RPGPundit Reviews: Alpha Omega The Encountered (Vol. 1)

This is a review of the print edition of the Alpha Omega sourcebook "The Encountered (Volume 1)".  It is a hardcover book, and DAMN is it beautiful.
I mean literally, aesthetically beautiful. Like the main RPG manual for this game, the Encountered has production values up the wazoo. Its a hardcover, in a weird kind of coffee-table format (short and long), and has full-colour glossy interior, with truly amazing art. If you want to see some very high-quality art of weird monsters, then this would be the book for you.

Otherwise, obviously, this book would only make much sense for you if you already own and enjoy Alpha Omega, and RPG I previously gave a mixed review to. I mean, you might be looking at getting this book just for some new monster ideas, in which case I'd say that you'd only really want this book if you're looking for ideas for your Shadowrun, RIFTS or maybe Gamma World campaign; but otherwise you're pretty much an Alpha Omega player if you're thinking about getting this book.  For the review of the main Alpha-Omega book, I refer you to theRPGsite (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=13497); and for those too lazy to get a full spectrum of the good and bad of the review, I'll just tell you it garnered a 7/10 and this quote: "imagine if Shadowrun had gone and gotten herself drunk one night, met RIFTS at a party, and got herself knocked up. Then her baby was kidnapped by a cult of insane kabbalistic metaphysicians and transhumanists, pumped full of steroids, and raised to kill. That kid would be Alpha Omega."

Anyways, back to The Encountered. Did I mention the art is amazing? Its really astounding on that level.  Format-wise, it has 200 individual creatures, each fully detailed and illustrated, divided into various groupings: you have your Freaks of Nature, Tech Fiends, Spiritual Creatures, Abominations, and Demons. You also have a section on Factions, which details a few different groups like a massive army of hostile AIs, a slowly spreading group of insect-like creatures (RIFTS' Xiticix?), a Legion of demons, a force of biologically-enhanced bioterrorists, and a group of evil worms out to enslave humanity.
The book also has a section called Creature Discovery, which provides some detailed guidelines for an Alpha Omega GM to create his own creatures, and a section on managing encounters.

The monster entries are all presented with the full stats for the creature, a description, notes on its behaviour, details on its attacks and special abilities, and an image of the creature (usually a high-quality image of the creature in the process of murdering some hapless PC-like figure).  And again, the monsters are all suitable to fantasy-cyberpunk or post-apocalyptic type genre (so again, Shadowrun players might find it useful, given that its clearly the main influence on Alpha Omega's inspiration).  Nothing makes you think Shadowrun quite as much as the fact that the very first monster listed is the "Arcology Rat". Monsters are listed by their "real" name, but popular nicknames are also listed for many monsters. For example, the creature known as the Sleech is also colloquially known as the "Poop Slug". There are a few monsters in this book that you will find familiar, you'll read and say "oh, that's a stirge"; but the majority of them are fairly new and original, and some fairly good at being terrifying in that abominable sense.

Freaks of Nature are monsters generally found in the wild, though "wild" can be defined as sewers or ruins; the aforementioned Arcology Rat and Poop Slug are two examples. Tech fiends are monstrosities that are either A.I. or cybernetic creations (so you don't just get some good monster-illustrations in this book, but also some fairly awesome robot-illustrations).
Spiritual Creatures are creations of spiritual energy, many of them discarnate entities, culminating in two creatures that are the ultimate expressions of pure Alpha (positive) and Omega (negative) energy.
Abominations are kind of like Freaks of Nature but less natural, monstrosities of different sorts. Your classic Shambling Zombie appears in this section, for example, as do the Degenerates, which are more your "28 Days Later" fast-zombie. In fact, you have a lot of other zombies in this section. But you also have fairly original creatures like the Grey Men, genetically designed to blend into crowds and public places. Or the Octowhal, a freakish amalgam of human, octopus and rhinoceros.
Demons are, well, demons. They're very well done, though. Artistically speaking, the only RPG book where I can recall seeing demons done better is in the WFRP Tome of Corruption. So that's pretty high praise.

In general, if you're an Alpha Omega player, I'd say this book is nearly as essential to you as the Monster Manual would be to a D&D player; which is to say you can just maybe get away with not having it, but you really ought to have it.

There's not much else to say about that.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Poker + H&H's Beverwyck