Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an organization of wargaming clubs and founded the Gen Con gaming convention. In 1971, he helped develop a miniatures wargame based on medieval warfare, he co-founded the company Tactical Studies Rules with childhood friend Don Kaye in 1973. The following year, he and Arneson created D&D, which expanded on Gygax's Chainmail and included elements of the fantasy stories he loved as a child. In the same year, he founded a magazine based around the new game. In 1977, Gygax began work on a more comprehensive version of the game, called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Gygax designed numerous manuals for the game system, as well as several pre-packaged adventures called "modules" that gave a person running a D&D game a rough script and ideas on how to run a particular gaming scenario. In 1983, he worked to license the D&D product line into the successful D&D cartoon series.
After leaving TSR in 1985 over issues with its new majority owner, Gygax continued to create role-playing game titles independently, beginning with the multi-genre Dangerous Journeys in 1992. He designed another gaming system called Lejendary Adventure, released in 1999. In 2005, Gygax was involved in the Castles & Crusades role-playing game, conceived as a hybrid between the third edition of D&D and the original version of the game conceived by Gygax. Gygax had six children. In 2004, Gygax suffered two strokes, narrowly avoided a subsequent heart attack, was diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm, died in March 2008. Gygax was born in Chicago, the son of Almina Emelie "Posey" and Swiss immigrant and former Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Ernst Gygax, he was named Ernest after his father, but he was known as Gary, the middle name given to him by his mother after the actor Gary Cooper. The family lived on Kenmore Avenue, close enough to Wrigley Field that he could hear the roar of the crowds watching the Chicago Cubs play.
At age 7, he became a member of a small group of friends who called themselves the "Kenmore Pirates". In 1946, after the Kenmore Pirates were involved in a fracas with another gang of boys, his father decided to move the family to Posey's family home in Lake Geneva, where Posey's family had settled in the early 19th century, where Gary's grandparents still lived. In this new setting, Gygax soon made friends with several of his peers, including Don Kaye and Mary Jo Powell. During his childhood and teen years, he developed a love of games and an appreciation for fantasy and science fiction literature; when he was five, he played card games such as pinochle and board games such as chess. At the age of ten, he and his friends played the sort of make-believe games that came to be called "live action role-playing games" with one of them acting as a referee, his father introduced him to science fantasy through pulp novels. His interest in games, combined with an appreciation of history led Gygax to begin playing miniature war games in 1953 with his best friend Don Kaye.
As teenagers Gygax and Kaye designed their own miniatures rules for toy soldiers with a large collection of 54 mm and 70 mm figures, where they used "ladyfingers" to simulate explosions. By the time he reached his teens, Gygax had a voracious appetite for pulp fiction authors such as Robert Howard, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Burroughs. Gygax was a mediocre student, in 1956, a few months after his father died, he dropped out of high school in his junior year, he joined the Marines, but after being diagnosed with walking pneumonia, he was given a medical discharge and moved back home with his mother. From there, he commuted to a job as a shipping clerk with Kemper Insurance Co. in Chicago. Shortly after his return, a friend introduced him to Avalon Hill's new wargame Gettysburg, Gygax was soon obsessed with the game playing marathon sessions once a week or more, it was from Avalon Hill that he ordered the first blank hex mapping sheets that were available, which he employed to design his own games.
At about the same time that he discovered Gettysburg, his mother re-introduced him to Mary Jo Powell, who had left Lake Geneva as a child and had just returned. Gygax was smitten with the beautiful young woman, after a short courtship, persuaded her to marry him, despite the fact that he was only 19; this caused some friction with his best friend Don Kaye, wooing Mary Jo, to the point where Kaye refused to attend Gygax's wedding. The young couple moved to Chicago where Gygax continued as a shipping clerk at Kemper Insurance, found Mary Jo a job there too. At Mary Jo's insistence, he attended night classes in junior college to earn his high school diploma, this time he excelled at his studies and made the college's Dean's List, he took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago. Gygax volunteered as a Republican precinct captain during the 1960 presidential election, observed many infractions by his Democratic counterpart; when he threatened to report these, he was offered a full scholarship to the University of Chicago if he kept silent.
