Hero Kids – Fantasy Expansion – Monster Compendium by Justin Halliday is a role playing game for Hero Kids published by Hero Forge Games. This is a bestiary that adds new monsters to the game, including those that were in adventures as well as those in the core rulebook.
The supplement is available from RPGNow as a PDF for $9.99, as a softcover print on demand book for $19.99 or both PDF and book for $19.99. The PDF is the version reviewed although it was purchased at the reduced price of $2.75 as part of the Hero Kids – Complete Fantasy PDF Bundle.
There are four PDFs in the supplement. There are two versions of the core book, which has all the monsters in it. Each version has 60 pages and one has parchment-style page backgrounds and the other does not for ease of printing. One PDF is 53 pages long and has the black and white miniatures to use. The final PDF is 36 pages and just has the monster cards, none of the assorted details or hooks.
Of the 60 page main PDF, one page is the front cover, one the front matter, one the Table of Contents and one the Introduction.
There are 136 monsters in total, divided into 46 different types. Each monster has a monster card, showing its stats and with an image of the creature, as well as a brief overview, some ecology and, most usefully, at least one adventure hook per main monster type (the 46).
The paper miniatures are all in black and white and vary in size, depending on the creature. Dragons, for example, are the largest.
Hero Kids – Fantasy Expansion – Monster Compendium in Review
The core monster PDF, both printer friendly and normal, is well bookmarked, with each monster type linked as well as ecologies and adventure hooks. The Table of Contents only covers the main monster types, but is also hyperlinked. Navigation is therefore very good.
The layout conforms to a two column format although there is usually only a single column of text, with the other column having monster cards. The book is fully illustrated, with both cards and miniatures having illustrations of each monster, although they are all in black and white. Possibly this is so children can colour in their own miniatures. Colour versions would have been nice, but are not essential.
This is an excellent supplement for the Hero Kids game, especially for GMs who can flesh out the adventure hooks into full adventures. Lots of new monsters, lots of new adventure hooks and many new miniatures to use. Hero Kids – Fantasy Expansion – Monster Compendium can be found by clicking here.
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