BASIC CREATURES - Classic Creatures & Critters for the BRP System

[Trifletraxor]

Basic Creatures presents an assortment of creatures useful to players of Basic Roleplaying. These critters are drawn from a variety of eras and genres of fantasy and fiction, including: Allosaurus, Baboon, Bandersnatch, Basikisk, Bear, Behemoth, Brontosaur, Centaur, Crocodile, Duck, Dwarf, Elemental, Elf, Ghost, Giant, Gorgon, Griffin, Halfling, Harpy, Headhanger, Horse, Insect Swarm, Lion, Lizard, Manticore, Minotaur, Mummy, Nymph. Octopus, Ogre, Orc, Plesiosaur, Satyr, Sea Serpent, Skeleton, Spirit, Tiger, Troll, Unicorn, Vampire, Werewolf, Whale, Wolf, Wraith, Wyrm, Wyvern, and Zombie.

By Sandy Petersen and Steve Perrin. 52 pages. Published by Chaosium April 2009.

(Note: Basic Creatures is basically a reprint of the creature chapter from RuneQuest 3 with the references to Glorantha removed).

Edited September 30, 2011 by Trifletraxor

[Trifletraxor]

One of the monographs I don't have (as I allready have 2 copies of the RQ3 rulebook). One question though, is the artwork included? Or is it text only?

SGL.

[Mandubiens]

Text only

[Bygoneyrs]

Hey it is a great book and I have it as well too<g>! I must to have for all.

Penn

[Trifletraxor]

Hey it is a great book and I have it as well too<g>! I must to have for all.

Penn

Are you talking about RQ3 or Basic Creatures?

SGL.

[Bygoneyrs]

Basic Creatures....I have never really liked RQ very much but then I have not seen or looked at it since the 1st edition RQ either.

Penn

[seneschal]

I'm glad I got Basic Creatures; it does give you a good starting menagerie. But I really wish Chaosium's editors put more effort into these monographs. With a little TLC, they could have put some professional sparkle into Basic Creatures. As it is, the book is clearly a dumping ground for critter stats somebody had handy. I think they even repeat some creatures. I'm not asking for color art by Steve Ditko or anything. Just some Basic Proofreading.

[Trifletraxor]

Yup, couldn't agree more. They allready had great art and layout from RQ Deluxe Edition, but appearantly wasn't willing to pay for new use of the art.

SGL.

[seneschal]

I'm not even taking art into consideration here. I'm talking about consistency in font size, type, and style; general proofreading against repeats, typos, and other obvious goofs. I mean if you're going to put the company name on it as well as your shiny new BRP branding, getting it right should be a matter of professional pride. I'd hope the official folks would give submitted monographs a good twice-over on general principles. After all, it's hard for even the most diligent author to spot his own mistakes.

I want Chaosium and BRP to succeed. Therefore, I want the company to put out the best product possible. Since monographs appear to be the main outlet for free-lance contributions, they really need a higher level of editorial care. No art or fancy layout? Fine. But catch and fix misspellings, correctly spelled but wrongly used words, incorrect punctuation. Smooth out awkward or incorrect phrasing. Fix run-on sentences. If a product gets published that reads like my 4th grader wrote it, customers are more likely to blame Chaosium than the author, even with the "minimal editing" disclaimer on the cover.

Edited March 30, 2010 by seneschal
additional thought

[windmark8040]

I have a question: In the creatures description, there is a Hit Location column, d20 column, and a Points column. I am guessing that the Points column refers to the amount of Hit Points that each body area has. I am confused with the format given. And, unless someone can point me in the right direction, I didn't see any explaination in the text.

For example: 0/14 Points means what?

[rust]

For example: 0/14 Points means what?

This is probably a Runequest format, AP (Armour Points) / HP (Hit Points).

[threedeesix]

It means 0 armor and 14 hit points.

Oops, sorry rust. That will teach me to leave the page open for a half hour without hitting "refresh".

Rod

[windmark8040]

Wow, that's at least the second time that I have been nipped by the 'see RQ' format creature that keeps creeping up in my BRP stuff!

Thanks for the reply!

[Trifletraxor]

I have a question: In the creatures description, there is a Hit Location column, d20 column, and a Points column. I am guessing that the Points column refers to the amount of Hit Points that each body area has. I am confused with the format given. And, unless someone can point me in the right direction, I didn't see any explaination in the text.