Although Gygax did not report the infractions, since he felt nothing would be done, he did not accept the scholarship. Despite his commitments to his job, raising a family and his political volunteerism, Gygax continued to play wargames
Erik Mona
Erik Mona is an American game designer who lives in Seattle, Washington. Mona was the editor of the Oerth Journal, an online publication devoted to the World of Greyhawk campaign setting, from issues 3-7. In the 1990s, Mona had the opportunity to talk to designers like Robert Kuntz on the GreyTalk mailing list in 1990s, where Kuntz shared stories of the early Greyhawk days. Mona became the head publisher of Paizo Publishing in April 2006. Mona and other editors working at Paizo Publishing were fans of Greyhawk, thus gave some attention to the setting in Dragon and Dungeon magazines while Paizo was publishing the magazines. Mona served as the editor-in-chief of Dragon beginning in 2004 and Dungeon from 2004 to 2006, he has edited, co-authored several products for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, including the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer and Pantheons, Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss, Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk ), Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, Armies of the Abyss.
He maintained a blog called Lemuria Press and made his last post on Lemuria Press on December 25, 2012. Erik Mona's blog
Githyanki
The githyanki are a fictional humanoid race in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. They are cousins to the githzerai. In the Dark Sun setting, they are called gith. Githyanki appeared in the 1981 edition of the Fiend Folio; the githyanki were introduced by Charles Stross in his Advanced Dragons campaign. Stross borrowed the name from a fictional race created by George R. R. Martin in his 1977 science fiction novel Dying of the Light. George R. R. Martin himself was not aware that the name had been borrowed until a fan and D&D player informed him after a public reading in 1983; the githyanki/illithid relationship was inspired by Larry Niven's World of Ptavvs. The githyanki have appeared in all editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game since Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. In Martin's novel, the githyanki were called "soulsucks" because of their dangerous psychic powers, they were slaves of another alien race called the hrangans, were used by them in their long space wars with humanity.
Unlike the D&D race, they were sapient. No githyanki appear in Dying of the Light, as the book takes place after the war between the humans and the hrangans is long over, the soulsucks are nearly extinct. There is passing reference to them in Martin's short-story collection Tuf Voyaging and the short story "Nightflyers"; the githyanki was first published in White Dwarf #12, in the "Fiend Factory" column. In White Dwarf #15 readers were asked to vote for their top ten "Fiend Factory" monsters; the top ten, including the githyanki, were reprinted in Best of White Dwarf Articles. The githyanki appears in 1981 in the first edition Fiend Folio, appears on the book's cover; the module Tales of the Outer Planes describes a githyanki lair. The githyanki appears first in the Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix, which included the g"lathk githyanki, the hr'a'cknir githyanki, the mlar githyanki; the githyanki and these variants are reprinted in the Monstrous Manual. The githyanki was further detailed in the first Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix.
Githyanki society and their Astral cities are further developed, their leader Vlaakith the Lich-Queen are described in A Guide to the Astral Plane. The githyanki first appears in the Psionics Handbook, in this edition's Manual of the Planes; the githyanki appears in the revised Monster Manual for this edition, was further detailed in the Expanded Psionics Handbook and the Complete Psionic. The "Incursion" storyline running through July 2003's Dragon #309 and Dungeon #100 focused on the githyanki heavily. Dungeon #100 included the duthka'gith, the kr'y'izoth template, the tl'a'ikith template, Vlaakith the Lich-Queen; the githyanki captain, the gish githyanki, the githyanki soldier appeared in Monster Manual IV. The githyanki was featured in the 4th Edition preview book Worlds and Monsters; the githyanki appears in the Monster Manual for this edition, including the githyanki warrior, the githyanki mindslicer, the githyanki gish. The githyanki return to Dungeons & Dragons as a playable race alongside the githzerai in the expansion Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.
The githyanki is considered a "Product Identity" by Wizards of the Coast and as such is not released under its Open Gaming License. Unlike their mammalian ancestors, githyanki reproduce by laying eggs; because biological processes temporarily stop for those on the Astral, the githyanki must travel to other planes to breed the Prime Material Plane. Githyanki are considered to be native to the Astral Plane, though their distant ancestors were humans from the Material Plane, their fortress-cities are built on chunks of Astral stone or on the titanic stony corpses of dead gods. They have fortress-outposts on many planes and Material Planar worlds near illithid lairs, as well as brood-chambers to incubate their eggs. Githyanki are vaguely similar to humans in appearance, but taller and much gaunter, averaging six feet, three inches tall and weighing an average of 170 pounds, they have leathery, pale yellow skin, red or black hair. Their black eyes are sunken in their skulls, their ears are pointed and serrated in back.
