Fiend Folio
The Fiend Folio for 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons is one of the best collections of monsters for any Roleplaying Game. It has some of the best artwork of any of the 1st edition books, and some of the most interesting adversaries for adventuring parties.
Unlike the other Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books, the Fiend Folio came from the UK gaming magazine White Dwarf before it became a house publication for Games Workshop. The monsters were largely taken from the regular Fiend Factory column which featured creatures sent in by the magazine’s readers. Being from the UK myself I think there are (or at least were) subtle differences in the styles of scifi and fantasy media popular there during the 70s and 80s compared to that in North America. This makes the tone of the creatures in the Fiend Folio just a little bit “different” from what you find in the Monster Manual and it’s sequel.
The artwork includes the excellent illustration of Russ Nicholson, famous for his work on the Fighting Fantasy series of Game Books. Since I also got into D&D through reading Choose Your Own Adventures and Fighting Fantasy, I’ve always felt this style of pen and ink artwork felt “right” for the game compared to a lot of the other approaches games have taken over the years.
Now, as much as I’ve always liked the Fiend Folio, I admit that when I first bought my copy back in the early 1980s I found many of the monsters were a bit “weird” and “too strange” for the very Tolkienish games we tended to run. I get the impression that many other people still feel this way about it.
Lately though, I’ve been warming up to the idea of more Sci-Fi and more “weird” being good things for Fantasy in general, and D&D in particular. In the new year I’m hoping to run some more RPG nights and I think the Fiend Folio will play an important role.
The Grell from the Fiend Folio would be an excellent starting point for an H.G.Wells style Martian…
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I have long wanted to run an all FF game.
–You may have spurred me on to do just that.
Excellent choice with that 70’s audio WotW.
–I still find it creepy to listen to.
Best,
I hadn’t heard Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of The Worlds until this year! This track is definitely in my personal “Top 10 Songs of 2009″.
Richard Burton (the narrator) does such an amazing job of describing the Martians: “A huge rounded bulk, larger than a bear, rose up slowly – glistening like wet leather. It’s lipless mouth quivered and slathered, and snake-like tentacles writhed as the clumsy body heaved and pulsated.
So good!
I had it as a kid and would get so creeped-out that I’d have to stop it or walk out a bit and then come back.
–lol
The Fiend Folio is an excellent monster book and I agree on the differences in attitudes between the UK and the US as far as science fiction and fantasy in the 70’s and 80’s.
The giants, gith races, trolls, death knight, dark stalker (and creepers), etc were just awesome game fodder as presented by the Fiend Folio. I consider this book to be the perfect addition to the collection of an DM/GM/referee.
I totally agree about the Fiend Folio. To date, it’s one of the best 1st edition D&D source books. Also, I believe it alone has the most contributions from the UK TSR realm of any of the other 1st edition source books. I always found that to be very interesting. Also, considering the longevity of some of the concepts from this book that still persist today including the Drow (first official statistical listing as a monster) and the Githyanki & Githzerai, it’s certainly a great resource.
Personally, my favorite concept from that book was the Slaad. Of course the Githyanki/Githzerai was incredible. One of my all-time favorite characters from 1st edition was a Githzerai monk.
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