Close
Close
Advanced Search

MC5 Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Adventures Appendix (2e)Click to magnify
Quick Preview
/gs_flipbook/flip.php?xml=/demo_xml/17409.xml&w=500&h=335
Full‑size Preview
https://watermark.dmsguild.com/pdf_previews/17409-sample.pdf

MC5 Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Adventures Appendix (2e)

ADD TO WISHLIST >

Prepare yourselves and your characters?. Here come more monsters, this time from the Greyhawk Campaign Setting! These 64 pages are filled with beasties and creatures, from aspis to zygon-and everything in-between! Crystalmist dragons (yes, there are more-four more, to be precise), and plenty of deadly plants await entry into your campaign. As always, these monster descriptions are organized on separate pages, ready to be incorporated into your Monstrous Compendium binder. And, you get four full-color dividers with identification tabs! Snap them in, and set them free!

Product History

MC5: "Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Adventures Appendix" (1990) is the fifth monster manual for AD&D 2e. It was published in April 1990.

Origins (I): Binders of Monsters. MC5: "Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Adventures Appendix" (1990) was the third Monstrous Compendium in a row to focus on a specific D&D campaign world. This truly affirmed the direction of the line. With just two exceptions (for the Outer Planes and the Fiend Folio), the rest of the Monstrous Compendiums would each focus on a specific campaign world.

Like its predecessors, the "Greyhawk Adventures Appendix" came as a sheet of perforated pages, meant to be torn out and placed in a binder. To be more precise, it was intended to go in the new binder that had been released with MC4: "Monstrous Compendium Dragonlance Appendix" (1990).

The "Greyhawk Adventures Appendix" was just the second Compendium to clock in at only 64 pages, but this was the format that almost all of the later looseleaf Appendices would use.

Origins (II): Greyhawk Rising. It was somewhat surprising to see that Greyhawk was the third campaign world to receive a Monstrous Compendium, because the game line had been poorly supported during the later years of AD&D 1e. However, it had been obvious that things were changing since the advent of AD&D 2e (1989): Greyhawk had received adventure support almost immediately and then had enjoyed a line of short adventures, some of which were introductory. The "Greyhawk Adventures Appendix" was yet another sign that TSR was intent on supporting its oldest setting.

Monsters of Note. So, what do you define as a Greyhawk monster? It was a somewhat difficult question because Greyhawk had been the default setting of D&D's oldest published adventures. That meant that TSR didn't really have the option of collecting together all of the monsters from published Greyhawk adventures the way they had for Dragonlance, because they would have locked up some of the game's most iconic monsters, including drow, giants, and gibbering mouthers.

Sadly, the "Greyhawk Adventures Appendix" ends up being a bit of a hodge-podge instead that's almost as generic as the MC1: "Monstrous Compendium Volume One" (1989) and the MC2: "Monstrous Compendium Volume Two" (1989). Certainly, there are some monsters that are truly unique to the setting, many of which had appeared previously in Greyhawk Adventures (1988). Unfortunately, that book's beastman, camprat, crystalmist, grung, inguni, nimbus, sea sprite, wolf mist, and sea mist just aren't that memorable. The aspis from A1: "Slave Pits of the Undercity" (1980), the slow shadow from WG5: "Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure" (1984), the valley elf from S4: "The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth" (1982), and even the son of kyuss that debuted in the Monster Manual II (1983) feel more memorable and more appropriate to the setting, but they're in the minority.

Several other monsters originated from AD&D 1e's Monster Manual, while the editors also made heavy use of the weirder beasties from the Fiend Folio (1981), including the bonesnapper, booka, crypt thing, flail snail, galltrit, grell, hook horror, mite, necrophidius, needleman, norker, scarecrow, skulk, and tentamort. None of them feel particularly tied to the Greyhawk setting.

The absence of Underdark creatures from the "D" adventures (1978) and other original creatures from "A" adventures, "C" adventures (1979+), and even "WG" adventures (1982+) may point to Greyhawk's central problem: as the default D&D world it wasn't that unique on its own … which might have been its ultimate downfall.

Monsters of Note: Dragons. One of the most interesting inclusions in the "Greyhawk Adventures Appendix" is the set of unique dragons that didn't fit into the chromatic or metallic spectrums. That of course includes the Greyhawk dragon, but also the cloud dragon, the mist dragon, and the shadow dragon from the Monster Manual II. It was a neat conception, that one of the original settings of the D&D game would also be a source of new dragons, but it wouldn't last: the mist dragon and the shadow dragon would both be adopted by the Forgotten Realms setting in later years.

Curiously, the "Greyhawk Adventures Appendix" also powers down dragons. AD&D 2e (1989) had made a big effort to make dragons more dangerous; one of their power-ups was that their breath weapons became usable every three rounds, not just three times a day. "Greyhawk Adventures Appendix" walks that back, keeping the every-three-rounds limitation, but also restoring the three-times-a-day limit!

Perhaps this change was a mistake, perhaps it was unpopular, and perhaps it was only intended to apply to these new dragons. In any case, the powered-down breath weapons were never seen again in AD&D 2e, not even when most of these dragons reappeared in the Monstrous Manual (1993).

About the Creators. As with most of the Monstrous Compendiums, the design of this one was a group affair. Writing was by Grant Boucher, William W. Connors, Steve Gilbert, Bruce Nesmith, Chris Mortika, and Skip Williams, with editing provided by Mike Breault.

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (2)
Discussions (5)
Customer avatar
Per L September 13, 2023 10:05 am UTC
PURCHASER
POD please!
Customer avatar
Darrell R August 29, 2021 2:46 am UTC
Updated Print edition please.
Customer avatar
Kevin E February 04, 2019 3:03 am UTC
PURCHASER
the Grell is still missing? It's been 2.5 years...
Customer avatar
Zia M September 12, 2016 10:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Minor nitpick, but just noticed the Grell is missing. The Grung is printed twice instead.
Reply
Customer avatar
Douglas B September 13, 2016 1:59 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Good catch. OBS folks, can you please fix this error?
Customer avatar
Douglas B August 16, 2016 6:16 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Minor nit-pick for the product history: the Son of Kyuss was originally published in the AD&D Fiend Folio, not in Monster Manual II.
Narrow Results
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!















Product Information
Gold seller
Rules Edition(s)
Pages
64
Edition
1.0
Publisher Stock #
TSR 2107
File Size:
97.43 MB
Format
Scanned image Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Information
Watermarked PDF Click for more information
Watermarked PDF

These PDF files are digitally watermarked to signify that you are the owner. A small message is added to the bottom of each page of the PDF containing your name and the order number of your purchase.

Warning: If any files bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.

Here is a sample of a page from a watermarked title:

File Last Updated:
February 04, 2019
This title was added to our catalog on August 16, 2016.