It threads a challenging needle. For a combat-oriented game like D&D, most monsters need only to be some combination of cool and scary. For Land of Eem, where combat is probably the least effective way to deal with monsters, they need to strike a balance between cool, scary, interesting, silly and so on. Sometimes, a monster winds up being too eye-roll inducing (the Humongoose is just…too much goose for me), but for the most part, the collection of monsters provides a wide range of experiences for players.

Particularly helpful is the mix of advice that isn’t normally present in a monster book. First is vulnerabilities, which offer players paths to parlay and also ways to make combat decisive (I don’t think I mention that rather than physical damage, combat inflicts Dread, which eventually makes opponents give up). So, the humanoid crabs known as Krabrak’s like shiny objects, which they’ll trade for; and the mancatcher weapon inflicts extra dread (probably because it is so similar to the nutcrackers that accompany crabs to the table at restaurants). The Social section is reserved for sentient creatures and provides further information on how they interact and how to deal with them peaceably. Finally, the Defeat and Victory sections explain what they do to vanquished foes and how they act when defeated. Altogether, this gives the GM (and the players) a heap of information on how to deal with monsters that isn’t just running at the party with their claws out.

The art throughout is fun and cartoonish. Which is not to say that none of the monsters seem dangerous. Plenty do! I don’t want to meet a Darkling or run into a Gwarglebeast! It’s interesting too how this friendly art style hides some very real dangers. I wonder how a party wipe feels in Eem?

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Cover is by Johan Egerkrans, but the interiors are by David Brasgalla. I don’t really know his work, and can’t find much else in the RPG space, but he’s an excellent pick. I don’t know if it is his natural style or if it is the result of the art direction, but he compliments Egerkrans’ work very nicely in terms of approach and palette. The contrast lies in compositional elements; Brasgalla favors soft curves and rounded surfaces, while Egerkrans tends toward the flatter and angular. See that angular bend in the cover lindwyrm? I don’t think there is so sharp an angle in Brasgalla’s entire portfolio inside the book. But otherwise, the color range and the atmosphere is very similar. I can easily “see” Brasgalla’s interpretation of the same scene.

Anyway, a fairly standard assortment of fantasy, folkloric and mythological monsters. The manticore has wings (booooo!) but the chimera does not (yaaay!). The range of dragons is determined by age, and then the addition of the lindworm. There is enough of a language around most of these monsters that they are either like favorite sweaters or subtly subverted enough to be a new kind of delight (the giant amoeba, the monstrous boar that is the Calydon). There is only one new-to-me, genuinely bizarre monster: the karkion, a humanoid cat. I am guessing, like ducks, they have a longer history in Drakar och Demoner than I am aware of?

Each monster is accompanied by a suggestion on how to run a random encounter with them, and a more elaborate adventure seed. It isn’t as elaborate as the sort of table support you get in Monster Overhaul, but it’s in the same family tree, and I like it.

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The monster selection is weird and dynamic (and maybe feels more so thanks to Sienkiewicz). I particularly like the variety of devils and demons, but there are lots of other critters to love, too. Sienkiewicz does particularly well with dragons, I think. Honestly, just go buy a copy, you’ll thank me for it.

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Well, complain no more – the Glorantha Bestiary’s got you covered. Within, you have all you need to know to created elf, dwarf, troll, duck and other non-human PCs (which, honestly, I don’t see why you’d want to create anything other than a duck or a troll – the others are a bit too alien for my tastes for PCs). More importantly, though, it has all the monsters.

I love Glorantha’s selection of monsters. Many of them are super weird (Walktapus! Jackobears!), but they all feel like they have a place in the larger mythological ecosystem. Even conventional monsters seem fresh and exciting (see that Babylonian gargoyle). And there is something about the bronze age trappings of the world that makes things like giant bugs and dinosaurs super compelling (compared to D&D, where they get outshined by more exotic critters).

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