Fiend Folio

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Fiend Folio
LC Class
GV1469.D8 F54 1981

Fiend Folio is the name of three separate products published for successive

monsters
.

The bulk of the material in the first edition came from the British gaming magazine White Dwarf, rather than being authored by Gary Gygax, the game's co-creator. Readers and gamers had submitted creatures to the "Fiend Factory" department of the magazine, and the most highly regarded of those appearing in the first thirteen issues were selected to be in the publication.

Publication history

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons product, with the monsters mostly taken from submissions to White Dwarf's "Fiend Factory" column.[1] At the time, Games Workshop was the holder of the license to publish D&D game products in the United Kingdom.[2] Although the manuscript was completed on time by editor Don Turnbull, a business dispute between Games Workshop and TSR Hobbies delayed publication of the book for nearly two years. The Fiend Folio was finally published in August 1981 by TSR itself, who used the product to launch its UK division.[3][4]

Much of the material for the 128-page hardcover Fiend Folio was drawn from early issues of White Dwarf. Also edited by Turnbull, the magazine's "Fiend Factory" column featured new AD&D monsters, many of them created by gamers who read the magazine.

svirfneblin, all of which had previously appeared in TSR modules, were included.[6] Turnbull also included creatures that had been submitted to the magazine, but not published in the column.[5] Aside from monsters, the book presents random encounter tables intended to be used in dungeons, outdoors, and the Astral and Ethereal Planes; these encounter tables include creatures from both the Monster Manual and Fiend Folio, and can replace the tables from the Dungeon Master's Guide.[5]

The githyanki, designed by

firbolg appeared on the cover of 1983's Monster Manual II and had as of 2007 slipped back into obscurity.[8] It began to see a resurgence with the 5th edition of D&D in 2016, when they became a playable race.[9]

Monsters featured in the Folio were originally submitted by Stross,

Polly Wilson, and Tony Yates
.

The publication of "Fiend Factory" monsters had one unintended side-effect for

Grenadier Models. This forced Citadel to discontinue miniatures depicting "Factory" monsters that appeared in the Folio.[10]

In 1983, TSR used the Monster Manual II to introduce a new orange spine cover design for hardcover AD&D manuals. The Fiend Folio was the only AD&D hardcover that did not have its cover redesigned to match the new style; instead, TSR let the Folio go out of print.[citation needed] In 1985, as TSR was getting ready to begin work on the AD&D 2nd edition, Gary Gygax stated that he was planning to incorporate material from the Fiend Folio into a revised Monster Manual for the new edition.[11] However, Gygax resigned from TSR in October 1986,[12] before the second edition was produced.

In 1999, a paperback reprint of the first edition was released.[13]

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition

The Fiend Folio Monstrous Compendium (

RPGA, including revised versions of many monsters introduced in the original Fiend Folio.[14]

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition

Fiend Folio
Authors
ISBN
0-7869-2780-1

The third Fiend Folio (

Dennis Cramer, Larry Dixon, Jeff Easley, Scott Fischer, Lars Grant-West, Jeremy Jarvis, Todd Lockwood, Kevin McCann, Raven Mimura, Matthew Mitchell, Puddnhead, Wayne Reynolds, Richard Sardinha, Marc Sasso, Brian Snoddy, Arnie Swekel, Ben Templesmith, Anthony Waters, and Sam Wood. The 224-page hardcover manual includes only a few monsters from the original, but added many new creatures, with an emphasis on monsters with extraplanar origins.[15] The book contains over 150 monsters, with approximately half of them being all-new.[16]

The Fiend Folio was released before the 3rd edition rules were revised to the 3.5 edition; the book's designers tried to foresee changes due to appear in the revised Monster Manual and implement them in the Fiend Folio.

fiend prestige classes for monsters: fiend of blasphemy, fiend of corruption, and fiend of possession.[15] This edition also introduced grafts and symbionts as new elements to the game; grafts are like living cybernetics and symbionts are living equipment.[15]

The Fiend Folio also introduced two demons more powerful than

pit fiends: the paeliryon
.

Many of the creatures from the 1st edition Fiend Folio were updated to the d20 rules by Necromancer Games in their ENnie award winning[17] Tome of Horrors.[18]

Reception

TSR's

penanggalan "worthy additions to any campaign" and noted that the previously published drow and kuo-toa were "expected attractions, but good to see nonetheless."[6] Contributor Alan Zumwait also reviewed the book, noting that a few of the inclusions were "just Monster Manual creatures that are changed or crossbred with other monsters." He was pleased by the inclusion of the neutral Oriental dragons, but felt that their descriptions were inferior to those of the dragons in the Monster Manual. He also liked the slaad and elemental princes of evil, but felt they should both have counterparts of other alignments. Zumwait summed up his review by stating, "the FIEND FOLIO Tome is like a basket of peaches: Most of it is pretty good stuff, but part of it is the pits."[19] At the urging of Kim Mohan, Don Turnbull wrote a rebuttal, which was printed in the same issue. Turnbull cited the publication's legal holdups, and the AD&D game's evolution during that time, as part of the reason for the work's inconsistencies. He also felt that Greenwood's concerns of incompleteness and inadequacy were a matter of subjective personal taste.[20]

