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Paranormal Animals of North America
Magic has returned to the world, and with it has come all manner of beasts. Genetic material, long dormant with the absence of magic, has been reactivated, transforming mundane animals into creatures once believed supernatural, even mythical. Juggernauts rome the plains, Firedrakes infest the woods, Leviathans swim in the oceans, and Devil Rats now hunt Man in the shattered Sprawls that he has created. Paranormal Animals of North America is a Shadowrun, First Edition field guide to the newly awakened creatures of the Sixth World. 80 of the most dangerous paranormal species are discussed in full detail. Included with each entry are illustrations, physical descriptions, feeding habits, magical abilities, range, and safety tips for runners.
Paperback
First published June 1, 1990
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About the author
Nigel Findley
68 books45 followersNigel D Findley (July 22, 1959 – February 19, 1995[1]) was a game designer, editor, and an author of science fiction and fantasy novels and role-playing games (RPGs). Findley died suddenly on February 19, 1995, at his home in Vancouver, British Columbia. He suffered a heart attack at the age of 35.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 23, 2017
There's just something about fantasy bestiaries that I really love. I like the way you can garner the texture of the world from them, that it's possible to learn what society is like through examples of how the various monsters impact it. I think it's best done in the Old World Bestiary, but Paranormal Animals of North America is a close second.
A lot of that is the format. The book is supposed to be an in-universe naturalist's guide that was uploaded to a data server and opened for comment by all and sundry. This is the usual format for Shadowrun supplements, and sometimes it's hard to remember that it came before universal commenting on news stories, blog posts, and other webpages--this book was published in 1990--but ended up perfectly replicating that experience as every entry has various posters talking about how accurate the information is and providing their own theories. This leads to some running threads that really enhance the book, like one poster who comments on everything that could remotely be considered sapient that they need full human rights, or how every animal listed as being unlikely to attack humans has some commenter come in and say, "That's drek, me and my associate were engaging in totally legal and above-board activity when..." Or the conspiracy theories about which creatures are natural and which are genetically engineered.
Unlike most bestiaries for roleplaying games, this is supposed to be about animals that are embedded in an ecosystem, so other than the two examples of infected creatures (Bandersnatch, a sasquatch with HMHVV, or the dzoo-noo-qua, a troll with HMHVV), there's not really anything that's just a monster the PCs can shoot in a dark hole in the ground. A lot of the creatures are animals as the title indicates, albeit dangerous or supernatural ones. There are a few entries for things which don't really count as animals and break the sense of being a naturalist guide, like the corpselight or the toxic earth spirit. The first has an entry even though the guide admits that there's not much evidence that it existed at all, and the second is a spirit.
But the actual animals are great. They range from ordinary animals that might have more acute senses or be slightly larger than their pre-Awakening counterparts like the century ferret and the snow moose and the new boar, to creatures out of myth and legend like the freshwater serpent (basically Nessie), the mermaid (Awakened sea lions), or the lesser thunderbird, to bizarrities like the fideal (a kind of giant jellyfish), the juggernaut (an Awakenend armadillo, now 14 meters long and capable of shrugging off anti-tank rounds), or the incubus (an octopus that projects an illusion of its prey's greatest desire and then eats them). And every one of them has commentary from posters about its eating habits, its likelihood of attacking metahumans, or how well it resists armor-piercing weaponry.
I can already think of a number of potential story hooks using the creatures, like a run to steal information from a corp that's trying to develop a poison that actually works on devil rats, or trying to clear a group of dours out of the local slum so the PCs can ingratiate themselves with its inhabitants, or an attempt to bring in a juggernaut alive to see if it can be tamed. Or even just a talismonger game where the PCs travel around collecting unicorn horns, snow moose antlers, talis cat fur, piasma tusks, gloaming owl feathers, and megalodon teeth. And that's the most important part for an RPG supplement. Fun to read is nice, but how do I use it at the table?
Ideas fairly leap off the page here. It's a great supplement.
A lot of that is the format. The book is supposed to be an in-universe naturalist's guide that was uploaded to a data server and opened for comment by all and sundry. This is the usual format for Shadowrun supplements, and sometimes it's hard to remember that it came before universal commenting on news stories, blog posts, and other webpages--this book was published in 1990--but ended up perfectly replicating that experience as every entry has various posters talking about how accurate the information is and providing their own theories. This leads to some running threads that really enhance the book, like one poster who comments on everything that could remotely be considered sapient that they need full human rights, or how every animal listed as being unlikely to attack humans has some commenter come in and say, "That's drek, me and my associate were engaging in totally legal and above-board activity when..." Or the conspiracy theories about which creatures are natural and which are genetically engineered.
Unlike most bestiaries for roleplaying games, this is supposed to be about animals that are embedded in an ecosystem, so other than the two examples of infected creatures (Bandersnatch, a sasquatch with HMHVV, or the dzoo-noo-qua, a troll with HMHVV), there's not really anything that's just a monster the PCs can shoot in a dark hole in the ground. A lot of the creatures are animals as the title indicates, albeit dangerous or supernatural ones. There are a few entries for things which don't really count as animals and break the sense of being a naturalist guide, like the corpselight or the toxic earth spirit. The first has an entry even though the guide admits that there's not much evidence that it existed at all, and the second is a spirit.
