Terrors of the Twisted Earth does its job but little more. By this I mean that it’s a perfectly suitable monster collection for the Darwin’s World setting but doesn’t make that extra effort to be useable by any setting or come up to the standards several recent monster books have established.
What do I mean? Well, the book is broken up into three chapters, an introduction, the mutant creatures, and NPC statistics. Notice anything missing? How about a section on using this with other settings? Yeah, that would’ve been cool. Something like “Fantasy”, “Modern”, “Cyber”, etc… would’ve gone a long way in adding some extra usefulness to this product. For example, since this is a Darwin’s World book, no effort is really made to use spells or spell resistance.
In addition, those standards I mentioned earlier? They usually include doing a little something for those races which are suitable for player use like providing the racial stats, not just, ELC x and Favored Class Y. A minor problem also pops up with the breakdown of creatures by challenge rating. See, the thing is, there’s no page number.
Outside of those complaints, the book is great for those looking for something extra to throw into their campaign. Take for example the Fraxx Steed. Not a powerful creature at a CR of 1, but an excellent method of giving a unique race it’s own unique mount. These strange ostrich looking creatures are just creepy enough to make players go, “Whoa.”
There are other times though when you’re not trying to capture any mood outside of horror or challenge any but the strongest heroes. That’s when you throw the mutagon at ‘em. This dinosaur like reptile is an impressive CR of 16 that not only has a breath of fire, but also can swallow its opponents whole. Not quite as impressive, the terrolops, a mix of different insects, is a worthy CR of 10 with the dreaded rend ability due to its devastating claw attacks. Of course some players are going to be boasting of their near epic levels and that’s when you throw the Death Sentinel at them. This CR 21 beast, while looking something like a jellyfish, is made up of numerous symbiotic creatures and has enough attacks to take down even the most robust warrior with its tentacles and maws. Throw in the fact that it stuns its victims with its tentacles and well, you’re health insurance better be paid up.
The one area that the book fails in is templates. You’d figure with so much radiation there’s be a special do it yourself template or series of tables, like that found in one of Mystic Eye’s Hunt modules, that would allow you to generate dozens of suitable mutations but nope, that’s not in here.
The monsters are all listed in alphabetical order with standard monster blocks followed by background information and a section on combat. Off to the side is Bixby’s notes, the ‘author’ of this tome. Most monsters are exactly one page long with a few having some overlap. Unfortunately, due to the spacing of the notes and illustrations, the text density is only fair. The borders are also illustrated with some scenes of the post-apocalyptic setting and are surprising good but occasionally poke into the main body.
Most of the art is good. V. Shane, Tony Parker and Storn A. Cook did some great work here. Not all of it equal but most of it at or above industry standards. Strangely enough, I feel that most of the interior is better than the front cover. I also think that the back cover, with the creatures no in black and white, is better than the same illustrations on the inside that are black and white.
In my mind, because this is a monster book, it’s really an all-purpose book. It’s not like a book of technology, characters or locations for Darwin’s world, it’s a monster book that could be suitable for all settings. In that regard, it falls slightly short, earning the three star rating. If they can kick up the art just a slight notch and improve the layout just a notch with some all-purpose notes, this is a solid 4. As it is, the monsters make a worthy addition to any campaign and for the Darwin’s World setting, the extra NPC stats from 1st-20th level make this a 4 star product and one that no GM should be without.
