AD&D (now called first edition) was a golden age of the D&D game. Later editions cleaned up the combat mechanics, but 1e was the best in so many other ways.
I started with B/X but we very quickly began playing a mash-up of B/X and AD&D as at the time we didn't really realize they were supposed to be different games. I devoured all the books I could borrow from my friends or check-out from the library, and later my mom would sometimes give them to me for birthday or Christmas gifts. I have a nostalgic fondness for it, and currently am enjoying playing Old School Essentials, which is a clone of B/X D&D, but it also has an "Advanced Fantasy" supplement, which essentially allows you do incorporate AD&D stuff like the new races, classes, weapons, and spells, but using the B/X rules. I use it for the game I run for my daughter and her friends. Thanks for watching and commenting! I appreciate it!
I've been drawing a Fiend Folio monster every week, one for each letter of the alphabet, in 20 minutes and livestreamed the process on my channel. It's been super fun. Hook horrors! Grell! And... Thorks? YES!
As a kid growing up in the 90s my dad had this book along with all the 1e hardbacks and I always thought the Fiend Folio had a ghoul or something on the front. It never occurred to me that it was a Githyanki
It definitely has an "undead vibe" to it, for sure. I had no idea what a Githyanki was when I first saw this book and it wasn't until reading the entries that I figured it out. It is quite a striking image! Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
Our DM's didn't use too many critters from this book. But I do believe that the first one we ever encountered was the Death Knight. It was one scary encounter of him with his entourage and an encounter that we could not win and had to flee for our lives. That Death Knight ended up being one of those recurring NPCs that put fear into the players as well as the characters.
I am so glad you liked it! This was one of my favorite books when I was a kid! I really loved the Russ Nicholson art. Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I appreciate it. For whatever reason, as a kid, I didn't really like the slaadi, but looking at them now, I think they're really cool and I'm working on a way to incorporate them into the game I'm running for my daughter and her friends.
@@daddyrolleda1 I was obsessed with all of those extraplanar creatures, my players spent a lot of time fighting Demodands, Daemons, and Slaadi. Probably too much time :)
I really appreciate your support. Thank you so much for watching and commenting! A new video will be posted tomorrow (Monday) for Part 2 of my "Desert Island TTRPG Books" and I'm working on the next video in my Early TTRPG History series. Thanks again!
Love all your content, so thanks for making it. I wanted to recommend some channels that you might really enjoy. First is thedungeondelver who usually runs a livestream M-F and also provides some very interesting videos throughout the week. He also plays AD&D 1E, Gamma World, and Traveller on his livestream too, with around 3-4 players, which can be fun. The next is The Dungeon Minister who is an Anglican Priest who's married with 3 sons, and they play Basic D&D as a family, and then around once a week, he tells all that happened in their game. His channel is currently my favorite D&D channel. I think you'll really enjoy him. Lastly, I'm curious if you ever listened to my D&D story that I narrated on my channel. I'm just curious what you thought.
Thank you for much for the compliment, and for the other channel suggestions. I appreciate it! I watched your video on your first time playing D&D and have your D&D novel in the queue! Thanks again!
Thank you for watching and commenting! And yes, that monster freaked me out as a kid. Definitely creepy! And yes, Sir Ian was knighted last fall I believe!
Another great video! I love the Fiend Folio. This was the first AD&D book I read as a kid. One of my friends had this book. At the time I was playing D&D using the Red Box set.
Thank you for watching and commenting! I really appreciate it! My friend had this book, too, and I would often check it out from the library. I didn't get my own copy until about 14 years ago!
One of my earliest memories is of picking up that book with the yellow Githyanki on the cover and fantastic memories of reading the monsters. I'm sold on any RPG content you plan to create, reviews of past modules, or current stuff from the eye of an original gamer will win my heart. One of my early memories is of reading the first "npc class" I'd ever heard of about a necromancer class that intrigued me. I still remember the line that no one should play that class as a gamer, and if the author saw one they would curse him. The thing is I can't find that original article in Dragon, and the class wasn't called Necromancer but something close to it, even though the class was all about creating skeletons, then zombies, then wrights as you leveled up. If anyone has a copy of that article I'd sure appreciate it ⁉️
Thank you so much for watching and commenting, and for your feedback! I definitely have some reviews planned of stuff that I use for the 1981 B/X game I run for my 13yo daughter and her friends. And more history coming up as well! I loved Dragon magazine and all those classes. I think perhaps you mean "The Death Master" from Dragon #76? That was the first issue of the magazine I ever got!
