Podcasts about dragons monster manual

There's a bit of news this week, but the big thing is all the D&D Monster Manual previews. Morrus, Jess, and PJ cover WotC's firehose of PR for the book over the last week! QI Mentions The Diana Jones Awards Diamond Comic Distributors Files Bankruptcy, Sells Alliance Game Distributors Polygon: Indie TTRPG Companies are "sitting in their own little corners of the internet and wringing their hands" WizKids to Release Glow-in-the-Dark D&D Miniatures A Time Traveler's Guide to Dinosaur Hunting Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual 2024 Preview Monster Manual Suggests Changes Are Coming to Some Playable Species More New Monsters From 2025 Monster Manual Revealed Monster Manual Previews Reveal New Statblocks Monster Manual Previews Reveal New Empyrean, Half Dragon, Cyclops, and Animal Lords Monster Manual 2025 Undead Video Monster Manual 2025 Monstrosities Video 2024 Monster Manual: Monstrosities Art  Monster Manual Stat Block Compilation

Podcast host and RPG writer, Lucas Zellers, returns to the podcast. First, we discuss what he has learned from his podcast Making a Monster. Lucas shares his insights into monsters and morality from having discussed it with many RPG designers. Then we jump into Lucas' new project which is the Book of Extinction for Dungeons and Dragons 5E. We talk about how he came up with the idea of making a monster manual of extinct animals. We cover several examples of the creatures and how Lucas is creating exciting monsters for your TTRPG sessions. Don't miss it!

In what is probably our most conversational episode yet, we talk a lot about fortresses that Tony and Jonathan are currently running. Not many real links here -- though we do mention Paranoid Metroid and Kruggsmash YouTube channels. Also, the featured image is an example of a dragon, as depicted by TSR Games' Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (1978)

Josh plays tabletop role-playing games. Jill has never played an RPG. In this episode, Josh describes how his group's typical RPG evening goes and summarizes the different types of tabletop role-playing games.Contact Us: circulation@hamnerlibrary.orgFeatured Resource: A to Z MapsOther Resources:Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual (793.93 Dun)Pathfinder Role-Playing Game: Core Rule Book (793.93 Pat)The Tearable RPG

In this episode, we discuss the merits of the very evil 'Cauldron of Zombie Spewing', so you can run it in your campaign. We also dive into the adorable but deadly world of Ash Rats from the 3.5 Monster Manual II.Stat Blocks: https://imgur.com/a/VhuDdZ6Books Referenced: 1. The Book of Vile Darkness (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Book_of_Vile_Darkness)2. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual 2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Manual_II)

Well, we did it! Season 1 is complete, and with it, the 1977 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual. In this episode, I discuss what I've learned recording the first season and talk about what's in store for the next one.  If you're enjoying the show, why not consider supporting it on Patreon? You'll get access to lots of new bonus content, including my other podcast, Patron Deities! 

In this episode of the Monstrous Ecologist we tackle the dread Tarrasque, possibly the most dreaded monster in D&D lore.    Your Host  Jeremiah McCoy http://jeremiahmccoy.com   Questions should be emailed to TheTomeShow@gmail.com   Sponsors Noble Knight The Tome Show Patreon   SOURCES The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine originally published in 1260     Tarrasque first appearance Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual 2   2nd Edition Monstrous Compendium Volume Two   SJR4 Practical Planetology    3rd Edition Monster Manual   3.5 Monster Manual   "Ecology of the Tarrasque" Dragon #359   4th edition Monster Manual    5th Edition Monster Manual   Forgotten Realms Comics by DC Comics issues #5 through #8 -- Thetomeshow.com Patreon.com/thetomeshow      

In this episode of the Monstrous Ecologist we tackle the dread Tarrasque, possibly the most dreaded monster in D&D lore.    Your Host  Jeremiah McCoy http://jeremiahmccoy.com   Questions should be emailed to TheTomeShow@gmail.com   Sponsors Noble Knight The Tome Show Patreon   SOURCES The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine originally published in 1260     Tarrasque first appearance Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual 2   2nd Edition Monstrous Compendium Volume Two   SJR4 Practical Planetology    3rd Edition Monster Manual   3.5 Monster Manual   "Ecology of the Tarrasque" Dragon #359   4th edition Monster Manual    5th Edition Monster Manual   Forgotten Realms Comics by DC Comics issues #5 through #8 -- Thetomeshow.com Patreon.com/thetomeshow      

