Janek Sielicki has drawn on his own heritage for a The Sarmatian Bestiary supplement for 7th Sea 2e. The Sarmatian Bestiary is a collection of creatures taken from Polish folklore. By combining his knowledge of the tales and his gaming, he has created a worthwhile book to use in the 7thSea setting, or one you would rather use.Sielicki points out the Sarmatian Commonwealth is based on information from historical Poland and Lithuania, making it a perfect place to introduce the creatures from this 55-page work. The first 37 pages cover information adapted from the tales of Sielicki’s home region to fit the 7th Sea game setting. The remaining pages are devoted to the artwork of Filip Gutowski, which can be used to show the creatures without having to expose any information about them.
I had the opportunity of working with someone a few years ago on a project dealing with Eastern European folklore and reading through the material Sielicki has put together brought back wonderful memories and provided a new list of adventure ideas for my home games.
The Sarmatian Bestiaryadapts the tales into creatures usable in the game setting and mechanics. The tales have been adapted for playability purposes. However, the feel of the folktales is well maintained to give the creatures the edge the tales originally had. He maintains a level of interest in the focus of the tales to present interesting, and playable, encounters. Rather like stepping back to some of the original settings of the Grimm fairytales, these are a little darker in mood.
As with most folklore, the tales Sielicki draws upon were for teaching and frightening. This element is maintained. This allows encounters to be used not only for combat purpose, but for building story. Here are the tales that were passed down the generations to get children to behave and to teach how to care of your family and farm.
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| Sarmatian Warriors of Ukraine |
People will recognize some of the creatures from other games. In many systems monsters have been created to draw upon the numerous tales told around the world. Many tales are similar (as readers of Joseph Campbell know well). Having a set dealing with a specific area and how they are represented is a wonderful guide for a location already based on the land they are drawn from. Another use for such a collection is to build a more historic fantasy setting of your own.
Sielicki’s adaptation uses the 7th Sea 2nd Edition to present the tales and lists them out for quick and easy use.
This is the fifth item I have reviewed written by Janek Sielicki covering three gaming systems. He does a great job of providing information for the system he is writing in and giving enough information to allow it to be easily adapted and presented into an ongoing game, both published and self-constructed campaigns. It is also easily adaptable to another system.
I highly recommend this The Sarmatian Bestiary for anyone who is interested in creating a setting using the folklore of Poland, or even a broader stance of Eastern Europe. The information is a wonderful presentation of the basic information with an adaptation towards a role-playing game (RPG) and if not readily available to drop right into the game you are playing, provides a sourcebook that can be easily used to move your game forward.
The Sarmatian Bestiaryis also a good resource for other locales where you want to develop more of the feeling of the fairytales and folklore told in Europe.
Sielicki delivers another winning resource for RPGing.
I was given a copy of The Sarmatian Bestiary by the author for review purposes.
About the Author
Janek Sielicki is a 39-year-old Polish freelance writer. He has been playing roleplaying games since the early 1990s—as most people in Poland he started with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but then moved on to other systems and settings, most often exploring them as a game master. Recently he started publishing his own modules for different games, such as Numenera, Dungeons and Dragons, or 7th Sea 2ed and also accepts commissions for video and mobile game writing, RPG character background stories, etc. Janek is a professional English-Polish/Polish-English translator—that's his day job, actually! In his free time, aside from RPGs, he practices the martial art of iaijutsu and spends time with his two children and wife. He lives in Poland. Twitter: @Janek_Sielicki
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