D20 Menace Manual - Is it worth buying?

[reveal]

The d20 Menace Manual is $35+tax new and I can't find it anywhere used for less than $20. Is it worth the price? What has been your experience with it? I'm starting a d20 Modern campaign in about 2 months and want to know if it's worth buying.

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

I like it a lot.
It has some supernatural creatures in it, but I like it because of the number of "non-magical" monsters. Even though some of them have some pretty way-out-there abilities, they can fit into a campaign that doesn't revolve around "Urban Arcana".

It has something for everything really.
If your game has...
Aliens, but no supernatural? The book has greys, alien probes, MIBs, Alien Hybrids, Mothmen and more.

Urban folk monsters but no aliens or supernatural? It has Bigfoot, Mongolian Deathworm, Loch Ness Monster, Mapinguari, Drop Bears, Doom Hag, Cat Folk, Giant Anaconda, Thunderbird, Hoop Snake, Yeti.

Horror? It has the bogeyman template (great for your Jason and Michael Myers types), Crawling Claw, Dread Tree, Revenant (The Crow, anyone?), Night Terror, Star Doppelganger (The Thing)...

Or the full on X-Files mix with Black Helicopters, government agents, Skin Feasters, Charred One, Demonic Machine, Montauk Monster, Infester, Crawfordsville Monster, Chemical Golem, Sewer Sludge, Robots, Litter Brute, Malleable Creature Template...

Regular animals like Monitor Lizards, Hippopotami, Wild Boars, Chimpanzees, Scorpions etc...

And finally the very D&D-esque Urban Arcana creatures like the Harpy, Intellect Devourer, Ghoul, Grimlock, Demons, half-demons, Animated Objects, Thought Eater.

The list goes on. Plus it has some premade organizations (government and otherwise) to either ally with or pit against your PCs. And a section full of quick NPCs like Attorneys, Firefighters, Scientists, Cops, SWAT Teams, Doctors, Etc. And some heroic caliber NPCs.

There's always someone around here grumbling about how they don't like a particular book no matter how good it is. Maybe someone will sell you theirs.
It goes without saying that you won't get mine. It's a pretty versatile book with monsters from the mundane variety (snakes and mobsters) to the fantastical (harpies and demons), to the alien (sand slaves and zeikune).

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

It is, hands-down, the best supplement for d20 Modern I have seen. Yes, I would reccomend buying it at any price you can get (up to the cover price, naturally).

 

[King of Old School]

Absolutely, it is IMO the most worthwhile supplement yet published for d20 Modern. Indispensable to any prospective GM.

KoOS

 

[Psychic Skeksis]

The d20 Menace Manual is $35+tax new and I can't find it anywhere used for less than $20. Is it worth the price? What has been your experience with it? I'm starting a d20 Modern campaign in about 2 months and want to know if it's worth buying.

Well, Bran did a superb summary of the highlights of the book, so I won't repeat it. Suffice it to say, the Menace Manual is simply outstanding. If you combine the creatures in the Menance Manual with the creatures in Urbana Arcana and the d20 Modern core book, you have more challenges for your PCs than you'll ever need.

Menace Manual gets a huge thumbs up. My only two (small) gripes are (1) It's too short, and (2) Not every monster is illustrated (though most are, and the artwork is outstanding).

My personal favorite: STAR DOPPLEGANGER. Last seen in John Carpenter's THE THING.

 

[Gospog]

I love the Menace Manual because the ideas in it are so cool, they constantly sparked scenario ideas in my mind!

It gets ranked with the Monsternomicon as an entire monster book that I have read cover to cover.

Well worth the $$$.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

One word: Ditto.

 

[jaerdaph]

I think it was one of the best, if not the absolute best, product from WotC in 2003.

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

I'll add that most of the monsters without illustrations are either real-world creatures like the hippo or D&D monsters like harpies, which you're pretty likely to already have pictures of, or know where to get some. So the lack of illos for them isn't terribly bad.

 

[dream66_]

And finally the very D&D-esque Urban Arcana creatures like the ... Ghoul, ...

Bran did a fantastic review but I thought I'd add one more thing, reread the Ghoul, it's been changed from it's DND roots to be a Resident Evil style Zombie


I can't recomend the book more, when I first read the Dimentional Horror's entry I thought, "I can run an entire campiagn around just these guys" Then I realized over half the creatures in the book are that way.