Blanca Martínez de Rituertto and Joe Sparrow created a blog when they were just out of art school, exploring folk lore and Fantasy and history through various creatures.  This book is a collection of some of their creations.  While there are no statistics or rules, and it’s perfectly readable and enjoyable for someone with no interest or background in tabletop RPGs, it’s also made in such a way that a GM could use this to present alternative versions of come classic and new critters.

There are well over a hundred entries, covering some fairly standard monsters as well as some unexpected ones.  Each entry has a brief write-up on the monster, an “adventurer’s tip” on how an adventurer might avoid, fight, or befriend various things, and then a brief contextual note.  There are also some non-numerical “stats.”  Each entry has an associated alignment (good, neutral, or evil), and elemental connection (water, air, fire, etc.), a type (beast, humanoid, undead, etc.), and finally its relative strengths (combat, magic, loot, etc.).  Because there’s no math attached and the stats are very general, there’s really no need to think of them in game terms if you’re not a gamer.  If you are, they’re a good guide of how you might assign game statistics to the creatures.  Because there’s no specific math, it also means the book is useful for whatever game you might want to use, not just the obvious Dungeons & Dragons.

As I said, some creatures are fairly standard.  Stuff that, if you’re even somewhat aware of the general Western folklore and mythology that underpins large swaths of Fantasy, you’ll recognize.  Chimera, griffin, and satyr, for example.  There are also a few deeper dives into the same well, like hecatoncheires or the kelpie.  Then there are a few from literature, like the snow golem (Frosty!) and serpentfolk (by Crom!).  And then, happily, there are a bunch of creatures from non-European sources, like jiangshi, penanggalan, and wereshark.  

Up to this point, I haven’t mentioned the star of the show, which is the illustration of each creature.  The style is somewhat cartoonish, but not exactly cutesy.  Some of the creatures are quite horrifying, in spite of the vibrant art.  I really like how some of the images have a very, very different take on a classic.  The hellhound, for example, with its hot-pink skin and glowing green maw, not to mention its head/body.  Very upsetting.  One of my favorites, and I think the image that sold me on picking up the book is the ghost, which meshes the image of the white sheet draped body with strange mystical symbols, giving the whole thing a much more otherworldly, esoteric, and arcane vibe than you usually get with more traditional spectral versions of recognizably human figures. 

This book was a delight to read and flip through.  I found several creatures that were new to me.  And thanks to the art, I enjoyed a very different idea of some classics.  This will have a place on my shelf, and I hope to weave these versions of creatures into future games.  I’ve always enjoyed a good bestiary, and this certainly fits the bill. 

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