The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Before I begin the review, readers should keep in mind that any bestiary is primarily just a collection. As such, they tend to be useful but not very avant-garde or innovative. Arguably, that would detract from their value as a resource, especially a generic one like most GURPS non-worldbook products.

Summary

GURPS Fantasy BestiaryGURPS Fantasy Bestiary is a collection of creatures that have never existed, but live in myth, legend, or have been invented for fantasy worlds. Normal creatures are not in this book but instead are handled in GURPS Bestiary (which will be updated with a third edition soon). Likewise GURPS Dinosaurs (in print) and GURPS Shapeshifters (almost to playtest) deal with their respective categories of critters. In addition, there are chapters for venoms (very common among legendary creatures), magical effects, and creating your own monsters.

Artwork and Layout

The cover art is a pretty painting by Carol Heyer. The interior art is by various artists and is passable, but not inspired. A minor annoyance is that not all monsters have an associated drawing. Fortunately, most 'historical' beasts are combinations of familiar animals and therefore are easy to visualize. The layout, editing and index are up to SJ Games' usual high standards.

Content

The main section of the book (77 pages) is an alphabetical listing of monsters with GURPS stats, origin (i.e. the culture that invented the creature in question), habitat notes and a brief, but complete, description. Given a small amount of GURPS knowledge, any of these creatures could be converted to the game system of your choice. The origin description I found particularly interesting as people who wanted to do Fantasy China or Fantasy Europe, for example, can find monsters that are 'historically' accurate for the region in question. Some listings also came with a rumor section to allow for GM customization and for use as literal rumors to tantilize or mislead player characters.

Two sections are split off from the main one: dragons and plants. Each of these categories had enough self-similarities to make it more efficient to list them together than spread throughout the other creatures. European fire-breathing dragons are the default with many other types taken from around the world. I found the Malaysian bena especially fun. This creature only swims in deep water and can pull water with it when it goes upstream, flooding surrounding areas. Certainly something that will pique the interest of most players!

The venom and magical effects chapters cover all the interesting (i.e. annoying to PCs) things these fantastic creatures can do. Most of the special effects are drawn from GURPS Magic but are reprinted in Fantasy Bestiary so that another book doesn't have to be purchased. Of course, an enterprising GM could work this in reverse and infuse some Magic spells into an animal to create a new monster!

The next-to-last section (and arguably the most useful) is a handy set of guidelines and ideas about making your own creatures. Good stuff here for any campaign that focuses on fantastic fiction and heroic deeds.

The book is rounded out by an alphabetical index of all the beasts with the major stats included and a breakdown of the creatures by habitat for gamemasters designing a region of their world with compatible animals and plants.

Conclusion

This book is invaluable for GMs creation their own world with historical flavor or setting their campaign in a fantasy version of Earth. Other gamemasters will find the sheer number of monsters useful in and of itself. There's nothing groundbreaking here, folks, but it's hard to match this tome for simple utility and campaign hooks.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

GURPS Fantasy Bestiary
Author: Steffan O'Sullivan Category: game Company/Publisher: Steve Jackson Games Line: GURPS Cost: $19.95 Page count: 128 ISBN: ISBN 1-55634-184-9 SKU: 6504 Playtest Review by John Karakash on 08/23/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Generic	Before I begin the review, readers should keep in mind that any bestiary is primarily just a collection. As such, they tend to be useful but not very avant-garde or innovative. Arguably, that would detract from their value as a resource, especially a generic one like most GURPS non-worldbook products. Summary GURPS Fantasy BestiaryGURPS Fantasy Bestiary is a collection of creatures that have never existed, but live in myth, legend, or have been invented for fantasy worlds. Normal creatures are not in this book but instead are handled in GURPS Bestiary (which will be updated with a third edition soon). Likewise GURPS Dinosaurs (in print) and GURPS Shapeshifters (almost to playtest) deal with their respective categories of critters. In addition, there are chapters for venoms (very common among legendary creatures), magical effects, and creating your own monsters. Artwork and Layout The cover art is a pretty painting by Carol Heyer. The interior art is by various artists and is passable, but not inspired. A minor annoyance is that not all monsters have an associated drawing. Fortunately, most 'historical' beasts are combinations of familiar animals and therefore are easy to visualize. The layout, editing and index are up to SJ Games' usual high standards. Content The main section of the book (77 pages) is an alphabetical listing of monsters with GURPS stats, origin (i.e. the culture that invented the creature in question), habitat notes and a brief, but complete, description. Given a small amount of GURPS knowledge, any of these creatures could be converted to the game system of your choice. The origin description I found particularly interesting as people who wanted to do Fantasy China or Fantasy Europe, for example, can find monsters that are 'historically' accurate for the region in question. Some listings also came with a rumor section to allow for GM customization and for use as literal rumors to tantilize or mislead player characters. Two sections are split off from the main one: dragons and plants. Each of these categories had enough self-similarities to make it more efficient to list them together than spread throughout the other creatures. European fire-breathing dragons are the default with many other types taken from around the world. I found the Malaysian bena especially fun. This creature only swims in deep water and can pull water with it when it goes upstream, flooding surrounding areas. Certainly something that will pique the interest of most players! The venom and magical effects chapters cover all the interesting (i.e. annoying to PCs) things these fantastic creatures can do. Most of the special effects are drawn from GURPS Magic but are reprinted in Fantasy Bestiary so that another book doesn't have to be purchased. Of course, an enterprising GM could work this in reverse and infuse some Magic spells into an animal to create a new monster! The next-to-last section (and arguably the most useful) is a handy set of guidelines and ideas about making your own creatures. Good stuff here for any campaign that focuses on fantastic fiction and heroic deeds. The book is rounded out by an alphabetical index of all the beasts with the major stats included and a breakdown of the creatures by habitat for gamemasters designing a region of their world with compatible animals and plants. Conclusion This book is invaluable for GMs creation their own world with historical flavor or setting their campaign in a fantasy version of Earth. Other gamemasters will find the sheer number of monsters useful in and of itself. There's nothing groundbreaking here, folks, but it's hard to match this tome for simple utility and campaign hooks. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)