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Monster Manual: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Common questions
Who wrote the first Monster Manual published in 1977?
Gary Gygax wrote the first Monster Manual published in 1977. This 108-page volume compiled over 350 monsters and established a new standard for wargame books.
When was the Monster Manual for the third edition of D&D released?
The Monster Manual for the third edition of D&D was released on the 1st of October 2000. Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams all contributed to the third edition Monster Manual with Williams credited with the design of the book.
What format did the Monstrous Compendium use instead of a hardback book?
The Monstrous Compendium used a binder of looseleaf sheets instead of a hardback book. This format was intended to help Dungeon Masters keep handy only the monster statistics needed for a particular game session.
Which edition of D&D featured the demon prince Orcus on the cover of the Monster Manual?
The D&D 4th edition Monster Manual featured the demon prince Orcus on the cover. This book was released with the other core books on the 6th of June 2008 and was designed by Mike Mearls, Stephen Schubert, and James Wyatt.
When was the D&D 5th edition Monster Manual released?
The D&D 5th edition Monster Manual was released on the 30th of September 2014. The book is 350 pages and illustrated with the cover depicting the beholder Xanathar attacking adventurers in the Underdark.
The first Monster Manual, published in 1977, was the first hardcover book ever released for any Dungeons & Dragons game, marking a pivotal shift in how tabletop role-playing games were packaged and perceived. Written by Gary Gygax, this 108-page volume compiled over 350 monsters, some newly created and others revised from earlier sources like Monsters and Treasure, Greyhawk, and Blackmoor. The book featured full descriptions, game statistics, and illustrations for each creature, establishing a new standard for wargame books. The cover was illustrated by David C. Sutherland III, and a softcover version was printed in the United Kingdom by Games Workshop in 1978. When reprinted in 1985, the book featured new cover art by Jeff Easley, and it remained relatively unchanged throughout its fifteen printings up to 1989, with only minor corrections and cover art changes to match a new logo and house style. The first edition also included topless portrayals of some female monsters, such as the succubus, Type V demons, lamia, and sylph, and marked the first appearance of the mimic.
A New Kind of Bestiary
Games scholar Jaroslav Švelch observed that the Monster Manual was modeled after medieval bestiaries but with more precise figures, creating simulated natures of their own and populating them with creatures that followed artificial laws and conditions. The book's illustrations, primarily by David Trampier, were groundbreaking in their professionalism and detail, often evoking the feel of medieval woodcuts. Together, Sutherland and Trampier created a world where green slime dripped from the ceiling and treasure chests could come to life, setting a mold for other games to follow. The Monster Manual became a beloved companion to a generation of gamers, serving as an authoritative resource for countless subsequent fantasy games. Don Turnbull, a reviewer, praised the book as the most comprehensive listing of D&D monsters, noting its clarity and quality, while Lawrence Schick commented that it had spawned a host of imitations. David M. Ewalt described the book as a rush job that succeeded in elevating the D&D rulebook to a fetish object, becoming a source that gamers returned to again and again.
The Fiend Factory Expands
The Fiend Folio, published by TSR, Inc., was primarily made up of monsters described in the Fiend Factory feature of White Dwarf and from various D&D modules, with some original creations. It introduced several popular monsters to the D&D game, including drow, githyanki, githzerai, slaad, and death knights, while also featuring monsters that were widely ridiculed, such as the flumph, one of the few non-evil creatures presented in the volume. Monster Manual II, published in 1983 and credited solely to Gygax, detailed more than 250 monsters, most of them featuring illustrations. Many monsters in the book were taken from previously published adventure modules, particularly S4: Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and a dozen devils that had been first published in the pages of Dragon magazine. The book contained random encounter tables for dungeon and wilderness settings built from the monsters in the Monster Manual, Fiend Folio, and Monster Manual II, and listed the experience point value for each monster within the entry. The Monster Manual II, along with the First Edition Unearthed Arcana book, featured quite a number of monsters, races, and places from Gary Gygax's home Greyhawk campaign world.
The Monstrous Compendium superseded the Monster Manual with the release of AD&D 2nd edition, featuring a binder of looseleaf sheets rather than a hardback book. The first two volumes contained the core monsters of the game, followed by many appendices that contained extra monsters for particular campaign settings. The format was intended to help Dungeon Masters keep handy only the monster statistics needed for a particular game session, as well as to greatly expand the information about each monster, as each was given at least one full page. However, the binder format ultimately proved impractical for two main reasons: looseleaf pages were not as durable as the hardcover format, and TSR routinely printed different monsters on each side of a sheet, making it impossible to keep monsters in strict alphabetical order. In 1993, the Monstrous Manual was released, compiling all monsters from the first two volumes of the Monstrous Compendium plus many monsters from other sources into a 384-page hardcover book edited by Doug Stewart. More Monstrous Compendium appendices were released as supplements to the Monstrous Manual in the form of paperback books, including updated reprints of loose leaf Monstrous Compendium Appendices and new volumes.
