|
Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/02/monstrous-mondays-ad-2nd-ed-monstrous_21.html
I am continuing my dive into the AD&D 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendiums. Today I want to talk about the next three that were important to me in terms of what I call the "core" of the AD&D 2nd Ed monsters.
It is a commonly held belief that during the AD&D 2nd Ed era that settings were at their height. The remaining Monstrous Compendiums focused on these settings. For me it was a perfect systems really. I could keep monsters in with my core rules, like I did with Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Mystara. Or keep them with my boxed sets of campaigns, like I did with all my Ravenloft stuff. So let's go with the ones I integrated (to the best I could) into my core set.
Monstrous Compendium - Mystara Appendix
First Edition was all about Greyhawk. Second edition was synomous with Ravenloft for me. But Mystara, or before that name, the Known World was where my gaming began. So the Mystara Appendix for the Monstrous Compendium was one of my "core" core sets.
The Mystara appendix take a few diversions from the other core world sets. For starters this one is 128 pages and $9.99 on DriveThruRPG now. It is also full color, a indication of the change of publishing style at TSR. This book was also published as a standalone softcover, perfect bound, book. It seems that by 1994 the loose-leaf era was indeed over.
The PDF though does allow you to go back to that era and print the monsters out as you like.
This set has 174 monsters from Actaeon to Zombie, Lightning. Many of the old favorites from the B/X and BECMI days are here too. Living Statues, Kopru, Decapus and the Thoul are all here in their 2nd Edition glory as well as many of the Gem Stone Dragons.
If you were/are a fan of the D&D Creature Catalogs then this really is a must buy. I find it interesting that this Compendium came out just a year after the DMR2 Creature Catalog. I'd have to go through them page by page to see if there are any differences in the monsters presented, but they feel very much alike.
The DriveThruRPG scanned PDF is very bright and clear. I would love to see this as a print-on-demand some day.
|
Log In 
