RPG Review – Malleus Monstrorum I: Monsters of the Mythos & II: Deities of the Mythos

July 3, 2020 Kim Frandsen Finder's Archive 0

Full disclaimer: I was given a copy of these books in PDF format for the purpose of these reviews.

All images are Copyrighted to Chaosium.

Publisher: Chaosium

Author: Mike Mason, Scott David Aniolowski, with Paul Fricker

Cover & Interior Artist: Loïc Muzy

System: Call of Cthulhu

Page count: 488  in total (including covers, credits, introductions, and forwards)

This is the Malleus Monstrorum, sort of a Monster book for Call of Cthulhu. But it is so much more, in that it is two books (instead of just one), and contains details on monsters as well as the various deities of the Cthulhu Mythos. Deities here cover everything from the Outer and Elder Gods to the Great Old Ones and any unique beings, while the creatures covered in the first Malleus Monstrorum are the servants of these deities as well as the various things that go bump in the night. All the nasty things that an investigator should be afraid of running into.

So, there are a few pieces of house-keeping that I want to get out of the way first for this:

First is the price. These two books will run you $39.99 – which is quite a lot for PDFs. I have to say though that I do think it’s a bit too much, when – for comparison – you can buy the 600 page Core Rulebook for Pathfinder 2 for $14.95.

If you want them in hardcover, they will come in at $129.95 in a slipcase.  For comparison, this is almost the same as buying two special edition books for Pathfinder 2. If these are standard hardcovers in that slipcase,  I have to say that they’ve priced them dearly.  And while you do get the price of the PDFs deducted from the physical copies, it’s still a lot of money. (A lot of other companies give you the PDF for free when you buy the physical copy too. For you to take advantage of it from Chaosium, you have to buy it through their own webstore which seems to be the business standard.)

Secondly, there’s the layout: There is a LOT of text, especially in the beginning of the Monsters of the Mythos book – it’s not broken up by any art, in the way we’ve come to expect from modern RPG books. (Typically, you’d see a 1/4 art work every 4 pages or so. This is less than that). However, the art that is there is SUPERB. The full-color pieces are well-done, but the true stand-outs for me are the ones done in the “sepia-tones” – they’re very fitting for a book that feels like it was done as a journal – the layout reinforces that as well. Part of me was expecting little post-it notes to have been posted across the text as it would have felt very “in-universe” for it. A lot of the pieces are also (as you’d expect) incredibly disturbing, and has you going “WTF is that??”, but crucially Chaosium hasn’t tried to put images to all of the Great Old Ones and Gods, as many of them are indescribable. Others (like Y’golonac for example) have artwork that is understandable to human minds and eyes, and they convey a sense similar to the “Uncanny valley” feeling you might get – something that’s ALMOST human, but really isn’t.
The Monsters of the Mythos is split into 4 major chapters:
1: Creatures of the Mythos – These are the classic creatures you’ve come to expect from the Mythos books – things like the Colour Out of Space, Deep Ones (including the 3 Oaths to Dagon – nice touch), Dholes, Shoggoths, and Fire Vampires (an old favorite after having played the old campaign The Stars Are Right).
2: Monsters from Folklore – These are things like Will O’Wisps (well, Corpse Lights technically in this book), Golems, the Jersey Devil, Megalodon (for those who’d like to play Jaws with their Call of Cthulhu or recreate one of a thousand bad b-movies :P), Skeletons, Vampires and all the monsters you associate with more “common” mythology than that of the Cthulhu mythos. One folklore creature that I found to missing though was Leviathan and Krakens.

3: Beasts – All the normal creatures you’d meet in the real world, from Bears and Camels to packs of Rats, Rhinos, and Snakes. they are pretty much what you’d expect, except for one of them, that I think stands out – the Giant Squid! Yep, it is exactly that – time for Nemo to revisit some nightmares (though admittedly these are only somewhat bigger than a human – they’re not the submarine crunching terrors you’d think of otherwise.

And 4: Which is actually the first chapter – but I thought it needed to stand out here: FINALLY, DETAILS FOR CREATING MONSTERS FOR CALL OF CTHULHU! Although these guidelines are far less “rules-y” than we’re used to from other games, they are far more in-depth than anything I’ve seen with Call of Cthulhu before. Now, I might simply have missed it. I do think that this section is fantastic. I could have used a bit more imagery to break up the text (as it’s a gigantic wall of it), but it’s the single best piece of the book in my opinion, at least to Keepers that want to build their own stuff, or try their hand at making a mythos of their own.

And that segways nicely into book 2: Deities of the Mythos:
This book is all about the Gods of the Cthulhu Mythos: Great and Lesser Old Ones, Outer Gods, Elder Gods, and so on. They all get treatment here.

Each god comes with a small quote on their perceived appearance (as best human minds can perceive that), a description of what the god does or stands for – or at least how it corrupts the world around it. It then dives into the various cults of that deity, including the methods they use. Several of the gods also have the “avatar” treatment, in that specific manifestations of that god are described in detail: One such example is Hastur. His typical manifestation is covered, along with some of his more “famous” manifestations: the Amber Elder, the Ravening One, and the King in Yellow.

This allows a keeper to choose any of the gods that they’d like to use, and find a challenge for the players. Obviously, the players should NOT be going up against these creatures in combat – it’s not what the Call of Cthulhu game is about, and they’d be SERIOUSLY outmatched anyway. But it’s very nice to have the option for it.

More importantly, and more to my liking, is a description of how to make your own deity and cult. Not a detailed breakdown, but things you need to keep in mind when generating these alien monstrosities. Who worships them and why? What do they do? (Though importantly, not WHY they do it).

So how do I rate this book? It’s great. But I have serious reservations about the price.

As a PDF it’s OK – but very much on the pricy end at $40. But as a hardcover… that’s hard to justify when comparing to equivalent books. Even with the discount for the PDFs being included, those 2 hardcover books still run $130 – that’s a lot, especially for their size. Had it been 80-100, I’d have given this a 5/5, but as is, I can only give it 4/5.

Great books definitely – if have you got the cash for them, and you like Call of Cthulhu – get them.

 

The following two tabs change content below.
My Facebook profile

Kim Frandsen

40 years old, and a gamer since I was 13. These days I freelance as a writer for various companies (currently Fat Goblin Games, Flaming Crab Games, Outland Entertainment, Paizo, Raging Swan Games, Rusted Iron Games, and Zenith Games), I've dipped my hands into all sorts of games, but my current "go-to" games are Pathfinder 2, Dungeon Crawl Classics and SLA Industries. Unfortunately, while wargaming used to be a big hobby, with wife, dog and daughter came less time.
My Facebook profile

Latest posts by Kim Frandsen (see all)