Monsters of Winter by Justin Patera and Megan Patera is a role playing game supplement published by DragonCat Games for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game 2nd Edition. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG as an eight page Pay What You Want PDF. One page is the front cover, one the front matter and one the Open Gaming License.
The first monster is the Mari Lwyd, which is not a mythological monster, rather a wassailing tradition from South Wales. Appearing as a creature with a horse’s skull for a head, the Mari Lwyd challenges people to pwnco, explained in a sidebar as a rhyming battle of wits.
The Yule Lads are from Icelandic tradition and are 13 brothers. Each has its own speciality but all are attracted to, and steal, food. Each brother has his own description before stats for them all.
Jólakötturinn: The Yule Cat is another Icelandic creature that eats people who do not have new clothes. It is a giant cat and, according to the sidebar, reputedly belongs to the mother of the Yule Lads.
The Belsnickel is the final creature and is from Germany. The Belsnickel is a variant on St Nicholas who disciplines the naughty (but isn’t as violent as Krampus) and gives gifts to the good. A sidebar explains that he replaces the St Nicholas figure in areas that still follow the tradition.
Monsters of Winter in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is short enough that they are not needed. Navigation is okay. The text either has a single column or single column with sidebar full colour layout and appeared to be nearly free of errors. Each monster has a colour illustration, which is nice. Presentation is good.
This is a collection of creatures that are less common in supplements than most other folkloric creatures, even though the Mari Lwyd is a custom, rather than being folklore. This means there are new creatures to use against characters, although most, bar the house-sized cat, are not overtly violent. This doesn’t mean they are safe, though. Monsters of Winter is a nice little collection of winter-themed creatures and it can be found by clicking here.
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