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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 2732093" data-attributes="member: 8461">The Bestiary: Predators reviewThe Bestiary: Predators, is the debut publication of Betabunny Publishing. The book is only available through the EN Gamestore, where it can be purchased for download for $13.95. The zip file is just under 13 megabytes, and includes two PDF files. The first one is the book itself, which is about 12.5 meg; the second PDF is the covers of the various sections in full color, and is just under 1 meg. The Bestiary: Predators is unique among d20 monster books (and quite possibly among all RPG monster books) in that it only focuses on real-world animals. There are no made-up monsters here (the closest you’ll find are the cryptids, animals reported in reality, but never conclusively proven to exist). While buying a book about real animals as monsters may be off-putting to some people, it seems odd that books that focus on the most realistic guns or religious magic are points of acclaim, but real animals as monsters is not. It’s worth noting that all of the animals in this product are, as the title says, predators, animals that live solely on, or also eat, other animals.As a note, this review was done as part of the <a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=148294" target="_blank">PDF Review Project</a>.The main PDF file is enormous, topping out at exactly 250 pages, covering over two hundred animals, as well as having a hefty introduction and sections on new and revised rules for animals. The product is fully bookmarked, which takes the place of a table of contents. Most but not all of the animals have a black-and-white picture displaying them, and likewise most of those with feet have an imprint of what their tracks look like. All animals are displayed on size scales to show their size as compared to both humans and halflings.The large introduction sets the pace for the rest of the volume. It talks about the original Bestiary (the real book) and then begins talking about the format of the entries. All the animals have full d20 Fantasy statistics laid out, along with combat information, and information on their skills and abilities. It also gives their Latin name (genus and species), other names the animal is known by, the number of subspecies it has, climates and habitats (along with a chart cross-indexing the two), location, frequency (frequency here is given in both Modern and Fantasy terminologies, the Modern one being the same one used by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources), organization, description, length, tail, height, weight, lifespan, behavior, reproduction, treasure (for the animal alive, or parts of its carcass), food value, and other comments. Sidebars cover Modern conversions of Fantasy information, such as the monetary values for the animal. The Introduction finishes by mentioning taxonomy, cryptids, excerpts from Pliny the Elder’s medieval Bestiary, and the size comparisons.The next four major sections break down how the animals are presented, being Beasts, Birds, Fish, and Reptiles. Each section is broken down into various subsections for the groupings of related animals (e.g. Beasts has sections on Big Cats, Dogs, Primates, etc.). It's worth noting that there are irregular sidebars filled with everything from poetry about the various animals, to information on the various parts of the oceans where certain fish dwell.After all of the animals are covered, there is coverage given to additional rules information. Sections on skills and feats are given; the former gives several existing skills a mild overhaul to make them more useful (and useable) by the animals listed here. The feats section does the same thing to several of the feats listed, along with presenting some new, animal-specific feats. A following section on special abilities continues that trend, listing modified existing special abilities and several new ones. Finally, there’s a breakdown of all the parts of a d20 stat block again, reprinted apparently for convenience.The next section after that gives a further breakdown of the various climates and habitats, describing them in greater detail, though no game information is given. A background on historical bestiaries is then given, along with resources to find out more about animals. Finally, there’s an index of everything in the book given, a listing of animals by CR (most animals here are CR 4 or less, and none get to the double digits), and an alphabetical listing of the animals given. The very last page mentions that the company’s website has additional materials to supplement the book, as well.Looking back over the book, it’s quite obviously made more with Fantasy d20 in mind, though Modern d20 information should be extremely easy to adapt. Most subsections of animals are given a few paragraphs of quotes from Pliny the Elder’s medieval Bestiary, on the basis that characters in a fantasy setting wouldn’t necessarily have all the information we do here in the modern world. This is a fairly brilliant insight, and using historical information is a great way of handling it. It’s also worth noting (though it may be redundant to do so) that the book is also very educational, being packed with real information about the animals it covers. Learning actually can be fun, after all.Additionally, while the focus of this book is on animals as foes to fight, there are plenty of other uses here for clever DM. Any of these could be an animal companion, a wildshape, or used with the Lycanthrope template, for example. Likewise, most of these would make great familiars (though the familiar benefit would have to be made up by the DM).Altogether, this book is absolutely brilliant for both the insight and wealth of information it presents. It gives you more than enough information to not only run the listed animals as challenging encounters, but also provides ample reason to do so. Five out of five stars here, only because giving it seven out of five stars wasn’t an option. I highly recommend this book to any and all DM’s.</blockquote>

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