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[COMPLETE] Looking back at the limited series: Player's Option, Monstrous Arcana, Odyssey, and more!
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<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8654493" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p>Second in the Monstrous Arcana series, <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17337/Monstrous-Arcana-The-Sea-Devils-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>The Sea Devils</em></a> is a book I recall liking more than I expected to when I first picked it up. Somewhat surprisingly, that's still the case now.</p><p></p><p>I call that surprising because, if you remember <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/complete-looking-back-at-the-leatherette-series-phbr-dmgr-hr-and-more.677493/page-12#post-8268225" target="_blank">my take</a> on <em>DMGR9 Of Ships and the Sea</em> (which was a companion piece to this), I mention how undersea adventuring doesn't really do it for me. And yet, this book about a race of evil fish-people managed to not only pique my interest, but still holds up after quite a few years of hindsight. Why is that?</p><p></p><p>My suspicion is that part of it has to do with the fact that an effort is made to highlight the psychology and sociology of these creatures, which was desperately needed. I didn't realize until much later on that the subjects of the Monstrous Arcana series – beholders, sahuagin, and illithids – were all Lawful Evil in nature, which highlights how they're capable of working together as part of an organized society. While beholders had already received some work on this via Spelljammer and the Forgotten Realms, and illithids were presented as a unified threat almost from the get-go, the sahuagin needed more work in this area, and it was done well here, presenting the eponymous sea devils as being possessed of a fierce racial pride that formed the bedrock of a very strict (but still flexible) social cohesion, one in which their religion plays only a moderate role. (Also, this book again makes mention of Ronassic of Sigil as an in-character source; were all of these mentions supposed to be building toward anything besides a shared in-world reference?)</p><p></p><p>That leads me to the second thing which made this book intriguing: it played up the mystery of the sahuagin's origins. While Sekolah, from <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16895/DMGR4-Monster-Mythology-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>DMGR4 Monster Mythology</em></a> is presented as the patron of the sahuagin race, this supplement underlines how the sahuagin don't refer to him as their creator deity. In fact, the book takes pains to point out how the sahuagin are unusual in that they not only have four-armed mutations with some regularity, but also have <em>malenti</em> (i.e. sahuagin who are born looking like sea elves instead of fish-people) born every so often. And, the book tells us, the anatomy of a sahuagin's organs strangely resembles that of a new monster introduced here, the anguiliians.</p><p></p><p>Looking back now, it seems obvious that this was all fodder for the trilogy of adventures tied back to this sourcebook, <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17025/Evil-Tide-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Evil Tide</em></a>, <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17338/Night-of-the-Shark-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Night of the Shark</em></a>, and <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17340/Sea-of-Blood-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Sea of Blood</em></a>, though I didn't realize that at the time. As it stands, the overview of those variant sahuagins, along with an updated expansion of their specialty priests of sekolah, weresharks and sharkweres (the latter being an "antherion"; does anyone else remember them? They were animals that could become people, rather than people which could become animals), all made for a surprisingly diverse array of creatures which existed in the ecosystem around sahuagin territory.</p><p></p><p>On a mild tangent, while the sales pages for this book notes that the sahuagin weren't inspired by Lovecraft's deep ones, the listings for the adventures talk about how they nevertheless evoke that same theme. While I haven't read those (yet), that seems like a bit of an odd way to go; the kuo-toa always struck me as being much more akin to the deep ones than the sahuagin.</p><p></p><p>Likewise, I can't help but note that, unless I've somehow managed to miss the reference all this time, there's nothing here about how to pronounce "sahuagin." I had to go back to that old "Ay pronunseeAYshun gyd" article in <em>Dragon</em> #93 to find that (it's sa-HWA-gin, as it turns out, with that last "g" being hard like "grove"). Speaking of which, this sourcebook got a mild expansion in <em>Dragon</em> #239 which, honestly, didn't add very much. I mean, sahuagin armor and goggles to protect their eyes from bright light are only moderately interesting; the chemical substance that's ignited by water and used to fight scrags (marine trolls) was a little more so, but the entire thing seemed like little more than stuff from the cutting room floor.