[Goodman/BDP] Critter Cache III: Animals & Beasts released!

BLACKDIRGE · 21st January 2009, 08:57 AM

Need a bit more of the natural in your Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign? Looking for intriguing challenges, mounts, and allies for your PCs that are rooted in the good ol’ real world? Then look no further. Critter Cache: Animals & Beasts presents 24 animals, beasts, and other real-world-inspired critters for your 4E game.

So let Goodman Games and Blackdirge Publishing bring the lions, and tigers, and…mammoths back to your 4E campaign with Critter Cache: Animals & Beasts.

Critter Cache: Animals & Beasts features 24 pages of new 4E material, and includes the following monster entries:

Ape: Ape, Dire Ape, Tyrant Ape
Eagle: Golden Eagle, Great Harpy Eagle (Haast’s Eagle), Dire Eagle
Elephant: Elephant, Mammoth, Olyphant
Giant Lizard: Giant Lizard, Tunnel Lizard, Deathjaw Lizard (Megalania)
Lion: Lion, Cave Lion
Rhinoceros: Rhinoceros, Wooly Rhinoceros, Thunderhorn (Brontotherium)
Tiger: Tiger, Saber-Tooth Tiger (Smilodon)
Weasel: Dire Weasel, Dire Badger, Giant Skunk
Wolverine: Wolverine, Dire Wolverine

Need even more critters for your 4E campaign? Check out the rest of the Critter Cache line from Goodman Games and Blackdirge Publishing

ColonelHardisson · 27th January 2009, 06:27 AM

I just bought this over the weekend, and it looks great. Not only does it have the yeoman's work you've done in statting these critters, but the artwork is outstanding and really evocative.

Any chance of a dire/giant skunk showing up soon, maybe in the blog...?

BLACKDIRGE · 27th January 2009, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ColonelHardisson

I just bought this over the weekend, and it looks great. Not only does it have the yeoman's work you've done in statting these critters, but the artwork is outstanding and really evocative.

Any chance of a dire/giant skunk showing up soon, maybe in the blog...?

Thanks, Colonel. That picture of Kon...er...the tyrant ape is one of my favorties in the series.

The giant skunk is actually in Critter Cache III. However, it's filed under the weasel entry, along with the dire badger.

BD

ColonelHardisson · 28th January 2009, 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BLACKDIRGE

Thanks, Colonel. That picture of Kon...er...the tyrant ape is one of my favorties in the series.

The giant skunk is actually in Critter Cache III. However, it's filed under the weasel entry, along with the dire badger.

BD

Yep. My bad. I was so enthralled with the apes, elephants, rhinos, lions, and tigers, I overlooked that! The eagles were another critter that I wasn't expecting, but loved seeing it; I really missed it in the Monster Manual. Fantastic job!

Duskblade · 28th January 2009, 03:56 AM

Good stuff Blackdirge. Bought the 4E Core Giftset at the flgs today. Also bought this + the previous two from rpgnow.

Any chance you'll stat up a liger?

JoeGKushner · 28th January 2009, 04:31 AM

Tryant Ape eh?

Perhaps useful for a 4e conversion of Isle of the Ape? Hmmm....?

Duskblade · 28th January 2009, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeGKushner

Perhaps useful for a 4e conversion of Isle of the Ape? Hmmm....?

That would indeed be cool.

ColonelHardisson · 28th January 2009, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeGKushner

Tryant Ape eh?

Perhaps useful for a 4e conversion of Isle of the Ape? Hmmm....?

It is just about the right level - 17th level solo brute.

Back in the day, it surprised me that no Kong analog existed in any of the official AD&D monster books. Isle of the Ape was the first time something like that was done, and I don't recall how long it was before it made its way into a Monstrous Compendium.

ColonelHardisson · 30th January 2009, 08:30 PM

I just want to again express how much I like these kinds of supplements.

These Critter Caches go right for the types of critters that caught my attention the most back when I bought my first Monster Manual in 1979. Sure, stuff like the beholder or bulette were cool and interesting, but something about "dire" or giant versions of regular animals, as well as prehistoric animals, really fired my imagination.

I have been interested in megafauna since I was a little kid. Giant goats, intelligent giant lynxes, Irish elk, axebeaks, baluchitherium (as it was called in the 1e MM), giant owls, giant eagles, etc. - these all seemed like the kinds of animals that could lend an air of the fantastic to a setting or adventure, yet still retain a haunting feeling of familiarity.

I won't knock the 4e Monster Manual, because it's actually a pretty cool book. However, critters like giant ants, smilodons, and giant eagles were conspicuous by their absence. I don't think this is simply because of nostalgia - these are the kinds of things I look for in any fantasy RPG I buy. They appeal to me more than, say, amorphous blobs with a bunch of tentacles and/or mouths. Not that I don't find such critters interesting also, but I think there's room for all kinds of critters.

So, again, great job on these products, and I look forward to seeing more of them.