Today is Monday. It is also "M" Day. Here at The Other Side, Mondays are used for Monstrous Mondays, where I talk about monsters. Since I am doing the A to Z of Dungeons and Dragons my topic for today was pretty much handed to me. Today I am going to talk about the Monster Manual.
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| All printings of the 1st Edition Monster Manual |
Monster Manual for AD&D 1st Edition
This is the book that got me into D&D and RPGs. Along with The Hobbit, this is where my journey began.
The Monster Manual was the book for me. The one that got me hooked. The book I borrowed from a friend to read in "silent reading" back in 1979 at Washington Elementary School in Jacksonville, IL, was the one that made me 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. A particular favorite of mine was D'Aularires' Book of Greek Myths. 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.
Also, I like to go to the monster section of any book or get their monster books. Sure, 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, a work of art, had to wait until I was older to appreciate it. The Monster Manual grabbed op to me from the start and took me for a ride.
The Book (and PDF)
The Monster Manual's PDF has been available since July 2015. The book has three different covers from the various printings in 1977, 1983 and 2012.
Regardless of what cover you have, the insides are all the same. The book is 112 pages long and features black-and-white art from some of the biggest names to grace 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, and the first AD&D book.
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. We also got the new metallic dragons, more powerful and diverse undead, and many more monsters. There were new 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, there are not just more monsters but more details on the monsters we already know.
While designed for AD&D, I used it with the Holmes Basic book. The two products had a similar style and 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, I now feel the same sense of wonder I did 45 years ago.
Thankfully, you can get the PDF of the Monster Manual for just a little more than the hardcover cost 45 years ago.
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| Gary Gygax's oldest daughter, Elise, with the Monster Manual |
The original Monster Manual is still so popular today that Wizards of the Coast is still making minis for D&D 5th Edition in the style of the monsters from AD&D 1st Edition. Granted, those sets are not aimed at casual 5e players but rather old gamers like me with fond memories and more disposable income than we had in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
I feel it is difficult for me to truly convey how I felt when I first read this book. But I think I have approached explaining it.
One thing is certain. This is the reason I have been working on my own Basic Bestiary.
Tomorrow is N Day. I plan to discuss the infamous Appendix N from the Dungeon Master's Guide.
3 comments:
I'm not into D&D but if I was, you'd be the one to contact if I ran into a problem. You are so knowledgeable about the game.
350+ monsters in a book! Wow, sounds like a must-own book.
It seems impossible that this game has been around for so long! Was it a "behind the scenes" type of community at first? I remember knowing about it but not what it was. I knew more probably when the internet became mainstream. When my oldest son played about 6 years ago, I was amazed that it was still around!
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