Pyramid Review
vs. Monsters Deluxe Edition
Published by Ronin Arts
vs. Monsters
Written by Philip Reed
88-page A5 Perfect Bound Black & White Book; $15
1.8 MB 41-page PDF; $7.00vs. Monsters Addition
Written by Michael Hammes
48-page A5 Perfect Bound Black & White Book; $10
648 KB 20-page PDF; $5.00vs. Monsters is not a new game, per se. Written by Philip Reed, well-known as the designer of Frag for Steve Jackson Games and of his own creations such as The Book of Unusual Treasures and Motocaust, the game first appeared in April 2003 in PDF format. Originally it was an entry at www.24hourrpg.com, the idea being to take a game from the conception stage through design and development to layout and presentation in exactly 24 hours. vs. Monsters saw further development in 2004, being released as a PDF RPG, and finally this year as a series of books through the usual distribution channels.
Although still available as a PDF, vs. Monsters comes as a small white book, whose internal layout marked in heavy, sometimes oppressive swathes of black. This is actually effective, as is the use of white text on the black, and it certainly suits the game's setting. So does the artwork, which is all taken from the public domain, and either hints at the medievalism of its horror, or the romantic longings of its period. This is the late 19th century, for vs. Monsters falls into the Gothic genre, similar to titles such as My life With Master, Gloom -- The Game of Inauspicious Incidents & Grave Consequences . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: December 9, 2005
Copyright © 2005 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.