This post is for all the 4th edition players out there, or at least those of you willing to admit your still playing 4th edition which has become the gaming equivalent of smoking while pregnant..not technically against the law but overwhelmingly met with shock, revulsion, and swift condemnation by others. I wanted to let people know that there is still awesome content being produced, not by Wizard’s of the Coast mind you (god forbid), but by others 
with a real passion for the system and who share the belief that it was thrown in the wood chipper a little to soon. I am not just talking about great fan generated content like Frothsoff 4e, but company generated stuff as well.
The Midgard Bestiary for 4th Edition (Open Design) by Richard Green and Brian Liberage is one of these new products that really scratched an itch for me. I have written before that one of my major gripes with 4th edition is that they didn’t get the monster math sorted out until later in cycle, causing the majority of the monsters designed for the system to be full of suckage and virtually unusable. When I flip through the Monster Manual 1 and 2 I actually feel embarrassed for the monsters, like I am embarrassed for them. It would literally be a crime to have them square off with the veritable plethora of twinked up pc’s I am frequently assailed by. Listen I know what your gonna say “the players don’t always have to be physically threatened, you can have alternative combat goals…blabity blah blah blah” Sometimes you just wanna smash the pc’s in the mouth and let them know you mean business.
The Bestiary does not suffer at all from this monster impotence as it utilizes the updated damage progression. The monster ecologies and fluff are based, not unsurprisingly, on the Midgard setting, another Open Design project and originally Wolfgang Baur’s homebrew world. I enjoy reading fluff, you might even say that I am a bit of a fluffer (kidding), and the Midgard Bestiary really delivers in this regard. Don’t let this push you away from the product though, as the monster mechanics are not tied to the setting and are easily re-skinned. For example, I have used dudes exclusively from this book to stock the latest location in my Dark Sun game full of Tareks. In the end it is really the mechanics that matter most and the book offers some interesting and cool variations for a little freshness. I particularly liked the several different Hags and Babba Yaga’s Horseman.
I managed to snag this bad boy through a Kickstarter project. I got a full color soft cover print edition and a pdf (if you’re reading Wizards take some notes) for 25$, well worth it my opinion. Overall, I really like this product and find it refreshing to grab a monster book that isn’t the “Monster Vault” for a change when I am looking to make my players crap their pants
Thanks for the shout out. I have heard good things about this as well. Long live 4e!
you might like it, there are some good paragon level monsters
I picked up a copy of this while it was in the Kickstarter. I must recommend it as well. It’s nice to have some more playtested monsters to use in 4e in the post MM3 era. Sometimes it’s hard to come up with monsters that are challenging and interesting.
[...] This post is for all the 4th edition players out there, or at least those of you willing to admit to still playing 4th edition which has become the gaming equivalent of smoking while pregnant..not … [...]
I’m glad you liked the book sir. We tried our best not to fill it with suckage. I’m one of those DMs whose players like to build incredible weapons of destruction, so I tried to make sure these beasties packed a whollop where I could. Luckily Rich talked me down from the really nasty ideas.
Keep up the good work man
“4th edition [...] has become the gaming equivalent of smoking while pregnant..not technically against the law but overwhelmingly met with shock, revulsion, and swift condemnation by others.”
While I resent these poorly chosen words, I appreciate you highlighted this book and will certainly purchase and review it for my readers from Latin America and Spain.
4e is a great system in the hands of a good DM. Keep that in mind.
Hmm I love 4e d&d, I have been playing it for the past 3+ years. I currently run one 4e game and play in another. 4e has also Been the cornerstone of this blog.
If you like this book you might want to check out the authors other work, they put out a player supplement for 4e with new classes and stuff. You should be able to get it at drive thru rpg. i haven’t checked it out but I think might pick it up soon
I’m not being hostile, but remember that with WotC’s lately treating of 4e supporters like we don’t exist, a lot of us may overreact to some words. Your blog is awesome, and this article is proof of it.
Keep it up
hey man no worries, I thought there was a bit of a miscommunication, that was just me poking fun at at the 4e bashers, edtion warriors, and WoTC’S treamtent of the editon lately.
I remember a store owner asking me to run a 4e game for free rpg day and the people that showed up refused to play 4e (they had never played it) so we played pathfinder instead and I had to sit there for the rest of day and listen to this 2 clowns talk shit about 4e to me.
thanks for reading and for sure give me a link to your review, I am sure I can scare up someone to translate it for me
Really glad you liked the book! Thanks for taking the time to review it.
I’ll post my review here once I get the book and give it a good read.
hope you have a way to understand Spanish.
hey man, your are most welcom keep up the great work
Victor, tengo solo un poco Espanol….. but I will do my best to understand your review
Shit, I thought you were radioing in coordinates to HQ when I first started reading your reply.