</p><p></p><p>Another aspect of what made this book so appealing was its smart use (but not overreliance) on mechanics to flesh things out. While I suspect that this is the grognard in me talking, I found it interesting (and, these days, nostalgic) to have the overview of a sahuagin village note that they have 1d4x10 hatchings and 2d4x10 unhatched eggs, and that for every 10 sahuagin females present there's a 10% chance for a priestess, who will be 5th level and have 1d4 assistants, each of which is level 1-4. Things like this make my dice hand itch (in a good way, I mean). Don't even get me started on how they actually provide stats for a racial hero among the sahuagin, plus stats for Sekolah's avatar!</p><p></p><p>Overall, this is an excellent example of how to take a slightly more prosaic – at least compared to beholders and illithids – race and make them interesting. Raising questions whose answers are only hinted at, fleshing out and tying together various disparate aspects of their presentation, laying down a smart collection of flavor text and giving it supporting game mechanics; this is how it's done. Things like this <em>almost</em> make me want to run an underwater campaign, particularly since <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16796/Sea-of-Fallen-Stars-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Sea of Fallen Stars</em></a> introduced "noble malenti," who've broken away from the sahuagins' malevolent influence, as a PC race.</p><p></p><p>Of course, I still consider this the weakest of the three Monstrous Arcana books, at least in terms of its subject. Beholders and mind flayers were already cool before their respective sourcebooks came out, whereas the sahuagin seem like they needed this to elevate them to the point of being noticed. It's no coincidence that, when D&D Third Edition came out, WotC had no problem with releasing sahuagin under the Open Game License, whereas beholders and illithids were kept out of the hands of third-party publishers (not withstanding a few early products that came out as part of the "gentlemens' agreement" that was in place before the OGL was formally released).</p><p></p><p>It's with that in mind that we look toward the final Monstrous Arcana book. Whereas up to now, we got moderately-interesting coverage of a cool monster, and good coverage of an okay monster, we finally get an excellent write-up of an awesome monster...</p><p></p><p><em>Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 8654493, member: 8461"] Second in the Monstrous Arcana series, [url=https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17337/Monstrous-Arcana-The-Sea-Devils-2e?affiliate_id=820][i]The Sea Devils[/i][/url] is a book I recall liking more than I expected to when I first picked it up. Somewhat surprisingly, that's still the case now. I call that surprising because, if you remember [url=https://www.enworld.org/threads/complete-looking-back-at-the-leatherette-series-phbr-dmgr-hr-and-more.677493/page-12#post-8268225]my take[/url] on [i]DMGR9 Of Ships and the Sea[/i] (which was a companion piece to this), I mention how undersea adventuring doesn't really do it for me. And yet, this book about a race of evil fish-people managed to not only pique my interest, but still holds up after quite a few years of hindsight. Why is that? My suspicion is that part of it has to do with the fact that an effort is made to highlight the psychology and sociology of these creatures, which was desperately needed. I didn't realize until much later on that the subjects of the Monstrous Arcana series – beholders, sahuagin, and illithids – were all Lawful Evil in nature, which highlights how they're capable of working together as part of an organized society. While beholders had already received some work on this via Spelljammer and the Forgotten Realms, and illithids were presented as a unified threat almost from the get-go, the sahuagin needed more work in this area, and it was done well here, presenting the eponymous sea devils as being possessed of a fierce racial pride that formed the bedrock of a very strict (but still flexible) social cohesion, one in which their religion plays only a moderate role. (Also, this book again makes mention of Ronassic of Sigil as an in-character source; were all of these mentions supposed to be building toward anything besides a shared in-world reference?) That leads me to the second thing which made this book intriguing: it played up the mystery of the sahuagin's origins. While Sekolah, from [url=https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16895/DMGR4-Monster-Mythology-2e?affiliate_id=820][i]DMGR4 Monster Mythology[/i][/url] is presented as the patron of the sahuagin race, this supplement underlines