A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Alister Konezegel’s Field Guide Vol. 1: Monstrous Arthropods

Alister Konezegel’s Field Guide Vol. 1: Monstrous Arthropods by Zeke Gonzalez is a role playing game supplement published by Wizards of the Coast through the DMs Guild Community Content Programme for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition.

The supplement is available as a 15-page PDF from DMs Guild for $0.95 but was received at a reduced price thanks to a special offer. One page is the front cover, one the front matter, one the Contents and half a page a list of references.

The Introduction begins with some fluff text from the author – who appears, from material later in the book, to be a triton, but this is never outright stated – a definition of what an arthropod is and references to citations.

There are seven different arthropods, one mollusc (a snail) and two thri-keen. Each has game stats given, along with some descriptive text from Konezegel that gives some more detail, as text that wasn’t in-setting would in most bestiaries. With some exceptions, the thri-keen and the scuttling spy, the monsters are based on actual creatures, which is where the references come in, though rather larger than normal. Finally, there is a list of the monsters by CR.

Alister Konezegel’s Field Guide Vol. 1: Monstrous Arthropods in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough that these would have been useful. The Contents covers the major and minor sections, and looks like it’s supposed to be hyperlinked, but the links don’t work. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column colour format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of stock colour illustrations and a single black and white one. Presentation is good.

For the price, this is a very nice little bestiary. There are a range of creatures of different levels of danger for characters to encounter. Whether or not the in-character flavour text appeals or not will be up to individual preferences. Alister Konezegel’s Field Guide Vol. 1: Monstrous Arthropods is a good little bestiary and it can be found by clicking here.