A solid supplement for the Usagi Yojimbo Roleplaying Game. Dungeons & Dragons GMs may also want to check this one out.
Review Originally Published December 28th, 2000
Usagi Yojimbo: Monsters! is, obviously, the monsters supplement for the Usagi Yojimbo Roleplaying Game – adapting fourteen supernatural creatures from the Usagi comic book for use.
Although there are only fourteen creatures in this slim little pamphlet (making the total cost only slightly less than a buck a monster), the value is here: Each monster receives a two to three page write-up, including behavior, special powers, a summary of their appearances in Usagi comics, and an adventure seed. Although the adventure seeds are often simplistic, and occasionally nothing more than fodder for a single encounter (rather than a full-fledged adventure), this is still rather nice.
The other thing I like about this product is the opening introduction – which gives the background on Japanese monsters and how this is interpreted in the Usagi universe (providing a consistent, underlying mythos to the rest of the material).
There are three really annoying things about this product:
Annoying Thing #1: A half dozen pages are taken up by a completely random section of rules which should’ve been included in the core rulebook. We know they should’ve been included in the core rulebook for two reasons: First, whenever you get a random selection of miscellaneous rules in the very first supplement released for a game, you know that those pages were cut from the main rulebook. Second, one of the things included in this book is the Goat species – which was actually used in the core rulebook to describe an NPC. Whoops.
Annoying Thing #2: Conversion notes are included for FUDGE and D20. That isn’t the annoying thing (I’ll discuss these a more in a second), though. The annoying thing is this: Stats are included in these conversions for the kitsune. Unfortunately, the kitsune is not one of the monsters included in this product – we are informed that the kitsune was a special promotional monster which was published in an unnamed magazine. The kitsune should’ve been in this book. The fact it isn’t, is annoying.
Annoying Thing #3: The book was obviously rushed through the editorial process – typos and grammatical errors abound. The most egregious one I found was this: “Sutras can be written to render a person invisible to spirits and supernatural monsters or they can be written to render the object or person invisible to them.” Since that’s a rule, I’m more than a little annoyed. Very sloppy.
Back to the conversion notes: These are actually very nice, transforming what would otherwise be a fairly narrow supplement into a broadly useful one. I heartily recommend that D&D GMs, in particular, pick this book up: The monsters are well done and come with a lot of support, and should add some nice spice to your campaign.
Usagi Yojimbo GMs would, I think, be remiss in giving this product a pass. The price is a little steep, but the material is fairly solid solid.
Style: 3
Substance: 3
Grade: B
Title: Usagi Yojimbo: Monsters!
Authors: Jared Smith
Company: Gold Rush Games
Line: Usagi Yojimbo
Price: $12.00
ISBN: 1-890305-09-X
Production Code: U101
Pages: 48
I’ve always been disappointed in this review. I didn’t do a good enough job explaining WHY I liked the stuff that I liked about it, which creates a lopsided and overly negative impression. I can’t properly fix that at the moment because it’s been 20+ years since I used this book, but I will say that I was sincere when I recommended it. It’s a slim volume, but filled with meaty, useful material.
Is it weird that this one review still bugs me even after all these years? I don’t think so. Creators grow from their mistakes. This was a miss, but one that serves as a touchstone that has made the reviews I’ve written since better.
For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.
I haven’t read any Usagi Yojimbo comics (I suspect I should remedy that), but, man, his figure in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line in the 90’s was pretty sweet.
If I was writing that Sutra sentence I would have written it as:
“A Sutra can be written to render either a person or an object invisible to spirits and supernatural monsters”
At least that seems to be the intent to me.
Did you ever find out where the kitsune had been published?
@AMX: The Kitsune was published in Pyramid Online on December 29th, 2000. (Coincidentally the day AFTER my review of the book was first posted, which explains why past-me wasn’t able to identify it.)
You can find a preview of the article here.
It looks like it was one of the articles missed in the archived copy of Pyramid sent to subscribers when the magazine was taken offline. So the local copy I personally saved might be one of the only places it still exists in the entire world. Yikes.