This is the book. This is the book that got me into D&D and RPGs.
But how does one review such a genre-defining classic?
My son had made himself a triple cheeseburger covered in bacon, onions, and mushrooms. I asked him how he was going to fit that into his mouth. He said, "with determination".
How does one review such a genre-defining classic? With determination.
My History
The Monster Manual was the book for me. The one that got me hooked. The one, sitting in "silent reading" back in 1979 at Washington Elementary School in Jacksonville, IL that I became the über-geek you all know today. How über? I used the freaking umlauts, that's my street cred right there.
Back in '79 I was reading a lot of Greek Myths, I loved reading about all the gods, goddesses and monsters. So I saw my friend's Monster Manual and saw all those cool monsters and I knew I had to have a copy. Though getting one in my tiny near-bible-belt town was not easy. Not hard mind you, by the early 1980s the local book store stocked them, but I was not there yet. So I borrowed his and read. And read. And read. I think I had the damn thing memorized long before I ever got my own game going.
Since that time I judge a gamebook on the "Monster Manual" scale. How close of a feeling do I get from a book or game compared to the scale limit of holding the Monster Manual for the first time? Some games have come close and others have hit the mark as well. C.J. Carella's WitchCraft gave me the same feeling.
Also, I like to go to the monster section of any book or get their monster books. Sure I guess sometimes there are diminishing returns, Monster Manual V for 3.5 anyone? But even then sometimes you get a Fiend Folio (which I liked thankyouverymuch).
This book captured my imagination like no other gamebook. Even the 1st DMG, which is a work of art, had to wait till I was older to appreciate it. The Monster Manual grabbed me and took me for a ride.
The Book (and PDF)
The PDF of the Monster Manual has been available since July of 2015. The book itself has seen three different covers.
Regardless of what cover you have the insides are all the same. The book is 112 pages, black and white art from some of the biggest names that ever graced the pages of an RPG book.
This book was the first of so many things we now take for granted in this industry. The first hardcover, the first dedicated monster tome, the first AD&D book.
The book contains 350 plus monsters of various difficulties for all character levels. Some of the most iconic monsters in D&D began right here. Mostly culled from the pages of OD&D, even some of the art is similar, and the pages of The Dragon, this was and is the definitive book on monsters.
Eldritch Wizardry gave us the demons, but the Monster Manual gave us those and all the new devils. The Monster Manual introduced us to the devils and the Nine Hells. Additionally, we got the new metallic dragons, more powerful and more diverse undead and many more monsters. We also got many sub-races of the "big 3". Elves get wood, aquatic, half and drow. Dwarves get hill and mountain varieties. Halflings get the Tallfellows and Stouts. So not just more monsters, but more details on the monsters we already knew.
While designed for AD&D I used it with the Holmes Basic book. The two products had a similar style and to me seemed to work great together. It was 1979 and honestly, we did all sorts of things with our games back then. The games worked very well together.
Flipping through one of my physical copies, or paging through the PDF, now I get the same sense of wonder I did 40 years ago.
Thankfully, you can get the PDF of the Monster Manual for just a little more than the hardcover cost 40 years ago.
I could be wrong but I think the Monster Manual was written first with the idea that it would pair with Basic D&D (or OD&D) and thus would sell well enough as the other parts of AD&D were put together.
ReplyDeleteWe still have two of those covers... one well-worn as well as both Dungeon Master Guide books enjoyable post, good Sir
ReplyDeleteI remember walking into our local B. Dalton bookstore and me reading through the MM for what felt like hours. It was glorious and wondrous, though I wouldn't play my first RPG for at least 13 more years.
ReplyDeleteAn honest question here, if the MM was the first AD&D book, what were you supposed to use if for if not Basic D&D?
As someone who'd been playing OD&D for a couple years when the Monster Manual first came out, I can attest that we very much thought of it as another supplement to the game we were playing, rather than as part of something new. Honestly, in those days when homebrew was king, we thought of the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide more-or-less similarly -- as evolutions of D&D, rather than as a substantively new game.
ReplyDeleteWhen Basic and Expert D&D came along, we thought them largely irrelevant: "These are just simplified versions for people just getting into the hobby, right? What do we need those for?" It's only been within the past 5 years or so that I learned that they were significantly different from 1E AD&D.