Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Promotions/Press
[Chaosium] The first Manual of Monsters: 'Out of the Suitcase' with Chaosium President Rick Meints
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Michael O'Brien" data-source="post: 8387006" data-attributes="member: 6807727"><p><img src="https://www.chaosium.com/product_images/uploaded_images/monster-manuals.png" alt="monster-manuals.png" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p><em><strong>Chaosium President <a href="https://www.chaosium.com/rick-meints" target="_blank">Rick Meints</a> shares stories from a life-time as a collector of all things Chaosium.</strong></em></p><p></p><p>Steve Perrin's <a href="https://www.chaosium.com/blogvale-and-farewell-steve-perrin-1946-2021" target="_blank">unexpected passing</a> has gotten me to thinking about his far-reaching legacy within the world of role-playing games. As I ponder his role in those early days I find myself pulling various books off of my shelves and rereading the contents of some quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore. It feels like catching up with old friends.</p><p></p><p>Here's one such story from the golden age of RPGs.</p><p></p><p>Between Christmas and New Years Eve of 1977, TSR released its first hardcover 112-page RPG book, the <em>Monster Manual</em> by Gary Gygax. Many hailed it as the first compendium of RPG monster stats. What many people did not realize back then – and still might not realize today – is that the <em>Monster Manual</em> was, at best, the third compendium of monsters with <em>D&D</em> stats ever published. I certainly didn't know that at the time because I was 11, and didn't even buy the <em>Monster Manual </em>until 1979. Even so...</p><p></p><p>The first Steve Perrin project for The Chaosium debuted in the Fall of 1977. It was only the ninth product produced by the fledgling company. This was the 120-page <em>All the Worlds’ Monsters, </em>edited by Jeff Pimper and Steve Perrin.</p><p></p><p><em>All the Worlds Monsters</em> featured over 250 monsters written by over two dozen authors. The Chaosium thought it prudent to sell it as loose-leaf sheets of three-hole punched paper, ready to go into a standard three-ring binder.</p><p></p><p>They were indeed wise to do so, because a few months later in 1977 the 124-page <em>All the Worlds’ Monsters Volume Two</em> was published. Collectively, these two works provided the stats for over 500 monsters, ranging from D&D level 1 to level 14. For added versatility, the second volume also included four pages of conversion notes for using the stats with <em>Tunnels & Trolls </em>by <a href="https://twitter.com/Trollgodfather" target="_blank">Ken St. Andre</a>. A third volume of <em>All the Worlds' Monsters</em> appeared in 1980.</p><p></p><p>The earliest references I have found to the <em>All the Worlds’ Monsters</em> project are in Steve Perrin’s ongoing “Tuesday Morning Report” articles published in early issues of the famously enduring <em>Alarums & Excursions</em>. At the end of report #2 in A&E #13 (Aug. 1976) Steve announced:</p><p></p><p></p><p>In A&E #19 (Feb. 1977), Steve said:</p><p></p><p></p><p>In A&E #22 (May 1977) Steve confirmed that the publisher would be The Chaosium, and that he expected the first volume to be available by September.</p><p></p><p>Steve’s <em>Tuesday Morning</em> reports provide an interesting look into his early work. In A&E #25 (Aug. 1977) Steve shared that on July 1st, 1977 he had started play-testing the <em>White Bear & Red Moon</em> roleplaying game devised by Art Turney, Ray Turney and Hendrik Pfeiffer. I think we all know how that one turned out.*</p><p></p><p>Lawrence Schick, the author of <a href="https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/classic/rev_5727.phtml" target="_blank">Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Roleplaying Games</a> (1991), described the <em>Monster Manual</em> with the phrase "As nothing is easier to design than new monsters, it has spawned a host of imitations." Of course, he could have easily also said that <em>All the Worlds’ Monsters</em> wasn’t one of them.</p><p></p><p>Thank you Steve and Jeff, for writing the first and second manuals of monsters ever published. You blazed a trail so many of us enjoyed walking down, even if we didn't know it at the time.</p><p></p><p><em>*you can read more about what that momentously led to here, in Steve's own words:</em></p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.enworld.org/threads/steve-perrin-creating-runequest-a-personal-account.682080/[/URL]</p><p>[HR][/HR]</p><p><a href="https://www.chaosium.com/search.php?search_query=monsters" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.chaosium.com/product_images/uploaded_images/all-the-worlds-monsters-vols123.png" alt="All the Worlds Monsters Vols 1,2,3" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable fr-fil" style="" /></a>All three volumes of Steve Perrin & Jeff Pimper's <em>All the Worlds' Monsters</em> are available in PDF from <a href="https://www.chaosium.com/search.php?search_query=monsters" target="_blank">Chaosium.com</a>.</p><p></p><p><a href="https://www.chaosium.com/all-the-worlds-monsters-1-pdf" target="_blank">VOL 1</a> (1977) — 265 monstrous and dangerous creatures.</p><p></p><p><a href="https://www.chaosium.com/all-the-worlds-monsters-2-pdf" target="_blank">VOL 2</a> (1977) — 243 creatures from literature, fantasy, and nightmare. Included is a conversion article by Ken St. Andre for <em>Tunnels and Trolls</em>, and Steve Perrin’s historic “Conventions.”