The second volume of creature reference manuals for the HackMaster 4th Edition RPG, continues your horrifying tour into the horrors and monstrosities that plague your campaign world.
The Hacklopedia of Beasts is an Encyclopedia series of monsters for Hackmaster. It is of course, GM-Eyes-Only material, but there's plenty of excellent illustrations for the players to be shown as they meet their doom!
This volume provides statistics, behavior information, and uses for beasts from Cats, Small, to Efreeti in alphabetical order.
The first seven pages are the typical Hackmaster disclaimer about roleplaying games, table of contents, and explanations of creature statistics. The major differences from Hacklopedias and prior monster books are that nearly every beast in Hackmaster has a twenty-hit point kicker to add to its 1d8 standard hit die and the Yield table. The Yield table says what the monster's corpse is good for, as well as what loot the monster might have accumulated.
Hacklopedia of beast volumes always focus on one creation type; this volume makes dragons the stars. 33 of the 128 pages are taken up by various races of dragons and background information on these beasts.
Cockatrices, Centaurs, Dwarves, and Doppelgangers are not slighted. In fact there's plenty of Dopple-critters here to keep you Hacking, and even ones that Kenzer and Company suggests would be perfect for simulating gazebos and davenports (the Knights of the Dinner Table have a strange predilection for attacking furniture and outdoor buildings).
The artwork is the typical black-and-white Hackmaster interiors showing a great deal of violence and dodging the naked creatures; thus the Dryad is cleverly clothed in the vital areas by artistry, yet the Dark Creeper is mighty scary as it slays a man lying on the ground, its jagged dagger dripping with blood. The full-color front cover continues the mural of Hacklopedia art where one player character dies per book. On this cover, the female elven wizardess meets here demise at the hands of a dragon with a greyish tint to its scales. The dragon's claws puncture her, sending spurts of blood everywhere. Elsewhere in the scene, a halfling thief stabs the dragon, drawing blood; this was a clear indicator when the module was released that the halfling had to die. In the background, the half-ogre pack carrier drops his machete; this botch led most Hackmasters to presume he'd be the next to die. The back cover has an excellent full-color illustration of the Corpse Crab with summarized statistics.
The internal text contents of this volume of the Hacklopedia of Beasts are likewise excellent. Besides a long description of dragons that brings up many KODT jokes (like the dragon's length times it teeth equal its hit points) and attempts to give the monsters interesting motivations in the culture section, the text gives you the specifics you need on the species to start playing it. If you have the Monster Matrix or want to make an individualized monster, these give you the framework you need (except Dragon statistics-Gary Jackson would strike you down for blasphhemy). As always, the tables are well-laid out and easy to read, especially the yield.
Dragons are tough in Hackmaster; revealing more would violate a GM oath but I'll just say that anyone thinking of taking on a dragon had better put a lot of planning and money into the expedition. Of course, even though dragons in Hackmaster are smart enough to invest, they still have piles of treasure since they like to sleep on coins.
You'll find other interesting tidbits on Dopplegangers and other fascinating beasts with a quick read.
This is one of my two favorite Hacklopedias, with Hacklopedia V: Meenlock to Nefarion, Other: Soul Larva, running a close second since it has all the demons and devils. I just like dragons better and the Hackmaster dragons are good challenges.
Overall, this is a 5-star product and worth adding to your Hackmaster collection, or taking to find nasty dragons to beat the PCs up with.