AD&D creator Gary Gygax was also critical of errors in the book. Gygax noted that due to "premature actions", TSR got "the cart in advance of the horse" by mentioning a spell (advanced illusion) and a magic item (the philosopher's stone) which had not yet appeared in a game manual, promising they would eventually appear in game material in 1983.[21] Gygax later commented on an individual who had criticized the Deities & Demigods Cyclopedia, noting that this was the same individual responsible for errors on the Fiend Folio's random encounter tables, among other errors.[22]

The Fiend Folio was given an 8 out of 10 in the December 1981/January 1982 issue of White Dwarf. Reviewer Jamie Thomson compared it to the Monster Manual (MM) in format, and felt the Folio's artwork was better. Thompson felt the biggest distinction was that while the MM was American, the Folio was of British origin. Creatures he commented on were the giant bat ("seems an obvious choice for D&D"), the death dog ("rumored to be a descendant of Cerberus"), Lolth ("which often appears on fantasy literature"), the elemental princes of evil, and the drow ("who figure prominently in a number of TSR dungeon modules"). Also mentioned were the penanggalon, the caterwaul, the death knight, and the revenant. In summary, Thomson recommended the book for readers who wanted more monsters, but that if they did not already possess the MM it was not essential.[5]

Lawrence Schick commented on the book's contents in his 1991 book Heroic Worlds: "Some of the monsters are really goofy—you're sure to find several good belly laughs in this volume. A dozen or so entries are genuinely imaginative and useful."[3]

In his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, RPG historian Stu Horvath noted, "while Fiend Folio was largely a dead-end for AD&D, it is a glimpse into the future of a behemoth of a different sort ... All of these aesthetic choices would coalesce in the years to come in the Fighting Fantasy series of adventures gamebooks and in the many faces of Games Workshop's gore-flecked, heavy metal-influenced Warhammer franchise."[23]

References

  1. ^ a b Turnbull, Don (April–May 1979). "Fiend Factory". White Dwarf. No. 12. Games Workshop. pp. 8–10.
  2. ^ Sacco, Ciro Alessandro. "The Ultimate Interview with Gary Gygax". thekyngdoms.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-08. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-87975-653-5
    .
  4. ^ "Later AD&D Manuals". Acaeum.
  5. ^ a b c d e Thomson, Jamie (Dec 1981 – Jan 1982). "Open Box". White Dwarf (review) (28). Games Workshop: 14.
  6. ^ a b Greenwood, Ed (November 1981). "Flat taste didn't go away". Dragon (review) (55). TSR: 6–7, 9.
  7. ^ "D&D Alumni: The Planes". wizards.com. Archived from the original on December 20, 2008. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  8. ^ Decker, Jesse; David Noonan (September 9, 2005). "Monsters with Traction". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on August 17, 2007. Retrieved 2009-08-29.
  9. ^ "Putting the Fur in Firbolg: The Evolution of a Character Race".
  10. ^ Orclord. "Fiend Factory". www.solegends.com. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  11. ^ Gygax, Gary 1985. "From the Sorcerer's Scroll: The future of the game", Dragon 103:8,10 (Nov 1985)
  12. ^ Gygax, Gary 1987. "From the Sorcerer's Scroll", Dragon 122:40 (Jun 1987)
  13. ^ Fogens, M. (August 1999). "Classic AD&D books are back". InQuest Gamer. No. 52. Wizard Entertainment. p. 20.
  14. ^ "TSR Previews". Dragon (180). TSR: 92. April 1992.
  15. ^ a b c d e Ryan, Michael 2003. Personality Spotlight: Fiend Folio designers, retrieved June 2, 2006
  16. ^ Smith, Matt (2007). "Previews: See What's "In the Works"". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on December 29, 2004. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
  17. ^ "ENnie Awards-2003". Archived from the original on 2006-10-31. Retrieved 2008-01-02.
  18. ISBN 1-58846-112-2
    .
  19. ^ Zumwait, Alan (November 1981). "Observations of a semi-satisfied customer". Dragon (review) (55). TSR: 8, 10.
  20. ^ Turnbull, Don (November 1981). "Apologies -- and arguments". Dragon (55). TSR: 12.
  21. ^ Turnbull, Don (March 1982). "Advanced Illusion and Philosopher's Stone". Dragon (59). TSR: 10.
  22. ^ Gygax, Gary 1982. "New spells for illusionists", Dragon 66:22-28 (Oct 1982)
  23. ISBN 9780262048224
    .

Further reading

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Dungeons & Dragons monsters
  • Review: Different Worlds #15 (1981)
  • "Inhuman Gods, Part I" White Dwarf #39
  • "Inhuman Gods, Part II" White Dwarf #40
  • "Inhuman Gods, Part III" White Dwarf #41
  • "Inhuman Gods, Part IV" White Dwarf #42
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