Today I learned +

[abazaba]

Today I learned that D&D having just one PHB, one DMG, and one MM is not really how it was done in versions prior to 5e.

If I did my homework right:

3e had three Monster Manuals.
3.5e had four Monster Manuals.
4e had three Player Handbooks, two DMGs, and three Monster Manuals.

 

[Staffan]

Today I learned that D&D having just one PHB, one DMG, and one MM is not really how it was done in versions prior to 5e.

If I did my homework right:

3e had three Monster Manuals.

Four, I think. The actual Monster Manual, Monsters of Faerûn (which was a smaller softback), Monster Manual II, and Fiend Folio.

3.5e had four Monster Manuals.

It also had a Player's Handbook II and a Dungeon Master's Guide II.

4e had three Player Handbooks, two DMGs, and three Monster Manuals.

 

[abazaba]

Four, I think. The actual Monster Manual, Monsters of Faerûn (which was a smaller softback), Monster Manual II, and Fiend Folio.

It also had a Player's Handbook II and a Dungeon Master's Guide II.

Thanks for the corrections and/or additions. And for sharing that Monty Python sketch, I had not seen that one before.

 

[Dioltach]

Today I learned that D&D having just one PHB, one DMG, and one MM is not really how it was done in versions prior to 5e.

If I did my homework right:

3e had three Monster Manuals.
3.5e had four Monster Manuals.
4e had three Player Handbooks, two DMGs, and three Monster Manuals.

I'm sure someone can fill in the details of how many Monstrous Compendiums there were for 2nd Edition.

 

[abazaba]

I'm sure someone can fill in the details of how many Monstrous Compendiums there were for 2nd Edition.

Thanks, I never thought about those, let me check. Surely there cannot be that many ?

Wikipedia tells me that there are just .... 15, not including four 'annuals'. There are also an additional 8 'Appendixes'.

Oh. My. Lord.

 

[Aeson]

TSR and WotC were not shy about putting out books.

 

[roger semerad]

Today I learned that D&D having just one PHB, one DMG, and one MM is not really how it was done in versions prior to 5e.

If I did my homework right:

3e had three Monster Manuals.
3.5e had four Monster Manuals.
4e had three Player Handbooks, two DMGs, and three Monster Manuals.

4e is my favorite system, and there are way more than that. It does depend a little on what you count, but I'll walk you through that as well.

First, 4e had a mid life system refresh called Essentials. Some consider this a 4.5 edition, but unlike 3.5 the essentials line changed no rules and remained fully back compatible without any conversion.

For the Player's Handbook there are: Player's Handbook 1-3 and for Essentials Heroes of the Fallen Lands and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdom. You should probably also count the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide and the Eberron Player's Guide. The line that I think makes something a Player's Handbook or a supplement splat is that Player's Handbooks have new classes and Races while splats just have options for existing material. The Forgotten Realms player's guide being the most essential in my eyes because of the inclusion of the Swordmage class. One of the most iconic classes in 4e.

For DMGs there are Dungeon Master's Guide 1 and 2, and for Essentials the Dungeon Master's Kit.

For Monster Manuals it gets a little more complex. How much of the book has to be dedicated to monster blocks for you to consider it? The ones that are pretty much all monster blocks are: Monster Manual 1-3, Dark Sun Creature Catalog, and for Essentials the Monster Vault and Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale.

The secondary Monster Manuals are about half monster blocks and half talking about tactics, plot hooks, and ecology of monsters. These are: Open Grave, Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons, Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons, and Demonomicon.

 

[Staffan]

Thanks, I never thought about those, let me check. Surely there cannot be that many ?

Wikipedia tells me that there are just .... 15, not including four 'annuals'. There are also an additional 8 'Appendixes'.

Oh. My. Lord.

To a large degree, that was fueled by having multiple settings, and each fully-supported setting getting 1-3 monster supplements. There was also a bit of duplication between the books – I think the first Planescape Monstrous Compendium appendix was basically just a reprint of MC8: Outer Planes, but with new illustrations and layout to fit in with the Planescape line, and there was also a softback reprinting MC10 and MC15 (Ravenloft I and II). MC1 and MC2 were also a bit of a special case: originally, the monster source for 2e was supposed to be the Monster Compendium, a three-ring binder with monsters on looseleaf sheets. Up until MC8, the MC appendices were sold as similar looseleaf collections. The idea was that you could rearrange the monsters to fit with your own setting, or perhaps keep them in alphabetical order despite coming from multiple different sources. This didn't work out so well, partially because the sheets + binder solution had worse durability than books, and partially because they put different monsters on the back and front of most sheets, making alphabetization hard. So after a while they abandoned that idea, and instead released the Monstrous Manual, combining MC1 and MC2 along with some of the greatest hits from other sources.

Oh, and why "Monstrous Manual" instead of "Monster Manual"? Almost certainly because the 1e Monster Manual had been released for "Dungeons & Dragons" instead of "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons", and TSR therefore owed Dave Arneson royalties on it. Later when they released Monster Manual II for 1e, Arneson sued and got royalties for that too, because Monster Manual II was obviously a derivative of Monster Manual. But Monstrous Manual was clearly a distinct product . Later when Wizards bought TSR, they also contacted both Gygax and Arneson and bought out any of their claims on the game, so they could release 3e as "Dungeons & Dragons" without any other claims.

 

[abazaba]

Thanks @roger semerad @Staffan . I had no idea. Thanks for the info.

 

[Aeson]

Has anyone seen or have one of the 3 ring binders? I have one like this one, but this one is in better shape. I took the few monster pages I had out and use it to house my 3rd edition miniatures stat cards. It's still technically a monstrous compendium.