The Monster Hide series by Asparagus Jumpsuit, which means by Berin Kinsman, provide pre-generated monster statblocks for Pathfinder and, as the subtitle “classic monsters reskinned” implies, presents a new take on the role of each these humanoids in a campaign world.

The basic structure of all of the Monster Hide books is the same: cover, 1-page introduction to why Kinsman wrote the series and some background on Asparagus Jumpsuit, then a discussion on how the races fits into the Desteon campaign, Kinsman’s campaign world, and how they vary from the norm and suggestions for their use in a campaign. Next is the core of the product, a set of five statblocks with the interesting parts all hyperlinked to the appropriate parts of the d20PFSRD. Each ends with a copy of the OGL as you would expect. There are a smattering of errors scattered through the works but nothing that cannot be easily sorted.

Hobgoblin Hide, Alternate Orcs Reskinned, Kinsman’s hobgoblins are from an alternate reality, where orcs are a form of goblin and they hate the orcs of this reality for stealing their name. They are discipled and militaristic, using tactics and allies to make up for their limited numbers. They should present a good challenge to those who enjoy tactical puzzles.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Note: Read more reviews and other gaming articles at my journal https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/

I love "alternate" versions of monsters, and I don't play Pathfinder -- let me start off with that statement, to put my review in context. I run a couple of 13th Age games, and I've been looking for some variations on the classic monsters to mix things up a little in the Dragon Empire (13th Age's default setting). While I've never played D&D 3.x or Pathfinder, the stat blocks for monsters are easy enough to interpret that I can use them as starting points to create 13th Age monsters (especially when they're linked to d20pfsrd.com). Even more than that, the flavor text or "fluff" is universal. Without ruining the surprise, this little sourcebook contains a neat twist on hobgoblins that I can easily see fitting into my 13th Age campaigns (especially since my players have never encountered hobgoblins in that setting). Each of the five hobgoblin variants tie in to this unique back-story, while remaining different from one another. Any one of them could be used in a battle with otherwise "ordinary" hobgoblins, or you could go all-out and introduce several of them at once. The stat blocks could be used without the flavor text, and could be used with the standard hobgoblin back-story of Golarion, I would think. The price is right for a supplement that sparked my imagination and gives me something new to send my players' way -- not just a new stat block, but a whole new definition of the hobgoblin.

I had a couple of small complaints, which prevented me from giving this a 5-star rating. First, the physical description of hobgoblin and the orc on page 4 is unclear. I understand that it's trying to tie orcs (or is it hobgoblins?) to the old AD&D, porcine orcs, but the paragraph doesn't make it clear which race (orcs or hobgoblins) get confused with the pig-faced orcs, or why. And this points to the overall issue of a lack of editing. There are several typos, incorrect punctuation, and content that isn't as clear as it could be. It's certainly readable, but when I buy something, even at this low price, I expect it to come across as edited and polished. It's not a huge gripe, but it's enough that I couldn't rate this 5-stars.

If you're looking for a fun take on hobgoblins, along with some interesting hobgoblin variants, I suggest you pick this little supplement up. You certainly can't beat the price.