Monster Fluff

[Byronic]

I want to know what the best sources are for monster fluff. The edition doesn't matter, but I want to know things like "Do Orcs and Goblins often fight together", "where and how do monsters live and behave" and such.

I know that Monster Manuals have information but which editions have the best information?

What other sources are there? Any websites? Which mag is better for this, Dungeon or Dragon?

 

[Mr Baron]

Paizo - Classic Monsters Revisited

I would take a look at Paizo's Classic Monsters Revisited book that was released several months ago. It is very good and it is almost 100% fluff...very little crunch.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Monstrouis Manual, AD&D 2e.
(apparently) Classic Monsters Revisited (or whatever it's called, the Paizo one)

. . .

I'll see what else I can think of in a bit.

Many GURPS books, for whatever material they're covering.
The Book of Fiends, for well, fiends.
Denizens of Avadnu, for some pretty different kinds of beasties.
(apparently) Monsternomicon

 

[TimeOut]

I would like to name the classic: "Your mind". Also there might be the special edition "Imagination" availiable in a store near you.

The Monsterous Manual, AD&D 2nd is awesome. Lots of stuff, lots of monsters, every entry has a plot hook and tons of fluff. And bonus points for the picture of the invisible stalker.

 

[Shemeska]

Well, the ones I list are mostly for planar races, but the comments hold true nonetheless across the editions for monster fluff on those critters.

2e "Faces of Evil: The Fiends" - the entire book is fluff, covering the four major fiend races and several minor ones. One of the best books ever published for D&D in my opinion, and certainly one of the high points for 2e.

The Planescape Monstrous Compendium I, II, and III. A true monster manual in the sense that it has stats as well as flavor text, but the flavor text is heads above that for similar monsters in any other edition.

I also liked the various Ravenloft 'Van Richten's Guides' for monster flavor, albeit filtered through an in-character voice that wasn't always 100% informed, but that made it damn interesting to read as the IC author speculated on various creatures habits, origins, nature, etc.

 

[xechnao]

"Creatures of Barsaive" would probably be a good read.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Monster Mythology-2e, more about monster gods but has a crapton of good fluff on how various monsters live and interact.

Warriors of Heaven-2e, good stuff for the upper planes. If celestials or the upper planes feature in a campaign this is a good resource on understanding them and getting ideas for how they interact with the rest of the cosmos. Doesn't hold a candle to Faces of Evil though.

Book of Lairs-2e, not tremendously useful but these books do have stuff you could use.

Slayer's Guides-3rd Party 3e, decent stuff with a very traditional sort of outlook on how D&D monsters act.

The Sea Devils-2e, if you're going to use Sahuagin this is a book to get.

Monster Ecologies-3rd Party 3e, Paizo collection of 13 monster ecology articles. If you don't already have the issues of Dragon these came from it's a good resource.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Monster Manual 4 has some info of that sort, not a lot though. For example there's a couple of pages on orc ecology, society and lore. DCs for knowledge checks are included. Only orcs, ogres, drow, lizardfolk, yuan-ti, githyanki and gnolls get these extended entries.

The 2e Monstrous Manual also has two page entries for a lot of the humanoid monsters such as orcs, kuo-toa, and vampires. Most monsters get one page entries but there's more info than the 4e MM or MM4 because there's less white space and a smaller font.

Denizens of Avadnu is all original monsters, no D&D IP. Many entries get two or more pages. Imo it's total crap. The art in particular, vital for a monster book, is awful. But a lot of people seem to like it.

Old issues of Dragon magazine had this sort of material, if you enjoyed reading six page articles on the ecology of the flind. Personally I didn't. It's not that I don't like fluff, it's that I only like good fluff, and it never was.

For good fluff you would have to go outside D&D and check out games like RuneQuest and Empire of the Petal Throne.

 

[Roger]

I like to go back to the source. Fairy tales (the Russian ones are fun), the Eddas, Golden Bough, Greek myths, etc etc.

Finding out the original tarrasque got beat down by some chick and her garter belt is worth the price of admission.



Cheers,
Roger

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

The 2E Monstrous Manual hardback is the best fluff gathered (almost) all in one place, for my money.