From publisher blurb:
Monsters are defined by the generation that observes them. For some, "monster" calls to mind the image of rubbery leviathans and shuffling black-and-white horrors. For others, the word "monster" means dragons, demons, orcs, ogres and all the myriad terrors that lair in the shadows of worlds both contemporary and anachronistic. But for the younger generation, more than ever, monsters are not things of terror.
For to some "monster" means "cute".
Wide-eyed, curious and adorable, a whole new generation of monsters has grown up with a whole new generation of gamers. But this breed of monster is the domain of collectable cards and video games. These creatures have rarely stepped forward into the realm of tabletop gaming.
That is, rarely until now.
Ready or not, here come the Collectabeasts and their rivals, the perpetually mutating Databeasts. They stand ready to invade your campaign world or to establish their own. The role these creatures play is up to you. They might be the core of a fantasy concept that stands to bridge the younger and older gaming generations. They might serve as antagonists in an ongoing campaign to defend the world from an invasion of bizarrely unreal monsters. They can be heroes or villains, pets or companions, natural or unnatural.
The choice, as always, is yours.
Features:
The Collectabeast template turns any monster into a cute collectable-card-style creature ready for combat and mischief. 13 sample collectabeasts demonstrate the nuances of the template and provide ready-to-use beasties for your campaign. Not out to catch "em all? Variant rules allow for the creation of living cartoons, juvenile monsters and more using this template.
The Databeast template creates binary monsters from normal creatures that travel from the world of conceptualized ideas to the physical world and back. 2 sample monsters stand ready to do battle.
The Databeast Hero Class: allows you to play as a databeast. Gain the ability to take on new battle forms as your character progresses and do battle with the aid of your humanoid partner.
Two new items allow you to capture collectabeasts or summon them to do battle.
Three new feats. Gain an extra advantage with announced attacks, absorb your less powerful NPC partners into your body and use your words to assist your companions with these new feats, usable in any campaign.
New Locale: Explore DataCrux, the home plane of the databeasts.
Our biggest Alternate Genre Section Yet provides multiple options for incorporating these monsters into your campaign no matter what setting you are utilizing. As an added bonus, Octavirate Presents Volume 5 is forwards compatible with the upcoming ExorSystems Inc campaign setting.
Giant Level Adjustment Chart: provides base level adjustments for over 600 SRD monsters from both traditional fantasy, psionic and modern settings. Perfect for quickly adapting new monsters to playable collectabeast and databeast forms or simply for playing monster PCs that no one expects.
Variant Rules Support: Like all Octavirate products, Octavirate Presents: Simple Tricks and Nonsense provides quick-reference variant rules support for each creature and NPC. In addition to the standard rules for wounds/vitality, defense bonus, armor as damage reduction, modern/3.0 damage reduction, sanity loss, taint, magic rating, spell points, honor and reputation this volume presents spell lists for Mages and Adepts for modern d20 gaming.