Githyanki are always evil, though they can be chaotic, neutral, or lawful. Non-evil githyanki are one-in-a-million exceptions, good githyanki are unheard of. Githyanki society is martial, with both males and females training in magic and sword fighting. Although they are loyal to each other, they are fiercely individualistic. Raiding illithid strongholds is considered a rite of passage; the current queen, Vlaakith CLVII, is an undead wizard who has ruled her people for more than a thousand years. She is so paranoid that when any githyanki achieves a certain level of power and skill, she summons them to her palace to consume their souls, thus preventing them from threatening her power. Most githyanki willingly present themselves out of blind loyalty and pride, whilst those who try to flee this fate are hunted down and dragged before her in shackles; these victims afterwards become some form of undead servant under her direct control. Vlaakith will sometimes present powerful githyanki with an rare silver sword.
These swords possess several unique properties, most notably the ability to sever the silver cords that act as lifelines to travelers on the astral plane, killing the traveler instantly. These swords are sought after, a cult of githyanki knights called the Sword Stalkers is tasked with recovering any swords that fall into the hands of the unworthy, namely non-gi
Ian Livingstone
Ian Livingstone CBE (born 29 December 1949 is an English fantasy author and entrepreneur. Along with Steve Jackson, he is the co-founder of a series of role-playing gamebooks, Fighting Fantasy, the author of many books within that series, he is one of the co-founders of prominent games company Games Workshop. Livingstone attended Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, according to him, he only earned one A-level in Geography, he has kept his close links with the school and has visited it on numerous occasions, including to donate money for a refurbishment of the ICT suite, to present awards to GCSE recipients in 1998. Livingstone co-founded Games Workshop in early 1975 with flatmates John Steve Jackson, they started publishing a monthly newsletter and Weasel, sent copies of the first issue to subscribers of the defunct fanzine Albion. Livingstone and Jackson felt that this game was more imaginative than anything being produced in the UK at the time, so worked out an arrangement with Blume for an exclusive deal to sell D&D in Europe.
They began distributing Dungeons & Dragons and other TSR products in 1975. In late 1975, Livingstone and Jackson organised the first Games Day; because they were selling products out of their flat, people would come looking for a store that did not exist. Under the direction of Livingstone and Jackson, Games Workshop expanded from a bedroom mail order company to a successful gaming manufacturer and retail chain, with the first Games Workshop store opening in Hammersmith in 1977. In June of that year to advertise the opening and Jackson launched the gaming magazine White Dwarf, with Livingstone as the editor. Livingstone picked the title, which had meaning for both fantasy and science fiction readers: a white dwarf could be a stellar phenomenon or a fantasy character. Livingstone stepped down as editor of the magazine after White Dwarf #74. In 1980, Livingstone and Jackson began to develop the concept of the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series, the first volume of, published in 1982 by Puffin Books.
Livingstone and Jackson sold Games Workshop in 1991 for £10 million. The pair, together with Bryan Ansell, founded Citadel Miniatures in Newark to make miniatures for games. Livingstone has invented several board games, including Boom Town, Judge Dredd, Legend of Zagor, Dragonmasters. In 1982, Jackson and Livingstone co-wrote The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the first book in the Fighting Fantasy series, but following an instruction from publishers Penguin to write more books "as as possible" the pair wrote subsequent books separately; the series had sold over 18 million copies as of 2017, with Livingstone's Deathtrap Dungeon selling over 350,000 copies in its first year alone. Livingstone wrote another twelve Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, including The Forest of Doom, City of Thieves and Caverns of the Snow Witch before marking the 30th anniversary of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain with a new gamebook, Blood of the Zombies, in 2012, with The Port of Peril in 2017 for the 35th anniversary. In the mid-1980s Livingstone did design work for video game publisher Domark.
Livingstone recounted, "After the success of Games Workshop, I retired, got bored, invested in Domark to fund their cartridge development. I got in at just the wrong time - it was all going flat." In 1995, Domark was acquired by the video technology company Eidos Interactive, floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1990, formed the major part of the newly created Eidos Interactive. In 2005 Eidos was taken over by SCi and Livingstone was the only former board member to be retained, taking on the role of product acquisition director. Livingstone secured many of the company's major franchises, including Hitman, he contributed to the Tomb Raider project Tomb Raider: Anniversary, released in 2007. In 2009, Japanese video-game company Square Enix completed a buyout of Eidos Interactive and Livingstone was promoted to Life President of Eidos, a position he resigned from in 2013. In 2014 Livingstone appeared in the documentary feature film From Bedrooms to Billions a film that tells the story of the British Video Games Industry from 1979 to present.
In 2010 Livingstone was asked to act as the Skills Champion by government minister Ed Vaizey, tasked with producing a report reviewing the UK video games industry. The'NextGen' report, co-authored with Alex Hope of visual effects firm Double Negative, was released in 2011. In 2002, Livingstone won the BAFTA Interactive Special Award for outstanding contribution to the industry. Livingstone was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2006 New Year Honours, Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 New Year Honours both for services to the computer gaming industry. In 2011, Livingstone received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Bournemouth University; the Warlock of Firetop Mountain with Steve Jackson, Puffin Books The Forest of Doom City of Thieves Deathtrap Dungeon Island of the Lizard King Caverns of the Snow Witch Freeway Fighter Temple of Terror Trial of Champions Crypt of the Sorceror Armies of Death Return to Firetop Mountain Eye of the Dragon Blood of the Zombies The Port of Pe
James Wyatt (game designer)
James Wyatt is a game designer and a former United Methodist minister. He works for Wizards of the Coast, where he has designed several award-winning supplements and adventures for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, he is the author of several sci-fi and fantasy novels, including a few Forgotten Realms books, the 4th edition Dungeon Master's Guide. Wyatt grew up in Ithaca, NY where he attended Ithaca High School, graduating in 1986, he had been playing role-playing games since the late 1970s, beginning with the first Basic D&D set: "I remember pretending to be a wizard in my backyard before I picked up the basic set... I used the monster statistics in the D&D books to give us wizards something to fight in our primitive backyard live-action roleplaying game." After high-school he attended Oberlin in Ohio as a religion major and graduated in 1990. He went on to receive a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, in 1993, he was married soon after. In 1994 Wyatt began his working career as the minister of two small United Methodist churches in southeastern Ohio.
While working as a minister Wyatt began writing in his spare time for Dragon magazine, starting with material for TSR's Masque of the Red Death setting. By 1996, Wyatt decided to change his career path: "While I was in the ministry, I started submitting adventures to Dungeon magazine... I found that my D&D work was a source of freedom and energy when ministry was more life-draining for me; when I started getting adventures and articles accepted, it was so exciting that it became clear that D&D would never again be just a hobby for me." The same year he moved to Wisconsin in hopes of getting a full-time job at TSR, which did not work out, but he kept writing material as a freelance author. Wyatt produced work for roleplaying games such as West End's Hercules and Xena, although he felt that "D&D has always been my one true love in the gaming world... despite junior high flings with other game systems." He continued to have material published in Dungeon. In 1998 he moved to Berkeley, in 2000 to the Seattle/Tacoma area of Washington state.
Wizards of the Coast hired him in January 2000 to work on the D&D game full-time. His other early works for Wizards of the Coast included The Speaker in Dreams, Defenders of the Faith, the monsters chapter in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, numerous articles in Dragon and Dungeon. Wyatt wrote Oriental Adventures, a setting book that Wizards had in process for over a year, which offered new rules for Oriental realms, some of them specific to the world of Rokugan, he wrote City of the Spider Queen and co-authored numerous roleplaying game products, including Magic of Incarnum, Sharn: City of Towers, The Book of Dragons, Book of Exalted Deeds. Eberron was introduced with the Eberron Campaign Setting, produced by Keith Baker alongside Wyatt and Bill Slavicsek. Early in 2005, Slavicsek organized a team to work on some early designs for a fourth edition of D&D, headed up by Rob Heinsoo and contained Collins and Wyatt. Wyatt was on the SCRAMJET team, led by Richard Baker, including Matt Sernett, Ed Stark, Michele Carter, Stacy Longstreet, Chris Perkins.
He wrote the D&D novels In the Claws of the Tiger, Storm Dragon, Dragon Forge, Dragon War, Oath of Vigilance. As of April 2016, he has left Dungeons & Dragons and now works on the writing and creative aspects of Magic: The Gathering. Wyatt received Origins Awards in 2003 for City of the Spider Queen and in 2005 for the Eberron Campaign Setting, which he co-authored with Bill Slavicsek and Keith Baker, his other notable works include Oriental Adventures, the Draconic Prophecies series, Magic of Incarnum. Aquela.com - James Wyatt's Homepage "Pen & Paper listing for James Wyatt". Archived from the original on 2005-03-08
Bill Willingham
William "Bill" Willingham is an American writer and artist of comics, known for his work on the series Elementals and Fables. William Willingham was born in Virginia. During his father's military career the family lived in Alaska and three years in Germany. Willingham got his start in the late 1970s to early 1980s as a staff artist for TSR, Inc. where he illustrated a number of their role-playing game products. He was the cover artist for the AD&D Player Character Record Sheets, Against the Giants, Secret of Bone Hill, the Gamma World book Legion of Gold, provided the back cover for In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords, he was an interior artist on White Plume Mountain, Slave Pits of the Undercity, Ghost Tower of Inverness, Secret of the Slavers Stockade, Secret of Bone Hill, Palace of the Silver Princess, Isle of Dread, In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords, the original Fiend Folio, Descent into the Depths of the Earth, Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords, Against the Giants, Queen of the Spiders, Realms of Horror, the second and third editions of the Top Secret role-playing game.
He wrote and illustrated a couple of 1982 adventures for the game Villains & Vigilantes for Fantasy Games Unlimited, Death Duel with the Destroyers and The Island of Doctor Apocalypse. Willingham produced the alien race design artwork for the original Master of Orion video game, he first gained attention for his 1980s comic book series Elementals published by Comico, which he both wrote and illustrated. He contributed stories to Green Lantern and started his own independent, black-and-white comic book series Coventry which lasted only 3 issues, he produced the pornographic series Ironwood for Eros Comix. In the late 1990s, Willingham produced the 13-issue Pantheon for Lone Star Press and wrote a pair of short novels about the modern adventures of the hero Beowulf, a fantasy novel Down the Mysterly River published by the Austin, Texas writer's collective, Clockwork Storybook, of which Willingham was a founding member. In the early 2000s, he began writing for DC Comics, including the limited series Proposition Player, a pair of limited series about the Greek witch Thessaly from The Sandman, the series Fables.
In 2003, Fables won the Will Eisner Comic Industry awards for best serialized story and best new series. He describes himself as "rabidly pro-Israel" and says that Fables "was intended from the beginning" as a metaphor for the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, although he argues that Fables is not "a political tract, it never will be, but at the same time, it's not going to shy away from the fact that there are characters who have real moral and ethical centers, we're not going to apologize for it."Willingham worked on the Robin series from 2004 to 2006, established Shadowpact, a title spun off his Day of Vengeance limited series. He wrote Jack of Fables, an ongoing spin-off of his Fables series, co-written by Lilah Sturges. At the 2007 Comic Con International, he announced that he would be writing Salvation Run, a mini-series about supervillains who are banished to an inhospitable prison planet, he handed over the writing to Sturges after two issues because of illness. He worked on DCU: Decisions, a four-issue mini-series that deals with Green Arrow's endorsement of a political candidate.
Again with Sturges, he began writing the Vertigo series House of Mystery, DC's Justice Society of America with issue #29. In 2009, Willingham agreed to write for Angel by IDW Publishing, initiated a new storyline titled "Immortality for Dummies". At 2013 NY Comic Con it was announced that Willingham would be writing a seven part mini series for Dynamite Entertainment; the series is Legenderry: A Steampunk Adventure and includes some of Dynamite's licensed and public domain characters in a steampunk setting. The series was released in January 2014, a collected edition was published in January 2015; the issues listed include those where writing credits are for at least one story included in the issue. Other sources"Bill Willingham at Pen & Paper RPG Database". Archived from the original on October 16, 2007. Official website Bill Willingham at the Comic Book DB Bill Willingham at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Bill Willingam at Library of Congress Authorities, with 62 catalog records
Monstrous Compendium
The Monstrous Compendium is a series of accessories for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. MC1 Monstrous Compendium, Volume One was published by TSR in 1989, it was written by the TSR staff, with a cover by Jeff Easley, interior illustrations by Jim Holloway, came boxed with 144 loose-leaf pages and eight color cardstock dividers in a three-ring binder. This supplement was the basic monster book containing all the adversaries needed for a typical campaign using 2nd edition AD&D rules; each monster has a description and illustration on its own page, each page is separate, allowing for easy removal and retention of alphabetical order when monsters created by the DM or monsters from additions are added in. MC2 Monstrous Compendium, Volume Two was published by TSR in 1989, it was written by the TSR staff, with a cover by Jeff Easley and interior illustrations by Jim Holloway and Daniel Horne, was published as 144 loose-leaf pages of more monsters, with eight color cardstock dividers.
MC3 Monstrous Compendium, Volume Three, Forgotten Realms Appendix was published by TSR in 1989. It was written by the TSR staff, with a cover by Jeff Easley, was published as 64 loose-leaf pages and four color cardstock dividers; this was a supplement of monsters for the 2nd edition rules, concentrating on creatures of the Forgotten Realms. MC4 Monstrous Compendium Dragonlance Appendix —96 pages, 4 dividers and 3-ring D-binder MC5 Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Adventures Appendix —64 pages, 4 dividers MC6 Monstrous Compendium, Kara-Tur Appendix was written by the TSR staff, with a cover by Jeff Easley, was published by TSR in 1990 as 64 loose-leaf pages with four cardstock dividers; this was a supplement of Forgotten Realms Kara-Tur monsters for the 2nd edition rules. MC7 Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix was written by the TSR staff, with a cover by Jeff Easley, was published by TSR in 1990 as 64 loose-leaf pages with four color cardstock dividers; this was a supplement of monsters for use with Spelljammer.
MC8 Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix —96 pages, 4 dividers MC9 Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix II —64 pages, 4 dividers MC10 Monstrous Compendium Ravenloft Appendix —64 pages, 4 dividers MC11 Monstrous Compendium Forgotten Realms Appendix II —64 pages, 4 dividers MC12 Monstrous Compendium Dark Sun Appendix: Terrors of the Desert —96 pages, 4 dividers MC13 Monstrous Compendium Al-Qadim Appendix —64 pages, 4 dividers MC14 Monstrous Compendium Fiend Folio Appendix —64 pages, 4 dividers MC15 Monstrous Compendium Ravenloft Appendix II: Children of the Night —64 pages, 4 dividers Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume One —reprints from modules and magazines of 1993 Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Two —reprints from modules and magazines of 1994 Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Three —reprints from modules and magazines of 1995 Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Four —96 pages. He commented on the proliferation of monster books from TSR and other publishers: "Role-players seem to have an insatiable appetite for monsters.
The sound you hear is that of publishers scraping the bottom of the barrel for new ones." Swan noted that Children of the Night, by William W. Connors, adds living brains, bardic liches, half-golems to the Ravenloft roster. Reviewing this with two other monster books from two other publishers, he quipped: "They're all interesting, but I bet if I read you the descriptions, you'd be hard-pressed to tell which monsters belonged to which system. Trenton Webb reviewed Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II for Arcane magazine, rating it an 8 out of 10 overall, he commented that the book "has a great cover and it's a top read too" and that the artwork "isn't exactly inspired but it does sport a coherence and consistency seen in roleplaying books. There are no'well it's a man's head on a chicken's body' Crimewatch photofit embarassments'" found in many other monster books. Webb noted that the text "goes out of its way to encourage adventurers to use this book as a foundation rather than a work of reference" and that most of the descriptions feature quotes to add flavor, "which involve the quotee being horribly killed".
He felt that the blend and balance of the 100 creatures in the book was good, "with a lively mix of the lawful and chaotic, the mighty and meek" but noted that the book "does err in favour of the more fearsome, more powerful creatures". Trenton Webb reviewed Monstrous Compendium Annual Two for Arcane magazine, rating it a 7 out of 10 overall, he comments: "Serious work goes into bringing the beasties to life, but the crippling list format means they limp rather than leap from the page. A fault this work compounds by further tweaking the experience points system. A factor that's made all the more frustrating when it becomes apparent that the Monstrous Annual 2 dangles some delightful creatures before the referee's eyes." Ramshaw appreciated one creature entry above all the others, naming the "star, without a shadow of a doubt" as the shambling umpleby: "Even
