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Good BRP Bestiaries?


Zarameus

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So I've always had a love for Bestiaries, even before getting into RPGs. Now that I've pretty much settled on BRP as my choices system, I wonder if ya'll could point me toward some compatible monster books? Take nothing for granted - I'm very uncultured on these matters.

I own the Big Gold Book, Magic World, and the Malleus Monstrorum among some CoC books. The Malleus is an amazing book and I wouldn't trade it for anything - but I'm wondering if maybe there are some monster books with a more fantasy tone?

I also have the Basic Creatures book - but that's included in Magic World so it's kinda moot now. Anyhoo! Any help would be appreciated!

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Nothing that comes to mind at the moment for BRP, though a Magic World Bestiary is in the works I've heard. Legend has a couple of books, and RQ6's Monster Island has a good section. All should be cross compatible to one degree or another.

SDLeary

Oh, a Magic World Bestiary sounds interesting - I'll have to keep an eye out for that. Thank you for the suggestions, I'll have to take a look around and see what I can find.

rust

You could take a look at the Basic Bestiary in this forum's download section:

http://basicroleplaying.com/download...do=file&id=398

Oh wow. Haha, I feel silly for not checking for something like this. This is a pretty darn good resource - especially for nothing. Thank you for pointing this out to me!

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Short answer: you have most of the good ones, except for RQ6 Monster island, it has a lot in it you don't have and includes a setting. Monsters of Legend 2 has new monsters that you don't have (and haven't heard of) in it that have converted been from D20.

Long answer: RQ6 monster island is really good IMO and is compatible with a little work. The Monsters of Legend books are compatible but you probably have most to all of the first book and the second book did not impress me much. RQ3 had a Monsters book that was hardcover published by Games Workshop. It contains the monsters from the RQ3 deluxe book (as I understand it they were included or are the monsters in the Basic Creatures monograph) and the stats from RQ3 monster coliseum box set. MRQ2 had a monster coliseum book that monsters got reprinted in the first monsters of Legend book. RQ2 had the Gateway Bestiary that you have a lot of and I believe the rest is getting put into the Magic World bestiary book. From the posts here the Magic World bestiary will also have new monsters in it but is not out yet. I believe that is most of the published bestiaries. You can find monsters in some of the older BRP games. Ringworld has quite a few Ringworld specific but is OP and expensive if you can find a copy. Corum had some Corum specific monsters and the Chaosium site had some in the shopworn section. The Hawkmoon box set or the MRQ 1 Hawkmoon books had some monsters specific to hawkmoon. The Mongoose Lankhmar book also had some monsters in it. Most of the games or setting books this holds true for except I believe Superworld and the Superworld Companion.

Edited by tal

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That's excellent - thank you so much for the breakdown. With so many different versions of things out there, it gets a little convoluted to an outsider like myself. Sounds like the Legend books and Monster Island are a must. I really appreciate all the assistance.

I always hear that Runequest is more or less compatible with a few adjustments - what kind of adjustments are there to make? Is it as simple as ignoring rules that you're not using, or are there some stat discrepancies?

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I always hear that Runequest is more or less compatible with a few adjustments - what kind of adjustments are there to make? Is it as simple as ignoring rules that you're not using, or are there some stat discrepancies?

Hit points and hot locations, of you use them, are slightly different in Legend/RQ6.

Strike Ranks/DEX Ranks are different.

Movement is different.

Most of the rest is the same.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here. 

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A few supplements have setting-specific creatures, which I prefer.

Basic Creatures has all the creatures from RQ3 for BRP. Monsters of Legend has standard creatures, Monsters of Legend 2 has strange ones. It all depends on what you want.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here. 

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Oh, a Magic World Bestiary sounds interesting - I'll have to keep an eye out for that. Thank you for the suggestions, I'll have to take a look around and see what I can find./QUOTE]

It's coming along quite well, actually. 90% done with the writing and editing, but as time goes on, I keep adding more monsters. I'd estimate about 75% of the book is reprinted material from past Chaosium fantasy games (Stormbringer, Hawkmoon, Elfquest, Gateway Bestiary, etc.), but converted and updated to the MW rules where necessary.

The other critters are new ones drawn from myth, legend, and the creativity of the authors. Lots of really cool stuff in this book.

Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing.

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Hit points and hot locations, of you use them, are slightly different in Legend/RQ6.

Strike Ranks/DEX Ranks are different.

Movement is different.

Most of the rest is the same.

Aha! Thank you - this gives me something concrete to go on. If I reverse the hit location formula from the big gold book, will that be good for determining the hit point total? And I'm not sure the difference between dex ranks and strike ranks, but I'm sure I can figure it out.

The free Mongoose RuneQuest I Deluxe SRD, also in the Downloads section, has a basic fantasy monster selection, much of which is a repeat of Basic Creatures.

Haha, I'm gonna have to raid the download section. Sounds like there's a lot of good stuff there that I'm missing out on.

It's coming along quite well, actually. 90% done with the writing and editing, but as time goes on, I keep adding more monsters. I'd estimate about 75% of the book is reprinted material from past Chaosium fantasy games (Stormbringer, Hawkmoon, Elfquest, Gateway Bestiary, etc.), but converted and updated to the MW rules where necessary.

The other critters are new ones drawn from myth, legend, and the creativity of the authors. Lots of really cool stuff in this book.

That's what I love to hear. It sounds like it's gonna be a great addition - I'll be snagging it as soon as humanly possible. And the fact that it has some old reprinted content is actually really cool. Even if I wasn't able to enjoy these things at their prime, I still get to have some kind of connection to the past.

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I just realized I missed three other BRP bestiaries. It doesn't matter much as you have Malleus Monstrorum but for completeness sake....

Ye Book of Monsters I and II were originally published separately then collected into the Creature Companion. All three were Call of Cthulhu books. Most to all of those monsters made it in some form I believe into Malleus Monstrorum, however different art was used in MM. If this is wrong hopefully someone will correct my error(s).

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There are also the two Petersen's Guides.

SDLeary

Quite right, good catch. There was also the RQ3 Gloranthan Bestiary that has Gloranthan specific creatures includes some that I haven't seen in later products. Including an aliens like creature if I remember correctly. RQ3 Dorastor had quite a few monsters in the middle of it as well. I'm sure there is more I've missed.

To the OP-thanks for the thread it's bringing back some fond memories of products past.

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