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Note: This review may be a bit limited. I'm the second target audience of EQ RPG, namely a tabletop rpg'er who hasn't played EQ online, but is interested in an alternate d20 setting. Likewise, I picked EQ RPG over D&D to avoid players who bought the core books and would take advantage of this knowledge. I do not own the Monster Manual core book (although own a 1st edition Monster Manual). I'll also add that I only want to bring **one** monster book to the table! Exotic monsters are fun, but I already have enough rpg stuff to lug around and I'm still looking for one book I can run for parties of all levels.

*****

EQ RPG: Monsters of Norrath is 216 pages long, in color. The Monster section itself is 130 pages long, with 15 additional pages for Animals, 10 for Vermin, and 20 pages for Pets (magical servants). The layout is similar to the EQ RPG Player's Handbook. Unlike the EQ PHB, you should be able to easily drop in monsters into your D&D game, although most of the more interesting monsters have 10-20 hit dice.

The Introduction details the types and special abilities of monsters. Not only does it explain the stat block of a monster entry, but it's also a do-it-yourself kit of guidelines for creating your own monster.

The Monster section begins with the Designer Comments. For those of you who do not play EQ Online, humanoid creatures typically start with a base type (eg. the 1 HD Deathfist Pawns) then add levels to make them more powerful (thus, the Ry'gorr Orcs are literally "Deathfist Pawns with 12 warrior levels"). In EQ RPG, the designers have chosen more of a d20 convention, creating separate "tiers" of humanoid monsters. Thus, the Ry'gorr orcs are presented as 15 HD monsters, rather than as a base monster class with additional levels. Likewise, spell-casting is replaced by spell-like abilities. Instead of saying a fire giant wizard casts spells as a 25th-level wizard, leaving the GM to customize each fire giant like an NPC, the monster is presented with a list of spells and mana pool for each spell. This shorthand allows a GM to use a monster directly out of the book, rather than having to generate details for them individually. You can still add levels to monsters (eg. Deathpawn orc / 2nd level warrior).

Typical cannon-fodder monsters, such as orcs, have setting-specific tiers of difficulty. That is, you have the Deathfist Pawn orcs (1 HD), the Crushbone Centurian orcs (5 HD), and Ry'gorr orcs (15 HD). Within a tier, sometimes additional variants, such as special characters (Emperor Crush) or classes (Ry'gorr Mystics) are included. I did find odd that higher-ranking members of a tier (eg. a Deathfist Sergeant) were missing. You'll have to add the levels yourself. On the plus side, you'll always find a humanoid to attack your players. On the minus side, players making D&D assumptions about humanoid monsters will be killed. ("Hey, it's only two Orc scouts!") Unfortunately, about the only physical description that differentiates these tiers is size: Larger tiers have more hit dice than smaller ones. Time for PCs to acquire the Knowledge (Monster) skills. Even the EQ versions of D&D monsters are different, though usually in hit dice. A 20 HD, Hungry Cube, anyone? How about a 30 HD Mermaid?

Atypical monsters are **very** atypical. Holgreshes are "small nimble simians with large, bat-like wings". Who just happen to have 15 hit dice and can cast elemental summoning spells left and right. Vortex Weavers only look like bats. Their 16' wing span should tip you off. Harbingers are honored Iksar (a lizardlike race) -- honored as 20 HD undead. the Othmir are playful, peaceful otter-like humanoids, who average 20 HD.

Sorry, a 15 HD orc? Okay, granted, the number of XP to get an EQ RPG PC to 15th level would put a D&D PC into the Epic Level Handbook, but, yes, 15 HD. A min/max'ed 1st level EQ RPG wizard can cast ten 1d6 Bursts of Flame in ten combat rounds, and it looks like he'd better. Sure, you have to have monsters who can survive the EQ PC combat machines, but (again not speaking as someone familiar with EQ online), I would have preferred monsters who were more than hit point shock absorbers. Animals and vermin are more reasonable with their HD, but 1 HD humanoids, animals, bugs, and rats probably don't make much of a beginner's gaming experience. Scaled-down versions of many of the monsters would have made this book much more usable (and exciting) for beginning PCs.

