012 Ennie Winner for Best RPG Accessory. 2012 must have been a tough era for RPGs, but I have my own opinions about the Ennies and their lack of being an accurate guide to measurable quality.
It has 20 essays. Most are pseudo-intellectual tripe like “how to portray emotion in your dungeon”, “narrative/mood/agency – you can only design with two so choose,” and the inevitable essay sanctioning The Quantum Ogre approach to adventure design: Path A or B both lead to Outcome C, there’s no actual player choice, it’s all Wizard of Oz mirror tricks.
The essays in the latter half, especially Kelsey Dionne’s and Wolfgang Baur’s, are the closest things to actual “dungeon design advice,” the majority of the rest are discussions of “how to keep your story on rails in these dungeons,” or talks about some of the worst features of D&D 5E and Pathfinder 1, like “higher level characters will have access to fly and teleport, so save areas requiring those abilities for deeper in the dungeon.” Baur does weirdly name-drop a metric ton of dungeons and publication date, which the narrator repeats in a low whisper, so that was out of place but may only be an audiobook quirk.
It wasn’t all bad, but I spent $13 on Audible to listen to it and maybe really appreciated 4-5 essays total. I don’t think I’ll listen to it a second time, once was more than enough. I wanted to take the hit for y’all and give you my candid review.
https://koboldpress.com/kpstore/product/kobold-guide-to-dungeons/
Dubious Heroes 
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