This article originally appeared in d20 Weekly
Minions: Rebirth Review
Published by Bastion Press
132-page Adobe Acrobat PDF; $9.95
Minions: Rebirth reprints and integrates material from two previous books: the 98 page print book Minions: Fearsome Foes and the 25 page e-Minions: Cunning Creatures PDF.
The Rebirth PDF comes with three files: the cover, a borderless version of the book, and a version with a full-color border on alternating pages (for those who want double-sided printing). It's useful that the mostly black cover is a separate file; it is unnecessary if you just want to print the book for its contents, and also makes navigating the PDF easier, since the PDF pages correspond to the page number listed on the bottom of the printouts. The navigation bar allows jumping straight to any of the individual monsters.
The electronic PDF format is a great format for monster books, letting the DMs just print out the one or two pages needed for the night instead of hauling around a whole book. Unfortunately, the actual text comes across readable but fuzzy on the screen. This is surprising, because Bastion Press has done excellent work on the Wizards of the Coast ESDs; its conversions of old products to PDFs have previously meant text that reads crisply on-screen. Fortunately, the text of Minions is clear and crisp when printed out.
There are 109 monster entries, including six inner planar familiar types and four templates. There is a wide variety of monster types, with only animals and elementals not represented. The monstrous humanoids, . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: November 20, 2002
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