Thystram's Collectanea is the bestiary for the Talislanta RPG produced by Bard Games and Wizards of the Coast. I recommend this book for any fantasy world out there. It is chock full with inventive creatures, their habitat's, weaknesses, and stats. If you are looking for a book to add a little spice to your dungeon's and to put your players on their ear, this would be it. The creatures in this book are well thought out, detailed and dangerous. The denizens of this volume range from small to huge, friendly to evil, and angelic to diabolic.
The book is filled with creatures such as the "Malathrope" a sadistic quadruped hunter that prefers it's dinner alive and the "Vasp", a ten-foot insect whose sting has a poison that dissolves your internal organs. These are just a few of the many creatures who inhabit this volume. Don't worry about doubling up on standard run-of-the-mill creatures in this book, almost every creature in this book is entirely unique with the exception of the dragons. There are no orcs, trolls, goblins, or ogres here.
Each creature also comes with a description that gives a detailed account of the creature. Some of the descriptions have great adventure seeds buried within them and even this single book could provide months of adventuring fun.
The book is laid out with one creature per page (with a few exceptions) and has outstanding artwork by some very familiar names including Anson Maddocks and Rick Tedin. Each creature's description is laid out beside an artists rendition of the beast in question with stats, special abilities, and habitats for the Talislanta RPG on the bottom of the page. Most of the pictures match the creature that is described in the text making it easier for the GM to envision these monsters.
One of the down sides to this book is the amount of wasted space on each page. Almost every page has a few inches at the bottom that could have been used for something. However, this is a minor quibble as it hardly detracts from the usefulness of the book.
I am unfamiliar with the Talislanta RPG, however it seemed to me that some of the creatures in this book were underpowered to a certain degree. There were descriptions of creatures that seemed fierce and deadly, but when reading the stats for the creature, I could see that an average party of adventurers would easily take the monster down without batting an eye. Of course, this can be easily fixed by any creative GM.
The last downside to this book is that you will have to do conversion to whatever game system you are using, unless you are using the Talislanta game system. However, this is made easier by the fact that most creatures are described well and have logical stats that should be able to be converted easily to other game systems including Palladium Fantasy, AD&D, D&D, and Shadowrun.
I heartily recommend this book to any GM running a fantasy campaign. This book is out of print (I believe) but I have found a couple of copies hanging around. The creatures in here are almost guaranteed to give your characters a nasty surprise when they chase that "ogre" into it's lair to find a 12' tall "Ravant" waiting to separate their limbs from their body.
Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)
