Douglas H. Cole of Nordlands’ fame is kickstarting a bestiary and enemy book for his Norse-inspired and officially licensed Dungeon Fantasy RPG setting. Depending on the campaign’s success the book will be between 128 (classical 3rd Edition GURPS) and 240 pages in hardcover format.
If you’re like me and have problems coming up with good encounter stats on the fly, the book will be a huge boon for game-mastering. How do I know that, when the book is not yet out? Because I’ve been using Cole’s excellent Lost Hall of Judgment‘s 33-page mini-bestiary and enemy collection whenever I am in need of a quick foe with a good illustration for the players to visualise it.
While I love most of GURPS 4th Edition quick stats for encounters is not one of its strong suits. The 3rd Edition GURPS Bestiary still does a decent job if you’re looking for animals and GURPS Animalia by Pizard is great for filling the gaps, but for monsters you’re looking at about two dozen books with wildly varying level of detail and illustration. The problem is not that there is no data, but that it isn’t easy to search and compare.
Cole’s Nordlond Bestiary and Enemies Book promises to fill that hole with one large (or maybe even humongous) volume that combines ease of use, colour illustrations, variants and encounter notes in a searchable and well-organised whole. Think of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Monsters I only three times the size with full-colour art, easier stat blocks and also including write-ups different human foes – something that’s still almost completely missing from official sources.
So have a look and then back this baby to make it the best it can be.
The Blind Mapmaker 