TSR 2009 - Monster Manual (1977)

This was the initial monster book for the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

 game, published in 1977. Gary Gygax

Gary Gygax

Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....

 wrote much of the work himself, having included and expanded most of the monsters from the previous D&D supplements. Also included are monsters originally printed in The Strategic Review, as well as some originally found in early issues of The Dragon

Dragon (magazine)

Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...

 (such as the anhkheg

Ankheg

An ankheg , also spelled anhkheg, is a type of fictional monster in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. An ankheg is described as a monstrous arthropod magical beast. The ahnkheg was created by artist Erol Otus and first appeared in Dragon magazine in 1977...

 and remorhaz

Remorhaz

The remorhaz is an iconic magical beast in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It is vaguely similar to the frost worm.-Publication history:The remorhaz first appeared in Dragon #2 ....

), and other early game materials. This book also expanded on the original monster format, such as including the stat lines on the same page as the monsters' descriptions and introducing more stats, expanding the length of most monster descriptions, and featuring illustrations for most of the monsters. The book features an alphabetical table of contents of all the monsters on pages 3–4, explanatory notes for the statistics lines on pages 5–6, descriptions of the monsters on pages 6–103, a treasure chart on page 105, and an index of major listings on pages 106-109.

ISBN 0-935696-00-8

Creature	Page	Other Appearances	Variants	Description

TSR 2012 - Fiend Folio (1981)

The Fiend Folio: Tome of Creatures Malevolent and Benign

Fiend Folio

Fiend Folio is the title shared by three products published for successive editions of the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons...

 was the second monster book for the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, published in 1981. While the Monster Manual consisted primarily of monsters previously published in D&D books edited by Gary Gygax, the Fiend Folio consisted mostly of monsters submitted to White Dwarf

White Dwarf (magazine)

White Dwarf is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop. Initially covering a wide variety of fantasy and science-fiction role-playing and board games, particularly the role playing games Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest and Traveller...

s "Fiend Factory" column. Don Turnbull, later Managing Director of TSR UK, was the editor for the "Fiend Factory" column, as well as the Fiend Folio, which was billed as "the first major British contribution to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game system." The monsters in this book are presented in the same format as those in the previous Monster Manual work, and most featured illustrations of the monsters. Also, there are full-page black and white illustrations of various monsters throughout the book. The book contains a foreword on pages 3–4, an alphabetical table of contents on page 5, explanatory notes on pages 6–7, descriptions of the monsters on pages 8–97, a treasure chart on page 99, additional tables and charts for all the monsters in both the Monster Manual and Fiend Folio on pages 100–119, an index of major listings (including the contributor for each monster) on pages 120–124, with an epilogue on page 124.

ISBN 0-935696-21-0

Creature	Page	Other Appearances	Variants	Description

TSR 2016 - Monster Manual II (1983)

Monster Manual II was the third and final monster book for the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, published in 1983, and has the largest page count of the three. As with the Monster Manual, this book was written primarily by Gary Gygax

Gary Gygax

Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....

. While this book contains a number of monsters that previously appeared in limited circulation (such as in Dragon or in adventure modules), unlike the Monster Manual and Fiend Folio a large amount of its contents was entirely new at publication. The monsters in this book are presented in the same format as the Monster Manual and Fiend Folio. The book contains a preface on page 4, a section entitled "How To Use This Book" on pages 5–7, descriptions of the monsters on pages 8–132, random encounter tables on pages 133-155, and an index of all the monsters in the Monster Manual, Fiend Folio, and Monster Manual II on pages 156-160. Unlike the previous two books, this book does not contain an alphabetical listing of the monsters in the beginning of the book.

ISBN 0-88038-031-4

Creature	Page	Other Appearances	Variants	Description

Other sources

This section lists fictional creatures for AD&D 1st edition from various sources not explicitly dedicated to presenting monsters.

TSR 2021 - Dragonlance Adventures (1987)

The campaign setting

Campaign setting

A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...

 hard-cover book Dragonlance Adventures

Dragonlance Adventures

Dragonlance Adventures is a 128-page hardcover book for the Dragonlance campaign setting for the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Contents:...

 contains a monster section called Creatures of Krynn.

ISBN 0-88038-452-2

Creature	Page	Other Appearances	Variants	Description

TSR 2023 - Greyhawk Adventures (1988)

The campaign setting

Campaign setting

A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...

 hard-cover book Greyhawk Adventures

Greyhawk Adventures

Greyhawk Adventures is an accessory for the Dungeons & Dragons World of Greyhawk campaign setting.-Contents:Greyhawk Adventures contains information about Greyhawk deities and clerics, major non-player characters, monsters, geography, spells of the setting's famous magic-users , magic items of the...

 contains a section called Monsters of Greyhawk.

ISBN 0-88038-649-5

Creature	Page	Other Appearances	Variants	Description

Dragon magazine

The Dragon

Dragon (magazine)

Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...

introduced many new monsters to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game.

Creature	Page	Other Appearances	Variants	Description