Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Talking Monster Books part I


Illustration by Nicholas Cloister

I was talking with a friend about what we wanted to see in new Paizo Bestiaries and it made me think. What do I want to see in Adventure Quarterly and other Rite Publishing products, so I thought I would share my personal feelings on what are some good monster books and what are some really fun monsters to loot from other peoples books.  

Some of these references require conversion to Pathfinder Rpg. 
  
Books you should be using already if you are writing for Rite Publishing (and yes I am totally biased)

  • Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 1-4
  • Advanced Bestiary by Green Ronin Publishing
  • Tome of Horrors Complete by Frog God Games
  • Forgotten Foes by Tricky Owlbear Publsihing
  • Monsters Unleashed Vol 1-5 by Purple Duck Games
  • Book of Monster Templates by Rite Publishing
  • 101 Not So Simple Monster Templates by Rite Publishing
  • 101 Variant Monsters by Rite Publishing
  • Pathways #1-27 free e-zine by Rite Publishing (there are monsters and monster templates in nearly every issue).
  • Legacy of the Dragons by Malhavoc Press 
  • The Iron Heroes Bestiary by Malhavoc Press/Fiery Dragon
  • Deluxe Book of Templates by Silverthrone Games/Mongoose Publishing
  • Template Troves vol 1-4? by Siverthrone Games

I am now going to make a list of monsters (this is a work in progress) from various books that I think are cool, the monsters are are evocative in appearance, have well written flavor, and have mechanics that surprise and challenge players.  This is just a quick run at this list as I will be adding to it as I run through every OGC monster book out there.

Creature Collection III by White Wolf/Sword & Sorcery
Dirgewood tree
Golems (amalgam, amber, bramble, coral, ember, hive, moon, penumbral, sand)
Spontaneous Golems! (Gallows, Hide, Hoard, Plague)
Hiveskin
Love-Scorned soul
Pain Doll
Paitient Doom
Phase Mass
Hydran Creature Template
Infested Creature Template

Denizens of Avadnu by Inner Circle Games
Carcaetan
Ethereal Adder
Goldencrest
Inscriber
Kei-Ehri
Kulumar
Madrir
Nightmare Collector
Vacuous Engulfer
Warding Visage

Strange Lands: Lost Tribes of the Scarred Lands by White Wolf/Sword and Sorcery
Unholy Chorus

Next up Creature Collection II
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 4, 2013 at 9:55 PM

    Another book you should consider using is Strunk and White's "Elements of Style", especially if you're prone to writing sentence fragments like "Books you should be using already using if your writing for Rite Publishing" ("using already using" and "your" instead of "you're"?) Not what I'd expect to see in a professionally published RPG source book.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJune 4, 2013 at 11:42 PM

    Yes that is what happens when you write a blog post really late in your work day after little sleep. Fortunately it is a blog and I can edit it, its also why you hire editors.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tim BakerJune 5, 2013 at 8:15 PM

    The Midgard Bestiary is another great book of monsters.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownJune 6, 2013 at 10:30 AM

    I have not gotten a chance to read through The Midgard Bestiary yet, but I plan to as part of this listing.

    ReplyDelete

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