Who Doesn't Like a Book of Monsters?
Dated: 13 Oct, 2024
One of my dearest TTRPG related memories is opening a parcel on Christmas day to reveal a copy of the newly published Monster Manual 2 from TSR (pictured).
I was probably about 14 or 15 and was a proper D&D nerd and this was mana from heaven for me. I clearly remember sitting behind the sofa in our living room and reading through everything that caught my eye. The Dragon Horse was beautiful, the Modrons were mad. The Thri-Kreen were cool but the Tasloi we had already met in “Dwellers of the Forbidden City” and were contemptuously referred to as “Greenies”. As I flick through it now I am bombarded with memories of using the various beasties in my own scenarios in ever more different and inventive ways.
Some were just plain weird (Squealer, Webbird, Boobrie, etc), others were brilliant and became staples of my future designs (Quicklings, Grugach Elf, Margoyle and the various new Giants). There was a lot of monsters that we already knew about from various scenarios (Aspis and Myconid from the Slavers Series, Yuan-Ti and Aboleth from Dwellers, loads for Tsojcanth) but it was nice to have them all in one place. It was instantly my favourite book, although I still have a huge love for the insane brilliance that is the original Fiend Folio.
It is a time-honoured tradition that any new scenario should have some new beasties to confuse and befuddle the brave adventurers (whose meta-gaming players already know the published Monster Books by heart) and the various publications of the Dunromin University Press are no exception. Barnaynia’s bizarre structure and unique habitats requires new beasts to explain how they work.
There’s even a big section in the World Guide to Barnaynia given over to the Ecology of these habitats and probably too much detail on how the various food-webs and prey-predator relationships work. Most players don’t care about such things, but many (myself included) enjoy thinking about it. I am always delighted when I read a scenario and the writer has taken the time to explain where the various monsters get their food when there aren’t succulent adventurers to feast on.
This constant flow of mew monsters is brilliant, of course, but there are a few problems associated with it:
1) The monster stat blocks are scattered through a variety of different books and are hard to locate in a hurry.
2) If you find a brilliant new monster you then have to integrate it into your world model, which may or may not be easy.
3) And this is probably peculiar to us, if someone comes up with a cool new monster, is it OK copyright-wise to include it in one of our publications? Short answer: No.
Number 3 is a point of honour as well as legal necessity of course. But what if the beastie is near-perfect and brilliant? Still no. Although, we have a number of creatures that were inspired by some of the original creations. For example, the Deepsea Dragon is a madder, more fun and less Cthulhu version of the Aboleth; the Deep Race were originally inspired by Mind Flayers, but diverged VERY quickly.
Problem 2 is usually easy to resolve if the monster in question is unusual, or has a certain ecological niche that it dominates and is just never seen elsewhere. If the monster is particularly powerful or has its own civilisation, this is more of an issue and depends on your World Build. On Barnaynia we have tried to create all kinds of environments and left space for new monsters, but whole civilisations are trickier to integrate into the existing structures. If the monster is cool enough, it can be done, and there are huge sections of the world where the details of their inner workings are sketchy. We can usually shoe-horn a cool idea in there if we have to (like the Trollkin from SM05, for instance). I am sure you have such grey areas in your own world.
Problem 1 isn’t really a problem, it’s an excuse to have fun!
The answer is to pull all the beasts together into a single monster book, and this is what we are doing at the moment. The next release will be SM19 Beasts of Barnaynia and, in the style of the Monster Manual 2, it consists of bringing ALL the University of Dunromin beasties into a single book and adding a shed-load of new and interesting creatures as well.
Dunromin old-boy, Tony Pearce, and myself have been working together to come up with some new monsters for the last few weeks and having GREAT fun doing it. Some are completely blue-sky things that we think are cool, most are designed with a specific Barnaynian habitat in mind but would work on any other planet too, of course.
It’s still a work in progress, but so far we have 87 entries in the book, only 42 of which are from existing Dunromin publications AND includes the amazing, gliding Barnaynian Owlbear!
This number will grow before publication too – we want something that existing customers will find good value for money as well. The Beast of Barnaynia will not just be a reprint of existing material; it’s going to be an engaging and inspiring collection of creatures you’ll be dying to try out on your unsuspecting players.
We’re still a few months from publication at this point (Oct 2024); we are a very small operation after all, and we have our own careers and families that have to come first, but it’s already a mighty tome. The main delay is artwork for the monsters. I am trying my best and might even enlist my youngest son to help. I could try using AI but I am reluctant to do that, for all the obvious reasons.
Watch this space!
And here’s one of our favourites so far – the awesome Drax – just to whet your appetite:
Drax
Summary: Large, Carnivorous Yaks that can breathe Lightning Bolts
Source: Tony Pearce
Habitat: The Shadowlands; frozen forests and tundra
Frequency: Uncommon in the Shadowlands, unknown elsewhere.
No. Encountered: 1d12
Size: Large; 8ft to the shoulder
Move: 120ft
Armour class: 4 [AAC 15]
Hit Dice: 5d8+2
Attacks: 3 hoof/hoof/bite
Damage per attack: 1d6/1d6/1d8+2
Special Attacks: Lightning Bolt, Disease
Special Defences: Immunity to Electrical attacks and Disease
Magic Resistance: Standard
Lair Probability: nil
Intelligence: Animal
Alignment: Neutral
Level/XP value: 7/350xp +6 per HP
Treasure: nil
Seeming like a crazy cross between a Yak and a Grizzly Bear, the Drax moves about on its 4 hooves with surprising speed. Although equipped with a fine pair of horns these are used for displays during the mating season and the Drax uses its terrible bite in combat. The Drax also has the power of being able to breath Lightning Bolts, working exactly as the spell as if cast from a 5th level Magic-User. Once fired, it takes 10 rounds for the Drax to recharge before it can fire another.
Drax are found in the colder, outer areas of the Shadowlands, where they roam the icy wastes looking for anything they can kill and eat. They are voracious hunters and will pretty much attack anything they come across. They tend to walk about in the wastes, mooing dolefully to each other until they catch the scent of something to eat. They will then start running after their prey in a relentless, ambling gait of surprising speed. They are known to have kept up this pursuit for 7 or 8 hours until their prey is exhausted.
Their main attack is their Breath Weapon, but once fired they can rear up on their hind legs and use a hoof/hoof/bite attack. Their festering maw of jagged teeth are infested with disease and a bitten victim must save versus poison or contract a disease (randomly determined). The Drax themselves seem to be immune to all forms of disease.
Drax are covered in a grey-white, shaggy coat that smells terrible and is worth nothing as a treasure item, but it is warm if fashioned into a coat or cloak. This greasy fur has excellent electrical earthing properties and makes the Drax immune to electrical attacks, although this is only partly due to their horrible hide and is mainly due to their magical nature. Persons wearing a Drax skin will benefit from a +2 on saving throws against electrical attacks, but the hides are very heavy and stink.