I'm in the market for a good monster book (or two). What's good and why?
Swords & Wizardry Monster Book (http://www.lulu.com/shop/matthew-finch/swords-wizardry-monster-book-softcover/paperback/product-4856667.html)
One of the best. Huge selection of monsters (including plenty of originals), conversion notes (mostly around AC)...what else could you ask for? Ok, maybe illustrations. The art is very thin. But still, the softcover is cheap as chips on Lulu. The book is broadly compatible with any old-school RPG based on the original - blah, blah, blah.
The Basic Fantasy Field Guide is really really good. £2.75 for the print copy off amazon was probably the best value £2.75 I ever spent. :D
(http://basicfantasy.org/images/Field-Guide-by-Will-Tijerina.jpg)
It has some conversions of AD&D MM2 stuff to BFRPG power levels, these are very well done, but also tons of new critters.
Edit: Here it is - http://basicfantasy.org/download.cgi/Basic-Fantasy-Field-Guide-r22-bookmarked.pdf
Monsters of Myth is hosted on Knights and Knaves. It is all new monsters - no repeats of monsters you already have.
The PDF is free, the soft copy is on Lulu, and the hardback is bound really well, and available from Black Blade publishing.
I've found most of them to be kinda hit and miss, mostly miss, with maybe only 30% stuff I'd want to use.
But I'd suggest Creature Compendium
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/147588/CC1-Creature-Compendium
200 new monsters, $2 in PDF. Mix of folklore and new stuff. Lots of illustrations from the author of decent quality.
Teriatic Tome
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/110459/Teratic-Tome
Most of them monsters are the same thing over and over (tentacle monster) but some are pretty nice and lots of high quality original illustrations. $6.66 for the PDF
Tome of Twisted Terrors
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/131922/Treatise-of-Twisted-Terrors
70 new monsters, mostly taken from folklore. Illustrated with PD art. $2 in PDF
And you can get the S&W Monsters from the S&W SRD site
http://www.d20swsrd.com/swords-and-wizardry-srd/for-the-referee/monsters
Also has about 60% of the Tome of Horror monsters (I think he stopped adding them at R?).
Here's a spreadsheet I maintain of all the open-source old school monsters (with statblocks) that I could find for OSRIC. The second worksheet includes a bibliography of all the sources I used including links to where you can purchase or download the actual books themselves.
OSRIC Monster List.pdf (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8l15nXmXT3BazRiRWpqY0d1V0U/view?usp=sharing)
I'm currently reading through Fire On The Velvet Horizon (http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/scrap-princess-and-patrick-stuart/fire-on-the-velvet-horizon/paperback/product-22094199.html) which is a new book of about 100 monsters by Patrick Stuart and Scrap Princess. It's pretty damn amazing... at least for the sort of monsters I enjoy.
It's rules agnostic and few of the creatures are the sort of thing you just meet in a dark tunnel, hack to death and steal their treasure. Each one takes up a page and has the potential to be the center of an entire adventure/campaign.
Like, the very first creature in the book...
It does not make direct attacks and can't be taken out by them... it's a creature of absolute law and hate that situates itself in an area and will use the rules and regulations of that place to take out everyone it can using the legal system. Attacking it would be bad manners... so you can't, because in its presence all social laws/manners become physical laws.
In order to defeat it you would either have to create an atmosphere of total chaos, dismantle any existing civilization... OR... somehow frame the creature for a capital offense and it would then be obligated by its nature to obey the sentence.
Most all the ones I've read so far have been mind-benders... which means I'd probably be inclined to use them sparingly, these are the sorts of critters you'd randomly sprinkle around in a dungeon.
The caveat is that the book is full color and priced accordingly... each page is a hand-crafted piece of art that reads like a crazed ransom note from a madman. There are no nods to the usual accessible sort of layout we get in most RPG supplements. Reading the thing is an experience unto itself... including the small type that flows deep into the center of the book.
As it is, even if I weren't into RPGs I'd love this book as a work of horror fiction/illustration.
The Random Esoteric Creature Generator For Classic Fantasy Role Playing Games And Their Modern Simulacra
(http://www.goodman-games.com/4375preview.html) by James Raggi is easily my favorite OSR monster book.
Quote from: JeremyR;829111But I'd suggest Creature Compendium
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/147588/CC1-Creature-Compendium
200 new monsters, $2 in PDF. Mix of folklore and new stuff. Lots of illustrations from the author of decent quality.
Everything that guy does is worth buying. Met him at NTRPGCon last year, seems like a nice guy who just really enjoys making rpg products.
The most comprehensive OSR monster book I've seen is probably the Bestiary for Adventures Dark and Deep (http://www.rpgnow.com/product/119507/Adventures-Dark-and-Deep-Bestiary?manufacturers_id=3728). Won't say it's the best but Jesus...pretty much everything I could think of is inside.
Quote from: S'mon;829058The Basic Fantasy Field Guide is really really good. £2.75 for the print copy off amazon was probably the best value £2.75 I ever spent. :D
(http://basicfantasy.org/images/Field-Guide-by-Will-Tijerina.jpg)
It has some conversions of AD&D MM2 stuff to BFRPG power levels, these are very well done, but also tons of new critters.
Edit: Here it is - http://basicfantasy.org/download.cgi/Basic-Fantasy-Field-Guide-r22-bookmarked.pdf
I hear the guy who did that cover is just an all around great guy!
That's a lot of stuff! This isn't going to cost me as much as I assumed either. Looks like I was right to start this thread before dropping $50 on Tome of Horrors 4.
Threw the S&W one into my Lulu cart, picked up Creature Compendium, and I will sort through the other stuff in the coming days. Thanks for the replies folks.