Reviewn June 2: Dungeon fantasy monster seeds

Every few days in June I’m picking a TTRPG book that’s been languishing on my shelf or hard drive, reading it, and writing a review. I don’t believe in attempting a full critique of game content I haven’t run or played, so my focus will be on discussing the work’s best ideas and keeping criticisms to text-level quibbles.

Today I’m looking at Dungeon fantasy monster seeds, a 16-page pamphlet by Matt Riggsby and Peter Dell’Orto, published by Steve Jackson Games. It’s for Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game, a ‘powered by GURPS’ game. This little resource just collects and compiles the bonus monster ideas from the game’s crowdfunding campaign.

The Dungeon Fantasy RPG has been on my “want to play or run” wishlist since I started following Peter D’s blog many years ago. This expansion wouldn’t make much sense without the basic Dungeon Fantasy materials; I believe I got it a little while ago from a Kickstarter.

Gameable content:

This is just sixteen pages, but they provide plenty of old-school style world content. All of it, at least to me, hearkens back to AD&D days.

• One idea is capturing a crushroom for sale to guard a druid’s grove. It’s reminiscent of AD&D dragon prices.
• I’m always on the lookout for diegetic reasons that the dungeon would be restored to a hazardous state. In DF, that’s bronze spiders.
• An ancestor’s draugr bodyguards wear delicate golden jewellery, vulnerable to fire.
• Werewolves inhabiting a dungeon might round up herds of animalian monsters, driving them in waves towards delvers.
• Gargoyles that attack by actually spitting water, a defining feature of real gargoyles (which are both artistic flourishes, and fundamentally designed to keep erosive water away from building).

If the goal was to spike a reader's interest in Dungeon Fantasy RPG, it succeeded.

My favourite bit:

A troll smart enough to be a wizard! Or perhaps a cleric of a trollish god. TTRPG trolls can be a bit played-out, so it’s always good to mix in some fresh ideas. Juxtaposition (the primeval, bestial troll with its unstoppable physiology; the sagacious, finesse-based, usually frail wizard) is often a good way to get that.

Where to get it:

https://warehouse23.com/products/dungeon-fantasy-monster-seeds-pdf