Simply Creatures is a 64 page d20 pdf presenting a number of new and bizarre races and monsters from the far reaches of the world. This compilation of creatures is a stand-alone product from Mad Scottsman Games, and is fully compatible with the revised d20 core rules. The creatures and races are suitable to any fantasy d20 campaign setting.

The product comes as a single pdf file. Layout and presentation are done in a single column, with a good selection of artwork thrown in for each of the races and monsters presented in the book. Not every monster has its own unique artwork, although for the most part something fitting has been added to the pdf to enhance the verbal description. The product lacks bookmarks, but contains a thorough table on contents. Writing and editing are good, with some vivid narrative pieces thrown in between various parts of the pdf, although the mechanical editing has missed quite a number of mistakes in the stat blocks of the creatures presented in the product. Overall, it's a decent looking product, though by no means great, and the presentation could probably have used a little more polish to bring it into line with the leading products produced for the d20 market.

Simply Creatures starts with a brief overview of the product before jumping into the two sections of the pdf - races and monsters. The themes, as it were, are races from the edge of the world, and monsters of legend and waste. These are the creatures found in the unexplored territories and in the dark corners of every game world, though naturally that does not have to be the case when throwing these creatures at a party of unsuspecting adventurers.

The pdf presents seven new races for use in your d20 game, in a mixed combination of level adjustments. Some of the races feel like they should probably have been written up as monsters instead as pure races without a stat block and just racial characteristics, but perhaps that is a matter of personal preference. The races include the gresh (half desert giants), the huarti (spawn of the breeding between serpent-creatures and humans), komainu orc (monk-like and philosophical orcs), the nhar (a lizardfolk-like race from the desert), the surion (half-elf, half-dragon), the veral (humanoid plants), and finally half-veral (half of the former).

The races show some unique characteristics and the write-ups are detailed enough to get a good idea as to the nature of the race. I couldn't help shake the feeling that while these were mechanically different and here of there had some unique characteristics, they were just similar creatures in disguise. The surion, for example, could just as well have been created using the core rules and the half-dragon template, while the nhar and the komainu are just different flavors of lizardfolk and orc. They're more subraces, than races, in some respects, although each has its defining and more unique characteristics.

The monster section presents 12 new monsters ranging from CR 1/2 to a whopping CR 27 for the celestial dragon. Several monsters have numerous incarnations, so that expands the number of monsters a little bit. Much like one or two of the races should probably be written up as monsters, so to some of these monsters should've been written with templates, rather than creating half a dozen monsters of similar kind but only slightly different characteristics. The monsters presented in this product include the celestial dragon, the insect-like xix, the gearhead and tree goblins, the humanoid-like doll golems, the desert giant, and the dust lich. As mentioned earlier, the editors missed quite a few mechanical errors, including a number of instances where the creature type should probably have been different. Goblin-like creatures should probably have had the humanoid type rather than the monstrous humanoids time, for example.

The monsters themselves are fairly decent, and in some places unique, but in general they were mostly not particularly spectacular. The desert giant is just another giant-type, the tree goblin is just another goblin type, and the celestial dragon just another dragon largely similar to other creatures of its kind. The khatarin (humanoids with animal heads) would probably have been better suited to a template, and again it's not a particularly novel idea. There are some interesting creatures here, like the xix and the dust lich, but for the most part these monsters are again just different flavored incarnations of similar creatures. I liked the write-ups and they gave sufficient information to use the creatures, so if you would like a different flavor to a creature, this product has some new variants to take a look at.

Overall this is a decent product. It presents a lot of new races and monsters, that, while not all unique in some kind of way, at least add a refreshing new take on a similar concept or creature. There are still a slew of mechanical errors, with some rather odd type designations in the mix, but for the most part this product holds its own as a monster book. The artwork is numerous, though not often entirely relevant, and the layout could've used a little more polish. Simply Creatures does offer some good utility, though, and even with its few defects, can provide good entertainment when challenging your adventures with these monsters and races.

Simply Creatures is a d20 monster book from Mad Scotsman Games. The PDF file is one and a half megabytes in size, and is sixty pages long, including a page for the cover, one for the credits/legal, one for the introduction, and two for the OGL. There is no table of contents, nor bookmarks.

There is not much art to be found here. The cover displayed on the product page is actually not used in the product itself. Further, while many creatures have artwork depicting them (which is important in a monster book), at least half or more do not. Moreover, what black and white art that is used is very small, being notably tiny in resolution. There are no page borders either. Altogether, this makes the product very printer-friendly, but not very artful to look at.

The book opens with new PC races. Each of the seven new races listed here is given PHB-style treatment, talking about their alignment, relations, religion, etc. before giving their racial stats. Most of these new races have no level adjustment, though a few do. Interestingly, we actually have a few Large-size races without a level adjustment given. Unfortunately, the classic oversight of new races is made here, as while the entries do mention things like height, weight, and age in passing, the book has no tables for these new races regarding such information (the latter of which, age, can be important).

The second part of the book gives new monsters. Strictly speaking, there are thirteen such monsters here, but several (such as the khatarin or the xix) have different sub-listings which gives them multiple entries. Creatures range from the awesome celestial dragon (a CR 27 non-true dragon) to the lowly jerth (a CR 1 animal). While many of these are innovative in design, there a number of flaws in almost all of them. I only found one entry (the dust lich) that didn't seem to have a problem regarding the number of feats, hit points, AC listing, or something else. While few of these were very significant, these are things the editor should have caught and corrected. As it is, there's enough here that an edited re-release would be a very helpful thing for this book.

At the end of the day, this is a good book with some innovative ideas, but the execution needs a bit more polish. From the lack of quality artwork, to the lack of tables for the new races (and tables for the CR listings and creature Types for the monsters), to the errors in the monster stat blocks, Simply Creatures is itself a bit too simple. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The new races and monsters were quite cool, and the writing throughout the book kept to a high standard.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: While it was written well, minor errors and omissions dogged this product. The new races need height/weight/age tables. The new monsters need to be indexed by CR and Type, as well as needing another run through editing. There needs to be a table of contents and/or bookmarks, and better art for a lot more of the creatures.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>