Another complaint is that, as someone not familiar with the EQ setting, is that these monsters almost exist in a vacuum. In my opinion, the D&D monsters are setting non-specific, and D&D assumes you have enough fantasy background to know what orcs, goblins, and the like are, and where to put them in your world. Meanwhile, Norrah is a specific setting, and, if they really are targetting gamers not familiar with EQ online, should at least have encounter tables giving the GM an idea of which monsters tended to congregate in the same areas -- especially since monsters of similar Challenge Levels live near each other. Additionally, I would have liked to see a table of Challenge Levels, so, as a GM unfamiliar with these monsters, I could easily look up monsters suitable for my players. These additions, which conventionally are in the DMG, would nevertheless make the EQ Monsters of Norrah more useful to this GM.

The Templates consist of the Corrupted, Dark Assassin, Diseased, Ghoul, Skeleton, and Werebat templates. Each template includes one or two examples, such as a Corrupted Hill Giant, a 21st-level Dark Assassin Rogue, and a Diseased Giant Rat. I haven't played with Templates yet, so can't comment further about them.

Pets and Warders are the various magical servants (constructs, undead, and animals) that serve the various PC classes. It's very thorough, with as many as six different CLs for a creature type, over a range of CLs, often from 1 upwards. (I would have liked to see this for the EQ monsters.) The Pets and Warders are also available on the EQ RPG site.

Overall, I'm pretty ambivalent about this book. I don't doubt that it accurately reflects the EQ online monsters (and may actually be as good as monster supplements with even higher RPGnet ratings), but I would liked to have seen lower HD monsters and variants. Setting information for monsters conventionally belongs in the DMG, but, in my opinion, would have improved this monster book. However, if these aren't problems for your game, and you're shopping around for some exotic high-level monsters, browse through EQ: Monsters of Norrah -- even if you're playing D&D.

