Roger G-S from Roles, Rules, and Rolls made Varlets & Vermin, 28 pages of low HD monsters and a smattering of public domain woodcuts that are exactly what you'd expect from the author of the Pergamino Barocco.
"Demi-Real Monster - When a summoning goes partly wrong, or an illusion of a living thing takes on existence, a demi-real creature is created. The monster starts out half-transparent and shaky in form. The monster gains hit dice by leaving its mark on the world - most often this means scoring damage in combat. Once it has its full hit dice it is permanently real. If killed before then, its body will waver and wink out of existence. A demi-real creature that is aware of its existential condition, and able to communicate, may very well try to negotiate a different way to gain full reality than fighting a dangerous group of adventurers."
Zenopus Archives wrote One Hit Point Monsters, which is 20 entries of exactly what it sounds like. I've admired this blog's creativity before, so I'm not surprised I enjoy these.
"Danse Macabre - Finely-dressed skeletons emerge from the ground. One plays the violin while the others try to dance with characters for 2d6 turns. Only attack if resisted. If danced with for the entire time, skeletons sink back into ground leaving a reward. Entire group turns as ghouls."
Al Krombach from Beyond the Black Gate made 6 tables of 20 monsters as Alternative Wandering Monster Tables. There are no descriptions here, so the evocative names do all the heavy listing. Al is coauthor of Warlords of Mars (which really would have looked lovely in a color edition), and his collaborator Thomas Denmark wrote his own OD&D monster book called Beasties.
"Level One - Beetle, Nuclear; Level Two - Ooze, Stop Motion; Level Three - Obsidian Judge; Level Four through Five - Wereslugs; Level Six through Seven - Spiderbear; Level Eight - Toad of the Abyss."
This list is also great: http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-bestiary.html
ReplyDeleteIncluding the Book of Mice and the Book of Tigers.
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Wow, he really has written a lot of monsters, hasn't he? Thanks for sharing the link!
DeleteGreat links, thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Olav!
DeleteI've had a tab open to that Beyond the Black Gate encounter table for almost two years, just in case of emergencies
ReplyDeleteIt's for sure one I've seen people raving about before.
DeleteI always question lists of monsters. Not the individual artistry and creativity that goes into a good monster, but the idea of the monster manual as a separate thing.
ReplyDeleteTo me monsters are so uniquely linked to setting and adventure that some extra guide for them (obviously one needs to set mechanical baselines) feels a bit like a vanity project. "Look at me! I invented new monsters scads of them - I can't be assed to invent a location for them, or a scenario where you might meet them, and I don't want to think about how they relate to different settings or campaigns ... but WOOOO! MONSTERS! Pay me."
On the other hand monsters (the description, not the stats - stats are easy unless you are playing 3.5E plus) are so much a part of a good setting that I insist on them. A setting that uses general monsters (Orc, goblin, giant spider etc.) without giving setting specific context is as bad as monster book without setting.
So I appreciate monsters a lot - but I want them in a context - I like these by Hereticwerks (like much on the site) are sort of the perfect ones:
http://hereticwerks.blogspot.com/2014/05/six-tigers-wermspittle.html
These are the tigers of Wyrmspittle, check out the bears and lions as well.
Ah, the issue is... how much context?
DeleteIn a setting book, it's fine to go nuts, but how much background and information should a monster manual provide? Is a table of hooks enough? A mini-adventure? A full adventure using everything (or a set of things) from the text? A very good random encounter table? And sure, provide locations and details, but how many of those will turn out to be "a big dark cave with some gold at the end?" (and therefore conceptually worthless)?
Basically, a generic monster entry has to serve 2 slightly opposed purposes: a brain-fuel-rich starting point for a GM browsing for ideas, and a condensed quick-reference page for a GM at the table.
It's... tricky. :D
Nah, just consider ruleset as settings so the basic monster list is setting building, and don't bother with monster manuals.
DeleteThe starting bestiary of any ruleset is probably going to be made up of the monsters that define the setting.
DeleteThe follow-up bestiaries tend to be quite a bit weirder, because they usually mostly collect monsters that have shown up in adventures.
Or else, they're like you said, just a list of monsters with no context to make sense of them. I've seen people suggest that "Isle of the Unknown" would be better if it were just a bestiary, but it might actually be worse. As it stand, the Isle doesn't provide much context, but it does provide a some.
Gus, what you're saying here reminds me of something you said on your blog awhile ago, so if you don't mind, I'm going to quote your words of wisdom from http://dungeonofsigns.blogspot.com/2016/10/monster-design-and-necessity.html
"The aesthetics of monsters aren't hard to think up and design, and the most important element about an encounter is that it makes sense in the setting. I tend to run non-standard settings, and making monsters that fit those settings, tell stories about the setting and generally provide a point for player interaction, wonder and decision making is often far easier then fitting monsters from other sources into a non-standard setting."
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