It may be that you're remembering the Necromancer Class from White Dwarf Issue #35. I played one in a game years ago where my friend and I played 'Evil' characters in order to prove that mixed Alignment parties just didn't work. My friend played a Demonologist, which was another evil Character Class from White Dwarf issue #47. Between the two of us, we proved that 2 evil characters could totally wreck a party if played as 'properly evil'. I have an original copy, signed by Ian Livingstone when he was at the Game's Gallery in Glasgow, 1983 (I think), to sign of copies of his latest Fighting Fantasy book 'The Forest of Doom'. I was there picking up back issues of White Dwarf and managed to get his autograph. I still have Issue 35, though I long since loaned the other one out, never to be seen again.
I love it far too much to be put off by a smattering of silly creatures. I'm running 1e for the first time in 40 years, and I've already used it in Keep on the Borderlands. I added an ogrillon (which you have to like if you like orogs), some needlemen that were a huge challenge, and a couple of Al-Mi'rajs. But the real winners in there for me are the drow, slaadi, and elemental princes of evil.
That's very cool! I'm running Keep on the Borderlands right now for my 13 year-old daughter and her friends, and am planning to start including a few of these creatures now, just to mix things up. Thanks for watching and commenting!
@@jeremiahsafford1389 He didn't last long enough for me to give him a personality. 🙂 They're stupid and violent, so they're really designed as canon fodder. If you want a culture or individual quirk for them, then it's on you (or at least I can't help you because I haven't made one).
DRa1- sorry I’m a bit late but this one’s near and dear to me. I’m a 1/2e player and have an original ‘81 printing of the FF. It definitely has a very different tone to the MM1 but I think that was part of its charm. I love the really strange creatures in it. I’m running a campaign right now that features a Beholder whose dungeon is full of FF creatures such as the Grell and, you mentioned it, Flail Snails. These monsters are very Far Realm and Lovecraftian. Mr Nicholson just passed this May but he will live on through his weird and wonderful artwork
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I was very saddened when I heard the news of Russ Nicholson's passing. His art is really what made this book, to me, so different from all the other TSR books of that era. I was a big fan of the book back in the day, partly just because it was published in the UK. It felt so "exotic" from an American standpoint, and that was also during a time period when I was devouring anything from England, especially the music! And yes, while a lot of folks make fun of some of those monsters, I think your description of "Lovecraftian" is perfect!
I’m curious if that quote from Gygax is accurate. Jon Peterson’s very well researched history of TSR, “The Game Wizards” mentions that Gygax and one of the Blumes were both negotiating with Games Workshop. Based on a lot of other info in that book, it seems that Gary wasn’t always quite truthful about the TSR days, in later period interviews. To the point that he would contradict things he had put in print back during those days, in written or business correspondence, that still exists now.
Yeah, Jon Peterson's stuff is great. You may have noticed I source some of my images from his blog. I think it's highly likely that Gary's later-years comments on the subject are highly colored by his shifting viewpoints and shifting memory, and the narrative he wanted to tell. I can't say with definitive truth whether his quote is completely true or completely false, but I suspect it's somewhere in-between. What we can say for certain is that there was a period of time that TSR was considering combining and/or buying Games Workshop, but that deal didn't happen for whatever reason, which led to the creation of TSR UK. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Oh, wow! That's really cool! On my Twitter account today, one of designers who contributed some of the monsters from the Fiend Factory (Neville White) was chatting with me about my video and his involvement back in the day. Fun conversation!
Watching these vids,brings back tons of memories. I've played most of the modules you bring up:) Still remember the old house smell of where we played & making spiced potatoes as game snacks.
Spiced potatoes! That's amazing! What a great gaming snack! We were nowhere near as fancy as kids, although these days our snacks are a lot better. I'm so happy you found my videos and that they spark your sense of nostalgia. Thank you so much for watching and commenting. Cheers!
