By Glenn Dean, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack
Sizing up the Target
The Slayer’s Guide to Kraken is a 32-page PDF supplement written by Andrew Boswell and published by Mongoose Publishing. Part of Mongoose’s Slayer’s series, this supplement is available as a $5 download.
First Blood
The Slayer’s Guide to Kraken is another installment in Mongoose Publishing’s Slayer’s Guide series that takes an in-depth look at one of the d20 game’s classic monsters. This time, the target is the “false god of the deep” – the giant, squid-like kraken, powerful and intelligent creatures from the elemental plane of water, around whom entire campaigns can be based.
Like the other books in this series, Kraken takes an in-depth examination of the physiology, habitat, society, and psychology of the monster it covers. Kraken is particularly interesting in that it applies quite a bit of real-world science and oceanography to kraken physiology and habitat, examining everything from the giant squid-creature’s chromatophores to the various ecologies found in the deep oceans, and the krakens role in each – all the way to the creature’s lair deep under the sea. A number of magical uses are suggested for kraken ink and body parts, and new rules items include a new magic item, a kraken combat feat (Whirlpool), and a critical hit system for use in fighting krakens. This system is useful in determining the effects of cut off tentacles, though somewhat odd in that essentially a ten-hit-point-damage critical will cause the creature to flee – is this the behavior of a god of the deep?
Kraken society is a bit more fascinating. These creatures are spawned by The Kraken, a quasi-deity that wanders the elemental plane of water, loosing its avatars who become swept through planar gates to the material world, where they manifest themselves as the kraken we know. These creatures each believe themselves to be a deity, and all others like them to be imposters, leading to a solitary “society” (though there is an explanation of how krakens get around this psychological restraint to reproduce, and The Kraken even has “Birth” as a new domain). The roleplaying section of the book provides hints to roleplaying kraken that could almost be described as “how to role play a god complex”, which can make for quite a bit of fun for the Games Master. Two prestige classes are introduced to flesh out kraken society: one is a divine class for krakens (odd, if they consider themselves gods …); the other a class for creatures who worship kraken.
Roughly the last third of the supplement is devoted to scenarios, plot hooks, and ideas to enable the Games Master to use the kraken in the campaign. The scenarios include a religious war, shipboard guard duty, and a storyline that could be compared to an aquatic version of King Kong. Of greater utility is the fully-developed trading island of Antangil, a society founded on a powerful navy and trading fleet that is secretly controlled by a cult of kraken-worshippers, led by a lich high priest and kraken-god itself. The island includes full demographics, economic information, army and navy statistics, and links with Mongoose’s Seas of Blood supplement to form the basis for what could be an entire campaign.
An appendix contains statistics for a typical kraken, characters with kraken prestige classes, and the half-kraken template.
Critical Hits
If you’re considering running a maritime campaign, you’ll probably find Krakens useful as seed material. There are a host of campaign-level ideas found within the book, and Antangil would provide a wonderful place to kick off an oceanic campaign that has a number of hidden secrets and extremely powerful, monstrous villains in the background. Also, if you’ve been dying to run a monster-movie type adventure with an aquatic twist, Krakens will provide that flavor for you.
Critical Misses
Mongoose made the right decision in releasing The Slayer’s Guide to Kraken as a PDF product. While it is a solidly constructed product, it isn’t particularly exciting, and presents an extremely specialized niche monster. While one finds hobgoblins and dragons in many campaigns, there are few that feature the kraken. Were this a print product, I’d advise most gamers to pass – as a PDF, it’s worth the money if you’re looking to feature krakens in your campaign, or want to run a maritime campaign. Otherwise, it’s still almost too focused a product, and the minimal amount of new material gives little to port into a campaign without the monster itself.
Coup de Grace
The Slayer’s Guide to Kraken provides all of its game mechanics – what little there is – as open content. The mechanics are solid, but this highly unique monster is not likely to find itself employed in a wide range of campaigns. Games Masters are likely to be the only purchasers; and though it’s a better deal as a PDF, it’s still a product that I’d purchase only if I intended specifically to use it – it lacks a strong shelf value and applicability to a general campaign.
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