Best RPG Monster Bestiary?
Since monsters are on my mind at the moment… I’ve been diving into monster manuals, compendiums, bestiaries and hacklopedias.
For my money, my favorite is Kenzer’s “Hacklopedia of Beasts” Deluxe Edition. I’ve never played Hackmaster and probably won’t in the near future, but this book sees almost as much use as the core bestiary of my current game.
What makes it great?
- As you would expect, you’ve got the core creature stats for Hackmaster. (This isn’t of particular interest to me, but I mention it for completeness.) Interestingly, the core stats are shown in a visual diamond to make them easier to find.
- You get a page of text on the ecology of each creature. (In some cases you get more than one page.) Each entry tells you how they fight, how they live, how they are organized, aspects of their anatomy and more.
- For “color” each entry starts with a journal entry where a veteran NPC discusses encountering the creature.
- Often, there is an example of the creature’s footprints/tracks. How awesome is that?! Great touch. The entry also has a size chart for comparison.
- Each creature’s entry has with a “Yield” chart telling you the likelihood of treasure. More importantly, the yield also notes if the creature’s parts are useful for medicine, spells, or collect-ability.
- A small map tells you where in the core Kenzer game world the creature can be found. (Not important to me, but it is another great touch for players/GMs in that setting.)
The linked page above has a few sample PDFs so you can see for yourself!
What’s your favorite?
hackamster ended up being a surprisingly good game – and visually stunning – to say that i first encountered it as a joke in the KotDT comic books. I ended up buying a load of the books myself – including the bestiaries – but could never find people to play it with. Sadly they all went the way of ebay last year in an effort to raise money.
I’m quite enamored of the Teratic Tome, from Neoplastic Press. The monsters in that book are true works of horror.