GURPS Monsters is not a monster manual in the modern sense, a bestiary of inhuman races. It is, instead, a collection of monsters in the classical definition, unique and remarkable beings. There are forty-eight here, and each is given two pages, with three exceptions given four. In general format, the beings are given GURPS statistics, general background, advice for using them in a variety of settings and, in many cases, a bibliography.
Following an introduction, the book is divided into five chapters. The first, A Mythological Menagerie, covers some of the monsters for whom the term Monster was first coined. The Minotaur is here, along with Medusa, Scylla and Tiamat, and lesser known beings such as The Great Leech of Tlanusi’yi, a Cherokee legend. While some are direct writeups of the original beings, others are more of a reinterpretation. La Llorana, the Weeping Woman, appears here with an entirely new background story. As written, she belongs in another chapter.
Chapter 2, The Cryptozoo, might have been a better place for her. “Widely recognized names like Bigfoot, the Jersey Devil and the Mothman appear here, along with their lesser-known American brethren The Honey Island Swamp Monster and El Chupacabra. Old world legends Spring-Heeled Jack and the Beast of Le Gévaudan appear, along with a historical count who may have been a werewolf.” I would argue that El Chupacabra is better known then The Mothman, but that is somewhat beside the point. The Beast of Le Gévaudan recently ‘starred’ in Brotherhood Of The Wolf.
The historical werewolf Hughes de Camp-d’Avenses is here presented as if the legends are true, a cruel man excommunicated and cursed, in the first four-page entry of the book, admittedly including a full-page illustration. The size of his section denotes his significance and, in game terms, his potential usefulness.
And, as with La Llorana, a monster here receives a brand-new writeup. The Alligator In The Sewers is here given a backstory as a bioweapon. This does have the advantage of making it more than just a big animal to hunt, of course.
Chapter 3, Legends of Literature, is full of familiar faces, taking care to track them back to the source. The Big Bad Wolf here is Grimm’s dangerous beast, not the put-upon fool we see chasing Red Hot Riding Hood in the Tex Avery cartoons. Frankenstein’s Monster, Grendel and the Headless Horseman all appear. Shub-Internet, an online myth influenced by Lovecraft, feels out of place in such august company.
Dracula is the second of the extended entries, and unlike the others a page is not given to art. He is therefore the monster with the largest word count, and his section includes advice on strengthening and weakening him, a sidebar on Stoker Vampires as a group, an excellent bibliography and suggestions on using Dracula in a variety of games, including Reign of Steel conjuring images of Dracula Vs The Terminator...
Chapter 4, Original Monsters, is introduced “Here at last are the monsters that sprang from the more psychotic corners of our contributors’ imaginations. Inspiration comes from many sources, including mythology and movies...” Some of the influences are more apparent than others. For example, the last four-page entry is for Lord K’Han, the Giant Ape. The Gill Man and the Woodbury Blob also appear, and Stitches the Patchwork Clown owes a debt to Child’s Play more than any other Killer Doll story. Still, these are all great monsters, and the true originals such as Special Agent Thomas Johnson, the archetypal Man In Black, Leatherjacket the sorcerer who achieved immortality while being dismembered, and Sylvia Sternenkind the homicidal pleasure clone, are as inspiring as they are inspired.
Finally, Monsters and Monster Hunters contains advice and rules on creating and running monsters of your own, possibly as player characters. As well as rules, the advice is generally solid, and could provide further inspiration.
In presentation, GURPS Monsters is full of concise articles, relatively free of typographical glitches, with useful sidebars and good advice. It is illustrated throughout in Christopher Shy’s distinctive style blending photo-manipulations and painterly additions. The Bela Lugosi style Dracula isn’t true to the Stoker-based portrayal, and I would have preferred the Phantom of the Opera to be based on Lon Chaney rather than Claude Rains, but I’m a self-confessed fan of Mr Shy’s work and several pieces here can be used in-game as handouts as well as atmosphere. Visiting the Monsters site, I found a Christopher Shy Monsters wallpaper featuring Scylla.
The GURPS rules, of course, generally lend themselves to translation into a variety of settings, as well as having several of their own. (Some of the entries are intended for the Yrth fantasy setting, othrs for the horror conspiracy of Cabal and the modern magic of Technomancer.) So this book will see use beyond the GURPS system. Personally, I’ll be lifting several of these for several games. I can see futures for some of these in the World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Little Fears, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Adventure!, Cyberpunk, Castle Falkenstein, Traveller, Ravenloft...
In all, then GURPS Monsters is a wealth of ideas and inspiration for monsters as characters, individual antagonists and grand villains.
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