Hola all. Massawyrm here.
Today Wizards of the Coast is beginning their blitz to ramp up to the release of MONSTER MANUAL 2 (heretofore referred to as MM2). Those of you lifers, lifelong players like myself, already know how special this is. The second Monster Manual is historically the single most interesting of the bunch. The first MM2, released in 1983 for the 1st edition of AD&D, is one of my prized D&D possessions, one of only 4 1st ed books I keep on my shelf. In its Preface, Gygax wrote the following passage:
Besides being larger than Monster Manual I, this volume contains all sorts of valuable material. There are new entries for such classes as devils and dinosaurs, demons and lycanthropes, dragons and giants; there are dozens of brand new creatures; and there are even more entries of the best of creatures which have appeared in limited circulation elsewhere. This volume puts them all together for easy reference. You will also notice the hundreds of new illustrations.”
As of that writing, the philosophy of MM2 remains the same. And aside from the part about it being longer (and the part about dinosaurs – people have REALLY come to hate dinosaurs in their D&D) it could easily describe this book. The first Monster Manual has so much tied to it to establish the core universe. There are a large number of critters that NEED to make an appearance for it to still be D&D. With 4th Edition there were a number of us bothered by the exclusion of a number of what many consider CORE monsters. But now many of those see the light of day along with some brand new beasties and some old cult favorites. I’ve been reading it for the last few days but I’m not allowed to spill the beans until next week. I can however show you this.
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