Review: Exquisite Corpses by Stefan Poag
It’s snowing outside and warm and cozy inside. I’ve got some hot spiced wine brewing on the stovetop. What a perfect time to kick back with an OSR book and do some imaginatin’. I have a rather large read pile that I am slowly picking my way through. However, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I got a few more things to add to the pile. The first thing I grabbed really has grabbed me back. I’m talking about Exquisite Corpses: A New Kind of Monster Manual for Old School Role Playing Games by Stefan Poag. Where to start, where to start… the book itself is digest size 5 ½” x 8 ½” with a spiral binding and a glossy, heavy card stock cover weighing in at 91 pages. Normally I wouldn’t get too much into the physicality of the product, but it is important here. You see, when Mr. Poag says that this is a new type of monster manual, he really means that – at least compared to the other compendiums of monsters out there. The binding actually plays an important role which I’ll get to in just a bit.
Anyway, the cover art (as well as all of the other art) is by Mr. Poag. You probably remember him from such works as Expeditious Retreat Press’ Pod Caverns of the Sinister Shroom and the Red Mausoleum. Mr. Poag has a kind of Robert Crumb/indie commix feel to his work (which I LOVE). I have to say I really am favorably disposed to folks that own the whole project process (writing, art, layout, editing, etc). I think that comes from my punk rock DIY days when we’d do our own zines and comics. But I digress. I should note that there is a disclaimer on the cover that states the contents of this book contains references to nudity, sexuality, deviancy, and general mayhem and is not suitable for all audiences. Now if you are offended by the kinds of things that were in the 1e monster manual (exposed breasts and the like) as well as - well, um ,quite a bit of the fantasy themes from the late ‘70’s and early 80’s, then you are definitely are not the target audience for this book anyway and probably are offended by the thought of them no good kids playing that devil worship game… (OK, channeling my past there, sorry). At any rate, I may be jaded, but there is nothing here to spark any book burning controversies, just good, old school weird fantasy (yes and boobs as well as a couple of penises – sorry forgot that bit).
Now, on to content. Exquisite Corpses definitely presents a new twist on monster manuals. The creatures are presented one to a page with the illustration making up much of the page and dotted lines that divide the page into thirds. This effectively segments each picture into a head section, torso, and lower body. Then you cut along the dotted line. That is where the magic is because when the pages are cut, you are now able to mix and match heads, torsos and lower body parts from several different monsters to create 17,000 (according to Mr. Poag but I’m too lazy to check the math). Not only is the mix and match part pretty different (you could do this with a random table but the presentation is much more fun here) but for each section of the creatures body, Mr. Poag lists the relevant stats (for the head he lists the creature intelligence, ac – for the head, and any relevant attacks such as bite or gaze). This is also laid out for the other two body sections.
So how does all of this work? Well, let’s take a human base (male or female). Let’s say we want a woman’s legs, a torso from a tentacle creature, and the head of a giant centipede. Pretty bizarre stuff, but you’d end up with a base creature with a very low intelligence, a bite that does 2-8 pts of damage as well as poison, can see in total darkness, has a move of 12” per round has 8 hit dice, a 10’ reach, an AC of 6 (for head and body it is 10 for the human legs), has eight tentacle attacks (1-6 damage plus save or be grabbed) and a beak attack that does 3-16 pts of damage. And then there are the random tables in the appendix for generating special abilities as well as immunities/vulnerabilities, and there is an optional psionics rules section. Quite a bit bundled into the little package.
The final analysis is that this is more than worth the $10 price of admission. The creatures can be used to generate all types of random mutations and the like so it works equally well for Mutant Future. Based on the simple but incredibly effective layout, the consistency of vision and presentation, the sheer utility of the product for the price, I’m going to give this a full five out of five stars. What the heck are you still reading this for, go and get a copy now.
Anyway, the cover art (as well as all of the other art) is by Mr. Poag. You probably remember him from such works as Expeditious Retreat Press’ Pod Caverns of the Sinister Shroom and the Red Mausoleum. Mr. Poag has a kind of Robert Crumb/indie commix feel to his work (which I LOVE). I have to say I really am favorably disposed to folks that own the whole project process (writing, art, layout, editing, etc). I think that comes from my punk rock DIY days when we’d do our own zines and comics. But I digress. I should note that there is a disclaimer on the cover that states the contents of this book contains references to nudity, sexuality, deviancy, and general mayhem and is not suitable for all audiences. Now if you are offended by the kinds of things that were in the 1e monster manual (exposed breasts and the like) as well as - well, um ,quite a bit of the fantasy themes from the late ‘70’s and early 80’s, then you are definitely are not the target audience for this book anyway and probably are offended by the thought of them no good kids playing that devil worship game… (OK, channeling my past there, sorry). At any rate, I may be jaded, but there is nothing here to spark any book burning controversies, just good, old school weird fantasy (yes and boobs as well as a couple of penises – sorry forgot that bit).
Now, on to content. Exquisite Corpses definitely presents a new twist on monster manuals. The creatures are presented one to a page with the illustration making up much of the page and dotted lines that divide the page into thirds. This effectively segments each picture into a head section, torso, and lower body. Then you cut along the dotted line. That is where the magic is because when the pages are cut, you are now able to mix and match heads, torsos and lower body parts from several different monsters to create 17,000 (according to Mr. Poag but I’m too lazy to check the math). Not only is the mix and match part pretty different (you could do this with a random table but the presentation is much more fun here) but for each section of the creatures body, Mr. Poag lists the relevant stats (for the head he lists the creature intelligence, ac – for the head, and any relevant attacks such as bite or gaze). This is also laid out for the other two body sections.
So how does all of this work? Well, let’s take a human base (male or female). Let’s say we want a woman’s legs, a torso from a tentacle creature, and the head of a giant centipede. Pretty bizarre stuff, but you’d end up with a base creature with a very low intelligence, a bite that does 2-8 pts of damage as well as poison, can see in total darkness, has a move of 12” per round has 8 hit dice, a 10’ reach, an AC of 6 (for head and body it is 10 for the human legs), has eight tentacle attacks (1-6 damage plus save or be grabbed) and a beak attack that does 3-16 pts of damage. And then there are the random tables in the appendix for generating special abilities as well as immunities/vulnerabilities, and there is an optional psionics rules section. Quite a bit bundled into the little package.
The final analysis is that this is more than worth the $10 price of admission. The creatures can be used to generate all types of random mutations and the like so it works equally well for Mutant Future. Based on the simple but incredibly effective layout, the consistency of vision and presentation, the sheer utility of the product for the price, I’m going to give this a full five out of five stars. What the heck are you still reading this for, go and get a copy now.
from the artist: thanks very much for your kind comments; "E.C." was a lot of fun to work on, and I still find myself giggling at the crazy combos flipping pages at random can result in.
ReplyDeleteStefan, no problem. I think that this is exactly the kind of project that the OSR needs to be doing. We've already established the rule sets and got the ground work going. We've put out adventures, monster catalogs, etc. I think now we really need to be inventive and put out creative product that expands the parameters of what the games can do. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if RPGs stayed a hobbyist movement instead of getting into the corporate realm (not bashing it - just saying what if). Would they have evolved similarly to inde comics and film? I don't know but it is neat to think about. Anyway, thanks for expanding the horizons and showing us different ways to impact our games (yes I'm a nerd and yes I actually philosophize about this stuff).
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