Bestiary review v2

The 13th Age Bestiary is the monster manual for Pelgrine Press' flagship game. It's an Open Gaming License powered fresh take on classic fantasy adventure gaming. Most of the monsters presented in this book will be familiar to anyo
ne who has played any edition of D&D, but the many variations and adventure hooks will make them new again.

Any RPG supplement must be judged on three criteria: how does it read, how does it look, and how does it play. Even if you never use any of these monsters in a game the well-written fluff is an entertaining read. The layout and generous amounts of color artwork make for a beautiful book, I'm sorry I've only seen the PDF version (which is thoroughly bookmarked).

The play is the thing though. What you get are 52 (13 * 4) monsters, and 200 distinct variations with their own statblocks. Each monster has well written fluff, color artwork, the statblocks, adventure, campaign, and Icon hooks. Any special rules needed are included along with write ups on the stuff or treasure found around (or in) the monster. In short, a multi page monster write up with everything you need to use them in an adventure or even build a campaign arc around them.

Even if you don't play 13th Age there is a wealth of material in this book. Players of any edition of D&D can use the statblocks from their game. Dungeon World GMs will find that creating monster Moves from the descriptions and abilities presented will be very easy. If you do play 13th Age, the references to the settings and the Icons will make presenting the monsters as integral parts of the setting very easy. The Icons are simple and descriptive, so again you can easily tie them in to your own setting. Everyone has an Elf Queen and a Dwarf King in their game, right ?  I count 228 references to Icon relationships over 52 monsters; many of of the mechanics reference Icon relationships established by the players.

It gets better. The Bestiary contains 196 adventure hooks, each with a name and a paragraph of description. One or two monsters don't have adventure hooks, the Djinn and Efreet have stories instead. Many of them also have campaign options to help them fit into your campaign, this is a good bit of customization and will keep the players on their toes even if they've read the book.
To round out each monster there are other sections that are included where appropriate. These include environmental effects, advice on balancing battles, nastier examples for when you want an especially dangerous example of the breed. The treasures they have or stuff found near them or in them in some cases are described, but in not great detail. Pull quotes from characters in the setting are often included to add flavor in many entries.

Environmental effects are included in, for example, the Basilisk's entry. This describes the specific hazards to be found in the blasted wastes found around a Basilisk's lair with the mechanics to apply them in your game. Where appropriate sample names are given to personalize each critter you use. Some monsters need special rules to use them as they should be in combat, these are well written. Kobolds for example get almost a page of rules on traps they can set.

Before the monsters are presented the introduction has some useful material. There is a page on unusual monsters which provides good inspiration for picking monsters for your game, I'd like to have seen even more in this section. There is also a section on creating interesting battles with the monsters and their companion creatures that follow. An appendix at the end has a list of monsters by level and category, plus a short section on the mechanics of balancing battles.

The monsters in the book fall into several categories. There are the solitary quest monsters such as dragons. Ancient guardians such as Nagas, Golems, and Lammasu will be found at the center of many dungeons; the Nagas are also social creatures and can be used in campaign arcs with their own motives. A number of humanoid races such as Orcs, Kobolds, and Sahuagin can be used as large scale campaign foes. Centaurs get a fantastic entry covering the distinctions between tribes emphasizing Hoof, Hand, and Heart. The Drow get some very useful material for making your own variation for your game.

 There are a few social threats as well, creepy manipulators, seducers with dark secrets for campaigns that swing that way, and a race of demonic assassins that will make for outstanding recurring threats. There are also a few monsters presented for horror themed games, including the classic big bloodsucking bugs: the Stirge. There's also a chaos thing with too many tentacles, eyes, and mouths that has an even worse companion entry that makes a good Shoggoth analogue.

Honestly weird creatures make an appearance, there's a living clockwork monster, several good variations on the Gelatinous Cube, a dangerous byproduct of miscast magic, and damned souls salvaged for a dark crusade.

Some of the monsters have a tragic aspect, making a victory of them bittersweet at best. A Haunted Skull is more dangerous than a plain ghost, but it also has the same legacy of the lost. Even an Intellect Devourer is the last remnant of the personalities it has consumed; building. A Lost Inheritor plot around tracking down the Devourer that ate the scion of a noble house's mind has real possibilities.
Dragons are not neglected. Black, Red, Shadow, and White Dragons are in the book. Each of those is a quest in its own right. These are all solid variations on the classic chromatics. The Red Dragon is of course fire-themed with a nasty Volcano Dragon variant. The Black Dragon spits acid, but they've defined it as a deep subterranean dragon that uses the acid to tunnel through solid rock. The Shadow Dragon is an unholy thing, it's the natural prey of a Good or Holy aligned party and vice versa. The White Dragon is presented primarily as a death dragon, not an expression of elemental cold. They're useful as a campaign element in opposition to Liches or other powerful undead. For traditionalists there is a cold dragon, and a moon dragon for a fresh approach.

There are two monsters that some people will find problematical. The first is the Jorogumo. This is a spider-thing that appears to be human or elf, male or female. The pull quote example given is the madam of a brothel who has far too many legs under her skirts. They're seducers. They literally take your heart out and leave you a controlled husk of a person. They're great for a social campaign where a web of minions surrounds a manipulating corps of spiders at the center of the web, but as presented they're just a tad sexual for the average RPG group. Re-fluffed as city Councilors they pass the PG-13 standard handily. That leaves them, with some GM interpretation, suitable for any group and a possible source of some fantastic horror scenes. Use them with thought or not at all. Used cleverly and you have the monster at the heart of a social-based campaign with no necessarily sexual elements.

The other monster with issues is the Hag. There will be objections to an exclusively female monster. It's traditional, but not in a way we want to carry into the future. On the other hand, there is at least the Djinn/Efreet as a monster that is always male in the fiction. I believe that this monster can be given a pass insofar as it can be reskinned as The Coot. Ideally that would be in the text, but it's an easy house ruling. The monster, however you bring in gender elements, has a fantastic set of mechanics that make each one powerful and unique. The Hag can also be used directly from the book as an expression of woman's anger and could be used to challenge the group's preconceptions.

To summarize the book, it's a recommended purchase for anyone running a classical fantasy adventure game in any system. What you get is a well-written, beautifully illustrated campaign sourcebook organized around classic fantasy gaming monsters, all with a new, modern twist. I'm closing this review here, I have some campaign Fronts to ponder.

Oh, and watch out for Basilisks if your Gm has this book, they're lethal.

Pros
Production values
Writing
Utility in actual games
Ability to surprise players who have read the book
Campaign and adventure hooks in abundance

Cons
Your favorite monsters might not be in the book
Activists have some room to complain, balanced by opportunities to invert tropes
Setting specific, requires adaption to non-13A settings