7th Ed Malleus Monstrorum now out in PDF

[MOB]

Here, shall you know the terrors of the void, the nightmare bringers, and the unspeakable lurkers...

THE MALLEUS MONSTRORUM - Cthulhu Mythos Bestiary is out now in PDF!

A cavalcade of monsters and god-like alien intelligences beyond human understanding, all vividly detailed and portrayed. With over 250 entries to inspire countless adventures.

Buy the PDF now from Chaosium.com, and you get the full price of the PDF off the cost of the 2 volume hardcover slipcase set, due out in October.

https://www.chaosium.com/malleus-monstrorum-cthulhu-mythos-bestiary-pdf

 

[Dethstrok9]

Woohoo, you made it! Outstanding job:)

[trystero]

Love, love, love this book. Beautiful art; I'm very much looking forward to the hardcover edition. Thanks to all of the fine folks who revised this and put it together.

I do have one question; what's become of the gugs? As Lovecraft's own creations, they surely should have a place in the complete Mythos bestiary.

And based on my initial glance, I'll offer two suggested corrections to the back-cover copy which I hope can be made before going to print, posted here since the errata thread doesn't exist yet:

1. Volume I: There should be no comma after "Here" in "Here shall you know the terrors of the void, the nightmare bringers, and the creeping unspeakable lurkers."
2. Volume II: There should be no hyphen in "painstaking", since it's not broken over two lines; if it does need hyphenation at a line break, it's pains·tak·ing, not pain·stak·ing. (Taking pains, not staking pain.)

[MandilarasM]

1 hour ago, trystero said:

I do have one question; what's become of the gugs? As Lovecraft's own creations, they surely should have a place in the complete Mythos bestiary.

Indeed two gorgeously looking tomes! As for the gugs, I think I've read or heard somewhere that there won't be any Dreamlands creatures in the books. They will probably be a part of a future Dreamlands publication.

[Mike M]

Dreamlands monsters go in the Dreamlands book.

 

[Danial]

I’ve been awaiting this for so long. Thank you so much. It looks amazing!

[Danial]

I know there will likely be a corrections thread, but until there is, I just want to post two I found before I forget where they were...

In the Shub-Niggurath entry on p.191, it says, “Mutation: rather than undergone complete transformation...”. I believe this should either be “undergo”, “undergoing”, or “having undergone”. Also, just below it, it says, “Mind Swop”, which is obviously intended to be “Mind Swap”.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Danial

[measuredrums]

Thanks so much Chaosium! ... Have been slowly digesting the two volumes of the new 'Malleus Monstrorum', and I'm very happy with what I'm seeing, cannot wait to have these physically in my hands, they'll be gorgeous ... I like the route Chaosium went with the updating/presentation of the "stat blocks" for the Greater Mythos creatures/deities and such in Vol. II., but it begs the question ... Will the entries for the Greater Mythos entities presented in the Keepers Core book be updated to the same presentation as 'Malleus Monstrorum's' in future printings, or will the traditional "stat block" presentation remain? It would be nice if there was continuity among the books.

[trystero]

8 hours ago, Mike M said:

Dreamlands monsters go in the Dreamlands book.

Thank you for the clarification, Mike; I was assuming that MM was to be a complete bestiary. Looking forward to that Dreamlands book now… 🙂

[Mike M]

2 hours ago, measuredrums said:

Thanks so much Chaosium! ... Have been slowly digesting the two volumes of the new 'Malleus Monstrorum', and I'm very happy with what I'm seeing, cannot wait to have these physically in my hands, they'll be gorgeous ... I like the route Chaosium went with the updating/presentation of the "stat blocks" for the Greater Mythos creatures/deities and such in Vol. II., but it begs the question ... Will the entries for the Greater Mythos entities presented in the Keepers Core book be updated to the same presentation as 'Malleus Monstrorum's' in future printings, or will the traditional "stat block" presentation remain? It would be nice if there was continuity among the books.

I've not made a firm decision as yet, but I imagine if people like the way I have done it in in Vol 2, with more focus on the narrative and less on the stats (or those stats that are useful, like POW etc.), then future Rulebook editions will probably follow the same or a similar format.

[lenardg]

I started reading Vol I so far, and really like what I am seeing. I especially liked the section on creating monsters -- really useful!

For an upcoming game I have made my own monster - I was not really satisfied with all aspects of it, but could not really put my head around the problem properly (might be my inexperience with running CoC). Anyhow, reading the section on creating monsters gave me just the right ideas to balance out the adversary and make it more mysterious.

 

[measuredrums]

On 6/15/2020 at 3:09 PM, Mike M said:

I've not made a firm decision as yet, but I imagine if people like the way I have done it in in Vol 2, with more focus on the narrative and less on the stats (or those stats that are useful, like POW etc.), then future Rulebook editions will probably follow the same or a similar format.

I like the new way the Greater Mythos deities/entities are presented in the new MM Vol.II, I think you should stick with it ... (interestingly, I just finished watching one of the "Sandy of Cthulhu" YouTube webisodes ... here ...

 and it sounds like the way you've presented the Greater Mythos beings is Sandy's preferred way as well (around 9:43) ... go figure) ... Though now there are statistical and presentation differences between the Greater beings as presented in the MM Vol.II and the Core Rulebook, and I was wondering if future printings of the Core Rulebook would be changed to adopt the presentation as in the MM Vol.II. 

[davewire]

That image of the King in Yellow on page 103 in volume 2 is simply stunning. I’ve made it my new phone background. Whomever the artist is, my compliments.

[Charaina]

I was reading a Mythos-ish story by Fritz Leiber called "The Dreams of Albert Moreland" and wanted to model monsters off of the bizarre chess pieces in that story, which have various anatomies and carry stylized weapons. Could the monster creation rules in MM7th ed. model something like that?

[Dethstrok9]

4 hours ago, Charaina said:

I was reading a Mythos-ish story by Fritz Leiber called "The Dreams of Albert Moreland" and wanted to model monsters off of the bizarre chess pieces in that story, which have various anatomies and carry stylized weapons. Could the monster creation rules in MM7th ed. model something like that?

I think the new rules can apply to any monster you can imagine.

[OMGIt'sfullofDave]

On page 61 of Vol II, the Leviathan has the stats and description of Cthugha

[Lloyd Dupont]

On 6/21/2020 at 3:25 AM, Charaina said:

I was reading a Mythos-ish story by Fritz Leiber called "The Dreams of Albert Moreland" and wanted to model monsters off of the bizarre chess pieces in that story, which have various anatomies and carry stylized weapons. Could the monster creation rules in MM7th ed. model something like that?

Long time ago, when I was still a teenager  Fritz Leiber was my favorite author!  

[Charaina]

Ah, so for choosing attacks in monster creation, creatures have the option to utilize weaponry?

[Danial]

2 hours ago, Charaina said:

Ah, so for choosing attacks in monster creation, creatures have the option to utilize weaponry?

Many do, such as Deep Ones, so it makes sense to have that in the creation options.

[SunlessNick]

I'm curious:  A couple of the deities seem to be renamed versions of ones from the previous edition - like M'Guleloc seems to be renamed M'nagalah and Cytholos a renamed Cynothoglys.  I was just wondering why the change.

[Travern]

8 minutes ago, SunlessNick said:

I'm curious:  A couple of the deities seem to be renamed versions of ones from the previous edition - like M'Guleloc seems to be renamed M'nagalah and Cytholos a renamed Cynothoglys.  I was just wondering why the change.

M'nagalah is the IP of DC Comics (Swamp Thing #8 by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson—February, 1974), and Cynothoglys belongs to Thomas Ligotti (The Prodigy of Dreams—1986).  If Chaosium couldn't clear the rights to the originals this time, they couldn't appear as such in the new MM edition.

[SunlessNick]

3 minutes ago, Travern said:

M'nagalah is the IP of DC Comics (Swamp Thing #8 by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson—February, 1974), and Cynothoglys belongs to Thomas Ligotti (The Prodigy of Dreams—1986).  If Chaosium couldn't clear the rights to the originals this time, they couldn't appear as such in the new MM edition.

Huh.  I thought that might be it with Cynothoglys, but I thought M'nagalah was Ramsey Campbell's invention, and couldn't see why he'd ok some of his creations and not others - checking, though, I see you're right.  Thankyou.

[Travern]

Campbell used M'nagalah in story "The Tugging" a couple of years later. (I'm also going by Daniel Harms's invaluable Cthulhu Mythos encyclopedia for the Cynothoglys to Ligotti, but elsewhere online I've seen a few citations for Richard L. Tierney's The Seed of the Star-God—1984.)

[Masterhow]

Awesome work Chaosium. I ordered the PDF and can't wait until the physical release!

[RogerDee]

This is such a good book, and briefly mentioned it on RPG.net. I love how the gods did not really have stats, and those stat blocks that do appear are more geared towards it being an avatar, and not the actual being. I would really love to get the hardbacks, but just lack the space nowadays.

As an aside, i really do prefer the brown paper background instead of plain white.

Good job Chaosuim.