I guess we’re doing bestiaries now! This is the long-awaited Book of Beasts (2023) for Free League’s Forbidden Lands, a game I have trouble interacting with because doing so makes me want to play so badly (this week was supposed to be all Forbidden Lands books, actually, but I couldn’t bring myself to read the campaigns and spoil them for myself).
As with the Dragonbane Bestiary, this primarily catalogs monsters that are somewhat familiar, or “classic,” but then works hard to make them feel unique to the setting. A lot of that work is accomplished by Henrik Rosenborg’s lovely illustrations; given the option between the conventional choice and the choice that seems unusual, he often finds a third, delightfully unexpected option (for example, the rock troll, which looks like a limestone outcropping crossed with a whale). His designs all have a beefy weight to them that I enjoy, even the critters you’d expect to be gaunt, like the vampire.
There are quite a few more original or surprisingly subverted monsters here than Dragonbane, which makes sense given the tone and setting of each game (I really enjoy that the two share amoebas, though). The skolopendra is right out of my nightmares and the giant specter is exactly what the name says, but I am still kind of reeling from reading it.
A blessing: in addition to the monsters, the book has rules for traps, books, strongholds and a bunch of other stuff, but the largest addition is for solo play. All these years I’ve waited, none of you folks have invited me to play Forbidden Lands, so now I can just do it myself, for myself. Take that.
