Rust monster
Encyclopedia
A rust monster is a fictional creature from the Dungeons & Dragons
fantasy
role-playing game
that seeks out and consumes metal, often the armor and weaponry of players' characters. Originally inspired by a cheap plastic toy, the rust monster was one of the first monsters specifically created for D&D, and has been included in every edition of D&D, although various aspects of the creature have changed from edition to edition. Although in most editions, the rust monster has been a non-lethal creature with little or no way of physically harming players' characters, it is the rust monster's ability to destroy a character's cherished and expensive weapons and armor in mere seconds that makes it a particularly fearsome opponent.
was playing Chainmail
, a wargame that bore some precursors of Dungeons & Dragons. In order to give his players as many different challenges as possible, Gygax was always on the look-out for new monsters. Although he was able to draw on pulp fiction
and sword and sorcery
stories for many of them, he also looked through dime stores for figurines that could be used in battle. On one of those occasions, he came across a bag of small plastic toys euphemistically labeled "dinosaurs". Several of these were odd enough to catch his eye, and he used them to represent several new monsters, including the bulette
and the owl bear. One of the figurines looked like an absurd lobster with a propeller at the end of its tail, and Gygax could think of no fearsome powers for such a monster. After some thought, he came up with the amusing idea that this non-lethal creature would not attack characters in order to eat them, but rather to eat their hard-earned possessions.
(1977, 1981, 1983) and the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia
(1991).
The rust monster was also featured in both the black box Dungeons & Dragons Game
rule book (1991), and the Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game Rules and Adventure Book (1994).
. The illustration accompanying the rust monster's actual entry shows a round tick-like creature—albeit 3 feet high and 5 feet long—with a bony shell of armor, four mammal-like legs, two long antennae and a scaly prehensile tail ending in what appears to be a propeller. In this edition, the rust monster consumed all metal, although it still preferred ferrous metals over copper, gold or platinum. It had no bite, tail or claw attack, but the rust monster could smell metal from 90 feet away, and with an increase to its already rapid speed—it now moved six times faster than the average character—it would rapidly close and attempt to touch its antennae to metal, thereby causing the object to instantly corrode. (Magical weapons had a small chance to escape this fate.) In order to escape, fleeing adventurers could discard pieces of metal in the hope that the pursuing rust monster would stop for a few seconds to devour them.
A droll illustration in the Dungeon Masters Guide shows a fully armored fighter leaping into the arms of a wizard for safety as they are confronted by a playful-looking rust monster.
In the May 1978 issue of The Dragon
, Michael McCrery wrote "Excerpt from Interview with a Rust Monster", purportedly a talk with an adventurer who had been magically transformed into a rust monster. However, rather than acting as an insight into rust monsters, this was an article about how to properly explore a D&D dungeon.
The rust monster appeared in set 4 of the Monster Cards series in 1982.
In the August 1984 issue of Dragon (Issue #88), the rust monster was described more fully in "The Ecology of the rust monster", supposedly by a sage. In this article, it is a strange bacteria living in the rust monster's stomach and blood stream that caused metal to rust. Rust monsters have poor sight, although their sense of smell for metal is extraordinary. Handheld spears are useless against its armor, although wooden clubs and crossbow bolts were effective. Rust monsters give birth to live young.
The rust rat variant appeared in the UK's Imagine
magazine #22 (January 1985).
In 1993, when the rust monster appeared in the Monstrous Manual, the text remained the same, but its appearance was altered significantly. It now had an insectoid appearance: its four legs were now jointed and barbed like a grasshopper's, its antennae were slightly feathery, and its body was shaped like a wingless mayfly
, with a well-defined head, thorax and abdomen.
The third edition of D&D used a 1-inch grid system to quantify movement and size. The rust monster was a Medium-sized creature, taking up a 1-inch × 1-inch square (5 feet × 5 feet in game terms).
The third edition of D&D included the Challenge Rating, a game mechanic that attempted to quantify the combat skill of each creature versus an average party of four adventurers. The rust monster was given a Challenge Rating of 3, meaning it was an appropriate challenge for a party of four 3rd-level adventurers. (In comparison, a blink dog
was rated a 2, and a troll
was rated a 5.)
The rust monster appeared on the Wizards of the Coast website, in the "Design & Development: Monster Makeover" column.
The rust monster was further detailed in Dragon #346 (August 2006) in the article "Ecology of the Rust Monster"; this article also featured the O-akasabi-same, an advanced rust monster. This information was also featured in the Paizo book Dragon: Monster Ecologies (2007).
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...
fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
that seeks out and consumes metal, often the armor and weaponry of players' characters. Originally inspired by a cheap plastic toy, the rust monster was one of the first monsters specifically created for D&D, and has been included in every edition of D&D, although various aspects of the creature have changed from edition to edition. Although in most editions, the rust monster has been a non-lethal creature with little or no way of physically harming players' characters, it is the rust monster's ability to destroy a character's cherished and expensive weapons and armor in mere seconds that makes it a particularly fearsome opponent.
