Preface

More than five years have flown by since I wrote the preface for the first
MONSTER MANUAL. During this time I have been designing and collecting
monsters with the aim of publishing a second volume. You have
it in your hands now.

Besides being larger than MONSTER MANUAL I, this volume contains
all sorts of valuable material. There are new entries for classes such as
devils and dinosaurs, demons and lycanthropes, dragons and giants;
there are dozens of brand new creatures; and there are even more
entries of the best of creatures which have appeared in limited circulation
elsewhere. This volume puts them all together for easy reference.
You will also notice the hundreds of new illustrations.

However, as proud as we are of this volume and its predecessor, we
aren't content to rest no our laurels! The creation of excellent new
monsters is a continuing effort. Can we deny ourselves and our enthusiastic
players the benefits of such creativity? Never! What we must do
then is plan for a reasonable expansion of both volumes of this work.

Just as new editions of an encyclopedia are published every few years,
so, ideally, will be the MONSTER MANUAL. After all, what is this work if
not an encyclopedia of creatures for the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
game system? While a dozen volumes would not be feasible,
would would like one day for the MONSTER MANUAL to comprise three or four books.
Of course, newly devised monsters will continue to
appear in the pages of DRAGON magazine and in modules.

Most of the contents of the MONSTER MANUAL II cam about because you,
our readers, expressed a desire for new monsters of one type or another.
The other entries are here to complete the system. Whatever comes
after this will depend by and large upon what suggestions we receive
from players.

My sincere gratitude is extended to Frank Mentzer and to Francois Marcela-Froideval for
their valuable assistance. Thanks are also due to
the editors and artists and the rest of the crew at TSR who put this
together with so much care!
 

E. Gary Gygax
October 1982
 

Acknowledgements

Our special thanks to the following people.

David Cook, Francois Marcela-Froideval, Jeff Grubb, Luke Gygax, Allen Hammack,
Tracy Hickman, Harold Johnson, Vera Jane Koffler, Lenard Lakofka,
Brian Pitzer, Mike Price, Paul Reiche, Jim Sandt, Lawrence Schick, David C. Sutherland III.

Julian Grimm wrote:
Gary,

I was reading the forward to MMII and you hinted that there would possibly be more Monster Manuals in the works. Did you have a set number of volumes planned or was it more make them as the ideas come?

I had no special number of volumes in mind, but I surely did plan to expurgate the Fiend Folio and eventually revise the volumes of monsters into a set akin to an encyclopedia.

Cheers,
Gary
 
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfdart
Did you ever use Katherine Briggs' Encyclopedia of Fairies? Unlike other such tomes, it includes a number of actual stories about the fairies, goblins, bogeys and other critters.

I've used it for 20+ years and still haven't used everything in it.
Happy Christmas!

I have at least one of Katherine Brigg's books somewhere in the book archives in the basement here, but darned if I can recall the title.
IIRR, the book of hers I have is well illustrated and is based mainly on the folklore of the British Isles.

Yuletide best wishes,
Gary

Yep, that's the one! The section about Black Annis alone is worth the price. I have a whole sub-campaign around the machinations of the Cailleach Bheur.