GURPS Monsters (ISBN 1-55634-518-6) is a 128-page soft-bound book compiled by J. Hunter Johnson and published in 2002 by Steve Jackson Games as a supplement for the GURPS role-playing game system. It contains biographies and gaming statistics for forty-eight monsters for various campaign settings.
 GURPS Monsters cover | |
| Designers | Hunter Johnson |
|---|---|
| Publishers | Steve Jackson Games |
| Publication | March 1, 2002 |
| Genres | Horror |
| Systems | GURPS |
Contents
editA Mythological Menagerie
edit- Amenhotep the Mummy, an undead pharaoh
- Asterius the Minotaur, half-man, half-bull
- Curupira, a Tupi protector of the forest
- The Golem, the Jewish legend of a clay man
- The Great Leech of Tlanusi'yi, a 350-foot worm
- Lilith, Adam's first wife
- La Llorona, the Weeping Woman of the Rio Grande
- Medusa, a woman with a petrifying gaze
- Scylla, a six-headed dog-woman
- Tiamat, the Sumerian dragon-goddess
- Yama Uba, a Japanese witch
The Cryptozoo
edit- The Beast of Le Gévaudan, a giant wolf
- Bigfoot, a shy simian biped
- El Chupacabra, the Puerto Rican goat-sucker
- The Great Sphinx, the guardian of Egypt
- The Honey Island Swamp Monster, the Louisiana Wookiee
- Hughes De Camp-D'Avesnes, French 11th-century nobleman and werewolf
- The Jersey Devil, a hoofed, winged near-man
- The Mothman, the prophetic insectoid creature
- Specimen Alpha-39, an intelligent sewer alligator
- Spring-Heeled Jack, a red-eyed, leaping trickster
Legends of Literature
edit- The Big Bad Wolf, a cautionary tale about carnality
- The Doppelgänger, an identity-stealing manipulator
- Dracula, the world's most celebrated vampire
- Frankenstein's Monster, Mary Shelley's famous creation
- Geryon, a demon from Dante's Inferno
- Grendel, arch-enemy of Beowulf
- Headless Horseman, the pumpkin-headed Hessian mercenary
- The Phantom of the Opera, a deformed but cultured man
- The Queen of Air and Darkness, a cold-hearted faerie
- Shub-Internet, a Lovecraftian transdimensional entity suffusing the internet
Original Monsters
edit- Barclay Thormon, the disembodied brain of a cruel businessman
- Benny the Fox, a sadistic cartoon come to life
- Elrond Carver, a radioactive gangster for GURPS Technomancer
- Gill Man, an homage to the Creature from the Black Lagoon
- Hachi-Otoko, a man-shaped swarm of bees
- Harvester, a gigantic, hungry mass of writhing tentacles
- Ixis, a shapeshifting imposter for a fantasy campaign
- Leatherjacket, a dismembered killer held together by his harness
- Leviathan, a conglomeration of many human victims
- Lord K'Han the Giant Ape, inspired by King Kong
- The Maylum Spirit, a vicious ghost trapped in an insane asylum
- Pusan Chen, an undead dragon
- Special Agent Thomas Johnson, a Man in Black like Agent Smith
- Stitches the Patchwork Clown, a murderous doll
- Sylvia Sternenkind, a beautiful bioroid serial-killer for GURPS Transhuman Space
- Tamok the Conqueror, a telepathic leader of an alien space fleet
- The Woodbury Blob, inspired by The Blob
Publication history
editGURPS Monsters is a 128-page soft-bound book compiled by J. Hunter Johnson and published in 2002 by Steve Jackson Games as a supplement for the GURPS role-playing game system.
Writer/compiler
editHunter Johnson is a freelance game designer, author, and translator. He has translated many game rules and websites from German for Mayfair Games. He authored or co-authored six books for Steve Jackson Games, including GURPS Monsters, GURPS WWII: Frozen Hell, and the second edition of GURPS Japan. Johnson served for five years as the first coordinator of GURPS errata for Steve Jackson Games.[1] He has also designed a few computer games, including gToons for Cartoon Network.[2] (published by White Wolf Publishing) and Quizgle.com.[3]
Reception
editGURPS Monsters won a rating of A in a review published in Games Unplugged.[4] John G. Snyder of gamingreport.com rated the book at 4 1/2 stars, saying, "You will be pleasantly surprised and not a little disturbed."[5] Freelance writer Craig Oxbrow says in a 2001 review of the book for rpg.net, "GURPS Monsters is a wealth of ideas and inspiration for monsters as characters," and that it "will see use beyond the GURPS system."[6]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Biographie : J. Hunter Johnson (French)". Guide du roliste. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
- ^ J. Hunter Johnson. "Hunter Johnson — Gaming". Hunter and Lori Johnson. Archived from the original on August 14, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
- ^ Coots, Danielle (June 20, 2013). "Centerville resident develops word game on web". Centerville-Washington Times: 10A.
- ^ "Review: GURPS Monsters". Games Unplugged (17): 39. June 2002. Retrieved 13 August 2014. Print magazine contains review. The url given in this reference directs to an rpg.net site, which reports only the score of the review. The actual issue is reported to be available at "Tsar Rising, Reviewed by Spike y Jones :: The Open Gaming Exchange :: Promoting the exchange of Open Gaming Content". Archived from the original on 2004-05-06. Retrieved 2014-08-23. , but as of August 13, 2014, the link is not responding.
- ^ Snyder, John G. "GURPS Monsters Reviewed". Gamingreport.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- ^ Oxbrow, Craig. "GURPS Monsters Capsule Review". rpg.net. Retrieved 13 August 2014.