This is the first Ravenloft Appendix for the Monstrous Compendium (1991).

This is a little bit of a tough one for me because I want to like it more than I actually do. The majority of the monsters seem to be variants of existing (albeit less goth) monsters, or examples of different demi-humans as undead types. A lot of them are interesting, but seem difficult to use in play (I find it difficult to wrap my head around a lot of Ravenloft material in terms of getting it table-ready, honestly).

There is a lot to love here if you are into clear references to horror media: Doom guards (animated armor, basically), doppelganger plants (body snatchers), the stained-glass golem (Young Sherlock Holmes), the Grim Reaper (Castlevania), reavers (gillman). All drawn by the compendium tag team of Tom Baxa and Mark Nelson. They both revel in the icky details and seem to be enjoying themselves. I just think, utility-wise, I don’t get a lot out of this (or the second one either, honestly — that one is all NPC Dark Lords and such, which, again, fun to read, hard to use).

Easley’s cover really underscores my argument. I am pretty sure the fellow in the center is a werebat, but the cloaked figure and the specter could both be any one of several monsters inside. Still a nice cover, though.