OSR: The Monster Overhaul Megapost

The Monster Overhaul is now on sale. Tell your friends! Heck, tell your enemies.

• US (and the rest of the world): Indie Press Revolution.
• Canada: Compose Dream Games. 
• UK/EU: Compose Dream Games UK.
  
• PDF: DriveThruRPG.

Check out these retailer lists to see if your local game store can order a copy.

What’s a Sphinx without a riddle, or a Minotaur without a labyrinth? What’s a Dragon without a hoard, or a Peasant without a grievance?

The Monster Overhaul is a massive Role Playing Game bestiary designed for at-table utility. Monsters are presented alongside useful tools, ready for immediate use in any scenario.

This book aims to provide a GM with the tools they need, as they need them, without slowing down a session. In the middle of a game, a GM doesn’t need to be told that Bears live in caves or that Ghosts haunt graveyards. They know that. What they need are interesting prompts that are difficult to invent under pressure; names, details, motivations, secrets, riddles, maps, twists, etc.

Numbers are calibrated around old-school fantasy adventure game principles. This book should be compatible with, and has been tested against, the most popular and enduring old-school systems.

This 336 page book contains:

• 200+ Monsters.
• 160+ Pieces of original art.
• 20+ Maps.
• Random encounter tables, indexes, and a host of other useful tools.

Editing by Dai Shugars.

Art by Lucas Roussel, Robin Carpenter, Iguanamouth, Logan Stahl, Ash Rudolph, Nadhir Nor, Crim_Reaper, Naf, Luka Rejec, Erin Kubo, Conor Nolan, Frenden, Scott Wegener, and Dyson Logos.

Reviews

The Monster Overhaul (Skerples): From art to organization, this is shaping up to be to monster manuals as Tomb of the Serpent Kings is to dungeon adventures - the sort of thing that takes the fundamentals and applies long-needed functionality updates.

-Dan, throneofsalt.blogspot.com. The Monster Overhaul won three Salty Awards for “Best Book That Is Not In Book Form Yet”.

It’s amazing. Lots of fun. Very thoughtful. Incredibly actionable. Basically my go to Monster Manual at my table.

-Reddit user acluewithout

It's a massive, useful, inspiring bestiary, and it's applicable no matter what fantasy game you run. Seek it out.

-Mark Finn

I'm at the stage of my DMing career -- in the neighborhood of 40 years, yikes -- where I want things to be immediately useful at the table. (I have inspiration for days at this point, thanks.) A book that instantly gives me a list of names for NPCs when my players would rather talk than fight, a random table of colorful descriptions, other things that answer the needs of an actual DM playing the actual game? Yes, please.

Too many books seem to have never been playtested and, moreover, have little to no connection to how they will be used in actual play. This is the exact opposite of that, and I love it.  

-Whizbang Dustyboots

All around a great tool, broadly useful, but opinionated enough in it's decisions to avoid being a milquetoast kind of generic. One of the few monster books that covers the entire "generic fantasy rpg" gamut, while being actually a useful tool.

To make best use of it you will probably want to be playing a Dungeons and Dragons style game, but I think even if you're running something like a pulp or sci-fantasty type game you'll be able to get mileage out of it.

-Josh G

As if I'd been waiting for it for 40 years. If you must keep only one, this is this one. This book should be mandatory. What a monster manual should always have been. Instant classic.

-The Merry Mushmen 

Absolutely gorgeous, superb quality materials, and I am in love with the "old school" artwork. This is one of those rare TTRPG items that cut out all the fluff and wasted space, this book is so crammed with information WoTC would have split it into 4 middling volumes. Lives up to its name, a proper overhaul of bloated systems condensed and packed expertly into a single volume.

-PibbleFiasco

What a wonderful book - absolutely chock full of useful, inspiring ideas. Clearly a labour of love from the author and sets a very high bar. Well done, its a triumph!

-Ken McLennan

I have to say that this is absolutely one of the best quality books I've ever owned. Truly an amazing physical specimen. Also, it's my new favorite bestiary and it's going to take a LOT to de-throne this thing. Amazing.

-Robert Wiberg

This is one of those books that, when it showed up and I cracked the cover and flipped through it, I was immediately like, "Oh, I need to not flip through this. I need to set this aside because I need to devote a bit of time and space. I need to respect the book, because it's capital I Important." And I think that my gut reaction is correct. I think that this is a fantastic repurposing and reimagining of monster manuals... There is such an abundance of thought on display for every single monster.

-Vintage RPG Podcast

That book is absurdly good. Even after reading so many glowing reviews it still exceeded my expectations. The way the book is organized, the quality of writing, the usefulness both at the table and in advance, it’s probably the best monster manual I’ve ever seen, full stop. I can’t recommend it enough.

-Reddit user voltron00x

Videos

@dragonsafari76

Why?

I wanted to create a utility-focused monster manual with a ton of cool art, useful maps, and handy tools. Planning started back in 2019; check out the tag for more WIP posts and background information. After many years of work, it's amazing to see the book out in the real world, helping GMs everywhere.

Thank You

Thanks again to Dai Shugars, the artists, the playesters, all my Patreon supporters, all the Kickstarter backers, and everyone else who helped make this book possible.