Fiend Folio is the title shared by three products published for successive editions of the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. All three are collections of monsters, making each Fiend Folio a sequel to its game's version of the Monster Manual.
The first incarnation was unusual in that the bulk of the material in the initial First Edition D & D release came from the English gaming magazine White Dwarf rather than being authored by Gary Gygax, the game's creator. Readers and gamers had submitted creatures to the Fiend Factory department of the magazine, and the most highly regarded of those appearing in the first ten issues were selected to be in the publication.
Contents |
Publication history
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition
| Fiend Folio | |
|---|---|
 AD&D 1st Edition Fiend Folio. |
|
| Genre(s) | Role-playing game |
| Publisher | TSR |
| Publication date | 1981 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 128 |
| ISBN | 0-935696-21-0 |
| OCLC Number | 11291023 |
| Dewey Decimal | 794 19 |
| LC Classification | GV1469.D8 F54 1981 |
Games Workshop, with Don Turnbull editing the project, originally intended to produce and publish the Fiend Folio tome (ISBN 0-935696-21-0) with a publication date in late 1979. The Fiend Folio was to be intended as the second volume of the Monster Manual, and would be officially recognized by TSR as an AD&D product, with the monsters mostly taken from submissions for White Dwarf's "Fiend Factory" column.[1] At the time, Games Workshop was the holder of the license to publish Dungeons & Dragons game products in the United Kingdom.[2] Although the manuscript was completed on time by editor Don Turnbull, a business dispute between Games Workshop and TSR Hobbies delayed publication of the book for nearly two years. The Fiend Folio was finally published in August 1981 by TSR itself, who used the product to launch its UK division.[3][4]
The 128-page hardcover Fiend Folio owes much of its content to "Fiend Factory", at the time a regular column appearing in Games Workshop's magazine White Dwarf. Material was drawn from the first ten issues of the magazine. Also edited by Turnbull, "Fiend Factory" also featured new AD&D monsters, many of them created by gamers who read the magazine.[1] The book used the same format as that of the Monster Manual, clearly and succinctly defining the each monster's specifications and abilities.[5] The bulk of monsters in the Fiend Folio come from British contributors, all of whom are acknowledged in the index. Many of the book's contents and illustrations were previously featured in the "Fiend Factory" column.[5] Also included were the jermlaine, drow, kuo-toa, and svirfneblin, all previously appearing in TSR modules.[6] Turnbull included several previously-published "Fiend Factory" monsters in the Fiend Folio, but included even more creatures that had been submitted to (but not published in) White Dwarf's "Fiend Factory".[5] See the list of AD&D 1st ed. monsters for details. Aside from monsters, the book also included random encounter tables for dungeons, outdoors and the Astral and Ethereal Planes; These encounter tables combined creatures from the Monster Manual and Fiend Folio, superseding those tables in the Dungeon Master's Guide.[5]
The githyanki, originated by Charles Stross within the pages of White Dwarf, were introduced to most D&D players in the Fiend Folio.[7] The githyanki was featured on the cover, which helped it gain traction among the D&D community. Not all creatures featured on covers have done as well; the Firbolg appeared on the cover of 1983's Monster Manual II and has since slipped back into obscurity.[8]
Monsters featured in this book were originally submitted by Charles Stross, Ian Livingstone, Tom Moldvay, among numerous others. Interior illustrations were supplied by Chris Baker, Jeff Dee, Emmanuel (who also illustrator the cover), Albie Fiore, Alan Hunter, Russ Nicholson, Erol Otus, Jim Roslof, David C. Sutherland III, Bill Willingham, Polly Wilson, and Tony Yates.
