Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/03/monstrous-mondays-ad-2nd-ed-monstrous.html

I have mentioned this many times before but for me AD&D 2nd Ed was synonymous with Ravenloft for me. For most of AD&D's heydays, I was at university, either as an undergrad, in grad school, or working on my first Ph.D. So both money and free reading times were limited. I focused my efforts on the campaign world that I enjoyed the most, though I did dabble a bit into Planescape.

While I bought the Monstrous Compendiums as I could, I made an effort to get the Ravenloft ones.

MC15 Monstrous Compendium Ravenloft Appendix II: Children of the Night (2e)

PDF 64 pages, Color cover art, black & white interior art, $4.99. Covers just 20 monsters from "Brain, Living" to "Vampyre."

This second compendium draws from many of the adventures and books published for Ravenloft at this point. It has similar monster types to the first one, but all of these monsters are unique NPCs. For example, the MC10 had the Ermordenung creature, this one has the specific entry for Nostalla Romaine. Some, like Desmond LaRouche, the Half-golem and Jacquelline Montarri, even get 4 pages of treatment each. This is part and parcel of the nature of monsters in Ravenloft, each and everyone has the potential to become a unique encounter and a specifically planned one. This is one of the reasons I really don't do "random monsters" anymore. In Ravenloft, there never should be a random encounter. Even "non-Ravenloft" creatures get a unique Ravenloft treatment like Althea (medusa) and Salizarr (a meazel).

This might make the utility of this book a little less than the others, it is a book of NPCs really, not just monsters. The advantages though are a way to show how nearly any monster can get the "Ravenlot" treatment and expand to something more than a collection of HP to be traded for XP.

I also find quite a lot in these I can still use in my 5e games and in my OSR/Old-School games.