Creation
In the early 1970s, Gary GygaxGary 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....
was playing Chainmail
Chainmail (game)
Chainmail is a medieval miniatures wargame created by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. Gygax developed the game with fellow Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association member Perren, a hobby-shop owner with whom he had become friendly, and the game was first published in 1971...
, a wargame that bore some precursors of Dungeons & Dragons. In order to give his players as many different challenges as possible, Gygax was always on the look-out for new monsters. Although he was able to draw on pulp fiction
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
and sword and sorcery
Sword and sorcery
Sword and sorcery is a sub-genre of fantasy and historical fantasy, generally characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts. An element of romance is often present, as is an element of magic and the supernatural...
stories for many of them, he also looked through dime stores for figurines that could be used in battle. On one of those occasions, he came across a bag of small plastic toys euphemistically labeled "dinosaurs". Several of these were odd enough to catch his eye, and he used them to represent several new monsters, including the bulette
Bulette
A bulette or landshark is a fictional heavily-scaled carnivorous monster from the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a huge ravenous creature that burrows through the earth and attacks unsuspecting victims from below...
and the owl bear. One of the figurines looked like an absurd lobster with a propeller at the end of its tail, and Gygax could think of no fearsome powers for such a monster. After some thought, he came up with the amusing idea that this non-lethal creature would not attack characters in order to eat them, but rather to eat their hard-earned possessions.
- When I picked up a bag of plastic monsters made in Hong Kong at the local dime store to add to the sand table array ... there was the figurine that looked rather like a lobster with a propeller on its tail ... nothing very fearsome came to mind ... Then inspiration struck me. It was a "rust monster." —Gary Gygax
Dungeons & Dragons
When Gygax co-developed the game of Dungeons & Dragons, the rust monster rapidly migrated to the new game system, and made its first published appearance in the first supplement to the original rules, Dungeons and Dragons Supplement I: Greyhawk. The rust monster was described as "inoffensive" but "the bane of metal with ferrous content". The creature was attracted to the smell of iron-based metals, and any such object touched by the creature instantly turned to rust, which the rust monster would then consume. The rust monster could also use this power in its defense, since any metal weapon used against it would also turn to rust. Characters hoping to save their armor and weapons by avoiding it found they could not outrun it, since it moved about four times as fast as the average character.Basic Set
The rust monster also appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic SetDungeons & Dragons Basic Set
The original Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set boxed set was first published by TSR, Inc. in 1977, and comprised a separate edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, distinct from the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, which was initially published in the same...
(1977, 1981, 1983) and the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia
Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia
The Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia was published by TSR, Inc. in 1991, as a continuation of the basic edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, which ran concurrently with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Its product designation was TSR 1071...
(1991).
The rust monster was also featured in both the black box Dungeons & Dragons Game
Dungeons & Dragons Game (1991 boxed set)
The New Easy to Master Dungeons & Dragons Game is an accessory for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1991....
rule book (1991), and the Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game Rules and Adventure Book (1994).
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
In 1977, the rust monster was updated for the Advanced D&D game, appearing in the Monster ManualMonster Manual
The Monster Manual is the primary bestiary sourcebook for monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It includes monsters derived from mythology, and folklore, as well as creatures created for D&D specifically...
. The illustration accompanying the rust monster's actual entry shows a round tick-like creature—albeit 3 feet high and 5 feet long—with a bony shell of armor, four mammal-like legs, two long antennae and a scaly prehensile tail ending in what appears to be a propeller. In this edition, the rust monster consumed all metal, although it still preferred ferrous metals over copper, gold or platinum. It had no bite, tail or claw attack, but the rust monster could smell metal from 90 feet away, and with an increase to its already rapid speed—it now moved six times faster than the average character—it would rapidly close and attempt to touch its antennae to metal, thereby causing the object to instantly corrode. (Magical weapons had a small chance to escape this fate.) In order to escape, fleeing adventurers could discard pieces of metal in the hope that the pursuing rust monster would stop for a few seconds to devour them.
A droll illustration in the Dungeon Masters Guide shows a fully armored fighter leaping into the arms of a wizard for safety as they are confronted by a playful-looking rust monster.
In the May 1978 issue 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...
, Michael McCrery wrote "Excerpt from Interview with a Rust Monster", purportedly a talk with an adventurer who had been magically transformed into a rust monster. However, rather than acting as an insight into rust monsters, this was an article about how to properly explore a D&D dungeon.
The rust monster appeared in set 4 of the Monster Cards series in 1982.
In the August 1984 issue of Dragon (Issue #88), the rust monster was described more fully in "The Ecology of the rust monster", supposedly by a sage. In this article, it is a strange bacteria living in the rust monster's stomach and blood stream that caused metal to rust. Rust monsters have poor sight, although their sense of smell for metal is extraordinary. Handheld spears are useless against its armor, although wooden clubs and crossbow bolts were effective. Rust monsters give birth to live young.
The rust rat variant appeared in the UK's Imagine
Imagine (AD&D magazine)
Imagine Magazine was a monthly magazine dedicated to the first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and Dungeons and Dragons role playing game systems published by TSR UK Limited.-History:Imagine was published between April 1983 and October 1985...
magazine #22 (January 1985).
