The art of Dungeon Fantasy 13: Monsters 1

[Lupo]

Originally Posted by Kromm

There is that. DF is comic-relief munchkin fantasy. That's how it was born, that's how it was written, and that's how I've seen it played at cons (I've even played in a few games!). It isn't about deep scene-setting or storytelling. It's about whipping out a combat map and slaughtering things to bits for rewards

I think you are overestimating the depth and seriousness of other dungeon RPGs. Most D&D, in spite of lacking the voluntary comic value of DF, is no less centered on the senseless, munchkiny hacking & slashing of weird/ridicolous monsters...

This possibly causes DF to be perceived as more serious than you intended.

A straight, serious Fantasy Bestiary would be another kettle of flesh-eating, undead fish.

Straight and serious like this Monster Manual? :)
A straight, serious Fantasy bestiary sounds like an invisible pink unicorn to me...
I don't know if Harn has a serious monster compendium, but the most successful monster manuals (e.g., those for D&D) are far from serious...

Just to say, that even if DF Bestiary is tongue-in-cheek, it would benefit greatly from nice illustrations.
One could even make a point that, the sillier the monsters, the more you need a picture to relate with them, understand how they're meant to be (or possibly, laugh at them ^^)