Mini-review: "Monster Pamphlet #1" by Arlin Ortiz

There's something pleasingly earnest about Arlin Ortiz's Monster Pamphlet #1.  As the name suggests, it's a five-page booklet of monster concepts for your role-playing campaign.  Arlin intended the product to be "system agnostic", but his presentation harks back to the way that joke monsters were written up in TSR's The Dragon magazine, with descriptive notions of speed, armour, intelligence and size followed by a couple of paragraphs of text and a signature "Special Ability".

Arlin's illustrations are the main part of the Monster Pamphlet and it's at this point that I have to admit to not knowing enough about art to say much more than, "I like it".  (OK, I do have an idea about the origin of the colour palette, but it's hardly obscure.)  But my short-comings here shouldn't be a criticism of this product.  It does a good job of passing some interesting ideas, if not ones that can be used in any campaign.

It's definitely worth a look!  Arlin has been good enough to share a low-res version of his work.  If you like what you see, he's only asking $1 for the full glory of the Monster Pamphlet #1.