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[COMPLETE] Looking back at the limited series: Player's Option, Monstrous Arcana, Odyssey, and more!
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<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8649709" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p>The last two limited series served to alternately play up classic D&Disms and take the game in new directions in the form of the Tomes and Odyssey series, respectively. But the next few items on our list, representing the Monstrous Arcana line, were an attempt to do both at once, putting new spins on some of the game's most classic monsters.</p><p></p><p>Of course, for me the Monstrous Arcana books are a source of mild frustration. I've spoken before about how I eschewed buying adventures in favor of sourcebooks during the AD&D 2E era, owing to a combination of limited funds and thinking that sourcebooks offered greater utility. The result is that I ended up missing out on some great adventures, and nowhere is that more true than here. Each of the Monstrous Arcana supplements had a trilogy of adventures that spotlighted their particular monsters, and – from what I've been given to understand, since I still don't have any of them – they were all top-quality products, and in many cases provided their own insights into the nature of the monsters in question, building on the sourcebooks.</p><p></p><p>Of course, none of that was known to me when I first laid eyes on <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17444/Monstrous-Arcana-I-Tyrant-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>I, Tyrant</em></a>, the first Monstrous Arcana sourcebook. All I thought at the time was, "wow, this is the coolest beholder sourcebook ever!"</p><p></p><p>And really, that's a statement that's as true now as it was in 1996. While splatbooks devoted to particular monsters had existed prior to this (just look at <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16821/FOR1-Draconomicon-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>FOR1 Draconomicon</em></a>), and would readily proliferate over time with products like <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/51645/Libris-Mortis-The-Book-of-Undead-35?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Libris Mortis</em></a>, <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1752/Lords-of-Madness-The-Book-of-Aberrations-35?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Lords of Madness</em></a>, <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/145326/Demonomicon-4e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Demonomicon</em></a>, and <em>numerous</em> third-party offerings such as Mayfair Games <em>Lizardmen</em> and <em>Giants</em> to Mongoose Publishing's <em>Slayer's Guides</em>, and quite a few more!</p><p></p><p>But while <em>I, Tyrant</em> didn't invent the concept of the "ecology sourcebook" – which elevated the idea of taking a deep-dive into a single monster from an article in <em>Dragon</em> magazine to an entire book unto itself – it certainly helped to popularize it. This brought <em>all</em> of the lore about beholders, from the bits and pieces scattered throughout various Forgotten Realms supplements (Ed Greenwood really took a shine to these guys, hence Xanathar, beholder cults, and Manshoon's alliances with them), Spelljammer supplements (which gave us quite a few "beholder-kin") and even the <em>Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II</em>, which gave us the oft-forgotten observer, yet another beholder-kin.</p><p></p><p>It's worth noting that this was one of the more visually-impressive books to come out for AD&D 2E, and I'm not just making an eyeball pun here. On the DriveThruRPG sales page for this product, Shannon Appelcline notes that this is a coffee table book with twice the usual number of interior illustrations that sourcebooks usually had. It certainly looks the part, as it's absolutely replete with artwork! Don't even get me started on the poster in the back of the book; while I regret detaching it now, I still can't get over that impressive lineup of the different beholder types!</p><p></p><p>So what was actually <em>in</em> the book? Well, as I alluded to above, this was essentially an expanded ecology on them. It went over their physical construction (noting that their flight was nonmagical, which was apparently a point of contention back in the back), their psychology (they had a conscious mind, and a subconscious that <em>heavily</em> screened out anything their conscious mind found too upsetting; insert American partisanship joke here), and their typical plans and activities, before moving on to things like new items that they've invented over time, how beholder cities work, and overviewing the <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/complete-looking-back-at-the-leatherette-series-phbr-dmgr-hr-and-more.677493/post-8238392" target="_blank">beholder gods</a> from <em>DMGR4 Monster Mythology</em>.