I will be making more shortly. I already have the topic as well as about half of the research done for my next "history" video. And I'll be posting Part 2 of my "Desert Island TTRPG Books" video soon. Thank you for watching and commenting!
Piparskeggr from X here: Very good overview and filling in history blanks for me. I would get White Dwarf at my local back when. I have 9 of the AD&D 1E hardcovers, including FF. The Githyanki is the only one I remember using in the games I ran.
Great to have you here! Thanks for watching and commenting! The Githyanki are such an interesting monster. Definitely one of my favorites from the Fiend Folio. Cheers!
One thing I definitely like is the fact that credit is given to the creator of the various monsters. I believe Dave Arneson put a book out which gave credit to what monster was created by who in the monster manual. I definitely like the fact that he was all about giving credit to those who did what they did.
Yes! The name definitely was. Author/creator Charles Stross, who created them for White Dwarf (which was eventually then published in Fiend Folio) said he "borrowed" the name (without permission) from Martin's "Dying of the Light" story, because he felt Martin was really good at coming up with names. But the name seems to be the only thing in common between Martin's version and Stross' version. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I remember my friends & I staring in teenage awe at the illustrations, so different from DnD's other hardbacks (and which I still associate with "British sensibilities"). And realizing we not only needed to hide MM pages displaying Harpy and Lamia breasts from our parents, but now FF's pages showing Berbalang and Penanggalen feeding practices, too! (AD&D = maturity! *just don't let Mom find out!* ) 😅
Ha! So funny. I remember a friend hiding his copy of the Monster Manual at the bottom of his nightstand drawer but his mom eventually found and confiscated it. I was never sure if it was due to the few lascivious illustrations, or due to the inclusion of devils and demons (they were a highly religious family).
I absolutely LOVED the Field Folio! Only problem was: 1st and 2nd level characters could not easily compete with these characters and psionics were not well developed yet. :( We had a hell of a time trying to figure out psionic warfare in the late 1970's!!
The UK Module Range is awesome but the real fun is the modules from the pages of White Dwarf Magazine by Albie Fiore - Halls of Tizun Thane & The Litchway
This is such a generous offer! No, I never got any old White Dwarf magazines. I only began collecting in the late 90s when the magazine had turned into basically a catalog to showcase the new Warhammer miniatures and there weren't any D&D or other TTRPG articles.
Subscribe to your channel today Is there anywhere the Fiend folio is posted in PDF form on the Internet I’ve been playing retro clones the last couple years. I would love to have five minutes I’ve been playing for decades, unfortunately, I cannot longer afford the books I once owned
Thank you for watching, commenting, and subscribing! I really appreciate your support! I've played OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, and Old School Essentials, plus borrowed ideas from Lamentations of the Flame Princess, White Box FMAG, DCC, and more for my B/X game I'm currently running. Retro-clones are great! You can find the PDF of the 1st Edition Fiend Folio for sale at DriveThruRPG for only $4.95! www.drivethrurpg.com/product/50012/Fiend-Folio-1e Good luck and thanks again!
I'm really glad I could help provide some information for you! I was totally enthralled with this book as a kid, partially because I had to keep borrowing it from a friend or checking it out from the library. I loved the very different art style especially. I didn't get my own copy until decades later on Ebay! Thanks for watching and commenting!
Oh, man! I used to love reading Order of the Stick! I kind of lost track of it but I loved it at the time I was reading it. And I do remember the flumph story arc!
Thanks again! I had a blast putting this one together, and I'm really glad folks are finding it and learning about this era of the hobby and its publisher.
I remember running out to buy this when it came out and to this day the pages still have an odd smell. I wasn't wild about much of the art the Nycadaemon and messodaemon were also in that book- but what the flock do you do with a flumph?
Yes, the flumph gets a lot of hate! I strongly disliked it as a kid, but these days I can see the sort of alien/weird aspects that could be talked up. I'd probably just not show the illustration, though!
One other person mentioned in the comments that his DM had one back in the day and he didn't realize it was an actual product - he thought his DM had cobbled it together! I've never met anyone who actually owned one. I suspect there must have been a very limited print run. But maybe you'll find one someday! Thanks as always for your support in watching and commenting! I appreciate it!
