A to Z Monster Encounters

"Old School Essentials - Monsters" by Gavin Norman Published and Distributed by Necrotic Gnome ISBN-13: 978-3-96657-010-7 -- 80 Pages The Fourth Book of the Retro Adventure Game Books There is currently a revival of "Old School" type rules for Dungeons and Dragons. I've bought and/or looked at and/or played and/or ran several of them, and this is one of the better ones! This remake takes the old Tom Moldvay Basic and Expert ("B/X") rules, and dissects them into five Retro Adventure Rulebooks. This volume is available separately and as part of a great boxed set! This book covers the Monsters within Necrotic Gnome's Fantasy Retro Adventure Game. As it says on the cover, the large majority of this book is to present Monsters for the system. A very handy chart at the front of the of the book shows a matrix of Attacks by Hit Dice and their saving throws. Charts are available explaining their stats and other items. The chart at the back of the book breaks the monsters in the book down by their hit dice, a very handy thing if the GM wants to put a creature in the players path that will slow them down or even stop them cold. Counting the individual monsters themselves, there are over 140 different types. Many of the monster stat blocks have leaders, or the same monster, but of the opposite sex, different creatures of a similar type, such as the different types of Great Cats. at least seven types of dragons, the usual four types of elementals, six Giants, Were-creatures are treated under Lycanthropes. Other humanoids are found in such places as Merchants, and includes merchant guards and animals. Even Nobles are listed here. Pirates include the Ship Captain, and the Fleet Commander. Most creatures from Earth are present, too. Many snakes are here, and several others. It treats all humanoids as being possible antagonists. After the monster descriptions are encounter tables by type, NPC encounters, and Strongholds. The "Dungeons" are broken down by Dungeon Level, and the Wilderness areas are broken down by terrain type. The NPC's have Class and alignment tables, and the Stronghold by Class. The Open Gaming License completes this work. Once again, Necrotic Gnome packed this book as full as they could get! Even the inside front cover, and the inside back cover have important tables for easy access! GM's - if you are looking to populate a specific area that is not in the rules. this is it! I've played other games, and I've been gaming for over 40 years! I started in 1976 with what is commonly known as "The Little White Box" which contained four digest-sized booklets: 1) "Men and Magic", 2) "Monsters and Treasures", and 3) "Underground and Wilderness", and a small white pamphlet with necessary tables repeated. I feel my experiences with gaming and role-playing in particular, gives me memories of the game as it was originally published, and thus real life experiences to use in this review. I supported this through Necrotic Gnome's Kickstarter, and also received a module for the adventurers to explore called "The Hole in the Oak". Right now, I cannot think of a better retro-clone of older D&D. It reminds me of the original red booklet which was one of the first types of first edition. Highly Recommended.