In this episode of the Monstrous Ecologist we tackle the dread Tarrasque, possibly the most dreaded monster in D&D lore.    Your Host  Jeremiah McCoy http://jeremiahmccoy.com   Questions should be emailed to TheTomeShow@gmail.com   Sponsors Noble Knight The Tome Show Patreon   SOURCES The Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine originally published in 1260     Tarrasque first appearance Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual 2   2nd Edition Monstrous Compendium Volume Two   SJR4 Practical Planetology    3rd Edition Monster Manual   3.5 Monster Manual   "Ecology of the Tarrasque" Dragon #359   4th edition Monster Manual    5th Edition Monster Manual   Forgotten Realms Comics by DC Comics issues #5 through #8 -- Thetomeshow.com Patreon.com/thetomeshow      

Do you love Heavy Metal? Do you have a battle vest with patches from all of your favorite bands? Are you 12 years old and headbang in your room to expensive imported vinyl? Then this film is just for you - 1987's fantastic Satanic Panic/kids-save-the-day-but-blow-their-house-sky-high mashup THE GATE! Mom and Dad are gone for the weekend and a giant sinkhole has been burping up geodes, moths and claymation monsters, but you know what we really need? To partaaaaaaaay! The hairspray leaves a haze in the air and your eyes sting from all of the neon colored clothing, but you still have to fight off body-melting parents, zombies in the walls, your possessed friend and sister, and a monster straight out of the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. By the end of the weekend, you'll be much closer to your estranged sibling, so strap in for another banger on Horror Movie Night!

Our journey through the L section of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual continues! In this one, I try to come up with fun stuff to do with an uninspiring monster.  If you're enjoying the show, why not considering supporting it on Patreon? You get access to cool extra bonus content, including my new show, Patron Deities!

It's time for a special episode! This is My Favourite Monster, where I interview game makers and we talk about a monster of their choosing from the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual. My guest this episode is Hannah Powell-Smith, who makes digital interactive fiction games. You can find her work here:  http://hannahpowellsmith.com/ In the episode, I mention the "pathetic aesthetic." I don't know that it originates here, but I first encountered the idea in this blog post:  http://drbargle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-old-school-is-pathetic-rant.html If you like the show, consider supporting the Monster Man Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/monsterman You get lots of fun bonus content. Pledge as little as $2 a month and you get access to my all-new show, Patron Deities!

The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual does something a bit odd in this episode. But not to worry, it does it to four fun monsters.  The big news at the moment is that you can now vote in the monster contest. Read the entries and cast your vote here.  I also mention in the episode that you can support the podcast if you like by leaving a tip on Ko-fi.com. But don't feel you have to! 

