The Asian Bestiary, Vol. I

[Steve Long]

Here’s our back-cover text describing AB1:

MONSTERS OF THE ORIENT

Every gamer’s heard of dragons, vampires, werewolves, and zombies — but how about preta, chiang-liang, qiongqi, macan gadungan, orgoli, or the wondrous beasts of the amazing Himmapan Forest?

The Asian Bestiary, Volume I is your guide to these and dozens more strange, eerie, and dangerous monsters, creatures, beings, and fantastic animals from the cultures and folklore of Asia. It includes monsters from

—China
—India
—Cambodia
—Indonesia
—Mongolia
—Thailand
—Vietnam

And see Volume II for even more monsters from Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and beyond!

If you’re looking for something new and unusual to pit against your PCs, for a wizard to summon, or to weave an entire kingdom or story arc around, The Asian Bestiary has just what you’re looking for!



ISBN: 1-58366-063-1
SKU: DOJHERO509
Price: $24.99 US

You can buy this book in our Online Store (https://www.herogames.com/viewItem.htm?itemID=202080).
You can buy this PDF in our Online Store (https://www.herogames.com/viewItem.htm?itemID=202081).

[Steve Long]

Here’s a copy of ghost-angel’s review of AB1. Feel free to post other reviews, or links to them, if you like!

The Upside:

If you've ever needed an strange beast or wanted to run a campaign set in Asia then this is your book. There are almost one hundred full write ups plus numerous variants and notes on even more creatures in Volume 1 Alone.

Volume 1 covers seven major countries in Asia: China (which takes up almost half the book), India, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Thailand, and Vietnam. None of the creatures in this book are simply made up and given Asian flare, they are all taken directly from the myths and folklore of Asia.

Not only does each creature come with a full Hero System write-up, but a complete description of their ecology plus various tidbits of the stories that these creatures originated in. If a creature's name varies from region to region they are also detailed in the write-up, along with any variations that myths and legends had for these monsters.

And don't think it's a big book of monsters to fight, every sort of creature from Legend is here, benevolent spirits, peaceful beings and variations on normal creatures that Asian stories have given rise to; such as the Creatures Of The Himmapan Forest many of which are normal animals with a slight twist.

Another upside you don't often see, each Country contains a small section on the Religions within the country and how they have had an effect on the local legends and lore. Putting many creatures into some perspective for that region.

The bibliography in the back of the book is also amazing. Volume 1 contains the entire bibliography for both Volume 1 and 2, is thorough and could lead off into interesting reading on its own.

The Downside:

There's not a lot I can say about the Asian Bestiary that's negative. it would have been nice to have both volumes in one book, but that might have made the cost a bit prohibitive for many.

If anything it would have been nice to get More of the actual folklore and stories behind each creature.

There is one notable thing missing from this book that exists in most Hero releases: there are no Plot Hooks in the book, small one or two paragraph suggestions on how to include any given element in your game. While many of the write ups have a suggestion or two, none are as extensive as the Plot Hooks given in many Hero Books. To be fair, this kind of thing isn't present in this type of book normally, but it would have been cool to have regardless.

The Otherside:

This book is an excellent source of Asia folklore for any game, not just Hero. Conversions would naturally be required to get the creatures statted out in your preferred system. But even without converting the stats the write ups contain enough information to give any game an authentic Asian touch.

All in all, The Asian Bestiary is one of the best monster books I've seen for any system at any point in time. Thoroughly researched, well done and cleanly organized, any game library would be improved with this book.

For more Asian creatures see Volume 2.