how the sahuagin don't refer to him as their creator deity. In fact, the book takes pains to point out how the sahuagin are unusual in that they not only have four-armed mutations with some regularity, but also have [i]malenti[/i] (i.e. sahuagin who are born looking like sea elves instead of fish-people) born every so often. And, the book tells us, the anatomy of a sahuagin's organs strangely resembles that of a new monster introduced here, the anguiliians. Looking back now, it seems obvious that this was all fodder for the trilogy of adventures tied back to this sourcebook, [url=https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17025/Evil-Tide-2e?affiliate_id=820][i]Evil Tide[/i][/url], [url=https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17338/Night-of-the-Shark-2e?affiliate_id=820][i]Night of the Shark[/i][/url], and [url=https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17340/Sea-of-Blood-2e?affiliate_id=820][i]Sea of Blood[/i][/url], though I didn't realize that at the time. As it stands, the overview of those variant sahuagins, along with an updated expansion of their specialty priests of sekolah, weresharks and sharkweres (the latter being an "antherion"; does anyone else remember them? They were animals that could become people, rather than people which could become animals), all made for a surprisingly diverse array of creatures which existed in the ecosystem around sahuagin territory. On a mild tangent, while the sales pages for this book notes that the sahuagin weren't inspired by Lovecraft's deep ones, the listings for the adventures talk about how they nevertheless evoke that same theme. While I haven't read those (yet), that seems like a bit of an odd way to go; the kuo-toa always struck me as being much more akin to the deep ones than the sahuagin. Likewise, I can't help but note that, unless I've somehow managed to miss the reference all this time, there's nothing here about how to pronounce "sahuagin." I had to go back to that old "Ay pronunseeAYshun gyd" article in [i]Dragon[/i] #93 to find that (it's sa-HWA-gin, as it turns out, with that last "g" being hard like "grove"). Speaking of which, this sourcebook got a mild expansion in [i]Dragon[/i] #239 which, honestly, didn't add very much. I mean, sahuagin armor and goggles to protect their eyes from bright light are only moderately interesting; the chemical substance that's ignited by water and used to fight scrags (marine trolls) was a little more so, but the entire thing seemed like little more than stuff from the cutting room floor. Another aspect of what made this book so appealing was its smart use (but not overreliance) on mechanics to flesh things out. While I suspect that this is the grognard in me talking, I found it interesting (and, these days, nostalgic) to have the overview of a sahuagin village note that they have 1d4x10 hatchings and 2d4x10 unhatched eggs, and that for every 10 sahuagin females present there's a 10% chance for a priestess, who will be 5th level and have 1d4 assistants, each of which is level 1-4. Things like this make my dice hand itch (in a good way, I mean). Don't even get me started on how they actually provide stats for a racial hero among the sahuagin, plus stats for Sekolah's avatar! Overall, this is an excellent example of how to take a slightly more prosaic – at least compared to beholders and illithids – race and make them interesting. Raising questions whose answers are only hinted at, fleshing out and tying together various disparate aspects of their presentation, laying down a smart collection of flavor text and giving it supporting game mechanics; this is how it's done. Things like this [i]almost[/i] make me want to run an underwater campaign, particularly since [url=https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16796/Sea-of-Fallen-Stars-2e?affiliate_id=820][i]Sea of Fallen Stars[/i][/url] introduced "noble malenti," who've broken away from the sahuagins' malevolent influence, as a PC race. Of course, I still consider this the weakest of the three Monstrous Arcana books, at least in terms of its subject. Beholders and mind flayers were already cool before their respective sourcebooks came out, whereas the sahuagin seem like they needed this to elevate them to the point of being noticed. It's no coincidence that, when D&D Third Edition came out, WotC had no problem with releasing sahuagin under the Open Game License, whereas beholders and illithids were kept out of the hands of third-party publishers (not withstanding a few early products that came out as part of the "gentlemens' agreement" that was in place before the OGL was formally released). It's with that in mind that we look toward the final Monstrous Arcana book. Whereas up to now, we got moderately-interesting coverage of a cool monster, and good coverage of an okay monster, we finally get an excellent write-up of an awesome monster... [i]Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.[/i] [/QUOTE]
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