On: Monster Books

I love a good Bestiary (hell I even love mediocre ones) and not just because they give me a whole new group of things to kill players with (that's just one of the reasons).

I love monster books because it lets you begin to watch a world be built. Before the required several hundred page hardback or box set campaign setting became the normal, all you had were the rule book, various adventures, and the monster book. Much like elements of a rule system does, the monster book tied into a set of rules begins to flesh out the world. Certain monsters exist in certain places and tend to do certain things. Each monster gives you a glimpse at the greater whole as the names of different planes are mentioned, things being made as magical hybrids are called, the mention of certain dark gods that a creature is mentioned as to worshiping. You suddenly see a world coming together.

The 2nd Edition AD&D monster compendium books/folios/3-hole punched sheets were some of my favorites. They went beyond stats and a paragraph, here the idea of monsters fitting in the world peaked (in my opinion anyway). Monsters received notes on ecology, habitat, society if intelligent, there place in the world, I used to read them constantly, even when not running a 2nd edition game (an indeed, my stint as a DM of 2nd Ed. AD&D was quite short lived).

As a world builder, the most fun I have with monsters is figuring out the how's and why's of their existence. Using the 2nd Ed. Compendiums as an example, I love to figure out what a monster does when it's not waiting to be killed, where it came from, and why it chooses to do anything. Especially with our design philosophy of having things "make sense," you can't just drop a giant brain with lion legs into the world unless you figure out what niche that creature occupies.

While Sean and I were going through a variety of species to determine which ones wouldn't kill the humans on sight, we came up with some very cool ideas for many of the "monstrous" species. And while we'll continue to be making Deminar one sandbox at a time (and probably each will be wrapped up in a pretty .pdf when done), the idea of a good old fashioned bestiary will always be in the back of my mind.