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Monster Manual (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition)
Monster Manual - Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition Author:Gary Gygax Review: — More than the Dungeon Master's Guide, more than the Player's Handbook, this book is what made D&D the gaming force that it was for over a decade. — A complete listing of monsters for use in the game, the book ensured that every DM could craft an adventure that had new and exciting monsters to be vanquished, and the special powers peculia... more »r to some creatures suggested story lines that were ripe for the picking.
This also set up for the first time a way to rate the strengths of various mythological creatures against each other. Can a Troll kill an Orc? Can a Dragon defeat a Water Elemental? How many Goblins does it take to make a fair fight against a Pegasus? Gygax carefully considered these questions and gave us a version of familiar fantasy figures that was grounded in concrete numbers.
The drawings are admittedly horrible, with many of them looking like study hall doodlings instead of the legitimate artwork that came to characterize later editions.
But the value of this book can't be overrated by a would-be fantasy gamer. The encyclopedic format opened the world of fantasy gaming to a world that was vast enough to include a universe of varied creatures, but cohesive enough to be thought of as a single reality.« less