Creatures Codex Volume I

Roleplaying and board games reviews, podcasts, videos and interviews

PZOPDFDMP001E_500[1]By Thilo Graf

The first publication by Demiurge Press is a nifty 10 page pdf, full-color monster book: 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial and ToC, 1 page SRD. That leaves us with 7 pages of monsters.

The first is the classic Dweller in Darkness (Mi-Go) CR 2 – Nice take on the Mi-Go, although I prefer the KQ-version from the phantom fungus article, if only because I like my Lovecraftian critters stronger than CR 2. Other than that – Nice work!

After that, we get 1 page with a beautiful artwork of the next creature, the CR 8 Mi-Go Guardian as well as stats for two iconic Mi-Go devices, the mist projector and the brain canister. The stats of the Guardian take up another page – I like the take on it.

Then, we get the CR 4 Fetch with a corresponding artwork. This creature felt rather uninspired when compared to the rest, albeit the note on fetch-shields was a nice touch.

Untitled-1After that, we a creepy picture as well as the statblock of the CR3-Knocker – creepy, cool and has a nice little special ability.

The CR6-Nightgaunt that follows up is another nice addition to one’s bestiary, albeit it somehow lacks a certain je-ne-sais-quoi of alienness in its abilities.

The final creature is the CR4-Twilight Unicon, probably the least favorite creature I have read in this book, as the evil unicorn has been done numerous times and I was missing a paragraph on what to do with e.g. the horn of the creature.

Conclusion:

It’s very hard to beat free stuff, especially if it is presented in such a professional way. The artwork by Heather Frazier is beautiful and especially the Knockers and the Mi-Go-Guardian are awesome pieces. The presentation, formatting and editing of the little book are great and I look forward to seeing follow-ups. For now, I’ll settle with 4.5 stars, rounded down, mainly because I was really missing some unique signature abilities on the monster’s side…apart from the Mi-Go-Guardian, that is. I love it. Congratulations to Nick Herold – I’m hoping to see more horror/gritty books for PFRPG soon.

 

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