KickStarter Lusus Naturae - A Gruesome Old-School Bestiary

[Alchemist]

This kickstarter has reached its base goal but it could use a bit more love for the full-color stretch goal (just 3 days to go!). Rafael Chandler is the master of monsters in the OSR / old-school D&D scene (check out his previous monster book, the "Teratic Tome" which is amazing). His mind conjures some truly horrific, twisted and original stuff. If you're tired of seeing the same old monsters in RPGs - it's a project worth backing! Also his monster descriptions create plot hooks and adventure seeds within themselves.

I have his Teratic Tome (made for OSRIC / 1st edition AD&D) and can vouch for its awesomeness.

Info from the kickstarter page follows:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rafaelchandler/lusus-naturae-a-gruesome-old-school-bestiary

A collection of nightmarish monsters for old-school role-playing games. Spiritual successor to the Teratic Tome. Not safe for anyone.

• Lusus Naturae is a horrific bestiary featuring 100 new monsters.

• A 6"x9" hardcover, approximately 160 pages long; features a durable binding and high-grade paper.

• Funding pays for artwork, printing, and shipping.

• Uses the Lamentations of the Flame Princess system (thus, it's compatible with many other old-school role-playing games).

• Stretch goal: full color interior artwork!

Back it now so you can torment your players later!

Lusus Naturae ("Freaks of Nature") is a collection of grotesqueries that will break the bodies and hearts of your player characters. If you like horror in your old-school gaming, then you'll enjoy this bestiary.

Download the PDF preview!


It uses the Lamentations of the Flame Princess system. LotFP is a dark and violent tabletop role-playing game of horror/fantasy, and it's part of the "Old School Renaissance" family of games.

Each entry In Lusus Naturae is accompanied by a black-and-white illustration by Gennifer Bone. She's executing all the artwork, because I love her style, and because she gets where I'm coming from. I enjoy things that are broken, hideous, and upsetting; she's good at illustrating these notions. We're a great team.

The 100 viscera-chewing monsters in this book include:

• Pain-fueled Algionauts, bestowing power upon those who mutilate themselves
• The pitiless and insectile Blight, which hungers for the agony of tormented newlyweds
• The self-birthing Porphyrogene, eternally seeking the origin of feminine power
• Vitiators, which methodically disembowel those who ignore entreaties to abandon sobriety, virginity, and abstention of all kinds
• The thin and lonesome Wending Skirl, howling its soul-deadening grief in frozen woods
• Methodical and elegant Monstructs, which build their Citadel of Perpetuated Joys from the bodies of children

They derive strength from fear, they nurture hate, and they reshape human flesh. Bereft of conscience, these entities inspire torture, manipulate time, and establish new religions in lightless ocean depths.

They are sadists, manipulators, predators, and colossal monstrosities that are only peripherally aware of the actions of two-meter-tall mammals on an inconsequential telluric planet.

For the first time, I seek to draw upon the legends of my Peruvian ancestors, including:

• Machukuna, the ancient ones who saw their doom when the Sun was created, and fled to deep waters (where they wait);
• Sarara, a feathered horror summoned from the darkest pits of the underworld by foolhardy sorcerers;
• Chuyanchaki, shapeshifters who always forget one important detail;
• Supay, lord of death, who rules over all demons from his throne in Ukhupacha;

... and many others!

In 2013, I published Teratic Tome, a bestiary for OSRIC. This monster book bulged and pulsed with heinous terrors. The critics said:

• "I can only presume that Chandler dreamed up these monsters while smoking weed mixed with the ashes of Ed Gein, since what's here are uniformly twisted beings."(Shane O., DriveThruRPG.com)
• "I felt disturbed reading parts of this and uncomfortable in others, much like a good horror fiction novel. And yet I kept flipping the virtual pages. Like an addict. There can be no higher praise." (Erik Tenkar, Tenkar's Tavern)
• "Suffice to say that it comes with my highest possible recommendation." (Michael Gibbons, Metal Earth)
• "If you would imagine, for a moment, if H.P. Lovecraft and Clive Barker collaborated on an AD&D monster manual, you would have the Teratic Tome. Honestly, I don't know if I need any more to this review than that one sentence." (Christopher Helton, Dorkland)
• "Short form: holy balls is this an impressive book. If you like old school and you like freakishly scary and horrifying monsters, BUY THIS BOOK!" (Keith J. Davies, In My Campaign)

Now it's time to create something even nastier!

Though I love the Tome, and all the other books that I've created, they've all been published through print-on-demand services like Lulu and CreateSpace. With this project, my intent is to create a high-quality printed book with features that aren't available via POD.

Funding will pay for artwork and printing. If we exceed our goal:

$16,660 : Stretch Goal

• All images are upgraded to color.
• Some images are upgraded to full-page.
• Layout by Jez Gordon (Scenic Dunnsmouth)

We're not ruling out the possibility of a second stretch goal, but we won't cross that bridge until we come to it.

You can check out a 3-monster preview PDF of the book here: http://www.rafaelchandler.com/LususNaturae-preview.pdf