The Other OSR: Book of Beasts

With Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts, the number of creatures and threats with which to menace the Player Characters doubles! Published by Free League Publishing, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts provides twenty-eight descriptions of monsters fierce and fearsome adding to the twenty-three given in the core rulebook for the ‘Retro Open-World Survival Fantasy RPG’, Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World. Every entry comes with a short piece of colour fiction, full stats and abilities, and a table of Monster Attacks. That though is not all. For there is also a table for the player to roll his character’s Lore skill and so determine what Insights he might have into the creature. Then there is not one but two random encounters, each with some flavoursome description and an indication of the terrain types where the monster might be found. Lastly, there is a description of the ‘Resources’ that might be harvested from a monster if the Player Characters manage to kill one. Last, but least, there is a superb illustration. Beautiful, rich, and detailed, every image of a creature in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is captivating. Any time that the Game Master shows one of these to her players, she really is going to amaze them.

So the Mummy is depicted as a dried husk of a warrior, grinning as it holds a victim by the throat in one hand, whilst readying a sword in the other. It is described as being in life a great lord who lusted after power, a lust that was not dimmed by the cold death of the crypt. In its unlife, it reigns over the steel and gold it was buried with and now jealously guards. Its body is hollowed out and empty and it hungers for the salts and juices that flow through the bodies of the living, having become a predatory cannibal in death. Some of this will be revealed in a Lore roll, but there is more that the Player Characters can learn. One of the random encounters is just a simple tomb description, whilst the other is a bit more exciting—a Mummy’s tomb that is already open and would have been plundered by some graverobbers were it not for the fact that they are being attacked by a Mummy and its servants!

In terms of stats, the Mummy is incredibly strong, but otherwise slow. It is unnaturally drawn to human entrails, but bound to its tombs. Its attacks include ‘Lordly Strike!’, which inflicts such a heavy blow that the defender is knocked prone, whilst with ‘Heart Constriction’, the Mummy makes a crushing genre with his fingers at an opponent who suffers a sudden and terrible pain in his chest and is potentially overcome with mortal terror! This is of course, in addition to the other four attacks listed for the Mummy, whilst the last entry in the monster description suggests the only Resource that can be harvested from a Mummy is the powder ground from its bones that when swallowed grants a bonus to the imbiber’s Strength.

So every monster and every creature in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is given this treatment to great effect. The entries are all easy to read and easy to use, and include things such as a Dread Raptor, Giant Spider—which has descriptions of hatchlings, adults, and elders, the Iron Dragon, the Nature Spirit, Rat King, Twisted Ent, and more. There are some great monsters here and they provide the Game Master with some fantastic new options in terms of presenting challengers to her players. However, that is not all that there is in the pages of Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts, although they do take up nearly two thirds of the book.

The content beyond the monsters in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts begins with a random encounter table for the thirty-six encounters that follow. All of these again, have a single paragraph of colour fiction, suitable to read out to the players, and typically a half page of detail, though some have more. Stats are included where necessary, but there is always a list of the terrain where the encounter can take place. They range from finding a man locked in a hanging iron cage pleading to be let free and coming across an old battlefield that could be salvaged to going to the aid of a legendary brewer and being employed to track down the bandits that attacked him and having to placate the spirit of an orc lord after sitting on his somewhat bedraggled stone throne. Some are as simple as coming across a piece of statuary and the opportunity to learn some lore about the history of the region, whilst others are more complex like discovering a length of a Dwarven wall and with the aid of an expert on its history finding a way to the tomb of an ancient chieftain. Not all of them are quite ready to run though, so there are several which require more development than others, such as the meaning behind a coded message that is found on a dead pigeon. This is though, a good selection of encounters and scenario hooks.

Oddly, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts has its own section of ‘Game Master Tools’ as if none of the previous content was for the Game Master and this section is for her eyes only. Of course, the whole book is for the Game Master. The section contains a list of traps, from nets, poison darts, and crusting boulders to domination, magical traps, and teleportation, which can be rolled for or selected, whilst ‘Books, Ballads, and Grimoires’ expands upon the ‘Carried Valuable Finds’ and ‘Carried Precious Finds’ from the Game-master’s Guide. These can all be studied and in return, a Player Character can gain a bonus, which can be a Talent or a skill increase. For example, ‘Easy Little Dwarfling’, a lullaby by Yendra grants the Lightning Fast Talent, whilst ‘Sweet, Courage, and Leverage’ by Nilia Trollvälte is a manual that increases the Might of anyone who studies it. Between the various categories, there are over seventy entries here and even just having the names of either the manuals and ballads, and their authors, adds to the immersive nature of the Forbidden Lands setting. A similar set of tables adds new artefacts to the roleplaying game, though they lack the description and detail given to those in the core rules.

‘Journeys’ adds further tables, but this time for nature of different locations or terrain types, ranging from plains, forests, and dark forests to quagmires, marshlands, and ruins, and then it does the same for camps, plus there is trio of quick and dirty weather tables. In general, the ‘Journeys’ only adds a little extra detail and the tables are limited in their number of entries. Strongholds form a major part of play in Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, whether that is the Player Characters needing to investigate one, either to take and hold it as a base of operations or explore and scavenge its contents, or as a base of operations, work to make the surrounding area safer. ‘Rules for Strongholds’ adds to the rules found in the Player’s Handbook with a short table of events and a long table of potential servants, their personalities, and secrets. The table of events could have been much, much longer, whereas in a campaign, the Game Master will get much more out of the table of servants.

‘Potions & Poisons’ opens up a new aspect of play, especially for the Player Character with the Herbalist Talent. It allows a Player Character with this Talent to forage for herbs and with the addition of the new Alchemist Talent, him to brew and concoct various potions, tinctures, and more. There are rules here for a new function that can be added to the Player Characters’ stronghold, a Laboratory, which adds a bonus to brewing potions and poisons. In addition to the list of various alchemical potions, there is a list of poisons too, which is useful for the Poisoner Talent. There is a new rule what happens if too many potions are consumed in too short a time.

Lastly, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts includes ‘Solo Rules’. This addition to various roleplaying games has become popular since the advent of COVID-19 and the extended periods of lockdown, enabling players to play face-to-face gaming at the table proved impossible. The rules here give the player, which of course, can be the Game Master, the means to explore the Forbidden Lands alone. The Player Character needs to be a little more powerful than a standard Player Character, and suggests that Lucky be taken as an extra General Talent. There are rules here for including a companion character, potentially a replacement Player Characters, and tables for the creating encounters and providing answers that the Player Character might have about the world around him. An ordinary deck of playing cards is required to generate the answers from what the rules call ‘Oracles’, covering simple ‘Yes/No’ questions, ‘Helpful/Hazardous’ situations, and more. As with other solo rules, the ones presented here make play more procedural than standard play and of course, they lack the capacity for roleplaying. Nevertheless, they are a useful option.

Physically, Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is a black and white book, but an absolutely fantastic-looking one. The artwork is exquisite. Otherwise, the book is very well written and easy to read.

Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is great addition to Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World and so much more than a simple bestiary. In fact, as a bestiary, it is not even simple. The monsters and creatures described are things out of nightmare and folklore, memorably menacing and dangerous. There is more to them than just encountering a gaggle of Goblins as in other roleplaying games, aided by the uncertainty of their different and random attacks, their lore, and of course, the encounter descriptions which accompany each entry. Then, there is the rest of the content in Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts—encounters, traps, alchemy and potions, and quite a lot more. Forbidden Lands – Book of Beasts is not just a great bestiary for Forbidden Lands – Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World, but a good companion to its rules as well.