There’s surprisingly little reliable biographical information about Sterling E. Lanier, but like many Appendix N authors he does seem to have been a man of many parts. Most accounts of Lanier’s life have him studying archaeology and anthropology at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania before working as a researcher and historian for most of the 1950s. His other interests included sculpture, natural history, and cryptozoology, all of which would bear on his creative endeavors. In 1961 Lanier began his literary career with the publication of his first short story in Analog magazine and by landing an editor’s position at Chilton Books, best known then and now as a publisher of automotive repair manuals. Lanier cemented his place in science fiction history in 1965 by convincing Chilton to publish Frank Herbert’s Dune in hardcover after it had already been rejected by over 20 publishers. Lanier’s strong interest in ecology must have made the Dune stories jump out at him as they were being serialized in Analog magazine. Unfortunately a prophet is never honored in his own land and Lanier was let go from Chilton the following year when Dune initially failed to live up to sales expectations. Lanier’s creative output was jumpstarted by his dismissal from Chilton and he began working in earnest as a sculptor, jeweler, and writer in the late 1960s. Among his notable works from this period were miniature portrait sculptures of characters from The Lord of the Rings that were supposedly admired by J.R.R. Tolkien himself and that may have served as character models for Peter Jackson’s film trilogy. During this time Lanier also began writing his Brigadier Ffellowes short stories, which were inspired in equal part by Lord Dunsany’s Jorkens “club tales” and his enthusiasm for cryptozoology. Lanier’s interest in ecology and weird creatures would come into full bloom in his first novel for adults, Hiero’s Journey, which his old employer Chilton published in hardcover in 1973, followed by a Bantam Books paperback in 1974. Hiero’s Journey is clearly the main literary inspiration for James M. Ward and Gary Jaquet’s Gamma World (TSR, 1978), the archetypal post-apocalyptic role-playing game. Gamma World and its spiritual descendants such as Mutant Future (Goblinoid Games, 2008) and Mutant Crawl Classics (Goodman Games, 2018) form the weird, kitchen-sink, far-future branch of post-apocalyptic role-playing games as opposed to the more gloomy and “realistic” near-future post-apocalypse RPGs typified by The Morrow Project (TimeLine Ltd., 1980) or Aftermath! (Fantasy Games Unlimited, 1981). Gary Gygax cited Hiero’s Journey as an influence on Dungeons & Dragons and it’s easy to see why. For example, from the original 1974 rules we have the various jelly, mold, ooze, pudding, and slime monsters that echo the outgrowths of the House; they were later fully fleshed (sprouted?) out in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (1978). Psionic powers were first introduced in Dungeons & Dragons Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry (1976) and have appeared in many subsequent editions of Dungeons & Dragons, although they’ve never co-existed easily with the magic system. As for the protagonists, Hiero Desteen* provides one model for how the cleric class could be roleplayed as warrior-priests as opposed to the typical healer/protective spellcaster; of course, Hiero could also be modeled as a ranger with the same effect in play. In a similar vein, Brother Aldo provides a slightly different take on the druid as cheerful and kind-hearted, yet resolutely dedicated to preserving the balance of nature. A third book in the Hiero saga was planned but never materialized, but it’s said that Hiero’s Journey is very popular in Russia and that as many as 20 unauthorized works set in Hiero’s world were published in Russian around 2002-2004--apparently, a Hiero never dies….

J.R.R. Tolkien and perhaps Robert E. Howard aside, no Appendix N author has had as a large a pop culture footprint as Gardner F. Fox, but not for any of the works cited by Gary Gygax. Although hardly a household name today, Gardner Fox was among other things one of the most prolific comic book writers of the 20th Century. Fox was originally a practicing attorney in New York City, but still must have found it hard to make ends meet during the heart of the Great Depression--in 1937 he began writing for DC comics as well as contributing stories to many of the pulp magazines of the era. Over the course of his 30 year career with DC Comics Fox was responsible for such seminal creations as the Golden Age Flash, the Sandman, Doctor Fate, Hawkman, and the Justice Society of America. During the Silver Age of the 1960s, he would help re-vamp the Atom and Hawkman, create the Justice League of America, introduce Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, and write his most famous story, “The Flash of Two Worlds!” (The Flash #123, 1961), which introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics. Fox left or was cut loose from DC Comics in 1968 when the company shamefully declined to give health insurance and other employee benefits to its older writers and artists. He then turned to writing novels and short stories full-time, churning out tales of all genres both under his own name and under at least 15 pen names. Fox’s works included science fiction, fantasy, Westerns, historical fiction, and the sexploitation spy series Lady from L.U.S.T. (as Rod Gray) and Cherry Delight (as Glenn Chase). Among the over 100 novels that Fox would pen over the next decade and half was the first of the Kothar series, Kothar Barbarian Swordsman (Belmont Books, 1969). Kothar Barbarian Swordsman was clearly meant to cash in on Conan/swords and sorcery boom of the era, but an old pro like Fox couldn’t resist having a little fun along the way, such as with the absurdly pompous introduction by “Donald MacIvers, Ph.D” which leaned heavily on the theories of the obscure German philosopher “Albert Kremnitz”. One can’t help but think that Fox was tweaking the likes of L. Sprague de Camp and other well-educated writers who were insecure about toiling in the vineyards of fantastic fiction. Fox by contrast wears his learning lightly, throwing in a myriad of historical but obscure terms such as “hacqueton”, “athanor”, and “cotehardie” more to amuse himself and because he may have liked their sound in a sentence than as a means to place himself above the material. The Kothar stories are presented with economy, craft, and imagination, so it’s not surprising that they stood out to Gary Gygax amidst all of the other derivative swords and sorcery in print at the time. The most well-known borrowing from Kothar in Dungeons & Dragons would be the lich, a powerful sorcerer who has prolonged his life into undeath--Gygax confirmed this borrowing here. Liches made their D&D debut in the Original edition’s Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975) by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz. The lich would then appear in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (1977) and as the demi-lich in the notorious deathtrap module S1: Tomb of Horrors (1978). Gardner Fox and Gary Gygax became friends somewhere in this time period, paving the way for Fox to create the third of his swords and sorcery heroes, Niall of the Far Travels for Dragon magazine. Niall of the Far Travels premiered in issue two of The Dragon (1976) and would eventually appear in 10 stories over the next five years. Gardner F. Fox was a man of many interests and it ultimately fitting that his presence is felt in a broad swath of pop culture from comic books to fantastic fiction to roleplaying games and all the media that have derived from them.

Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions was originally serialized in 1953 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction--eight years later a revised and expanded version of the tale would see print in hardcover from Doubleday, followed by an Avon paperback in 1962. It has remained sporadically in print ever since, largely overshadowed by Anderson’s more famous science fiction works. Although Anderson was best known during the first half of his writing career as a science fiction author, Three Hearts and Three Lions and his following fantasy work The Broken Sword (1954) had a strong impact on knowledgeable fans and fellow writers, perhaps most clearly with Michael Moorcock’s adoption and reinterpretation of the cosmic struggle between Law and Chaos in the Elric of Melniboné stories, which began appearing in 1961. It’s interesting to speculate how much of himself Anderson put into Holger Carlsen, the hero of Three Hearts and Three Lions--they are both Danish-Americans, trained in science and engineering, and apparently wholly rational and pragmatic. Holger rises to adventure though, rediscovering and embracing his true identity as Ogier the Dane, paladin of Charlemagne and one the great heroes of medieval European literature. In a similar vein, perhaps Anderson’s romantic side led him to become a founding member of both the Society for Creative Anachronism and the Swordsmen and Sorceror's Guild of America. Throughout its publishing history Three Hearts and Three Lions never had an iconic cover, and the Appendix N-era 1978 Berkley Medallion paperback is no exception, featuring a serviceable cover by Wayne Barlowe, who would later become more well-known for his anatomically realistic depictions of fantastic creatures and truly alien life. That Three Hearts and Three Lions is one of the most significant influences on early Dungeons & Dragons is undeniable. For example, Gary Gygax specifically cites the book in the listing for the “True Troll” in the “Fantasy Supplement” to Chainmail (1971), although a full description of the Andersonian troll (and the nixie) would have to wait for the original Dungeons & Dragons (1974) box set. The original 1974 rules would also feature the most famous borrowing from Three Hearts and Three Lions, the Law vs. Chaos alignment system, although perhaps filtered through Michael Moorcock’s interpretation in the Elric books. Certain Lawful fighters could elect to achieve Holger Carlsen-esque paladin status with the publication of the first D&D supplement, Greyhawk (1975). Paladins would evolve into their quintessential D&D form as a fighter sub-class in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook (1978) The troll and the nixie would receive much more detailed write-ups in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual (1977), with the Swanmay finally making her first D&D appearance in the Monster Manual II (1983). A close reading of Three Hearts and Three Lions and the various early Dungeons & Dragons would undoubtedly reveal more direct influences on the game as we know it today.

In this episode, David asks: Does it concern a mislaid scone, is it in the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, and is it a full-sized pig with tiny little sparrow wings?