A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Horrific Parasites

Horrific Parasites by Eric Cagle is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment for use with Shadow of the Demon Lord. This is part of the Monstrous Pages series that covers new or expanded creatures; in this case, harvesters.

This is a six-page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $1.69 but was purchased at a reduced price during a sale. Half a page is a cover illustration and around a quarter of a page is the Credits.

The introductory paragraphs state that harvesters hide in cities or lurk in plain sight, killing victims and removing organs, skins and bones which they then use to replace their own, becoming effectively immortal.

Harvester Origins explains that the harvesters were once human; priests, nobles and rich merchants who formed a secret society intended to expand their wealth and power. Despite their debauchery, this group was comparatively harmless. Until one of their members returned from the Northern Reach with an idol and convinced the others to worship the god it represented.

Rites turned into cannibalistic orgies, where wearing skin and organs of their victims was commonplace. Then they overreached in their insanity and asked their god to harvest the Old Gods. The Old Gods took umbrage, and cursed them.

The curse means that the body of a harvester decays over time. The members of the society discovered that they could replace failing organs with that of others, prolonging their own life. This means that the harvesters are patchwork creations formed from many different creatures, and they sometimes gain abilities from those they harvest. They live in cities to be near plentiful sources of organs and, despite their essential immortality, it would be expected that, eventually, harvesters would die out as they are gradually killed off. Except they found ways of reproducing. Ones that keep their population stable.

Customising Harvesters has new abilities to grant them. Redundant organs makes them harder to kill and organs from those able to use magic can grant harvesters limited magical powers of their own.

Sample Harvesters has different types. Flesh Tailors steal parts based on appearance and Humour Drinkers imbibe all the liquids from a body. Organ Filches and Tear Thieves are taken from the Core Rulebook.

Horrific Parasites in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and is short enough that these are not essential. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two-column full colour format and appeared to be almost free of error. There are several full colour illustrations, one of which has definitely been reused from the original bestiary entry. Presentation is very good.

This supplement nicely expands on the harvesters, giving more information on their origins and also giving them a couple of unpleasant ways of reproducing; otherwise, they could be wiped out. The two new options make them tougher and the two new variants give new options. It’s just a shame that half of the variants are ones that have already been described, and in the Core Rulebook no less, which means anyone likely to buy this supplement will already have those described. This means over a page is essentially duplicated. Perhaps it’s easier having them all in one place. Horrific Parasites is, apart from that, a nice little supplement, and it can be found by clicking here.