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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Anio" data-source="post: 2423114" data-attributes="member: 24200">E.N. Critters Volume 2: Beyond the Campfire - review by Jason Lund (Anio)Books of monsters are often a matter of personal taste. We either like them or roll our eyes at "yet another monster book". I happen to like books full of monsters, especially monsters with flavour, style and solid mechanics. Every once in a while, I begin to think that it is getting more difficult to create truly unique monsters: then I remember books like the Monsternomicon by Privateer Press, Legacy of the Dragons by Malhavoc Press and Tome of Horrors by Necromancer Games, where even the derivatives feel new and fresh. Then I throw the notion of monster redundancy out the window. I read those books and try to recapture the feeling of childlike delight that I had when I first started paging through the boxed D&D Basic, Expert, Companion and Master sets all those years ago. Over the years I have become more demanding of books of monsters, expecting good art, flavourful descriptions, solid mechanics, combat tips and possibly even encounter hooks. Most of all, I look for that holy grail of RPG monsters: something truly unique and awe-inspiring, something that screams, "Use me!" right away.With this in mind, I have reviewed E.N. Critters Volume 2: Beyond the Campfire (ENCV2:BtC), written by Robert Lajoie, Chris Lapierre, Rich McCarthy, Bill Salloway, Nancy Vosnidou and Jim E. Vilandre. It is the second in a series of thematically directed monster books by E.N. Publishing. This PDF is priced at $7.45 for 52 pages (including 1 cover page, 1 table of contents and credits page, 1 OGL page, 4 pages of counters and 1 back cover page). It has a broad array of twenty-five creatures ranging from the CR 1/2 buridai to the CR 15 ettintaur, including two playable races, the qual aanan qualo, an anthropomorphic cat race, and the buridai, an anthropomorphic badger race. The editor has made good use of PDF technology and created hyperlinks from the table of contents to each of the monsters. With the exception of the blighter and a link to a table that does not exist (Creature by Environment), all monsters and features of the PDF are also fully bookmarked. A quick browse through the bookmarks reveals colour counters as well as lists of all creatures by CR, Type and Subtype at the end of the PDF.While reading the roughly page-long product description on page 3 of the PDF, I was drawn in by the practicality of the theme of this monster book: monsters likely to be encountered while a party is camping (as the name of this PDF suggests). It also outlines the intent of the product and briefly describes all of the monsters contained therein. ENCV2:BtC provides the following monsters :<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Aberration: Burrowing Mouther, Despicable Host, Insectus Overmind</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Construct: Nature’s Avatar, Woodland Defender</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">(Extraplanar): Nightshades (Nightflyer, Nightguard, Nighthound, Nightstalker), Unseen  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fey: Ignixie  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Humanoid: Buridai  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">(Incorporeal): Unseen  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magical Beast: Coldsnake, Fiend Cat, Owllion, Witchcat  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Monstrous Humanoid: Ettintaur, Qual Aanan Qualo  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ooze: Flashpoint Ooze  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Outsider: Unseen  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Plant: Creeping Moss, Pooter Bush  </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Undead: Bereft, Blighter, Nightshades (Nightflyer, Nightguard, Nighthound, Nightstalker), Owl Howler  </li> </ul>Each creature entry contains a description of combat tactics and ecology. Ecology also provides information relating to how it may be encountered. These creature hooks are important for a DM browsing through a supplement for a quick encounter or for creating a set piece and I particularly like this touch. Tables of suggestions for Knowledge checks are also included, as are notes on the theory behind the creation of the monsters. These are especially useful for DMs new to the DnD monster balancing act and give specific insight into design choices, something that I find particularly interesting. Boxed text is used for each creature description and is something that I can see making it easier for the DM, especially considering that each creature does not start on a new page. Given the ease of moving around within a PDF, I find it unusual that each creature description does not start on a new page. Otherwise, the layout is generally clear and makes good use of white space for legibility. Despite that, the top and bottom borders are dark and have red and yellow text in contrast. This is unlikely to be printer friendly and is not a screen friendly version of the PDF.ENCV2:BtC has a lot of hit-or-miss monsters, most of which (unfortunately) fall into the latter category. I like the concept of a few of the