But the actual animals are great. They range from ordinary animals that might have more acute senses or be slightly larger than their pre-Awakening counterparts like the century ferret and the snow moose and the new boar, to creatures out of myth and legend like the freshwater serpent (basically Nessie), the mermaid (Awakened sea lions), or the lesser thunderbird, to bizarrities like the fideal (a kind of giant jellyfish), the juggernaut (an Awakenend armadillo, now 14 meters long and capable of shrugging off anti-tank rounds), or the incubus (an octopus that projects an illusion of its prey's greatest desire and then eats them). And every one of them has commentary from posters about its eating habits, its likelihood of attacking metahumans, or how well it resists armor-piercing weaponry.
I can already think of a number of potential story hooks using the creatures, like a run to steal information from a corp that's trying to develop a poison that actually works on devil rats, or trying to clear a group of dours out of the local slum so the PCs can ingratiate themselves with its inhabitants, or an attempt to bring in a juggernaut alive to see if it can be tamed. Or even just a talismonger game where the PCs travel around collecting unicorn horns, snow moose antlers, talis cat fur, piasma tusks, gloaming owl feathers, and megalodon teeth. And that's the most important part for an RPG supplement. Fun to read is nice, but how do I use it at the table?
Ideas fairly leap off the page here. It's a great supplement.
April 22, 2018
Good resource but totally unusable and unnecessary.
March 21, 2015
A Shadowrun bestiary that is only good for the comments
10 May 2013
I had completely forgot about the comments that are made in these early Shadowrun books until I read somebody's review of this particular book. It was one of those things that is stored away in my long term memory only to be triggered by somebody crying 'I love those things'. I have to say the same thing because that is what made Shadowrun what it was, and even if it simply involved me reading through the comments, then I enjoyed the book.
It is like the gun porn book that I recently commented on, because you would have somebody, after all the technobable about the gun, say 'this gun is a piece of drek. It failed me half way through a firefight'. This book has the same thing, but as you can tell from the title, it is about animals, but not any normal animals (though you do have normal animals in the book) but animals that have been mutated by the return of magic to the world (as if it had ever left).
The book contains a lot of Shadowrun versions of many of the famous mythical animals that have been handed down to us, as well as a lot of new animals. However, the problem that I found with it was that I couldn't actually put them into any of my adventures. Okay, I would use some of the animals as guard animals, but generally, unless you are on some hunting expedition, I did not see the need to actually use them. It is not as if you are travelling along the interstate and suddenly some animal comes bursting out of the forest and attacks your car (though I don't see why they can't).
For some reason I found using monsters easier in Dungeons and Dragons than I did in Shadowrun, but that was probably because I tended to craft my adventures to be more like Hollywood action movies than roleplaying games (though I suspect using them as Hollywood action movies is probably one of the ideas behind the game). Still, this was a fun book to read through, and I still think I have it somewhere in a plastic crate out the back of my parents house (which is over 700 km from my current location).
10 May 2013
I had completely forgot about the comments that are made in these early Shadowrun books until I read somebody's review of this particular book. It was one of those things that is stored away in my long term memory only to be triggered by somebody crying 'I love those things'. I have to say the same thing because that is what made Shadowrun what it was, and even if it simply involved me reading through the comments, then I enjoyed the book.
It is like the gun porn book that I recently commented on, because you would have somebody, after all the technobable about the gun, say 'this gun is a piece of drek. It failed me half way through a firefight'. This book has the same thing, but as you can tell from the title, it is about animals, but not any normal animals (though you do have normal animals in the book) but animals that have been mutated by the return of magic to the world (as if it had ever left).
The book contains a lot of Shadowrun versions of many of the famous mythical animals that have been handed down to us, as well as a lot of new animals. However, the problem that I found with it was that I couldn't actually put them into any of my adventures. Okay, I would use some of the animals as guard animals, but generally, unless you are on some hunting expedition, I did not see the need to actually use them. It is not as if you are travelling along the interstate and suddenly some animal comes bursting out of the forest and attacks your car (though I don't see why they can't).
For some reason I found using monsters easier in Dungeons and Dragons than I did in Shadowrun, but that was probably because I tended to craft my adventures to be more like Hollywood action movies than roleplaying games (though I suspect using them as Hollywood action movies is probably one of the ideas behind the game). Still, this was a fun book to read through, and I still think I have it somewhere in a plastic crate out the back of my parents house (which is over 700 km from my current location).
March 22, 2012
This is my favorite RP source book of all times (ok, maybe the original Malkavian book for Vampire is a tie). I love how they manage to give stats, different GM choices, color, AND a plot(!) all within what should really just be comments on articles. Just as in most comment sections you have people trolling and arguing and telling each other that they're ignorant, but the screennames let you keep track of who is who and you start learning who each of them are. And if you're paying SUPER close attention...well, you may see some folks that you really didn't expect to show up... :) Also- yay Century Ferret!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews