Customer Reviews

Fiend Folio: Appendix : Monstrous Compendium (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Mc14 2132)

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This is one of the best books to acquire for a fan of D&D, but for somewhat strange reasons:

- this book is not recommended for its pictures, which look, feel, and are poor. Quite gory, too (that is, as gory as one can get with very small pencil drawings);

- this book isn't recommended for the text; the text here is even worse than in the old monstrous manuals - if you study the entries you will be able to clearly determine which paragraphs went into which blank on the original entry forms (did I tell you that all of the creatures in this book were submitted by fans of the game?). Most aren't quite complete, and some ramble on and on and on and have totally unnecessary percentile tables and other things that obviously waste space.

This book is, however, gratuitously recommended for the complete "alienness". No game company makes this sort of thing nowadays. None of the creatures are campaign-related, they are totally up for grabs, they are easy to apply to whatever paper-and-pencil RPG you play, and the sheer good-natured amateurity that harkens from the old days of role-playing this book radiates in all directions is simply overwhelming.

A few warnings: this book is moderately rare and runs for around $30 in a tolerable condition - kinda expensive for some 100 pages. Don't buy this book if you're new to the hobby. You will not understand what's so good about this thing and you will feel cheated out of you money. Thee are plenty of better RPGs and accessories out there than this. And, lastly, buy this book only if you feel creative - be willing to resort to such barbaric means as using your creativity and improvise - that's the way things were done a long time ago.

This is perhaps one of the greatest encyclopedia of monsters there is. It is short but incredible to spice up any campaign, low or high level. The artwork is not the greatest but the content makes up for it all the way. I would definately recomend it to any serious gamer.