(The publication of "Fiend Factory" monsters had one unintended side-effect for Citadel Miniatures, who had the contract to produce gaming miniatures based on White Dwarf features. As a condition of including "Factory" monsters in the Folio, Games Workshop transferred the copyright on those monsters to TSR, who already had an exclusive contract with Grenadier Models. This forced Citadel to discontinue miniatures depicting "Factory" monsters that appeared in the Folio.[9])
In 1983, TSR used the Monster Manual II to introduce a new "orange spine" cover design for hardcover AD&D manuals. The Fiend Folio was the only AD&D hardcover that did not have its cover redesigned to match the new style; instead, TSR let the Folio go out of print. Despite the early withdrawal from the market, "more than 190,000 copies" of the Fiend Folio were sold.[citation needed]
In 1985, as TSR was getting ready to begin work on the AD&D game's second edition, Gary Gygax stated that he was planning to incorporate material from the Fiend Folio into a revised Monster Manual for the new edition.[10] However, Gygax resigned from TSR in October 1986,[11] before the second edition was produced.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition
The Fiend Folio Monstrous Compendium (ISBN 1-56076-428-7) was published by TSR, Inc. in April 1992, for use with the 2nd Edition AD&D rules. It is the fourteenth volume of the Monstrous Compendium series, consisting of a cardboard cover, 64 loose-leaf pages, and four divider pages. Also known as the Fiend Folio Appendix, it contains over sixty monsters created or updated by members of the RPGA, including revised versions of many monsters introduced in the original Fiend Folio.[12]
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition
| Fiend Folio | |
|---|---|
 D&D 3rd Edition Fiend Folio. |
|
| Genre(s) | Role-playing game |
| Publisher | Wizards of the Coast |
| Publication date | 2003 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 224 |
| ISBN | 0-7869-2780-1 |
The third Fiend Folio (ISBN 0-7869-2780-1) was published in April 2003 for use with the 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons rules. The 224-page hardcover manual included only a few monsters from the original, but added many new creatures, with an emphasis on monsters with extraplanar origins.[13] The book contains over 150 monsters, with approximately half of them being all-new.[14]
The Fiend Folio was released before the 3rd edition ruleset was revised to the "3.5 edition", so the book's desginers tried to anticipate many of the changes due to appear in the revised Monster Manual and implemenet them in the Fiend Folio.[13] The "extraplanar" and "swarm" subtypes, and the allocation of skill points and feats to work the same way as player characters, were introduced in this book and then featured in the revised Monster Manual.[13] The book also introduced three new fiend prestige classes for monsters: fiend of blasphemy, fiend of corruption, and fiend of possession. This edition introduced grafts and symbionts as new elements to the game.[13]
The Fiend Folio also introduced two demons more powerful than balors: kluritchirs and myrmyxicus. It also introduced a devil more powerful than pit fiends: paeliryon.
Many of the creatures from the 1st Edition Fiend Folio were updated to the d20 rules by Necromancer Games in their (ENnie award winning[15]) Tome of Horrors[16].
Reception
TSR's Dragon magazine featured two separate reviews of the book in issue #55 (November 1981). Ed Greenwood called the book a disappointment, citing its lack of detail and "breaches of consistency". He felt that there were many incomplete or inadequate monster entries, and also criticized the book for having too many new undead and too many new races. Greenwood, however, did consider the slaad, Elemental Princes of Evil, and penanggalan "worthy additions to any campaign" and noted that the previously published drow and kuo-toa were "expected attractions, but good to see nonetheless."[6] Contributor Alan Zumwait also reviewed the book, noting that a few of the inclusions were "just Monster Manual creatures that are changed or crossbred with other monsters." He was pleased by the inclusion of the neutral Oriental dragons, but felt that their descriptions were inferior to those of the dragons in the Monster Manual. He liked the slaadi and Elemental Princes of Evil, but felt they should both have counterparts of other alignments. Zumwait summed up his review by stating that "the FIEND FOLIO Tome is like a basket of peaches: Most of it is pretty good stuff, but part of it is the pits."[17] At the urging of Kim Mohan, Don Turnbull wrote a rebuttal, which was printed in the same issue. Turnbull cited the publication's legal holdups, and the AD&D game's evolution during that time, as part of the reason for the work's inconsistencies. He also felt that Greenwood's concerns of incompleteness and inadequacy were a matter of subjective personal taste.[18]
AD&D creator Gary Gygax was also critical of errors in the book. Gygax noted that due to "premature actions", TSR got "the cart in advance of the horse" by mentioning a spell (advanced illusion) and a magic item (philosopher's stone) which had not yet appeared in a game manual, promising the would eventually appear game material in 1983.[19] Gygax later commented on an individual who had criticized the Deities & Demigods Cyclopedia, noting that this was the same individual responsible for errors on the Fiend Folio's random encounter tables, among other errors.[20]
The Fiend Folio was given an 8 out of 10 in the Dec/Jan 1981/1982 issue of White Dwarf. Reviewer Jamie Thomson compared it to the Monster Manual in format, and felt its artwork was better than that book. Thompson felt the biggest distinction was that while the MM was American, the FF was of British origin. Creatures commented on were the giant bat ("seems an obvious choice for D&D), the death dog ("rumored to be a descendant of Cerberus"), Lolth ("which often appears on fantasy literature"), the elemental princes of evil, and the Drow ("who figure prominently in a number of TSR dungeon modules"). Also mentioned were the penanggalon, the caterwaul, the death knight, and the revenant. In summary, Thomson recommended the book for readers who wanted more monsters, but that if they didn't already possess the MM it was not essential.[5]
References
- ^ a b Turnbull, Don (April/May 1979). "Fiend Factory" (feature). White Dwarf (Games Workshop) (Issue 12): 8–10.
