The Mini Slayer’s Guide to Winter Wolves
Mongoose Publishing now offers The Mini Slayer’s Guide to Winter
Wolves, available for download as a 23-page PDF (see the end of this review), costing $5 US. Of those 23 pages, three are taken up by the cover, credits, and obligatory inclusion of the Open Game License, leaving 20 pages that you would expect to find packed with lots of “crunchy bits” and suggestions for making winter wolves a substantial if not rich part of your campaign. Unfortunately, such is not the case, as I will explain below.
The Good
On the one hand, this
Mini Slayer’s Guide offers more
information on winter wolves than you might have considered possible (or even necessary) when waking up today for that morning coffee. In general, Richards presents winter wolves as the masters of arctic environments, sort of like “kings of the cold,” a cunning and vicious and highly independent “race.” You will encounter sections on winter wolf physiology (especially those valuable pelts and that nasty breath weapon), habitat (including a detailed den), society (with notes on the role of abducted humanoid “foundlings” who become pack members), combat tactics, role-playing opportunities (with some suggestions for winter wolf names), scenario hooks, and statistics (for various members of a pack, from the alpha male to a foundling human barbarian).
Compared to the perhaps terse entry for winter wolves in the 3E
Monster Manual, all of this information might seem like a boon for only $5. Some of the information, in fact, does prove rather useful and engaging. The discussion of winter wolf pelts, for instance, lends substance to why they are so valuable: prized for clothing worn in harsh, cold climates, as well as for magic items such as boots of the winterlands. An extensive (one page, actually) look at “foundlings” also adds an intriguing element to winter wolf society, making creative use of the winter wolves’ decent Intelligence in terms of raising, indoctrinating, and integrating a human child as a full member of a pack (explaining, I imagine, how winter wolves come by pierced ears and braided chin fur).
The goodness, however, stops there.
The Bad
The Mini Slayer’s Guide to Winter Wolves demonstrates a
disappointing disrespect for the d20 consumer. This disrespect mars nearly every aspect of this product, from the use of the PDF medium to the artwork to the layout to the writing, editing, and usefulness of an extended discussion of winter wolves. Mongoose Publishing should be ashamed of itself for offering this product as a $5 PDF -- even as a free download it would try the generosity and patience of gamers.
First of all, the PDF medium itself is not used to its full
potential, and the product as a whole is not very “printer friendly.” Each page sports a rather detailed margin illustration heavy on the grey scale, which will tax most printers needlessly. This unnecessary use of grey scale continues with a few sections of fiction contained within greyed boxes (one such section fills an entire page). Moreover, the versatility of the PDF format is ignored here, as Mongoose decided, for example, not to add user-friendly bookmarks or internal hyperlinks. A PDF customer who would also most likely print this product is thus served poorly by Mongoose, which tempts me to think that this Mini Slayer’s Guide constitutes a “throwaway” effort merely to make some quick money from gamers.
Next, the artwork and layout further compromise this product. The
interior illustrations by Rick Hershey, while tied appropriately to the text, are far below even average industry standards. Moreover, they are dreadfully reproduced, coming out blurry and indistinct to the point of hurting my eyes when looking at them for too long. Apparently, Mongoose either scanned the illustrations improperly or failed to ensure that the illustrations were clear and crisp in the PDF.
With regard to the layout, well, you do not get much for your 23
pages and $5 US. The overall text density is very low, particularly when factoring in those wide margin illustrations I mentioned above, the use of large section and sub-section headings, thin columns that are spaced somewhat far apart, the awkward integration of illustrations, instances of significant white space, and the general sparseness of the writing. All of these elements together further reduce the value of this PDF product (especially when set against, for example, the PDFs released by Monte Cook’s Malhavoc Press at a similar cost of $5) -- even more so when considering exactly what this Mini Slayer’s Guide provides in content.
I was disappointed most by the simplicity of and overall lack of
innovation in the content. Of the 20 pages actually exploring winter
wolves, two of them in total are dedicated to fiction “flavour text” boxes, and two more pages provide stat blocks for the various members of a winter wolf pack. Out of the entire product, those two pages of stat blocks constitute the only d20, open content, “crunchy bits” that you receive, a quite insignificant offering, ultimately, because those stat blocks effectively reprint (aside from a “foundling” 2nd-level female human barbarian) what the 3E Monster Manual or d20 SRD already make available. The product truly fails the consumer here, as it does not in any significant way take winter wolves beyond what one can glean from the Monster Manual.
Let’s look at some evidence. We learn throughout this Mini
Slayer’s Guide that winter wolves, owing to their intelligence, develop effective combat strategies, and also that they are sometimes raised and trained by frost giants. Yet Richards pushes matters no further, really. I am left pondering specific strategies and rules mechanics that could give winter wolves so much more definition worthy of a “slayer’s guide.” For instance, what of suggesting how particular winter wolf tactics provide, perhaps, competence or circumstance bonuses to attacks made in tandem or give morale or circumstance penalties to an opponent’s AC, saves, attacks, or even damage (especially if combined with environmental elements)? What of outlining combat strategies employed by frost giants who train and raise winter wolves, which could lead to suggesting new Knowledge skills (i.e., winter wolves, arctic climate, and possibly more) or uses for Handle Animal, to creating new feats or -- dare I say -- prestige classes (i.e., a ranger-inspired frost giant master/trainer of winter wolves, with even arctic-related Wilderness Lore and Track abilities) . . . and more?
Nothing in this Mini Slayer’s Guide attempts any innovation
with the d20 rules or applies those rules in such a way that actually
expands upon winter wolves from the 3E Monster Manual. Maybe less fiction and more guidance in the slaying of winter wolves . . . .
Finally, the writing and editing are pedestrian and inattentive,
respectively. The frequent use of “Games Master” actually becomes
rather jarring because it is an odd departure from the usual “Game Master” (or “Dungeon Master,” for D&D). I do not understand how this one survived both an editor and a proofreader. By the end of this Mini Slayer’s Guide, I felt like I had read a school project on winter wolves that gives a lot of regurgitation from encyclopaedias and no analysis -- not a professional gaming product from a somewhat noted d20 publisher.
The Ugly
The PDF medium represents an exciting venue for publishers and
consumers, as the bulk of printing costs are reduced for the former and that means cheaper products for the latter. Yet cheaper does not require that content and basic professionalism should suffer.
The Mini Slayer’s Guide to Winter Wolves appears to be a throwaway effort from Mongoose Publishing to such an extent that charging $5 US for it is something of a travesty. Compare what $5 US brings you from Monte Cook’s Malhavoc Press (
If Thoughts Could Kill, most recently), and you will see more starkly why Mongoose here has let gaming consumers down with this
Mini Slayer’s Guide.
I am attempting to make my disappointment with this product as clear as possible because I see it as embodying the dark side of d20
publishing -- the kind of vanity press effort that seeks to cash in on a gaming phenomenon without really putting forth the necessary attention to thoughtful and challenging design, professional production, good writing, and meeting the needs of customers. It fits right alongside the debacle that was Nightshift Games’ The Foundation, just not on the same grand scale.
If you find that you will be making winter wolves a significant
aspect of your campaign for a brief while, you will do better to read some encyclopaedia entries on wolves and expand upon the information in the 3E Monster Manual yourself. Spending $5 US for this PDF will only encourage Mongoose Publishing to release more products of a similarly shoddy, empty nature.
Web Links
To see information on
The Mini Slayer’s Guide to Winter Wolves
at Mongoose Publishing’s web site, go
here.
To download The Mini Slayer’s Guide to Winter Wolves PDF at
RPGnow.com, go here.
Garrett Williams
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