An RPG critique focused on inspiring, usable, and playable texts.
Play Critica is a review series where I focus on practical uses of an RPG text, whether you play with a supporting system or not. System elements such as procedures and mechanics are ignored in favor of answering three questions: is the text inspiring, is the text usable, and is the text playable?
Runecairn Bestiary is a 64 page bestiary for the Norse fantasy roleplaying game Runecairn. It contains 100 monsters and artwork on nearly every page. I purchased the bestiary as I planned to run an RPG with some Norse inspiration and I wanted some monsters that I could throw into the world with ease.
Is the text inspiring?
What monsters can we imagine in a Norse fantasy world? Those familiar with Norse mythology might conjure images of Draugr, Elves, and Jotunn without any need for this text. Prior to reading the bestiary, I hoped to find new monsters I had never heard of and alternative takes on classic monsters that I wouldn’t have come up with myself.
I was first disappointed reading the table of contents. Several monsters such as colossus and jotunn have many variations, but most distinctions between them are dull or obvious. A fire colossus is found near hot places like forges, immune to fire, and weak to ice. An ice colossus is found near frozen places, immune to ice, and weak to fire. Fire and ice jotunn function similarly. Compare these to the unique monster, the Jotunn of Ash. Its stat block has unexpected details like “sleeps within the bed of a dormant volcano” and “carries a molten staff that never cools” alongside a full-page artwork. I’m inspired to create an entire campaign based on waking the Jotunn of Ash to help save the world. A single, detailed colossus entry with one line detailing the different types of colossi would be a superior use of creativity and space. I wish the creator did not feel it was necessary to present multiple entries for enemy variations because the monsters they don’t do this for are often spectacular.
For instance, there’s the Sealhead, or Selkolla. From what I know, the Selkolla is an icelandic story of a seal-headed woman that shares similarities with selkies, a creature from Scottish and Gaelic folklore. In most stories, selkies can change between a seal and human form, unless their seal skin is stolen, often by a lover to keep them trapped as a human. This bestiary’s variation is a tragic variation on that story. The sealheads of Runecairn “once frolicked in the sea but [were tricked] into giving up their sealskin” leaving them trapped with a human body and bright-eyed seal head. They’re a tragic combination of the two folklores and a creature that I would never come up with on my own.
The text is full of classic monsters we all know, such as bears or trolls, but oftentimes the art is all one really needs to be inspired. Take “Turtle, River” for example. You probably have a basic picture in your head of what that might be. I could recite its stat block text to you to give you a better idea. But none of that comes close to what the image provides:
A large bird, maybe a heron, flees from the river turtle. We can see the size of this massive beast, and despite its bulk, the speed with which it moves to crush its prey in its crag of a mouth. Now, I could have told you that it is the “size of a thatched house” and it’s “found around lakes & deep rivers”, but does that capture what you’re seeing? No. This is also one of the weaknesses of the text. There is no art for “Turtle, Wayfaring”, but I would love to see it. “Viking” and “Vampire” have art, but I find that underwhelming. Most people who buy this book will have seen a hundred versions of those before, but how many of us can say we’ve pictured a “moss-covered” turtle thats the size of a “longship” and creates tidal waves to repel sailing attackers?
Is the text usable?
The body typeface is Adobe Jenson. I find the low x-height and diagonal stress of the characters difficult to read at this size. Some lines have no ascenders or descenders and the gulf between them seems huge, but decreasing the leading would lead to collisions on other lines. While Jenson is an iconic typeface and fits the theme of an older text, I find it sacrifices some readability to do so.
My main concern is with the table of contents. It lists each individual monster in alphabetical order, which is not uncommon. The result is that it’s easy enough to find a monster that begins with the letter M, but flipping through the text can give you monster whiplash. One moment I’m reading about a wild dog and the next thing I see is a colossal serpent the “length of the horizon”. If I’m running a session where players are traveling through a lively forest and I want to pull up some beast stat blocks, I may need to jump between pages 6, 16, 37, 52, and 60. This structure is less discoverable. The first spread following the table of contents provides icons and descriptions for the different types of monsters in the text. If the bestiary was organized into subsections based on these types, it would be far easier to find a relevant monster without its name or compare similar monsters against their descriptions. Both actions are necessary for GM prep and improvising relevant monsters at the table.
A strong point for the usability of the text is its grid layout. Each spread utilizes a 2x3 module grid. This allows a page to fit up to six small stat blocks or three wide stat blocks. Each spread has at least one piece of art, which can cover anywhere from a 1x1 module of the grid or the entire page. This structure is quick to learn and makes scanning pages quickly a breeze.
I also suspect the creator, Colin Le Sueur, wrote directly into the layout as most stat blocks take up their assigned space and rarely leave ill-fitting runts. This creates a darker type color and makes it easier for the eye to jump around the page when hunting for specific words.
Is the text playable?
Imagine you’re sitting at my table for a moment. You and a few viking comrades have been traveling through a harsh, snowy landscape for hours. I have you roll to find some shelter, and on a success I describe the mouth of a cave. You all gather inside and start a fire, but notice a tunnel descending deeper into the cave. Curious, you investigate deeper into the cave and it isn’t long before you hear the deep breathing of a sleeping animal.
PAUSE. Assume I improvised this cave, have nothing in prep, and I’m running a separate system from Runecairn. What can this bestiary provide me in this moment?
Glancing through the table of contents, the first interesting monster I read is “Boarskin”. I flip to that page and see that it can transform into a human, boar, or something in-between and is “quick to anger”. A perfect complication for the safety of the cave. I would present the boarskin sleeping in its half-boar, half-man form. The image is unsettling and imparts to the players that the creature is far from mundane. I don’t know what happens next, but I see the possibilities of startling the creature into a fury or carefully waking the creature and coming to a peaceful resolution.
I use the term “playable” to refer to how easy it is for me to pick up a text, take something from it, and put it in the minds of my players. The example above was natural and easy for me as a GM to expand upon. If the players found themselves in catacombs instead of a cave, I might find the Deathwarden, flip to that page, and soon be describing a terrifying foe that is raising enraged Draugr to swarm the players. Or I might conjure a longship-crushing whale on the high seas. Or a blind, white worm deep in a maggoty barrow. I am confident Runecairn Bestiary has many monsters that I can drop into any fantasy Norse games I run in the future.
Finem Facio
While it is hard to find relevant monsters without scanning page by page, and there are too many similar monsters, the plethora of art and several inspiring monster designs make Runecairn Bestiary a worthwhile purchase for anyone running a Norse campaign or setting.
If you wish to purchase a copy for yourself, physical and digital copies of Runecairn Bestiary can be found at byodinsbeardrpg.com. Writing, layout, and design by Colin Le Sueur. Cover illustrations by Goran Gligović and Brandon Yu. Interior illustrations by Kim Diaz Holm, Felipe Faria, Dean Spencer, Jeffrey Koch, Brandon Yu, Perplexing Ruins, and Colin Le Sueur.
Updated on March 9th to include example images for the typography and grid sections.
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