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd edition
In 1989, when the rust monster appeared in the Monstrous Compendium, Volume Two, several small details were changed. Its appearance was now less playful and more sinister: its carapace was now tight-fitting scales, the propeller on its tail changed to a weapon-like paddle. Its coloration was now described as yellowish tan underneath and a reddish brown on top. It is said to smell like rusty metal.In 1993, when the rust monster appeared in the Monstrous Manual, the text remained the same, but its appearance was altered significantly. It now had an insectoid appearance: its four legs were now jointed and barbed like a grasshopper's, its antennae were slightly feathery, and its body was shaped like a wingless mayfly
Mayfly
Mayflies are insects which belong to the Order Ephemeroptera . They have been placed into an ancient group of insects termed the Palaeoptera, which also contains dragonflies and damselflies...
, with a well-defined head, thorax and abdomen.
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition
For the third edition of D&D, the rust monster was given a makeover, both in style and substance. Its illustration showed a return to roughly the original tick-like shape and bony armor of the first edition of AD&D; however, the insectoid legs, feathery antennae and generally sinister appearance from second edition remained. The biggest change was its speed, which was reduced to that of an average adventurer. It was also given a bite attack, albeit a very weak one, in addition to its corrosion attack. In this edition, the rust monster always strikes at the largest piece of metal available before moving on to smaller items.The third edition of D&D used a 1-inch grid system to quantify movement and size. The rust monster was a Medium-sized creature, taking up a 1-inch × 1-inch square (5 feet × 5 feet in game terms).
The third edition of D&D included the Challenge Rating, a game mechanic that attempted to quantify the combat skill of each creature versus an average party of four adventurers. The rust monster was given a Challenge Rating of 3, meaning it was an appropriate challenge for a party of four 3rd-level adventurers. (In comparison, a blink dog
Blink dog
The blink dog is a fictional magical beast from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, an intelligent dog that has a limited teleportation ability known as Blinking. The blink dog was created for D&D, and appeared in every edition from the first supplement to version 4.0...
was rated a 2, and a troll
Troll (Dungeons & Dragons)
Trolls are fictional monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Dungeon Masters can use them as enemies or allies of the player characters.-Publication history:...
was rated a 5.)
Dungeons & Dragons v3.5
In the "upgrade" of the Monster Manual to version 3.5 of D&D, the rust monster was left unchanged.The rust monster appeared on the Wizards of the Coast website, in the "Design & Development: Monster Makeover" column.
The rust monster was further detailed in Dragon #346 (August 2006) in the article "Ecology of the Rust Monster"; this article also featured the O-akasabi-same, an advanced rust monster. This information was also featured in the Paizo book Dragon: Monster Ecologies (2007).
4th edition Dungeons & Dragons
In the 4th edition of D&D, the rust monster appeared in the Monster Manual 2. Its appearance remained largely the same as third edition's. However, its speed was doubled, making it twice as fast as the average character. In addition, its bite was given a significant upgrade; for the first time, the rust monster was a dangerous physical threat to characters. Rather than corroding metal with its antennae, the rust monster now corroded metal only with successful bite. In a new development, if a rust monster ate a magical weapon, the "residuum"—the substance that gave the magic weapon its powers—stayed in the rust monster's stomach; once the monster had been killed, the residuum could be recovered and reused to make a new weapon.D&D Miniatures
A painted plastic miniature of the rust monster appeared in D&D Miniatures: Dangerous Delves in 2009.In other sources
- The rust monster was card #581 of 750 in the 1991 TSR trading cards factory set.
- In Paul KiddPaul Kidd-Career:Before pursuing a career in writing Kidd had worked at Beam Software, an Australia-based game developer. He is credited as, among other things, the writer, director and lead designer of Nightshade, an ambitious action-adventure title for the NES....
's novel Descent into the Depths of the EarthGreyhawkGreyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game...
, a rust monster is used by one of the main characters (Escalla) to convince a sentient sword to cooperate with her plans. Another main character (Justicar) loses his black sword to a rust monster, possibly the same one.
- A rust monster appears as a pet in the FuturamaFuturamaFuturama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
episode "I Second That EmotionI Second That Emotion (Futurama)"I Second That Emotion" is episode one in season two of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on November 21, 1999. The episode was written by Patric Verrone and directed by Mark Ervin...
". Although it is not mentioned by name, the presence of rust on its robot owner's body indicates that it is based on the Dungeons & Dragons monster. This is confirmed in the audio commentary for that episode on the DVD release.
- In strip #415 of The Order of the StickThe Order of the StickThe Order of the Stick is a comedic webcomic that celebrates and satirizes tabletop role-playing games and medieval fantasy through the ongoing tale of the eponymous fellowship of adventuring heroes...
, Xykon's crystal ball shows a rust monster chasing a paladinPaladin (Dungeons & Dragons)The paladin is one of the standard playable character classes in most editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The paladin is a holy knight, crusading in the name of good and order, and is a divine spellcaster...
.
- The rust monster appears in NethackNetHackNetHack is a single-player roguelike video game originally released in 1987. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack , which is a descendant of Rogue...
.
- RustMonster is the name of a nautical-themed band.