The Old World Bestiary

Ack! Monsters!

Overall score:

Monster books are odd ducks. Sometimes I think they’re useful and sometimes I think they’re a waste of paper…and that’s not a content-based statement. Even the best monster book is completely useless if you’re not going to run the game, right? Monster books as a rule are not intended for the players, and they're not intended for background or flavor--just crunchy numbers. Today I’m going to tell you about an exception. An exception that is exceptional.

The Old World Bestiary is a hardbound monster supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd edition. It’s written by T.S. Luikart and Ian Sturrock and published by Black Industries. The Bestiary is full color, and clocks in at 127 pages including the index.

The writing is done from an in-character perspective, a style that has become more and more popular recently. Each monster is described in a variety of fictional, first-person accounts, broken down into three sections: Common View, The Scholar’s Eye, and Our Own Words. There are a handful of characters that write about each monster, and virtually all of them make several appearances. You’ll get perspectives from a peasant, a camp follower, mages, mercenaries, the monsters themselves, and many others. This wide variety of "in-game" description not only details the monster's history and status but gives remarkable insight into the game world itself. It's like a monster book and a world book rolled into one.

The great thing about this is that the book is intended for players! The information from ‘Common View’ can be accessed with an appropriate common knowledge roll, to give characters a (sometimes very wrong) idea of what a monster is like. ‘The Scholar’s Eye’ tends to be much more accurate, but information here is restricted to those with the proper academic skills or experience. ‘Our Own Words’ is composed of accounts from the beasts themselves, when appropriate. The text is brimming with the dark humor for which the Warhammer world is famous. There are no stats at all in this section--just pure flavor.

Each monster is beautifully illustrated, often in full color. This knocked Privateer Press’s Monsternomicon out of the top spot on my ‘Best Monster Art” list. Sure, some of it is recycled from the books for the Warhammer miniatures game, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that it looks incredible.

The GM section is mainly composed of the creature stats and "true" info. The creatures in this book are as nasty as you would expect. Each creature is also rated by “The Slaughter Margin.” This is a scale of how tough the creature is for an average, well-trained Imperial soldier (statted out in the beginning of the section). This is actually quite useful, as it gives us a quantifiable foe to judge these monsters against.

Also included are a handful of new skills and talents (Daemonic Aura, Ethereal, Scales, Unstoppable Blows, and Will of Iron) intended for creature use, and a vastly expanded chaos mutation table. Three new careers are also offered (Apprentice Shaman, Shaman, and Shaman Lord) for tribal cultures (including humans) and one new lore, The Lore of Spirits.

This is an excellent book that is useful to both the GM and the players. The danger and despair of The Old World really come through in the art and fictional accounts. Given the tiny bestiary included in the WFRP core book, this book is virtually required for play; fortunately, it’s also a well-done book that you’d really want anyway.

Lucias Meyer is a doctor of optometry who lives in St. Louis, Missouri. He spends his free time with his fiancé and getting in a game whenever he can.

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Written by Mr_Pleasington on May 15th, 2005