I've not played Baldur's Gate 3 (or, in fact, any D&D video games - I'm not a video game player). I assume there are creatures from the Fiend Folio featured in the game? Thank you for watching and commenting!
I loved it as a kid more for the idea and because it was from the UK, which really intrigued me, but now that I'm older I've gone back to it and taken a harder look at the parts I dismissed in my younger days. Lots of fun stuff in there!
That's right, thank you! I think most of the monsters in here that were credited to TSR United States creators, like Lawrence Schick, etc., first debuted in different modules or in Dragon magazine.
@@owenbloomfield1177 I am. American Steve wrote Scorpion Swamp, Demons of the Deep, and Robot Commando. British Steve has a very distinctive writing style, and it's clear that he didn't write those ones.
Thank you for watching and commenting! As a tween/teen in 1982/1983 when I first discovered this book, I was hugely into British culture, particularly the music, and I viewed this book similarly, as being "cool" just because it was published in the UK. As a consequence, I think I looked on it a bit more favorably than I might have had it been published in the US. But, I also really liked Russ Nicholson's art, because it was so different!
I remember when it came out and I was just completely fascinated by it due to my (at the time) love of all things from the UK (particularly music). Lots of great monsters in there, and also a bunch of "interesting" ones!
Something you don't explain is how the editor was able to publish the contents of the Games Workshop published monster column in the TSR book after leaving Games Workshop.
Most of the UK TSR were hired by Games Workshop, they went on to develop the rpg Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Bryan said he wanted it to be more of a dark fantasy setting, a mix between Cthulhu and D&D.
8:15 Yeah, that was where the White Dwarf I knew and loved began to fall apart I think. After their relationship with TSR soured not just the D&D articles but all the other third party game content began to reduce until they'd pretty much gone completely in-house and their own game was the only content .. all the old cartoon strips (Thrud, Traveler etc) and articles on other games I used to buy it for disappeared until all that was left was Warhammer, and tabletop wargames were never really my thing (almost a 180 return to the origins of roleplaying games). Back in the day it was my one stop shop for seeing what other games were out there and I much preferred the flavour of it's D&D articles to Dragons. They're still doing well but it was a bit like seeing your favourite soccer club change over to playing bowls instead, without any rebranding, and you're not really a fan of bowls 🥴
Yes, I remember seeing ads for White Dwarf in early issues of Dragon and thinking it would be fun to read, but I never saw a copy for sale at my local shop. Years later when a friend got me into Warhammer 40k for a skinny minute, I grabbed an issue of White Dwarf and was surprised that it was basically just a catalog for Games Workshop miniatures. The very few issues of White Dwarf I've seen in PDF form from the early days all look great and I wish I'd had the opportunity back in the day to read it more.
@@daddyrolleda1 they were great, well, I thought so 🙂 was a time you could get back issues from them but I doubt that's still the case, for the really old ones at least.
Fiend Folio was always a bit intriguing to me because, among friends it was a rarity, and was not always on hand at our table. Then, there was its look and feel, which makes sense now, given its genesis. Turns out I knew that creepy art style already, because my first introduction to fantasy gaming was the solo Fighting Fantasy books by Livingston & Jackson. And finally, while we knew it was the second monster manual, it was _not_ Monster Manual 2, so it was just a weird book all-round. :)
I have a few friends on Twitter whose first experience with TTRPGs were the Fighting Fantasy books, and they had a similar reaction as you to the art in the Fiend Folio! It was a weird book, but I think that's part of why I liked it!
@@daddyrolleda1 I was maybe 11 and would play Warlock Of Firetop Mountain in bed at night (ignoring game mechanics and assuming best outcomes) for what felt like hours. The text and those illustrations got me almost feeling claustrophobic, fighting for my life far inside the mountain. :)
I think that monster takes the prize for most gamers making fun of it! I think it can be creepy and somewhat alien or Cthulhu-like, if you want it to be. But so many people hated it!
I love Charles Stross. The Laundry series, Jupiter's Legacy etc. Can't believe he was a DnD kid too. Have an F-116-R on the way. Broke down and ordered it to go with the box I have. I kind of want to complete the set now that I know what all the parts are.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I really appreciate it! And I, too, was surprised by Charles Stross' involvement in this book! Very cool on getting the book! Where did you find a copy?
