This introductory guide to DUNGEONS & DRAGONS provides a fun and immersive primer to its beasts and monsters. In this illustrated guide, you're transported to the legendary and magical worlds of Dungeons & Dragons and presented with one-of-a-kind entries for some of its most sinister, foul, and memorable monsters. Featuring amazing illustrations and expert insights on some of D&D's most dangerous monsters, the guide shines a spotlight on the beasts that scare, excite, and cause trouble for adventurers, from creatures that live underground, to those that dwell in the wilderness and boneyards or soar in the sky. In these profiles you will find information on the size of each monster, its danger level, and tips for how to survive an encounter. The perfect entry point for young fans of fantasy eager to become D&D adventurers, this book also features introductory "Encounter" stories so readers can practice the problem-solving skills they'll need to fight these monsters when they play a D&D adventure of their own.

Discover the terrifying monsters and fascinating beasts of Dungeons & Dragons with this A-to-Z illustrated guide to all the creatures you might encounter during your adventures. In this single-volume collection of all the creature profiles from the first six books in the Young Adventurer's Guide series, you’ll find the wild and wondrous creatures that populate the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Pore over profiles of dragons (from chromatic to metallic), owlbears, unicorns, and more, each accompanied by vivid illustrations. Narrative encounters and storytelling prompts help you strategize so you can make sure to best these beasts in your own campaigns. With beautiful illustrations and advice on what to do should you come across these magical and terrifying creatures, The Monsters & Creatures Compendium provides the perfect guide for young fans and new players traversing the worlds of D&D.

Caught in traffic. Trapped in a cubicle. Stuck in a rut. Tangled up in red tape. In the real world, sometimes you feel powerless—but not in Dungeons & Dragons (D & D). In this fantasy-adventure, you have all kinds of special powers. You can slay the evil dragon, overcome the orc or the ogre, haunt the werewolf, and triumph over sinister trolls. You venture into strange realms, encounter strange creatures, and use magical powers. Your character grows and develops with every adventure. With this guide, you can learn the ins and outs of D & D and start playing right away. Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies gives beginners the basics of the complex game and helps experienced players fine-tune their roleplaying. It guides you through: Creating your character (a powerful fighter, a sneaky rogue, a crafty sorcerer, or a charismatic cleric), and character advancement The races: humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings The types of character actions: attack rolls, skill check, and ability checks The 6 abilities: strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma Feat requirements and types Playing the game, including moving in combat, attacking with a weapon (melee attacks or ranged attacks), and damage and dying Picking skills, armor, weapons, and gear Choosing spells if your character is a sorcerer or domains for a cleric Building encounter or combat strategies and using advanced tactics Maximizing your character’s power with the acquisition of the right magic items: armor, weapons, potion, scroll, ring, wand, staff, rod, plus wondrous items D & D game etiquette Becoming a Dungeon Master There’s even a sample play session that walks you through typical play, gets you comfortable using the battle grid and character markers, lets you test player characters against each other and against monsters, and shows you how to add story elements to create an adventure. Produced in partnership with Wizards of the Coast, written by D & D game designers, and complete with a battle grid, a sample dungeon map, and a glossary, this guide arms you with the knowledge to create and equip a character and empowers you to enter the captivating, fascinating world of D & D.

Mix and match your very own RPG monster with this interactive, illustrated flip book creating fully functional creatures by piecing together heads, torsos, and legs so GMs have exciting new beasts to unleash! Is your adventure party tired of the same old boring monsters? Instead of filling your next dungeon with zombies, flip through Düngeonmeister: The Random Monster Generator and create something brand-new. With each page split into three separate sections (head, torso, and legs), this mix-and-match flip book assembles unique creatures with stats to match each of the beast’s body parts. For instance, GMs can create: -A zombie head kobold with spider legs giving you an unstoppable undead monstrosity that will chase your party across walls and ceilings -A monster with a snake head and tentacles for legs making an enemy that’s resistant to piercing damage with a venomous bite -A dragon that’s more than a dragon when you mix in gelatinous body and a giant’s legs, turning your typical fire-breather into an oversized one that’s resistant to bludgeoning and slashing Fully compatible with 5E, this book is perfect for DMs looking for something functional and fun to help them fill out dungeons and encounters with interesting and challenging enemies.

Do demons and devils have free will? Does justice exist in Menzoberranzan? What’s the morality involved with player characters casting necromancy and summoning spells? Dungeons & Dragons and Philosophy probes the rich terrain of philosophically compelling concepts and ideas that underlie Dungeons & Dragons, the legendary fantasy role-playing game that grew into a world-wide cultural phenomenon. A series of accessible essays reveals what the imaginary worlds of D&D can teach us about ethics, morality, metaphysics and more. Illustrates a wide variety of philosophical concepts and ideas that arise in Dungeons & Dragons gameplay and presents them in an accessible and entertaining manner Reveals how the strategies, tactics, improvisations, and role-play employed by D&D enthusiasts have startling parallels in the real world of philosophy Explores a wide range of philosophical topics, including the nature of free will, the metaphysics of personal identity, the morality of crafting fictions, sex and gender issues in tabletop gameplay, and friendship and collaborative storytelling Provides gamers with deep philosophical insights that can lead to a richer appreciation of D&D and any gaming experience

From vampires and demons to ghosts and zombies, interest in monsters in literature, film, and popular culture has never been stronger. This concise Encyclopedia provides scholars and students with a comprehensive and authoritative A-Z of monsters throughout the ages. It is the first major reference book on monsters for the scholarly market. Over 200 entries written by experts in the field are accompanied by an overview introduction by the editor. Generic entries such as 'ghost' and 'vampire' are cross-listed with important specific manifestations of that monster. In addition to monsters appearing in English-language literature and film, the Encyclopedia also includes significant monsters in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, African and Middle Eastern traditions. Alphabetically organized, the entries each feature suggestions for further reading. The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters is an invaluable resource for all students and scholars and an essential addition to library reference shelves.

