Review: All The World's Monsters

BORING INTRO

I've been stuck in a massive rut for months for a number of reasons. For one, I've been grappling with the typical pandemic depression everyone's been dealing with, alongside the usual stress of a 40 hour a week near minimum wage job and college. For another, I've been getting inordinately stressed out over my own OD&D based house rules, and as a result they have changed a ludicrous amount from the last time I posted about them to the point of nearly being unrecognizable. 

Anyway, I figured the only way to get out of the rut of not posting is to just... post, so I'm going to do just that. 

INTRO DONE

I'd argue that most people believe the 1980s was the golden age of D&D. That decade brought us Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, the Moldvay Basic and Expert sets, countless adventures and supplements, and of course the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. 

However, I much prefer the 1970s to the 1980s when it comes to D&D. Back then, nobody knew what they were doing, and weird supplements and rulesets were everywhere. Stuff like the Arduin Grimoire, Empire of the Petal Throne, What Price Glory?!, Booty and the Beasts, the Palace of the Vampire Queen, and the Manual of Aurania. All of these books are amateurish, a little weird, and glorious.

However, today I'm going to be talking about a series of three supplements published by Chaosium: All the Worlds' Monsters. The three volumes were published in 1977, 1979, and 1980 respectively. The first volume even predated the AD&D monster manual! Between these three books, there are almost 1000 monsters listed. Most are not illustrated, just a list of combat statistics with a very brief description, and those that are illustrated are done in that delightfully amateur style of early RPG products.

I unfortunately don't know the artist, as I cannot decipher their signature, but this was drawn by either Cora Healy, Carol Rode, or J. Steve Reichmuth.

The intended system for these monsters appears to be OD&D, but with some modifications, as seen by this example of a typical stat block:

 

Notice that the hit dice is in a range, as well as having the listed kind of hit die (d8 in this case). The armor class (though ludicrously high) seems about normal for OD&D standards, and it is interesting to see their movement, flight, and swimming speeds listed separately. The IQ range (presumably INT score) is the next unusual item, followed by the DEXT range. The dexterity range is useful for the Perrin conventions, written in Volume 2, which rely on dexterity for initiative. I especially love the new alignment of "hungry", introduced in ATWM. It seems so much more useful than neutral. Overall the ATWM statblocks are fairly easy to use and informative, but still retain that somewhat primitive aspect that defines 1970s RPG materials.

All of the monsters in All the Worlds' Monsters are submitted by various referees, then organized by the late Steve Perrin and Jeff Pimper. As a result, one can see a lot of material written by folks who were fairly influential in the early RPG scene. We see Eclare Hannifen, author of the fanzine the Ignorable Mockturtle and early proponent of D&D on the west coast. There is also of course Clint Bigglestone, co-founder of the DunDraCon RPG convention. Several monsters are submitted by Dave Hargrave, author of the famed Arduin series of supplements. Starting in Volume 2 we see submissions from Jennell Jaquays, dungeon designer and artist behind the Caverns of Thracia.

I could go on about how many talented people submitted monsters to these books, but it would take far too long for a post like this. Besides, I've hardly talked about the monsters themselves yet!

There is an eclectic mix of monsters in each volume, some being taken from literature and folklore while others are wholly original creations. I can't go review each beast one at a time, but I will say that a lot of time they can be hit or miss. Every so often you'll find something truly great and wonder why you haven't seen it before, and sometimes you'll see something very weird and difficult to use in a game. 

 For example, the skorpoon (created by Dave Hargave), a 9 foot tall hybrid of baboon and scorpion, is very cool and can easily see use in any more "gonzo" campaign. The stun cone (created by Dan Pierson), which is a 10 foot tall pinecone which fires up to 36 paralytic seedpods as crossbow bolts and then dissolves its victims, is a little bit harder to use.

At the back of each volume is a chart containing all the monsters listed in that book, organized by level. In addition, there is an index with a list of every monster in the series up until that point, with a note of which volume it appears in. 

Each volume also includes a bonus page or two featuring something other than monsters. Volume 1 features the "Henderson Monster Creation Table" (presumably made by Steve Henderson, one of the founders of the Society for Creative Anachronism). Volume 2 features the Perrin conventions, a set of rules created by Steve Perrin to make combat more understandable, as well as an article by Ken St. Andre on how to convert monsters to his Tunnels and Trolls RPG system. The final volume features an article from Steve Perrin on how to convert monsters to Runequest.

 Overall, while the All the Worlds' Monsters series may not be the most useful bestiaries ever made, they are certainly some of the more interesting. Each one is like a snapshot of early D&D history, something truly joyful to read and look through. They are emblematic of those early years, where nothing was concrete and anything was possible. These books are still available for purchase in PDF via DrivethruRPG from Chaosium, at these links. I heartily recommend them, especially to any fans of Original Dungeons and Dragons.