- ^ Sacco, Ciro Alessandro. "The Ultimate Interview with Gary Gygax". thekyngdoms.com. http://www.thekyngdoms.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=37. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
- ^ Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-653-5.
- ^ "Later AD&D Manuals". Acaeum. http://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/lateradd.html.
- ^ a b c d e Thomson, Jamie (Dec/Jan 1981/1982). "Open Box" (review). White Dwarf (Games Workshop) (Issue 28): 14.
- ^ a b Greenwood, Ed (November 1981). "Flat taste didn't go away" (review). Dragon (TSR) (Issue 55): 6–7,9.
- ^ D&D Alumni: The Planes
- ^ Decker, Jesse; David Noonan (September 9, 2005). "Monsters with Traction". Wizards of the Coast. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20050909a. Retrieved 2009-08-29.
- ^ http://www.solegends.com/citf/citff/index.htm
- ^ Gygax, Gary 1985. "From the Sorcerer's Scroll: The future of the game", Dragon 103:8,10 (Nov 1985)
- ^ Gygax, Gary 1987. "From the Sorcerer's Scroll", Dragon 122:40 (Jun 1987)
- ^ "TSR Previews". Dragon (TSR) (Issue 180): 92. April 1992.
- ^ a b c d Ryan, Michael 2003. Personality Spotlight: Fiend Folio designers, retrieved June 2, 2006
- ^ Smith, Matt (2007). "Previews: See What's "In the Works"". Wizards of the Coast. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/iw20030112a. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
- ^ "ENnie Awards-2003". http://www.enworld.org/ennies/2003.html. Retrieved 2008-01-02.
- ^ Greene, Scott; Peterson, Clark (2002). Tome of Horrors. Necromancer Games. pp. 328. ISBN 1-58846-112-2.
- ^ Zumwait, Alan (November 1981). "Observations of a semi-satisfied customer" (review). Dragon (TSR) (Issue 55): 8,10.
- ^ Turnbull, Don (November 1981). "Apologies -- and arguments" (Editorial). Dragon (TSR) (Issue 55): 12.
- ^ Turnbull, Don (March 1982). "Advanced Illusion and Philosopher's Stone" (Editorial). Dragon (TSR) (Issue 59): 10.
- ^ Gygax, Gary 1982. "New spells for illusionists", Dragon 66:22-28 (Oct 1982)
Additional reading
- Review: Different Worlds #15 (1981)
- "Inhuman Gods, Part I" White Dwarf #39
- "Inhuman Gods, Part II" White Dwarf #40
- "Inhuman Gods, Part III" White Dwarf #41
- "Inhuman Gods, Part IV" White Dwarf #42
External links
- The Acaeum: Later AD&D Manuals, retrieved June 2, 2006.
- Dragonsfoot Forums: Fiend Folio - Underrated?, retrieved June 7, 2006
- EN World Forum: How stellar was the old Fiend Folio!, retrieved June 7, 2006
- Google Groups: rec.games.frp Fiend Folio, retrieved June 7, 2006
- Stuff of Legends: Fiend Factory, retrieved June 7, 2006
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