The Third Edition Overhaul
The Monster Manual for the third edition of D&D was released on the 1st of October 2000, as the third of three core books of the system. Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams all contributed to the third edition Monster Manual, with Williams credited with the design of the book. The updates were not intended to make major changes, only to update older monsters to third edition rules. According to Williams, the first item on the agenda was combing through the game's twenty-year collection of monsters and deciding which ones were going into the book, with the design team focusing on creatures that fit well into classic dungeon-style adventures. In 2001, Monster Manual won the Origins Award for Best Graphic Design of a Roleplaying Game, Adventure, or Supplement 2000. The next volumes, Monster Manual II and Fiend Folio, were new monster-specific rulebooks containing mostly updated monsters from the sourcebooks of earlier editions, though some monsters had almost no overlap with those of their first edition namesakes. There were no new versions of Monster Manual II or Fiend Folio for the 3.5 edition of D&D, although update errata for both volumes and for the original third edition Monster Manual are available for download from the publisher's website.
The 3.5 Revision and Special Editions
In July 2003, the Monster Manual was revised and released again for D&D version 3.5, with the revision done by Rich Baker and Skip Williams. The 3.5 revision had a slightly different entry on each monster than the 3rd edition, with each monster's attack divided into attack and full attack entries. When asked about the hardest part in revising the book, Rich Baker replied that the sheer volume of work was the challenge, as there were hundreds of monster entries, each with a couple dozen data points to examine and check. Some creatures from the Psionics Handbook and the third edition Manual of the Planes were added to the revised book, and further revision included the addition of an enhanced version of most monsters as an example of advancement, usually either with a template or with class levels. Many monsters also included instructions on how to use them as player characters. The Monster Manual version 3.5 was reproduced as a premium reprint on the 18th of September 2012. Monster Manual III was published in September 2004, designed by Rich Burlew, Eric Cagle, Jesse Decker, Andrew J. Finch, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, Rich Redman, Matthew Sernett, Chris Thomasson, and P. Nathan Toomey, and was notable for its descriptions of where the monsters might be found in the Eberron and Forgotten Realms campaign settings. Monster Manual IV, published July 2006, was designed by Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Matthew Sernett, Eric Cagle, Andrew Finch, Christopher Lindsay, Kolja Raven Liquette, Chris Sims, Owen K.C. Stephens, Travis Stout, JD Wiker, and Skip Williams, and contained fewer actual monsters than Monster Manual II and Monster Manual III, but had sample lairs and encounters for them, gave stats for classes and templates applied to old creatures, and full page maps.
The Fourth Edition and Essentials
The D&D 4th edition Monster Manual was released with the other core books on the 6th of June 2008, featuring the demon prince Orcus on the cover. The book was designed by Mike Mearls, Stephen Schubert, and James Wyatt. Monster Manual 2 was released on the 20th of May 2009, with Demogorgon on the cover, and Monster Manual 3 was released on the 15th of June 2010, featuring Lolth on its cover. Monster Vault was released the 16th of November 2010, and featured monsters introduced in the Monster Manual revised to the new format that was introduced in Monster Manual 3. Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale was released the 28th of June 2011, and re-introduced a few new monsters as well as several related to the setting of Nentir Vale. All volumes of the Monster Vault are parts of the Dungeons & Dragons Essentials line of 4th edition D&D products. The 4th edition marked a significant shift in the game's mechanics, with monsters designed to fit the new system's emphasis on balanced encounters and tactical combat. The design team focused on creating creatures that could be used in a variety of settings, from the Underdark to the planes of existence, and included detailed information on how to run encounters with these monsters.
The Fifth Edition and Modern Legacy
On the 30th of September 2014, the D&D 5th edition Monster Manual was the second core book released for the new edition. On the staggered release schedule, Jeremy Crawford explained that their small team couldn't finish the books at the same time and also ensure their high quality, so they chose to stagger their releases. The book is 350 pages and illustrated, with the cover depicting the beholder Xanathar attacking adventurers in the Underdark. Crawford and Mike Mearls co-led design for the Fifth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. In Publishers Weekly's Best-selling Books Week Ending the 13th of October 2014, Monster Manual was number 5 in Hardcover Nonfiction and sold 16,956 units. In a review of Monster Manual in Black Gate, Scott Taylor said it was a very sharp book in the gaming Big Three, and anyone looking to take on the challenge of 5E would be happy with what they had invested in. The 5th edition Monster Manual won the 2015 Origins Award for Best Role Playing Supplement and Fan Favorite Role Playing Supplement, and the book won two 2015 gold ENnie Awards for Best Monster/Adversary and Best Interior Art. The 5th edition Monster Manual has become a cornerstone of modern D&D, with its monsters designed to be both iconic and adaptable to a wide range of campaigns, ensuring its place as a beloved companion to a new generation of gamers.