There have been a lot of creature books this past year. We have had large full colored hard bound books and smaller more focused ones. We have had books that cover creatures of a specific type or a specific environment as well as books that try to get a little bit of everything. I have seen books that cover a specific creature and books that cover a specific world. There have been books of high powered monsters and books with mostly low challenge ratings. This though is the first series of weekly monster books I have seen.

Octavirate Games is a new PDF publishing company. It seems there big works are these weekly monster books. Not that the books are big but they have released five of them at the time I am writing this. The PDF is actually not that big the zip file being a little over a meg and a half and the PDF is still under two megs. The PDF is sixteen pages of color and black and white. The text is actually a little on the small size and they might have wanted to add a few pages by increasing the size of the text a little. The art is a mix of black and white and color. There are green and blue borders as well making this a bit of an ink eater when printed. The layout looks really good except there is one page that is over half white space so it really stands out. They really need a piece of art or something there. The PDF also has no book marks.

Before I get into the creatures there is one great and very useful thing this monster books does that none others have and that is present optional rules. If one is using the wound points vitality rules they are listed for each monster. Insanity lost, massive damage threshold, defensive bonus, armor as damage reduction, honor, allegiances, and taint are all common alternative rules that are included for each creature. This makes the creatures in this book ready to be used by people using different house rules or playing d20 modern or other d20 games that use different rules. It also has alternate genres for each creature. The basic write ups are for traditional fantasy, but in this side bar it says what the creature can be in a modern game, a post apocalyptic game, or a sci fi/space opera game.

The creatures range from very interesting and creative to basically mundane. The first is the Daemon Erodaemon. The appearance is strange. It is a woman except instead of a head on her body she has the upper torso of a woman. Sort of like a centaur except a woman?s body and not a horse?s body.

Next is a Deadgem template. This template turns the creature into a crystalline race that will have either psionic or magical powers.

Then there is the platypus both regular and dire versions. Not much to say here other then of all the animals one could pick I am not sure this is one of them. Still, the write up is fine and nothing wrong with it.

The Quon Ko are a race of outsiders from a demi plane of their own. They are travelers and hunters.

Last is the Therig or robgoblins. They are from an alternate dimension and have 4 eyes are stand about seven feat tall.

The descriptions I gave are rather short as the level of detail these creatures are given is quite complete. The Therig have two digestive tracts for instance. There are few monster books that give such detailed internal descriptions. Each race is given a culture and the creatures seem easy to use and creative. Some of them are a bit on the odd side but that should appeal to many people.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

I really enjoyed this product.

Especially because the company has gone the extra distance to provide notes for each creature to operate in different genres and conversion notes to used them with a variety of d20 based games.

There are 5 creatues and 1 template

And one of the creatures is a "Dire Platypus" Who as a DM has not wanted to lay the smackdown on a bunch of snotty players with a quirky, nay even goofy monster. (He will make an appearance in my campaign soon.)<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Psionic Template Erodaemon (For the more mature game) <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

The monsters in this are refreshingly creative and useful, different from the usual monster book fluff (although the platypus is clearly more for comic relief). The art is outstanding and the creatures are well conceived. Very useful for dropping something insidious into the game that your players aren?t used to (like the deadgem). My group generally uses wounds and vitality points, so the variant rules are a big plus for me.

Despite the strengths, I would prefer a portrait format and maybe one or two more creatures for the price. Top notch and professional overall.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Artwork, creative monsters<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Keep an eye on S. Trent Lott and Ronald Smith. If they can really put out a book as good as Creature Weekly Volume 1 fifty-two times 52 times a year, they'll on the design team for D&D 4.0 before long. Buy this PDF now or miss out on the chance to say "I was reading those guys back when they were doing Creature Weekly."<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: 1) These monsters are going to make a big splash in your game. Doesn't matter what game you're playing. Classic D&D - sure, with 3.5 stats if you roll that way. A private homebrew? You'll love the section describing each monster with the most popular variant rules from Unearthed Arcana. Gamma World, d20 Modern or d20 Future? These guys' twisted minds have come up with monsters that fit beautifully into any of these settings, with notes on how to adapt the creature for each one. The Creature Weekly cross-system, cross-genre conversion idea is one of 2004's coolest innovations in OGL design.

2) The erodaemon is a provocative journey into the territory Valar pioneered with Book of Erotic Fantasy and few have dared to go since. If she were the the demo for this PDF, you'd already have bought it. The best illustration in the book, a great use of color art. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Octavirate has pushed back the frontiers of broken content. Many publishers try to discourage re-use of their monsters by designating the monster names as product identity instead of Open Game Content. As a protection scheme, this is kind of like a Kryptonite lock: your bike will still get taken, it's just that they'll leave behind the worthless lock. Broken content is lame, but lots of people do it.

The legal stance expressed in Creature Weekly Volume 1 breaks new ground by designating the name of one of their monsters as a trademark. If this is just a newbie mistake, at least it's a new and ambitious one. But if Octavirate really means what it's saying here, and if they ever get hold of enough money, it'll be like the bad old days when T$R was bullying fan sites witn an overheated legal team working overtime to prevent dilution of their trademarks.

It's nice to share, guys. The Open Game License will be good for you if you loosen up a little.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Worth buying since you will get some good creatures for a few dollars. Although the dire platypus (and the half dragon version?) are perhaps a little too weird for most games.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

To be honest, I got this product just for the Platypus. Aside from that I found this product similar to others like it. A listing of each monster, the stats necessary to use it in a D20 campaign, and the description and picture. Interesting monsters, but nothing really stand out from the crowd.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The Platypus.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I don't like Landscape pages. Sure this may save on pages, but I prefer portrait when it comes to printing. It stays in my notebook sleeve easier and I don't have to turn my notebook sideways to read the entry.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>