Whether you’ve been a Dungeon Master (DM) before and want to fine-tune your skills or want to get ready and take the plunge, this is the book for you. It gives you the basics on running a great game, info for more advanced dungeon mastering, guidelines for creating adventures, and tips for building a campaign. It shows you how to: Handle all the expressions of DMing: moderator, narrator, a cast of thousands (the nonplayer characters or NPCs), player, social director, and creator Use published adventures and existing campaign worlds or create adventures and campaign worlds of your own Conjure up exciting combat encounters Handle the three types of encounters: challenge, roleplaying, and combat Create your own adventure: The Dungeon Adventure, The Wilderness Adventure. The Event-Based adventure (including how to use flowcharts and timelines), The Randomly Generated Adventure, and the High-Level adventure Create memorable master villains, with nine archetypes ranging from agent provocateur to zealot To get you off to a fast start, Dungeon Master For Dummies includes: A sample dungeon for practice Ten ready-to-use encounters and ten challenging traps A list of simple adventure premises Mapping tips, including common scales, symbols, and conventions, complete with tables Authors Bill Slavicsek and Richard Baker wrote the hugely popular Dungeons and Dragons For Dummies. Bill has been a game designer since 1986 and leads the D&D creative team at Wizards of the Coast. Richard is a game developer and the author of the fantasy bestseller Condemnation. They give you the scoop on: Using a DM binder to keep records such as an adventure log, PCs’ character sheets, NPC logs/character sheets, treasure logs, and more Knowing player styles (role players and power games) and common subgroups: hack’n’slasher, wargamer, thinker, impulsive adventurer, explorer, character actor, and watcher Recognizing your style: action movie director, storyteller, worldbuilder, puzzlemaker, or connector Using miniatures, maps, and other game aids Using 21st century technology, such as a Web site or blog, to enhance your game The book includes a sample adventure, The Necromancer’s Apprentice, that’s the perfect way to foray into DMing. It includes everything you need for a great adventure—except your players. What are you waiting for? There are chambers to be explored, dragons to be slain, maidens to be rescued, gangs of gnoll warriors to be annihilated, worgs to be wiped out, treasures to be discovered, worlds to be conquered....

A study of the gruesome game characters we love to beat—and what they tell us about ourselves. Since the early days of video games, monsters have played pivotal roles as dangers to be avoided, level bosses to be defeated, or targets to be destroyed for extra points. But why is the figure of the monster so important in gaming, and how have video games come to shape our culture’s conceptions of monstrosity? To answer these questions, Player vs. Monster explores the past half-century of monsters in games, from the dragons of early tabletop role-playing games and the pixelated aliens of Space Invaders to the malformed mutants of The Last of Us and the bizarre beasts of Bloodborne, and reveals the common threads among them. Covering examples from aliens to zombies, Jaroslav Švelch explores the art of monster design and traces its influences from mythology, visual arts, popular culture, and tabletop role-playing games. At the same time, he shows that video games follow the Cold War–era notion of clearly defined, calculable enemies, portraying monsters as figures that are irredeemably evil yet invariably vulnerable to defeat. He explains the appeal of such simplistic video game monsters, but also explores how the medium could evolve to present more nuanced depictions of monstrosity.

Since 2010, Unwinnable has been a showcase for weird, experimental, poignant, funny and iconoclastic stories. We're devoted to examining the intersection of the culture we love and the lives we lead. Unwinnable wants to bring you the best in pop-culture criticism, creative non-fiction, and the occasional serialized fiction once a week in a beautiful digital magazine. Unwinnable is life with culture. This week’s issue has Matt Marrone sad but relieved at the death of his beloved game geoDefense. Marshall Sandoval has a fascinating conversation with Ben Babbitt, composer of the adventure game Kentucky Route Zero. Meanwhile, Stu Horvath rattles on about monsters of legend and Gus Mastrapa brings us the latest installment of Dungeon Crawler. No matter what your taste, Unwinnable Weekly has you covered, so make sure to check out our selection of back issues today!

A richly illustrated, encyclopedic deep dive into the history of roleplaying games. When Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson released Dungeons & Dragons in 1974, they created the first roleplaying game of all time. Little did they know that their humble box set of three small digest-sized booklets would spawn an entire industry practically overnight. In Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, Stu Horvath explores how the hobby of roleplaying games, commonly known as RPGs, blossomed out of an unlikely pop culture phenomenon and became a dominant gaming form by the 2010s. Going far beyond D&D, this heavily illustrated tome covers more than three hundred different RPGs that have been published in the last five decades. Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground features (among other things) bunnies, ghostbusters, soap operas, criminal bears, space monsters, political intrigue, vampires, romance, and, of course, some dungeons and dragons. In a decade-by-decade breakdown, Horvath chronicles how RPGs have evolved in the time between their inception and the present day, offering a deep and gratifying glimpse into a hobby that has changed the way we think about games and play.