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RPG Print News – Cubicle 7, Mongoose, Melsonian Arts Council, and More
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<blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 9218516" data-attributes="member: 11760"><p>I cannot say enough about the Monster Overhaul. While it's most useful for OSR referees of all sorts (easier to use the closer your system is to B/X, meaning that Mork Borg and Cairn referees will need to figure out how to convert such materials, although that's probably old news to them), it is, IMO, far and away the best monster book of all time for use at the table (versus being a big lore bomb).</p><p></p><p>It is <em>dense</em> with material -- the two-page Ooze entry actually has more than a dozen variants detailed via its random generator, along with what's inside the ooze, what happens if one consumes an ooze (!) and more. It would be trivial to open this book and run an adventure cold, randomly generating NPCs, villages, monsters and more. The Lich entry alone could generate whole campaigns. It's also stuffed with maps, including a simple world map, village maps, maps of dungeons of all sorts, including a wizard's tower, a minotaur maze, a vampire castle and more.</p><p></p><p>And all of the entries are thoughtful. The Orc entry squarely discusses the "problem of evil" and the choices inherent in how one runs orcs, while enabling referees to make their own choice of how to run orcs. Even if you never run the monsters out of this book, it'll make you think about how you run your games more deliberately, which is great, IMO.</p><p></p><p>The book is not cheap, but it honestly is so, so worth it. If you have a preferred OSR system you're running, Monster Overhaul is probably the second purchase you should make for whatever system you're using. It will enable <em>years</em> of play before you start having to do repeats.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Whizbang Dustyboots, post: 9218516, member: 11760"] I cannot say enough about the Monster Overhaul. While it's most useful for OSR referees of all sorts (easier to use the closer your system is to B/X, meaning that Mork Borg and Cairn referees will need to figure out how to convert such materials, although that's probably old news to them), it is, IMO, far and away the best monster book of all time for use at the table (versus being a big lore bomb). It is [I]dense[/I] with material -- the two-page Ooze entry actually has more than a dozen variants detailed via its random generator, along with what's inside the ooze, what happens if one consumes an ooze (!) and more. It would be trivial to open this book and run an adventure cold, randomly generating NPCs, villages, monsters and more. The Lich entry alone could generate whole campaigns. It's also stuffed with maps, including a simple world map, village maps, maps of dungeons of all sorts, including a wizard's tower, a minotaur maze, a vampire castle and more. And all of the entries are thoughtful. The Orc entry squarely discusses the "problem of evil" and the choices inherent in how one runs orcs, while enabling referees to make their own choice of how to run orcs. Even if you never run the monsters out of this book, it'll make you think about how you run your games more deliberately, which is great, IMO. The book is not cheap, but it honestly is so, so worth it. If you have a preferred OSR system you're running, Monster Overhaul is probably the second purchase you should make for whatever system you're using. It will enable [I]years[/I] of play before you start having to do repeats. [/QUOTE]
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