Great history lesson on possibly my favorite AD&D book! Thank you! Question wondering if your mistake of saying “John Peel” was an unconscious reference to the music producer (who produced such awesome stuff in his sessions)?
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! Glad you liked the video. And, yes! That's exactly what happened! I used to seek out the Peel sessions at our local record shop once I'd heard of them, particularly Joy Division and New Order!
Although it is before my time (in my early 40s, started on 2e and quit for 25 years until recently), it is fantastic content. I enjoy the history of these things.
I am so happy to hear that! Thank you very much for watching and commenting. I'll definitely be making more history videos but sprinkling in others like reviews and such just to mix it up. I am an over-50 gamer as well. I hope my content will also be appreciated by younger gamers! Thanks again!
Indeed! Especially because you've done the deep research into stuff that I've forgotten. For instance, just hearing "Cavaliers And Roundheads" (around 1:01) mentioned - Wow! - takes me back to when my teenage friends and I first discovered DnD ('79-'80). We met an old (probably mid-30s, so from our 13-year-old perspective, *old* ) wargamer at our FLGS. He explained things like HD, AC, and Saving Throws to us, often using what he called "the Cavs" or "Chainmail" rulesets to explore what were variant rules to him but wholly unfamiliar concepts for us. From him we learned what things like "skirmish" and "rout" meant, and the difference between a ballista (scorpion) and a trebuchet. And he called us the "future of gaming". And now I'm an old Grognard, passing on ancient TSR lore - like ration, torch, and encumbrance management - to the ones who'll be the next "future of gaming". It's like . . . The Circle Of Life! 😏
12:10 The Aaracokra inspired me when I saw it in Fiend Folio back in the day. Wanted to play one as a PC. The 5e one looks a little more civilized and normalized, with its' arms separate from its wings. The Tabaxi didn't catch my attention at the time, yet both creatures are now a big deal in 5e. It was fun to run the UK series modules (At least The Gauntlet and The Sentinel), which pulled heavily from FF for their monsters.
Thanks for watching and commenting! I, too, liked the Aarakocra when I saw them as a kid, and had always planned to use them as an NPC race for a campaign world I was working on. I knew they were part of 5E as I mentioned in the video but didn't realize their appearance had changed! I liked both UK2 & UK3 - especially the cover for UK2 reminded me a bit of the Rankin-Bass Hobbit art.
I fell in love with this book as a kid, but I think it was partly to do with the fact that I was about All Things British back then (including music and TV shows)!
Another great video. My first DM had the UK covered basic book and this is the first time I've seen it since the eighties. It is much more fitting for the time period in the UK, things were bleak back then :). I remember the fiend folio being the go to monster book, and when I managed to buy my own Monster Manual, it was the ring binder version, as spreading the cost was the only way to afford it. Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much! I actually only learned of the existence of the UK cover to the Holmes Basic book just last year. You're the only person I "know" who had one! I remember the 3-ring binders for the 2E Monstrous Compendium! I didn't get those, but instead waited until the later "Monstrous Manual" which was a regular hardback book version of many of the creatures. Thanks again for watching and commenting!
@@daddyrolleda1 I wish the book was mine :). I only got the joy of looking at the cover when my DM was using it. It's the only one I've ever seen and until I saw your video, I always thought it was something he'd made, or a protective cover he'd added, as all the books I saw afterwards had the standard cover art. He was a regular visitor to the original GW store in Hammersmith. It's probably why we played so many different systems. Although they became zealously litigious and alienated many people, Games Workshop is a very important player in my TTRPG life, and no doubt many other players from the good old days :)
@@MrChasanDayve I'm very jealous! I've never seen one in the flesh either. I've never even met anyone who has! I believe the cover art is by a very young John Blanche.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I appreciate it! And yes, so many iconic monsters debuted in this book. I'm also quite partial to the art. But what I remember most is that my best friend at the time had this book and I didn't, and he would sometimes let me borrow it, and then I began checking it out from our local library until someone at the library never returned it.
There are a lot of those goofy creatures in there. It took me decades but I began to re-envision them as Cthulhu-style nightmare creatures, and they work better for me now. I just don't use the name "Flumpf." 😄
