[Review] Asian Bestiary II

[TheQuestionMan]

Greetings HEROphiles, I am glad your here for another Review. This time I am tackling the Asian Bestiary II. First off I will admit to being a Fan of Asian Culture, History, and Myth so please excuse the Fan Boy-ish stuff.

 

Art: (4 out of 5) The front Cover Art is EXCELLENT and really captures the theme well. Nice to see DOJ is responding to HGFM's comments. The back Cover Art is minimal, but maintains the feel I think the book was aiming for. The Interior Art is also good. It is nice to see so much of it laid out so well. Nice job everyone.

 

Layout: (4 out of 5) As I commented on another Thread I thing replacing Background with Ecology was brilliant. It is easy to reference and follow. There are a few places for improvement with reguards to placement of Art, but otherwise a high quality production. I think they forgot the Master Reference Chart of Beasts and the Bestiary Summary Tables which I always found useful. It desparetly needs a Bibliography. Nice Job everyone.

 

 

Writing: (4 out of 5) I think Micheal's writing is great. It made a great read on the bus (I missed my stop) and I skipped over only a few Beasts in the first reading (Which is a rare thing for me with a new book.).

 

 

Content: (4 out of 5) I love the Asian Setting and the Beasts add real colour and feel. A GM could not go wrong using this book, but I tell yah. If my GM gets ahold of this book I will never asume the everybody we meet is human. YIKES!!! As a GM I am going to enjoy seeing how they react to the unknown . Their Ecologies provide plenty of Plot Seeds on how and where to insert said Beasts into your game. The Genre does not matter in any case. You can inclued most rights into just about any game without change. Many will give your Champions < Superheroes> pause .

 

Summary: (4 out of 5) Overall another great, well researched and great product from DOJ. It does leave wondering about these Beasts though. Some I have already tracked down through other sources. I have highly recogmended it to my FLGS and several of my GURPS Gamers as resource material for easy Conversions. Mr. Surbrook your writing just leaves me expect MORE. It feels like many of the Beast's Ecologies were Summarized . To HERO Fans I highly recogmend you browse your FLGS, borrow, and then buy a copy right now. 'Cause you do not want to miss this one.

 

 

 

THANK YOU SUSANO AND DOJ

 

QM