For example: 0/14 Points means what?

0/14 means 0 AP and 14 HP. The hit points given are for average speciments of that race. I can remember I struggled with this in Apple Lane, my first RQ scenario back in the old days.

SGL.

EDIT: Oh, I'm late.... Well, you can't really get a good answer too many times, can you?

Edited May 8, 2010 by Trifletraxor

[Son_of_Smaug]

This monograph only comes in at 52 pages? This seems a little sparse. Doesn't Chaosium have something more like the Tome of Horrors? I need a bestiary and was wondering what else was available. Any info. would be helpful.

[dragonewt]

Any info. would be helpful.

Maybe this: BaSIC-Bestiary.

Although it seems to be a collection consisting of just slightly more than the fundamentals.

[threedeesix]

Maybe this: BaSIC-Bestiary.

Although it seems to be a collection consisting of just slightly more than the fundamentals.

This is awesome, thanks for bringing it to my attention. There are lots of mundane critters in there that I didn't have stats for... and dinosaurs. I loves me my dinosaurs.

[NickMiddleton]

This monograph only comes in at 52 pages? This seems a little sparse. Doesn't Chaosium have something more like the Tome of Horrors? I need a bestiary and was wondering what else was available. Any info. would be helpful.

Bear in mind that the BASIC Creatures monograph contains no illustrations and is a monograph. The Call of Cthulhu sourcebook Malleus Monstrorum (also available in PDF format is entirely numbers compatible with BRP and whilst the contents is obviously intended for CoC it can easily be adapted for other genres / styles.

If you don't already have the BASIC Creatures monograph in some form it is well worth getting as primarily fantasy bestiary IMO, especially as its only $11.95 (and the PDF is only $8.95).

Cheers,

Nick

[Son_of_Smaug]

Thanks for the responses. I wasn't aware that the monograph didn't have any illustrations, but that makes sense considering the page count. I'll check it out and this Malleus Monstrorum. Sounds like this book is the single bestiary go-to book for CoC.

Hmm,...maybe I could integrate some of the Great Old Ones into my fantasy campaign. Time to read the sanity rules from BRP this weekend.

Thanks again,

Son_of_Smaug

[JarrethSynn]

This is another monograph I really love and am thankful for. I wish this would be continued to be created like a Basic Monster Manual if you will. I'd even pick it up it they came out with a line like Basic Sci-Fi Creatures, Basic Villains, etc etc. Anyway, it has been a welcome addition to the shelves.

[dragonewt]

I'd even pick it up it they came out with a line like Basic Sci-Fi Creatures, Basic Villains, etc etc. Anyway, it has been a welcome addition to the shelves.

I am considering doing something like this.

Edit: My plan to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads unfolds...

Edited July 7, 2010 by dragonewt

[Chorpa]

Could anyone explain the difference in the move scores. The critters in Basic Creatures seem to have way different move scores than they should have according to the BRP book. I assume this is something that remains from the RQ days, but since I don't have any RQ books it is an issue for me. From what I can see the Move scores are about 1/5 to 1/2 of what it should be in BRP.

[MrJealousy]

From what I can see the Move scores are about 1/5 to 1/2 of what it should be in BRP.

Oh, I'm afraid its no where near that simple! Old RQ assumed a human could move 30 meters in a combat round, or 3 meters per strike rank, and human MOV was recorded as '3'. In BRP humans have a MOV of '10' and can move 10 meters in a combat round at a walk, a run could be as much as 50 meters in a combat round. But the AVERAGE movement speed is assumed to be 30, or 3 meters per strike rank.

So, I believe, after all that, the result is, they are about the same... just expressed differently... so times RQ MOV by 3 then divide by 10 to get BRP MOV?

Edited January 28, 2011 by MrJealousy

[Chorpa]

Ahh! So the move is basicly meters per SR.

That makes sense since the BRP book actually lists that humans can move 3 meters per strike rank which is the same MOV humans have in Basic Creatures.

[Agentorange]

The basic series of monographs were very sloppily edited...if indeed they were edited at all. Creatures also has the old RQ ratios for HP distribution for head, chest limbs etc etc. Ok it only makes for 1 or 2 HP difference but it's still annoying, and in my opinion very lazy.