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Review of Monsters of Myth
In Short
Monsters of Myth is a weighty OSRIC™ resource for those looking for a bevy of new monsters for their old style game and is a worthwhile addition to any GMs library. The book, published by The First Edition Society, is a collaborative effort of a number of designers and is edited by Stuart Marshall and Matt Finch. The book is written in the tradition of 1st ed. monster manuals, but is a useful resource for all retro style and “rules light” versions of the various D&D™ system editions. It presents a broad selection of creatures for any fantasy setting and level, though its content is best in the lower to mid level creature ranges. GMs looking for original monsters can easily sustain a fantasy campaign with the beasts presented in this book. It is also useful for quick side encounters with which the enterprising GM wishes to surprise his players. The book does fall short of being a truly creation inspiring resource for designing homebrews (which is not its main goal), but it is an extremely useful resource for any fantasy GM.
The Book
The book is 128 pages and comes in both hard cover and soft cover versions. Both editions are covered by a wonderful color image that immediately alerts the reader to the fact that the book is “old school” whether they knew that when they picked it up or not. The interior artwork, which is black & white, is definitely evocative of the first edition style of the 1970’s and 1980’s. However, the images are somewhat limited and the quality of the artistic styles at times is lacking. Though this is an old school style gaming resource, the artwork should still strive to meet current industry standards of quality and appearance.
The Details
Monsters of Myth contains a wide variety of monsters for fantasy play. The book presents 138 choice adversaries in an alphabetical format, dedicating approximately ˝ to 1 page per creature. Many of the monsters are based on mythological creatures, but typical of old school games, the monster descriptions in the book are based more on the concept than grounded strictly to actual legend. The standard old school stats are presented for each creature in a familiar format, with an explanation of each stat at the beginning of the book that is useful to players not conversant with this style of game. The writers and editors did an excellent job developing complete stats for each beast, including the ‘Treasure’ stat, a favorite among veteran dungeon crawlers. In some cases, I suspect some of the monsters’ stats were not well thought out or game tested, but not having used a lot of these in actual game play I cannot definitively comment on their playability.
Unlike some of the original monster manuals back in the day, the individual creature descriptions are shorter and more concise. The writers’ and editors’ goal was to provide a useful monster framework, but one that still allowed GMs the latitude to adapt the entries for their personal campaigns and settings. Experienced GMs that design their own adventures will appreciate not having to explain away the contradictions between the book description and their use in a specific setting which is often problematic with players who like to read through monster manuals in their spare time. The book achieved this purpose admirably, and I applaud the editors for recognizing this concept as being desirable to homebrew adventure designers. This flexibility is also an aspect of the book’s writing that has more in common with the modern style of RPG design than those of 20 to 30 years ago.
Monsters presented in the book are both variations on traditional themes (with which to surprise the players) and unique creations. For example, giants, goblins and golems are included but each has a different take. However, the ‘new’ version in Monsters of Myth are not too extreme as to narrow the practical usage of the creature. One variation on a theme that I found most interesting (and I plan on using the concept) is the Goblin Battle Spirit. The Goblin Battle Spirit is an incorporeal and vengeful entity inhabiting a clan’s momento of past conquests. Most intriguing is that this ‘monster’ has the ability to take a more active roll in combat by inhabiting the bodies of corporeal creatures. Another variatio on a theme is the Ghoul Monkey. Yes, you guessed it – undead monkeys. How fun is that!
For those GMs who like to mine monster manual for new player character races, there are a few candidates in Monsters of Myth as well. The Kheph, seven foot tall jackal-headed humanoids, quickly got my attention for this purpose. The Kheph have predominantly a warrior tradition, but this race has an ancestoral link to ancient supreme beings from beyond the material plane which provides a basis for magi, cleric and elder character concepts. Though presented as a lawful evil alignment, rogue Kheph as player characters could easily embrace other alignments and follow the tenets of non-evil higher beings, turning them into the typical outcasts that it seems so many fantasy gamers relish playing. The Kheph description is also a good example of where the ‘light’ monster write up allows the GM to adapt the creature without having to go through contortions to explain their presence and how they fit into a homebrew cosmology.
A number of creatures fall outside of the standard ‘humanoid’ definition, such as Cavern Glazers (giant snails), Ercinee (large bird), and Floating Mounds (sentient vegetation masses). How about a Pastinaca, a giant carnivorous weasel coveted by giants as mounts and guards. One of my favorites is the Pod-Men, shambling humanoid plants that serve their evil genius Shroom (yes, fungoid) masters. I so want to have a campaign with these two types as recurring adversaries. Though the book is primarily for fantasy, these two creatures are an example of contents that could be adapted to other (though admittedly more pulp) genres, such as planetary romance or science fantasy in this case.
The monsters included in this book also cover a broad range of terrain types, with as many as twelve different broad geographic categories represented. The various ecosystems for which creatures in Monsters of Myth can be easily used range from the standard dungeons and woodlands to arctic and urban. A useful part of the book that must be mentioned at this juncture is the quick reference Random Encounter appendix. This appendix contains random encounter by level and by terrain type tables. These are a must for any self respecting retro resource and GMs who are fans of the random encounters so often used in old school games. Monsters are alphabetically divided by both their level and the terrains in which they can be found. This resource makes the book extremely useful for in-game, on the fly additions to play.
Where To Find
Monsters of Myth can be purchased from The First Edition Society through Lulu stores.lulu.com/FirstEditionSociety. The book currently is available in both soft cover ($14.99) and hardcover ($27.50) format, a choice not common to smaller publishers. This was a welcome surprise to an older gamer that prefers the feel of a good hardback book in his hand. The book would benefit from a pdf version as well which appeals to many current gamers who prefer an electronic gaming bookshelf.
Final Analysis
Monsters of Myth definitely achieves the old school style which the editors attempted to emulate, and overall the book is a useful gaming resource. It put me in the mood for the dungeon crawl hack-and-loot goodness I enjoyed so much in my early gaming days. Players of all retro clones, as well as some of the stripped down D20 rules versions such as Microlite 20, will find this book useful. I look forward to seeing if this group’s take on creatures is expanded to other genres that are garnering some of the recent retro clone popularity, including steampunk, pulp, and sci-fi.
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