Monstrous Compendium: Volume One

by David Zeb Cook, James Lowder

What's a fantasy role-playing game without monsters? At the heart of any good AD&D adventure, you'll find great monsters - dragons, giants, trolls, killer oozes, shadows, and who knows what else! This first Monstrous Compendium gives DMs and players 144 5-hole punched pages of new and improved monsters, with all-new illustrations, expanded descriptions, and complete statistical data, all in an easy-to-read, easy to reference format. Players can organize the monsters in this pack, alphabetically, according to when they show up in an adventure, according to monster type, or any other way they see fit. And the binder is large enough to hold additional monster sheets from Monstrous Compenium Volumes Two and Three!

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Gaming, Monsters, Reference

144 pages, 3-ring Binder

First published July 1, 1989

About the author

David "Zeb" Cook is an American game designer best known for his work at TSR, Inc., where he was employed for over fifteen years. Cook grew up on a farm in Iowa where his father worked as a farmer and a college professor. In junior high school, Cook playing wargames such as Avalon Hill's Blitzkrieg and Afrika Korps. "I was primarily a wargamer, but there wasn't any role-playing available then," although in college, he was introduced to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game through the University of Iowa gaming club. Cook earned his B.A. in English (with a Theater minor) in 1977. He married his high school sweetheart, Helen, with whom he had one son, Ian. Cook became a high school teacher in Milligan, Nebraska, where his students gave him his nickname of "Zeb"; the name derives from his signature, which is dominated by a stroke resembling a 'Z'.

Reviews

[Liza · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a mess! I will never forget how frustrating it was to have these pages tear. A three ring binder without laminated pages was a recipe for disaster. So disappointing, having been so excited to buy it and having spent so much on this one only to have it fall apart.

[Bob · Rating 1 out of 5]

This pretty much encapsulates what's crappy about D&D in volume: poor design with an emphasis on buying more, with everything geared towards conning people into believing that fighting is the be all and end all of role playing. As a bonus, it's hard to fit it properly on a shelf.

And for the record, David Cook is the credited designer, not the author.

[Marcelo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's very reassuring to read an old AD&D supplement and see how well this game stood the test of time. Even flipping through «Monstrous Compendium: Volume One» one can realize how far back the roots of many iconic monsters from Dungeons & Dragons can go. Granted, many of the entries from this book are simply too bizarre to roam about in a dungeon form nowadays, but most os the information presented here can — and will — generate great adversaries or NPCs for games of any edition, even fourth.

The only downside of the "book" (actually a binder), as I see it, is the fact it's... well, a binder. This was all well and good for the way TSR used to print out those Monstrous Supplements, but flipping through this (specially my copy, which's made out of volumes 1 and 2) is a pain.

If you're a fan of old-times D&D or miss the look and feel of TSR, you should treat yourself with a copy of this book if you find yourself in the position of buying one.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good first-book monstrous compendium. It includes most of the common animals and foes that a party will generally encounter and I think the level spread is pretty good to cover most low to medium and a few high-level adventures.