Anon's Animal Album

[Sam Baughn]

An anonymous author has recently completed a large fan supplement for GURPS; a bestiary. Although it doesn't cover the same range of material (or have the page count) as the 3rd edition bestiary, it should prove useful for people who want ready-to-play stat-blocks for real animals, especially ones not already covered by Luke Campbell's incredible GURPS Animalia (e.g. birds, invertebrates, many fish).

Since the document itself gives permission to share it freely, here's a copy on my Google drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eKL...ew?usp=sharing
I encourage you to both download it and host it wherever it might find its way to GURPS GMs.
EDIT: Version 1.1 now available.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ft9...ew?usp=sharing

[Willy]

While I not looked too close at the various stats, I took a good look at the rest. Either the layout, the animal descriptions and the wide choice of real world animals are great, a wonderful work. I know what I will read the next evenings.

One question I couldn´t find the name or mailadress of the author, did I miss something?

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Willy

While I not looked too close at the various stats, I took a good look at the rest. Either the layout, the animal descriptions and the wide choice of real world animals are great, a wonderful work. I know what I will read the next evenings.

One question I couldn´t find the name or mailadress of the author, did I miss something?

Anon is clearly short for anonymous :-) It has become my go to for conversions for the GURPSwiki. Looking over the free stuff available we have:

*Natural Encyclopedia by Kevin A. Muñoz (27 July 2009): 660 Total Entries:: 437 Converted from Classic, 247 Referenced from 4e, 21 Inspired by other Sources, 55 Originals by the Author
*GURPS Repository's Monster list (29 July 2015): ~200T creatures
*Anon's Animal Album (July 2nd 2021): Has 400+ 4e entries.

When you look at the dates it is clear we need to promote this material more because despite Natural Encyclopedia being around for 12 years and the GURPS Repository one being around for 6 years people were still wanting a 4e Bestiary or complaining about the lack of one.

Yes, they aren't official but it is better than trying to convert the classic material on your own.

Heck, even with just the 413 critters with actual stats (the 247 reference are little more than book page number) that is basically Classic: Bestiary (150+| and Classic: Fantasy Bestiary (250) combined! And it has been around, free, for 12 years!

Throw in the GURPS Repository's Monster list with its ~200 entries and you are talking about more creatures for 4e than likely ever existed for Classic.

[Willy]

There is also a Classic Space Bestiary.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Willy

There is also a Classic Space Bestiary.

Forgot about that one which given the number of entries in it is surprising.

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by Willy

There is also a Classic Space Bestiary.

This book is one of the few GURPS books that I consider trash. Rather than useful SF animals, it contains a lot of things specifically designed to kill player characters, or sometimes entire parties. In many cases, if you don't know the magic thing needed to escape, you die.

In other words, DnD traps rather than interesting monsters.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

This book is one of the few GURPS books that I consider trash. Rather than useful SF animals, it contains a lot of things specifically designed to kill player characters, or sometimes entire parties. In many cases, if you don't know the magic thing needed to escape, you die.

In other words, DnD traps rather than interesting monsters.

That might explain why I didn't remember it. ;-) I tended to skim through books and the fact I forgot all about this one shows just how meh I considered it.

The one book I am familiar with that I looked at and wondered 'how do you actually use this?' was Fantasy II aka Madlands aka "low-tech paranoid hunter-gatherers vs. Winnie the Cthulpoo"

[tshiggins]

I have the Space Bestiary, and no, it's not a good supplement.
You can definitely tell it was designed allow the GM to drop in nasty space-monsters that can stand up to pounding from Ultra-Tech gear long enough to offer a challenge to PCs.

Unfortunately, that makes them entirely too silly to use.
Even the late TL9/early TL10 stuff, in The Expanse, could take out a T-Rex with little effort.
Heck, an RPG or .50 caliber HMG could take out one, now. Even the ubiquitous Browning .30 cal MMG could take out one with only a little effort.

While it's perfectly fine to throw in the occasional big, scary monster in a science fiction setting just for fun, you have to expect that the PCs (if at all prepared) will just splatter it, in short order.

No, the real threats have to be surprising, and that means they can't be obvious. Dopey Joes from Heinlein's, Tunnel in the Sky, or some alien variation of pod people, or parasitic cordyceps fungus, or slightly more sensible xenomorphs (those are pretty good, though...), or something like the Graboids, at least, which come at the party from unexpected directions.

And that's for the more cinematic games. The worst threats from planets that have mostly-compatible biochemistry would come in the form of parasites or opportunistic infections of all sorts, rather than something players can shoot at.

Any hard-ish sci-fi interstellar colonization campaign would require at least two decades of careful scientific study before anybody other than scientists would be allowed to land on a planet's surface.
Even then, the best option is to just park an O'Neill Cylinder habitat, or a Bishop Ring (Halo), or something, in orbit and only get the stuff from the surface that's actually needed.

[Phantasm]

I've been taking a look through Anon's book. It's a good mix of megafauna and normal fauna, with notes indicating variances in animals like antelopes, elephants, rhinos, dogs, big cats, and the like.

All in all, quite well done.

[Willy]

Originally Posted by maximara

The one book I am familiar with that I looked at and wondered 'how do you actually use this?' was Fantasy II aka Madlands aka "low-tech paranoid hunter-gatherers vs. Winnie the Cthulpoo"

Oh yes I own it in print, bought it years ago, not my best purchase. Anyway this worldline is introduced in the Infinte Worlds setting, and the cruel pseudo elves, or at least some of them are into the liquified gemstone drug dealing on several worlds, can´t remember actually the supplement where there are hints at them.