Creature Weekly Volume 5
From: Octavirate Games
Reviewed by: Ron McClung
Creature Weekly Volume 5 is a new Weekly RPG Source E-zine from Octavirate Games.
Creature Weekly is Octavirate’s flagship product in which they regular publish new creatures that can be used in both d20 fantasy and d20 Modern/Future settings. From the web site: Modern campaigns are supported in both fantasy and sci-fi variants, along with post-apocalyptic settings and science-fiction/space opera backgrounds. I find that very cool already. It, in fact, includes rules for the Sanity Rating in Call of Cthulhu d20.
From website:
“ Grab your vorpal blade and get ready. Lewis Carroll’s jabberwock is here, and he’s brought friends.”
Included in this issue are several creatures: Bioaegis (living armor), Venusians, the jabberwock, Lurg’zul – hounds of Gloucester, and Vulgrex – dreadhopper. Each are stat’ed out in d20 3.5 and 3.0 terms as well as d20 Modern terms. Each have side notes on how to integrate them into the various genres. I like that a lot. It recognizes that many of us d20 players want to be able to port creatures over from the other genres easily.
Bioaegis is a nasty item that I like very much. It starts out as a crystalline egg that waits for a victim to come across it (a la an Alien egg). Once ‘infected’, the bioaegis grows into a suit of living armor around the character. There are good things and bad things about that, though. The good thing is that the bioaegis provides all kinds of neat power, protections and abilities including Acid Spray, increased hit die, and telepathy with other bioaegis hosts (…oh I am so going to use this…). The bad side is that the bioaegis intelligence controls your character. The character is simply a host. The author provides two instances of a bioaegis-infested host – a human fighter and a griffon. Very nasty and very cool. It provides variant rules stats for d20 Modern, Star Wars d20, and d20 Call of Cthulhu.
Femiax (Venusians) are a race of fey-like humanoids from Venus. The background is written in a modern-era, but the rules’ variants, of course, include fantasy and sci-fi. It also includes rules for Venusians as characters. Venusians are an interesting race with an ability to rend a target’s ego to the point that the target has no will of his own. They traditionally wield PL 7 technology and are not always friendly to other races. They are arrogant, self-assured, distrustful and have a severe superiority complex.
From page 12:
“The jabberwock is either the most horrible of civil creatures or the most civil of horrible creatures,…”
Jabberwock, of course, is the classic creature from Lewis Carroll’s tale Through the Looking Glass. There are two versions fully stat’ed out – the Challenge Rating (CR) 7 large version and the CR 10 huge or manxome version. The beast is of dragon-kind, but not like any dragon I have seen. However, if I had to place him somewhere, it probably would be a dragon. The author stays true to the literary concept of the jabberwock with abilities and talents. The primary ability of a jabberwock is its burble, which dazes and confuses its enemy within a certain range. Interestingly, their language can not be translated by any means and as a result, the jabberwock often is misunderstood as an evil creature. Some are quite evil and cantankerous but not all.
Lurg’zul – hounds of Gloucester – is a beast straight out of Lovecraftian horror. It is a medium extraplanar outsider with a lower body that is vaguely like a dog, but the upper body is not. This Challenge Rating 4 beast has a poisonous bite and is intangible on Earth. Intended to be used in a near-modern era earth (i.e. Call of Cthulhu d20), it is a formidable and strange creature. Also included is a tomb called Demon-Cults of the New World which provides a brief in-game account of the hound.
Vulgrex – dreadhopper – is another bizarre creature. It seems to be a cross between a crustacean and a bird. Meant to be a bug-like nuisance, this small unintelligent creature hunts in groups. It uses its ray of emfeeblement to subdue and drain its targets and then attack. This is an interesting creature as well.
The artwork is anime-ish but well-done. The layout is professionally done and printer friendly. Very nicely done PDF.
In conclusion, what I liked most of all about this particular issue (given that I have not seen any of the other issues) is its versatility and coverage of all major d20 genres. It, unlike many of the other d20 publications, recognizes that there are other d20 genres other than fantasy and there are people playing in those genres. Being a big anything-other-than-fantasy genre fan myself, I found it refreshing. I am going to pay closer attention to this series of PDF and maybe submit ideas of my own, if they would take them.
For more details on Octavirate Games and their new Weekly RPG E-zine “Creature Weekly Volume 5” check them out at their website http://www.octavirate.com/ and at all of your local game stores.
Creature Weekly Volume 5
From: Octavirate Games
Type of Game: Weekly RPG Source E-zine
Written by: S. Trent Troop
Editors: Hector Haddaway,
Cover Illustration: Ronald Smith
Illustration and Concepting: Ronald Smith and S. Trent Troop
Design, Layout and Typesetting: S. Trent Troop
Number of Pages: 20
Game Components Included: one PDF e-book
Game Components Not Included: Core d20 Rulebooks
Retail Price: $ 3.20 (US)
Item Number: OCW0005
Website: http://www.octavirate.com/
Reviewed by: Ron McClung