</p><p></p><p>Naturally, a large part of this was to highlight that beholders were crazy, powerful, and dangerous. But it also underlined that they were intelligent monsters; while this had been played up previously, I like to think that this underlined that these weren't simple cavern-dwellers, hatching plans that they'd never enact, but were (as the title said) tyrants who individually had the power to dominate everything in a given region. The major thing which stunted their potential was that they were far more interested in warring with each other (a quirk of their psychology) than with pursuing goals against humanoids. Which I suppose makes sense; between a hairless monkey with a stick and a razor-toothed flying sphere with numerous magical eye-beams (and an anti-magic ray in case any of the monkeys learned how to cast spells), which one would <em>you</em> be more concerned about?</p><p></p><p>If there's one criticism I can make with regard to <em>I, Tyrant</em>, it's that it feels more like a compilation than an expansion on beholders. I said at the beginning of this post that the Monstrous Arcana series put a new spin on old monsters, but it felt like there was only a little of that here. I mean, I liked some of the new beholder items – a humanoid-shaped suit of armor that a beholder could plunk itself inside of and control, or special mirrors designed to reflect their eye-beams – but for the most part this retread old ground rather than breaking anything new. Heck, the opening mention of Ronassic of Sigil, who'd be name-dropped again in the final Monstrous Arcana sourcebook before appearing personally in <em>Die Vecna Die!</em>, is arguably the biggest addition to the D&D canon here. Maybe the new material was saved for <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17329/Eye-of-Pain-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Eye of Pain</em></a>, <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17332/Eye-of-Doom-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Eye of Doom</em></a>, and <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17336/Eye-to-Eye-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Eye to Eye</em></a>, this sourcebook's adventure trilogy?</p><p></p><p>That's not to suggest that this book isn't a good one. As far as I'm concerned, it's still <em>the</em> go-to book for information on beholders in D&D, regardless of your edition of choice. But this book is a reference/compilation of lore rather than a source of it, and doesn't really do much to elevate its subject creatures from how they were presented initially.</p><p></p><p>But don't worry, we'll see more of that in the next Monstrous Arcana sourcebook.</p><p></p><p>P. S. Has anyone else ever wanted to make a beholder bard that sings the Ayeyaiyai song?</p><p></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]Hrp1KVOHdUw[/MEDIA]</p><p></p><p><em>Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 8649709, member: 8461"] The last two limited series served to alternately play up classic D&Disms and take the game in new directions in the form of the Tomes and Odyssey series, respectively. But the next few items on our list, representing the Monstrous Arcana line, were an attempt to do both at once, putting new spins on some of the game's most classic monsters. Of course, for me the Monstrous Arcana books are a source of mild frustration. I've spoken before about how I eschewed buying adventures in favor of sourcebooks during the AD&D 2E era, owing to a combination of limited funds and thinking that sourcebooks offered greater utility. The result is that I ended up missing out on some great adventures, and nowhere is that more true than here. Each of the Monstrous Arcana supplements had a trilogy of adventures that spotlighted their particular monsters, and – from what I've been given to understand, since I still don't have any of them – they were all top-quality products, and in many cases provided their own insights into the nature of the monsters in question, building on the sourcebooks. Of course, none of that was known to me when I first laid eyes on [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17444/Monstrous-Arcana-I-Tyrant-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]I, Tyrant[/I][/URL], the first Monstrous Arcana sourcebook. All I thought at the time was, "wow, this is the coolest beholder sourcebook ever!" And really, that's a statement that's as true now as it was in 1996. While splatbooks devoted to particular monsters had existed prior to this (just look at [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16821/FOR1-Draconomicon-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]FOR1 Draconomicon[/I][/URL]), and would readily proliferate over time with products like [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/51645/Libris-Mortis-The-Book-of-Undead-35?affiliate_id=820'][I]Libris Mortis[/I][/URL], [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1752/Lords-of-Madness-The-Book-of-Aberrations-35?affiliate_id=820'][I]Lords of Madness[/I][/URL], [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/145326/Demonomicon-4e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Demonomicon[/I][/URL], and [I]numerous[/I] third-party offerings such as Mayfair Games [I]Lizardmen[/I] and [I]Giants[/I] to Mongoose Publishing's [I]Slayer's Guides[/I], and quite a few more! But while [I]I, Tyrant[/I] didn't invent the concept of the "ecology sourcebook" – which elevated the idea of taking a deep-dive into a single monster from an article in [I]Dragon[/I] magazine to an entire book unto itself – it certainly helped to popularize it. This brought [I]all[/I] of the lore about beholders, from the bits and pieces scattered throughout various Forgotten Realms supplements (Ed Greenwood really took a shine to these guys, hence Xanathar, beholder cults, and Manshoon's alliances with them), Spelljammer supplements (which gave us quite a few "beholder-kin") and even the [I]Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II[/I], which gave us the oft-forgotten observer, yet another beholder-kin. It's worth noting that this was one of the more visually-impressive books to come out for AD&D 2E, and I'm not just making an eyeball pun here. On the DriveThruRPG sales page for this product, Shannon Appelcline notes that this is a coffee table book with twice the usual number of interior illustrations that sourcebooks usually had. It certainly looks the part, as it's absolutely replete with artwork! Don't even get me started on the poster in the back of the book; while I regret detaching it now, I still can't get over that impressive lineup of the different beholder types! So what was actually [I]in[/I] the book? Well, as I alluded to above, this was essentially an expanded ecology on them. It went over their physical construction (noting that their flight was nonmagical, which was apparently a point of contention back in the back), their psychology (they had a conscious mind, and a subconscious that [I]heavily[/I] screened out anything their conscious mind found too upsetting; insert American partisanship joke here), and their typical plans and activities, before moving on to things like new items that they've invented over time, how beholder cities work, and overviewing the [url=https://www.enworld.org/threads/complete-looking-back-at-the-leatherette-series-phbr-dmgr-hr-and-more.677493/post-8238392]beholder gods[/url] from [I]DMGR4 Monster Mythology[/I]. Naturally, a large part of this was to highlight that beholders were crazy, powerful, and dangerous. But it also underlined that they were intelligent monsters; while this had been played up previously, I like to think that this underlined that these weren't simple cavern-dwellers, hatching plans that they'd never enact, but were (as the title said) tyrants who individually had the power to dominate everything in a given region. The major thing which stunted their potential was that they were far more interested in warring with each other (a quirk of their psychology) than with pursuing goals against humanoids. Which I suppose makes sense; between a hairless monkey with a stick and a razor-toothed flying sphere with numerous magical eye-beams (and an anti-magic ray in case any of the monkeys learned how to cast spells), which one would [I]you[/I] be more concerned about? If there's one criticism I can make with regard to [I]I, Tyrant[/I], it's that it feels more like a compilation than an expansion on beholders. I said at the beginning of this post that the Monstrous Arcana series put a new spin on old monsters, but it felt like there was only a little of that here. I mean, I liked some of the new beholder items – a humanoid-shaped suit of armor that a beholder could plunk itself inside of and control, or special mirrors designed to reflect their eye-beams – but for the most part this retread old ground rather than breaking anything new. Heck, the opening mention of Ronassic of Sigil, who'd be name-dropped again in the final Monstrous Arcana sourcebook before appearing personally in [I]Die Vecna Die![/I], is arguably the biggest addition to the D&D canon here. Maybe the new material was saved for [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17329/Eye-of-Pain-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Eye of Pain[/I][/URL], [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17332/Eye-of-Doom-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Eye of Doom[/I][/URL], and [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17336/Eye-to-Eye-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Eye to Eye[/I][/URL], this sourcebook's adventure trilogy? That's not to suggest that this book isn't a good one. As far as I'm concerned, it's still [I]the[/I] go-to book for information on beholders in D&D, regardless of your edition of choice. But this book is a reference/compilation of lore rather than a source of it, and doesn't really do much to elevate its subject creatures from how they were presented initially. But don't worry, we'll see more of that in the next Monstrous Arcana sourcebook. P. S. Has anyone else ever wanted to make a beholder bard that sings the Ayeyaiyai song? [MEDIA=youtube]Hrp1KVOHdUw[/MEDIA] [I]Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.[/I] [/QUOTE]
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