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Latest Reviews| Oregon |  | | Reviewed by: Ron McClung |
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Beyond the RPG: Real World Monster Manuals
(1367 total words in this text)
(1914 Reads) 
Beyond the RPG --- Real World Monster Manuals
November 22, 2004
By: Travis J. Lee |
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Back for more eh? Let's get to it then. This month I think I'll talk about real life Creature Books. No, we're not discussing the congressional roster, that's for a much more evil article. Being a long time gamer I've experienced various 'fiend folios', 'creature collections', and of course the classic D & D 'Monster manual'. And it's come to my attention that these are all the same book. Seriously. They may pretend to written for different games, systems, or even epochs of (demi)human existence. But they all share the same basic sets of creatures. Just with some new bells and whistles. Rarely does one find a Creature book that seems like the author went to real trouble to be inventive. A fine example being Green Ronin's, 'Creatures of Freeport' which manages it by making the creature descriptions heavily dependent on their setting.
Of course, most writers don't have that option. So I've set out on my long journey Beyond the RPG to discover nonfiction books of monstrous lore. Not all my entries have specific titles listed. That's to encourage you to go to your local library and start exploring. Also, type some of the specific titles into Amazon.com and you'll come up with links to various reader lists of similar books.
The Fairy Encyclopedia
These come in many varieties, too many to list, so choose wisely. Some are what one might expect; collections of lame fluff for the Tinkerbelle set. But many, such as those by fairy artist Brian Froud, are filled with the ancient fairies of Celtic myth. You know, the ones where you called 'Fair Folk' because it was good for your health to be as polite as possible.
Think its just sprites? Think again. The word 'fairy' used to cover a much broader array, and here you'll find plenty of trolls and unfriendly beasties to darken your campaign world.
The major advantage, in my opinion, of the well-told fairy encyclopedia, is that it encourages thinking outside the box. Most Creature Books are simple 'Creature X has these stats, here's how to kill it'. Fairy Encyclopedias focus on personality, history, and relevant cultural details, making for a much more interesting read if nothing else.
Vampire Encyclopedias
Along with the recent glut of Drow guidebooks has come a plethora of D20 vampire guides. Speaking of everything the same....These mostly seem to be retreads of old ideas, or blatantly ripping off White Wolf's Vampire: the Requiem/Masquerade. No one seems to have any new ideas on sucking blood. At least inside the gaming industry. Vampire fandom and scholarly interest has been producing useful guide books for decades.
My personal favorite is titled simply 'The Vampire Book', a tome so thick you could drive stakes with it. Much of the book is devoted to specific vampire films and authors. But there's plenty of lore concerning bloodsuckers from every country and continent. Many of them much nastier than anything currently in role play.
Animal Books
Two of the most common anthromorph/shape shifters to play are wolves and cats. Unfortunately, outside of Werewolf: the Apocalypse no one seems to have done much homework. Not the White Wolf always does the greatest job, but they're better than the parade of blindly evil were-wolfs and anime cat girl sluts/jailbaits/etc.
So what's an interested gamer to do for realism? Go to the source. There are two books I highly recommend. The first is called 'Neither God Nor Devil: Rethinking our Perceptions of Wolves' by Eva-Lena Rehnmark. Filled with beautiful color paintings, it imparts a good deal of information on wolf society and culture. Yes, culture. The 'lone-wolf' imagery used by most gamers is, well, inaccurate as hell. Wolves live among their own, in some ways more social than humans.
As to cats, the book 'Tribe of Tiger' is a most have. Written by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, it's a one stop shopping trip for anyone who has questions about cat culture, behavior, or biology. Even if you're just a fan of the feline set, this is a book I'd highly recommend. You'll learn all sorts of things you wouldn't have thought of asking about.
Medieval Bestiaries
Here's something for free. A quick online search will probably net you many of these, fully scanned with commentary. These books are collections of animals, real or not, and pocket descriptions written by whatever monk or academic wrote the particular text. The first thing to understand is, those writing these books didn't necessarily take them literally. Many were written more as moral guides, using commonly held beliefs about the real or imaginary creatures to teach good behavior. This is most useful to the gaming reader, as they provide ways to turn the most mundane of animals into strange 'monsters' fit for the highest of fantasy. One I'd recommend of the top of my head can be found at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/contents.hti.
Angel and Devil Encyclopedias
First off, how come the demons always get the big books in gaming? Angelics and related beings seem to get relegated to the background. Come on, games like 'Ennomine' and 'Engel' have taken the Angelic host and created whole worlds. And as for the glut of demonic gaming literature, yawn. Once you've seen one D & D demon you've seen them all. So here's how to rectify the situation.
Rosemary Ellen Guiley's 'Encyclopedia of Angels' would be a good place to start. I've not read it, but I've read others by her and I feel safe in recommending it. Such books usually contain only the Judeo-Christian angels, but others cover angels from Islam and other faiths. This tends to add all sorts of new possibilities.
There's plenty of the demonic variety as well. Players just looking for new fodder can check out basic books. Those who want some real creep factor can check out the works of Aleister Crowley and other 'real' magicians for some very nasty surprises. 'The Book of Black Magic' might also be of interest, covering rituals studied and practiced in the renaissance for magic both good and evil, necromancy, etc. It's amusing to note that many of the demonic invocations run along the lines of "I summon the devil and if he doesn't obey I'll cause him torment in hell for all eternity." What the hell? Seems somebody got the order of torment confused. Good to give to a player overly eager to play a demonologist, then give him the appropriate response as devils show up outside his summoning circle to laugh at him.
For a good general overview of the whole demonic 'world', check out Alice K. Turner's 'The History of Hell'.
Dragons
There's far too much out there to even begin. The medieval bestiaries listed above would probably be a good place to start. And please try to look outside the Western European versions, we've beaten them to death already.
Other Culture's Fairy Tales
Let's get outside our Western European box shall we? Books of Japanese fairy tales, Native American myths, and Russian monsters can be found at any used book store just to start. Trust me, their filled with stuff never ripped off for a quick gaming buck. Russia is a good place to begin; their works are European but with many twists and turns you won't see in Germany or England. And come on, most gamers are into Japanese Anime in some form. A little side trip into the myths and fairy tales that inspire many of our favorite series' won't hurt you.
Okay, that's enough education for today. So head on out to the used book store. For the price of a single copy of ‘Monster Manual 3 Billion' you can potentially pick up five or six of the works I've listed. Have fun, and remember, hunt safely. |
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