[Sketchpad]

Here's my review for TAB1:
Asian Bestiary Volume One is for Hero Games’ Fantasy Hero genre book. With a vast menagerie of creatures, this book could easily be adapted to any game system or any genre for that matter. In fact, I was a bit surprised that Hero didn’t market this as a companion to both Fantasy Hero and Ninja Hero. The book holds true to the Hero design, as well as having an extended index and listing of creatures by country in the back of the book. Ordered into three chapters, creatures include the game build, options where applicable, tactics, campaign use, ecology notes and appearance.
Chapter one begins in China and describes over twenty creatures that are native to Chinese myth and legend. It is within this chapter where we find the Hsing-Hsing, an ape-like creature with a human head, the Chinese Hobgoblin, which has a really nice picture associated with it, and Hai Ho Sheng, a large fish-like creature with a human head. Of the ones listed, I especially liked the Chiang-Shih, the Chinese vampire. The build was really well done and the art suited it quite well.
Chapter two brings us from China to India with about twenty creatures that are native to it. Presented in this chapter are the Apsarasas, Indian nymphs with the ability to drive people mad, Kaliya, a monstrous, multi-headed snake, and the Naga, snake-like beings that can easily be placed in any game. My favorite in this chapter has to be the Rakshasa, a classic monster by Dungeon & Dragon standards. In this book, the Rakshasa’s myth has been expanded and includes select variations on the creature, making in more versatile and useful.
Unlike the other two chapters, chapter three focuses on several other parts of Asia. Starting in Cambodia, there are brief studies on select creatures from Cambodian myth and how to modify existing monsters to fit them. Indonesia brings a handful of creatures, covering things like the Athol, a winged, monkey-like monster, and the Macan Gadungan, a spirit-based were-tiger. Mongolia is next with trio of critters and then it’s on to Thailand with an entire section devoted to “Creatures of the Himmapan Forest”. Within this section are variants and packages to detail the various monsters and creatures that exist within the magical forest. The chapter closes with Vietnam, offering a quartet of builds including the Thuong-Luong, a 100 foot long sea serpent. Of this chapter, one of my favorites has got to be the Elephant Tiger, which, as the name denotes, is an enormous, elephant-bodied, tiger-headed monster.
Overall the book is pretty good and quite interesting. I think the only major complaint I have about the book is the art. There are a few good images within the book, especially in the beginning of chapter one, but that quality quickly disappears afterwards. There are a few of the creatures in the book that don’t have an image associated with it, and there are few that, after looking at the art, should’ve been left without the image. With a book like this, a standard needs to be met, especially when competing slightly with books like “Creatures of Rokugan” or “Jade Dragons & Hungry Ghosts, Monsters from the East”.

[Lord Liaden]

What I really like about both Asian Bestiaries are twofold: One, that most of the creatures in them are completely unknown to most Westerners, so they add marvelous new blood and color to fantasy games which have been stuck with the same old roster of monsters and races. With the numerous templates and customizing suggestions offered in the book, they can readily be tailored to a particular GM's needs.

Two, the range of write-ups therein are usable for far more than fantasy. These creatures are so different from what most people have seen, they could easily be used as non-terrestrial animals in a science-fiction setting. Many of them are sapient, and can become alien races and civilizations with just a change of name and a few background details. Lots of them are presented as composites of the body parts of various animals and even humans, so would work well in a near-future sci-fi or horror setting as products of biological experiments. And quite a few of these beasts are strong enough to seriously threaten superheroes, as written or with only minor tweaks. Several would make for good origins for supervillains or even heroes.

[Susano]

What I really like about both Asian Bestiaries are twofold: One, that most of the creatures in them are completely unknown to most Westerners, so they add marvelous new blood and color to fantasy games which have been stuck with the same old roster of monsters and races. With the numerous templates and customizing suggestions offered in the book, they can readily be tailored to a particular GM's needs.

Two, the range of write-ups therein are usable for far more than fantasy. These creatures are so different from what most people have seen, they could easily be used as non-terrestrial animals in a science-fiction setting. Many of them are sapient, and can become alien races and civilizations with just a change of name and a few background details. Lots of them are presented as composites of the body parts of various animals and even humans, so would work well in a near-future sci-fi or horror setting as products of biological experiments. And quite a few of these beasts are strong enough to seriously threaten superheroes, as written or with only minor tweaks. Several would make for good origins for supervillains or even heroes.

Thanks for the kind words. :)