monsters and several more have interesting backgrounds, but only a few of the creatures are more than just reasonable. The bereft is the sorrow-filled, guilt-ridden undead husk of the creature left after a dryad's tree dies, a creature that refuses to accept that it has anything to do with the decay it spreads. The creeping moss is an ooze-like plant that releases spores to put its victims to sleep before dissolving them. The despicable host is an intelligent, land-based, octopus-like creature that lies in wait for its prey by hiding beneath the ground. The flashpoint ooze is a heat-seeking monster that devours campfires and bursts into flames after its fiery meals. I find all of these interesting.If those are the hits, then the misses are also there. The blighter is another undead grim-reaper look-alike. The qual aanan qualo are another cat race. The burrowing mouther seems too similar to a carrion crawler with teeth instead of tentacles. Despite the attempts to differentiate it from others of its ilk (including having it suck heat from its victims rather than just use cold - that ultimately has the same net effect), the coldsnake is far too plain and routine. Two undead owls is at least one undead owl too many. The owllion is like a griffon, but uses an owl instead of an eagle as its avian half, which is again derivative and unnecessary. The ettintaur: why? Savage Species has templates for that sort of combination. And last but not least, the pooter bush. I can appreciate the goal of mixing things up a little and throwing in something unexpected, but throwing in a CR 2 fart joke does not advance the hobby any.After reading through, I also checked the mechanics of the creatures and, while I did not go over every monster with a fine-toothed comb, I did find errors relating to AC, attacks, damage, Hit Dice and hit points.The artwork also does not thrill me. The front cover, while evocative of the theme, reminds me more of morning cartoons than RPG monsters. Unfortunately, the art does not appreciably improve throughout and some are far too derivative of existing works, very likely because some of the creatures are derivative as well (as mentioned above). The drawing of the owllion looks like a griffon with a broken beak, something that the editor makes a point of trying to explain as reasonable. The grim reaper look-alike, the blighter, wields a scythe and wears a hooded robe, despite being described in the text as being armed with an exotic looking scimitar. I did like the drawing of the despicable host because it depicted an evocative scene, despite it being slightly derivative of a picture of a dragon that I have seen before.If this had been a product like Hungry Little Monsters by Sean K Reynolds Games, a product designed with the intent of creating "..original monsters that aren’t too physically different from commonly-available monsters or monster counters”, I would have fewer issues with the artwork. The style of at least a few pieces of the art, particularly of the ignixie, the owl howler, the unseen and the woodland defender, reminded me of the Zogonia comic strip at the back of Dragon magazines, enough so that I actually checked to see if the same artist was a contributor to ENCV2:BtC. After finishing reading the PDF from cover to cover, I began to wonder if artists like Kev Crossley, Raven Mimura, Sam Wood and Tony DiTerlizzi had spoiled me in the past.SummaryE.N. Critters Volume 2: Beyond the Campfire is a really mixed bag. The many strengths of this product, including the full book marking, colour counters of all the monsters, lists of all the monsters by CR, Type and Subtype, knowledge tables with suggested information as well as a generally good spread of monsters over a wide CR range, were not enough to endear E.N. Critters Volume 2: Beyond the Campfire to me. The art was sub par and often derivative, there were more than a few holes in the mechanics and the content varied in quality from childish (the pooter bush) to the routine (coldsnake), but the main failing was that a majority of the creatures were derivatives of other "established" monsters. In a PDF this small with such a tightly focused and highly recognizable theme, monsters likely to be encountered while camping at night, I expected to be able to find inspiration for at least a dozen encounters. As is, I only liked four of the monsters. I sincerely wanted to like this monster book more than I did and always try to keep an open mind as to the usefulness of any particular monster. I sometimes come back to reread a monster description after several months, just to look upon it with fresh eyes. But my first instinct is usually one that I keep; unless someone inspires me with a truly innovative encounter when using a monster that I had previously found substandard or less than inspiring, I probably won't use that particular creature. Unfortunately, for the most part, that is the case with this product.While it does achieve its goal of creating creatures that are likely and possible to be met by a party camped out at night, and it is clear that the editors have the player and DM in mind with the overall layout and design of the PDF, the content is not inspiring enough for me to give more than 3 stars.Review by Jason Lund (Anio)</blockquote>

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