IF HoM vs S&W Monstrosities???

[chickeneater456]

Greetings all,

Need your help, please. Am considering adding S&W Monstrosities to my collection to augment IF's Handbook of Monsters (HoM). Would this be wise? Is there a lot of overlap between the two? How many new/additional monsters might I get for my 0e game with Monstrosities? Is S&W Monstrosities 100% compatible with IF HoM? If not, how much conversion might I have to do?

Is there another tome of monsters I should consider adding to my 0e game if I'm looking for the biggest bang for my buck?

Some excellent analysis/insight would be greatly appreciated. Hoping to get feedback from someone who owns a copy of Monstrosities themselves.

Many thanks.

[TPFox]

You need Swords & Wizardry 0e Reloaded.

[chiisu81]

I recommend the Creature Compendium

[Clever_Munkey]

S&W Monstrosities is great, as is Chi's suggestion. You will get lots of duplicates going the monstrosities route, but also lots of variants and new creatures. CC1 will be only new creatures, but is not formatted as neatly imo.

[chiisu81]

Monsters of Myth
Ford's Faeries
Blood & Treasure Monster Tome

[chickeneater456]

Thank you all for your recommendations.

I have begun reviewing the products mentioned. As CC1 Creature Compendium is free on DTRPG, I couldn't resist downloading a copy and giving it a review. I think I might be purchasing a POD copy of this.

The monsters contained therein are all new to me. I appreciate the 0e/BX/1e stat block conversions. That, IMHO, makes it more versatile than a product stated out for one version of the game only. I didn't find the multiple stat blocks cumbersome in any way. That makes CC1 a great companion to IF HoM.

Monstrosities is the most expensive offering. S&W 0e Reloaded Monster book is fairly priced as a $5 PDF. That will most likely receive my attention soon.

Monsters of Myth seems to be a solid (and free) OSRIC/1e resource. Ford's Faeries was also free/PWYW. The illustrations were amazing. 50 more monsters added to my game. Blood & Treasure has a distinctive 3e/BFRPG feel to me. Nevertheless, more free/PWYW monsters for my IF game (including something like 13 dinosaurs, and aquatic/flying reptiles, too).

Many thanks.

[lfdaslfoui]

Have you downloaded the S&W 0e Reloaded Monster book yet? Do you have any comments?

[targenthan]

I have received the softcover printing of S&W 0e Reloaded Monter Book via Lulu a few days ago and can say the presentation in the physical book is much better - The digital file sems to just be a listing of the monsters.

It presents as many monsters as available to Matt Finch at the time as was practicable - converted to 0e stats. There is even advice in the Introduction on how to convert these monsters to use with BFRPG - alongside LL and OSRIC etc.

To the extent where there may be duplicates with IF HoM this S&W 0e Monster Book is an ideal supplement to Chris's IF work.