Creatures & Treasures II (1989) also has some very nice cover art, this time by legendary SFF illustrator Steve Hickman. I am amused by that helmet at the bottom, by the dragon’s tail – it is a pretty famous one in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (google Filippo Negroli helmet). I feel like plenty of other treasures in that horde look familiar to me, so I can’t help but wonder if they’re also museum pieces I’ve seen. Recognize any?

This book is interesting because, to my knowledge, it is the first RPG supplement designed by Monte Cook. I should have known he had his start working on Rolemaster – he’s kind of made a career out of complex but flexible systems that are jam-packed with ideas. This one feels like Monte Cook in the raw. Lots of weird and goofy monsters, lots of scaffolds of lore and interconnection, but all kind of rudimentary. A lot of this stuff feels young, if that makes sense? Any way, he designed a snake man whose hands are snake heads, which I feel like is right out of He-Man and if I ever meet him I kinda wanna thank him for that.

Lots of groovy James Holloway art. Dude knows how to make even the doofiest monsters look cool and threatening.