EQ RPG site: www.eqrpg.com

EverQuest Roleplaying Game: Monsters of Norrath
EverQuest Roleplaying Game: Monsters of Norrath Capsule Review by Washu! ^O^ on 11/12/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average) 15 hit die Orcs??? Product: EverQuest Roleplaying Game: Monsters of Norrath Author: Various Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Sword and Sorcery Line: EverQuest Roleplaying Game Cost: $29.95 Page count: 216 Year published: 2002 ISBN: SKU: Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Washu! ^O^ on 11/12/02 Genre tags: Fantasy	Note: This review may be a bit limited. I'm the second target audience of EQ RPG, namely a tabletop rpg'er who hasn't played EQ online, but is interested in an alternate d20 setting. Likewise, I picked EQ RPG over D&D to avoid players who bought the core books and would take advantage of this knowledge. I do not own the Monster Manual core book (although own a 1st edition Monster Manual). I'll also add that I only want to bring one monster book to the table! Exotic monsters are fun, but I already have enough rpg stuff to lug around and I'm still looking for one book I can run for parties of all levels. *** EQ RPG: Monsters of Norrath is 216 pages long, in color. The Monster section itself is 130 pages long, with 15 additional pages for Animals, 10 for Vermin, and 20 pages for Pets (magical servants). The layout is similar to the EQ RPG Player's Handbook. Unlike the EQ PHB, you should be able to easily drop in monsters into your D&D game, although most of the more interesting monsters have 10-20 hit dice. The Introduction details the types and special abilities of monsters. Not only does it explain the stat block of a monster entry, but it's also a do-it-yourself kit of guidelines for creating your own monster. The Monster section begins with the Designer Comments. For those of you who do not play EQ Online, humanoid creatures typically start with a base type (eg. the 1 HD Deathfist Pawns) then add levels to make them more powerful (thus, the Ry'gorr Orcs are literally "Deathfist Pawns with 12 warrior levels"). In EQ RPG, the designers have chosen more of a d20 convention, creating separate "tiers" of humanoid monsters. Thus, the Ry'gorr orcs are presented as 15 HD monsters, rather than as a base monster class with additional levels. Likewise, spell-casting is replaced by spell-like abilities. Instead of saying a fire giant wizard casts spells as a 25th-level wizard, leaving the GM to customize each fire giant like an NPC, the monster is presented with a list of spells and mana pool for each spell. This shorthand allows a GM to use a monster directly out of the book, rather than having to generate details for them individually. You can still add levels to monsters (eg. Deathpawn orc / 2nd level warrior). Typical cannon-fodder monsters, such as orcs, have setting-specific tiers of difficulty. That is, you have the Deathfist Pawn orcs (1 HD), the Crushbone Centurian orcs (5 HD), and Ry'gorr orcs (15 HD). Within a tier, sometimes additional variants, such as special characters (Emperor Crush) or classes (Ry'gorr Mystics) are included. I did find odd that higher-ranking members of a tier (eg. a Deathfist Sergeant) were missing. You'll have to add the levels yourself. On the plus side, you'll always find a humanoid to attack your players. On the minus side, players making D&D assumptions about humanoid monsters will be killed. ("Hey, it's only two Orc scouts!") Unfortunately, about the only physical description that differentiates these tiers is size: Larger tiers have more hit dice than smaller ones. Time for PCs to acquire the Knowledge (Monster) skills. Even the EQ versions of D&D monsters are different, though usually in hit dice. A 20 HD, Hungry Cube, anyone? How about a 30 HD Mermaid? Atypical monsters are very** atypical. Holgreshes are "small nimble simians with large, bat-like wings". Who just happen to have 15 hit dice and can cast elemental summoning spells left and right. Vortex Weavers only look like bats. Their 16' wing span should tip you off. Harbingers are honored Iksar (a lizardlike race) -- honored as 20 HD undead. the Othmir are playful, peaceful otter-like humanoids, who average 20 HD. Sorry, a 15 HD orc? Okay, granted, the number of XP to get an EQ RPG PC to 15th level would put a D&D PC into the Epic Level Handbook, but, yes, 15 HD. A min/max'ed 1st level EQ RPG wizard can cast ten 1d6 Bursts of Flame in ten combat rounds, and it looks like he'd better. Sure, you have to have monsters who can survive the EQ PC combat machines, but (again not speaking as someone familiar with EQ online), I would have preferred monsters who were more than hit point shock absorbers. Animals and vermin are more reasonable with their HD, but 1 HD humanoids, animals, bugs, and rats probably don't make much of a beginner's gaming experience. Scaled-down versions of many of the monsters would have made this book much more usable (and exciting) for beginning PCs. Another complaint is that, as someone not familiar with the EQ setting, is that these monsters almost exist in a vacuum. In my opinion, the D&D monsters are setting non-specific, and D&D assumes you have enough fantasy background to know what orcs, goblins, and the like are, and where to put them in your world. Meanwhile, Norrah is a specific setting, and, if they really are targetting gamers not familiar with EQ online, should at least have encounter tables giving the GM an idea of which monsters tended to congregate in the same areas -- especially since monsters of similar Challenge Levels live near each other. Additionally, I would have liked to see a table of Challenge Levels, so, as a GM unfamiliar with these monsters, I could easily look up monsters suitable for my players. These additions, which conventionally are in the DMG, would nevertheless make the EQ Monsters of Norrah more useful to this GM. The Templates consist of the Corrupted, Dark Assassin, Diseased, Ghoul, Skeleton, and Werebat templates. Each template includes one or two examples, such as a Corrupted Hill Giant, a 21st-level Dark Assassin Rogue, and a Diseased Giant Rat. I haven't played with Templates yet, so can't comment further about them. Pets and Warders are the various magical servants (constructs, undead, and animals) that serve the various PC classes. It's very thorough, with as many as six different CLs for a creature type, over a range of CLs, often from 1 upwards. (I would have liked to see this for the EQ monsters.) The Pets and Warders are also available on the EQ RPG site. Overall, I'm pretty ambivalent about this book. I don't doubt that it accurately reflects the EQ online monsters (and may actually be as good as monster supplements with even higher RPGnet ratings), but I would liked to have seen lower HD monsters and variants. Setting information for monsters conventionally belongs in the DMG, but, in my opinion, would have improved this monster book. However, if these aren't problems for your game, and you're shopping around for some exotic high-level monsters, browse through EQ: Monsters of Norrah -- even if you're playing D&D. EQ RPG site: www.eqrpg.com

EverQuest Roleplaying Game: Monsters of Norrath