</p><p></p><p><a href="https://www.chaosium.com/all-the-worlds-monsters-3-pdf" target="_blank">VOL 3</a> (1980) — 238 new monsters, an all-series index, a <em>RuneQuest</em> stats conversion essay by Steve Perrin, and grouping lists by monster type, level, and appearance.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Michael O'Brien, post: 8387006, member: 6807727"] [IMG alt="monster-manuals.png"]https://www.chaosium.com/product_images/uploaded_images/monster-manuals.png[/IMG] [I][B]Chaosium President [URL='https://www.chaosium.com/rick-meints']Rick Meints[/URL] shares stories from a life-time as a collector of all things Chaosium.[/B][/I] Steve Perrin's [URL='https://www.chaosium.com/blogvale-and-farewell-steve-perrin-1946-2021']unexpected passing[/URL] has gotten me to thinking about his far-reaching legacy within the world of role-playing games. As I ponder his role in those early days I find myself pulling various books off of my shelves and rereading the contents of some quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore. It feels like catching up with old friends. Here's one such story from the golden age of RPGs. Between Christmas and New Years Eve of 1977, TSR released its first hardcover 112-page RPG book, the [I]Monster Manual[/I] by Gary Gygax. Many hailed it as the first compendium of RPG monster stats. What many people did not realize back then – and still might not realize today – is that the [I]Monster Manual[/I] was, at best, the third compendium of monsters with [I]D&D[/I] stats ever published. I certainly didn't know that at the time because I was 11, and didn't even buy the [I]Monster Manual [/I]until 1979. Even so... The first Steve Perrin project for The Chaosium debuted in the Fall of 1977. It was only the ninth product produced by the fledgling company. This was the 120-page [I]All the Worlds’ Monsters, [/I]edited by Jeff Pimper and Steve Perrin. [I]All the Worlds Monsters[/I] featured over 250 monsters written by over two dozen authors. The Chaosium thought it prudent to sell it as loose-leaf sheets of three-hole punched paper, ready to go into a standard three-ring binder. They were indeed wise to do so, because a few months later in 1977 the 124-page [I]All the Worlds’ Monsters Volume Two[/I] was published. Collectively, these two works provided the stats for over 500 monsters, ranging from D&D level 1 to level 14. For added versatility, the second volume also included four pages of conversion notes for using the stats with [I]Tunnels & Trolls [/I]by [URL='https://twitter.com/Trollgodfather']Ken St. Andre[/URL]. A third volume of [I]All the Worlds' Monsters[/I] appeared in 1980. The earliest references I have found to the [I]All the Worlds’ Monsters[/I] project are in Steve Perrin’s ongoing “Tuesday Morning Report” articles published in early issues of the famously enduring [I]Alarums & Excursions[/I]. At the end of report #2 in A&E #13 (Aug. 1976) Steve announced: In A&E #19 (Feb. 1977), Steve said: In A&E #22 (May 1977) Steve confirmed that the publisher would be The Chaosium, and that he expected the first volume to be available by September. Steve’s [I]Tuesday Morning[/I] reports provide an interesting look into his early work. In A&E #25 (Aug. 1977) Steve shared that on July 1st, 1977 he had started play-testing the [I]White Bear & Red Moon[/I] roleplaying game devised by Art Turney, Ray Turney and Hendrik Pfeiffer. I think we all know how that one turned out.* Lawrence Schick, the author of [URL='https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/classic/rev_5727.phtml']Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Roleplaying Games[/URL] (1991), described the [I]Monster Manual[/I] with the phrase "As nothing is easier to design than new monsters, it has spawned a host of imitations." Of course, he could have easily also said that [I]All the Worlds’ Monsters[/I] wasn’t one of them. Thank you Steve and Jeff, for writing the first and second manuals of monsters ever published. You blazed a trail so many of us enjoyed walking down, even if we didn't know it at the time. [I]*you can read more about what that momentously led to here, in Steve's own words:[/I] [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.enworld.org/threads/steve-perrin-creating-runequest-a-personal-account.682080/[/URL] [HR][/HR] [URL='https://www.chaosium.com/search.php?search_query=monsters'][IMG align="left" alt="All the Worlds Monsters Vols 1,2,3"]https://www.chaosium.com/product_images/uploaded_images/all-the-worlds-monsters-vols123.png[/IMG][/URL]All three volumes of Steve Perrin & Jeff Pimper's [I]All the Worlds' Monsters[/I] are available in PDF from [URL='https://www.chaosium.com/search.php?search_query=monsters']Chaosium.com[/URL]. [URL='https://www.chaosium.com/all-the-worlds-monsters-1-pdf']VOL 1[/URL] (1977) — 265 monstrous and dangerous creatures. [URL='https://www.chaosium.com/all-the-worlds-monsters-2-pdf']VOL 2[/URL] (1977) — 243 creatures from literature, fantasy, and nightmare. Included is a conversion article by Ken St. Andre for [I]Tunnels and Trolls[/I], and Steve Perrin’s historic “Conventions.” [URL='https://www.chaosium.com/all-the-worlds-monsters-3-pdf']VOL 3[/URL] (1980) — 238 new monsters, an all-series index, a [I]RuneQuest[/I] stats conversion essay by Steve Perrin, and grouping lists by monster type, level, and appearance. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Promotions/Press
[Chaosium] The first Manual of Monsters: 'Out of the Suitcase' with Chaosium President Rick Meints
Top