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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2010345" data-attributes="member: 18387">Pluses+ Quality professional-level game supplement.+ Detailed without sacrificing simplicity; excellent coverage of the immediate topic.+ Good for beginning game masters interested in monster design.+ Nice price.Minuses- Some interior art work is just adequate; one piece seems out of place.- Additional topics, such as adventure and crossbreeding campaign ideas, could have been explored but would have made for a longer possibly more expensive work.The premise for this ingenious game supplement is so simple how could anyone have missed doing it before now?!  The designer mentions that the idea for this work started with an article idea in 1996.  Someone clearly missed the boat...until now.  This excellent work provides everything players and game masters need to play a fantasy version of genetic engineering and/or gene splicing using two or more monstrous subjects.  The author goes way beyond the call of duty in examining every possible avenue, from the reasons why a wizard would want to mix it up monster-wise to maintaining game balance by considering every possible rules angle.  This excellent supplement is attractive, through, detailed yet simple, and provides a great frame work for campaign expansion into this uniquely exciting area.Physical DetailsThe supplement is a standard 64 pages in length with color art on the cover and black and white art inside.  The black back cover is engaging and accurately informs you about what you will find inside.  The appealing cover art depicts a crossbred monster escaping from a cage near a terrified jailor, with other monsters in cages in the background.  Its cost is $14.95.  The interior art is adequate in the first half of the book while the drawings in the latter half, i.e. the monsters section, are stunning depictions of crossbred monsters.  The interior edges are bordered by attractive gray-scale art.  The text, table, and statistical block layouts are clear, almost error free and easy on the eyes.  The selected type faces and arrangement of all elements are attractive and the work overall is of professional-level quality well worth the cost.Content DetailsCrossbreeding is divided into several expertly written sections:  The Introduction provides a very familiar backdrop using the owlbear as the classic key example of magical crossbreeding.  This monster is used as the prime example throughout the rest of the work, knitting all the sections very neatly together and adding well to the comprehension of the subject matter at hand.The Overview continues with the owlbear example and goes on to explain the reasoning behind a desire for creating magical crossbreeds, why alternatives such as polymorph spells will not work, what classes of wizards practice the art, etc.  The overview provides the general fictional and game framework for the sections to come.The Designing Magical Crossbreeds section provides the details related to planning the monster mix from their base ability scores to all the other details of the monster stat block.  Here you will decide what the monster will look like and its relevant stats.  Thoughtful guidelines are provided for making decisions for every item in the block including size, type, hit dice, initiative, speed, armor class, attacks and damage, face and reach, special attacks and qualities, saves, skills and feats.  The secondary stat block is also addressed, making it possible to add crossbreeds as permanent residents to the game world.The Transmutation Rituals section features details on required equipment, facilities (i.e. the laboratory), how the test subject should be prepared and mention is made of useful magic items detailed in a later section.  Nine distinct and creative transmutation rituals are provided in fine detail, loaded with adjectives, bringing each of the processes clearly to the imagination.  Guidelines for creating your own rituals are also provided, though it would be difficult to top those provided.The Creating Magical Crossbreeds section is the game-mechanical guts of the work providing the means for calculating the rates of success and associated bonuses and penalties.  Costs for experimentation are also provided.  The most interesting part is what actually happens during success, partial-successes, and failures.  Tables for abnormalities and defects are also provided.  The section ends with a very useful detailed example of combining a toad and a spider.  The artwork on the last page of the example is the most disappointing thing about this section.  It is noticeably incongruous since the monster depicted is not the spider/toad crossbreed?The Advanced Procedures section covers such topics as self-experimentation (the wizard combining himself with a monster), reversing the process (the undo) particularly in light of failure, multistage crossbreeding (combining crossbreeds with other crossbreeds) and transmuting more than two monsters at one time (the chimera being the classic example here).The Magic Items section contains 8 inventive magic items useful in one or more of the transmutation processes.  The art work in this section is also good depicting each item in fine detail.  Since these items are specific to crossbreeding they would not be useful in the campaign otherwise.The Sample Hybrids section is for true monster lovers.  This section contains a whopping 21 new crossbred monsters.  Even if the crossbreeding concept has absolutely no appeal, here is a wealth of new monsters available for immediate addition to your campaign.  Need a blood-thirsty flying shark with bat wings?  How about a lightening-breathing hydra?  What about a sinister water-dwelling mind flayer with the body of naga (the picture of this one causes a definite double-take)?The Designer’s Notes section gives some interesting background and a nice personal touch to the end of a very professional product.Overall CommentsThere are a few things the supplement does not mention probably due to limited space which does not detract from its appeal, but might have been relevant to campaign expansion or developing campaigns around the topic.  There are lots of adventure ideas that could have been detailed in the work but were not though fair mention is made in passing of a few.If you, as a game master, are new to the game system and timid about creating new monsters for your campaign this book is an excellent spring board.  You can use this guide to get your feet wet by practicing the creation of your own monsters using existing ones and eliminating most of the statistical guess work that goes along with it in one shot.  Practicing the design process can help familiarize you with existing monsters and allow you to gauge monster powers while adding to the fabric of your campaign - not a bad deal.Also, probably the most famous example of crossbreeding today is the scene in the recent Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring movie wherein Sauruman creates a new breed by combining the best of orc and goblin specimens!  This game supplement actually provides a solid rules base for accurately depicting this type of wizardly deed in your campaign.  In addition, popular culture and science and fantasy fiction are replete with other examples of crossbreeding plots which could benefit from the rules provided in this work.  The Island of Dr. Moreau (men mixed with animals) and Swamp Thing (man mixed with plant) are just a couple of easy examples that spring to mind.</blockquote>

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