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36-473: Night Below is a boxed set that includes three 64-page books ("Book I: The Evils of Haranshire", "Book II: Perils of the Underdark", and "Book III: The Sunless Sea"), 26 photocopyable player handouts on 16 sheets, an eight-page Monstrous Compendium supplement, eight referee reference cards, three double-sided full-color maps with tactical maps on the reverse suitable for use with miniatures . Night Below

72-502: A 7 out of 10 overall. He comments: "Serious work goes into bringing the beasties to life, but the crippling list format means they limp rather than leap (or crawl, or slither, or fly for that matter) from the page. A fault this work compounds by further tweaking the experience points system. A factor that's made all the more frustrating when it becomes apparent that the Monstrous Annual 2 dangles some delightful creatures before

108-562: A break from the Night Below quest sooner or later". Another potential problem with the adventure he noted was that "there are so many spell-using foes and so many potential allies for the players that keeping it all together could give the referee a bit of a headache". Ramshaw concluded by saying, " Night Below won't be to some peoples' taste, but the vast majority will absolutely adore it. Quite simply, it's one hell of an adventure." Monstrous Compendium The Monstrous Compendium

144-524: A child, which his father Jim Angus said cultivated his son's passion for the fantasy genre. Angus began producing interior illustrations for Dungeons & Dragons books in 1994. He also illustrated cards for the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game . Amongst his other tabletop role-playing game illustrations are Iron Crown Enterprises games MERP ( Middle-Earth Role Playing ) and Rolemaster . He also worked for Ravensoft on

180-453: A color painting on it) in a three-ring binder. This supplement was presented as the base monster supplement intended to containing all the enemies required for most campaigns using 2nd edition AD&D rules. Each monster has both a description and an illustration on a page separate from the other monsters, allowing for easy removal and retention of alphabetical order when other monsters are added to it. MC2 Monstrous Compendium, Volume Two

216-444: A decent supply of challenging monsters available for them to use. If you don't, then have a flick through this for a few new ideas, but think twice before you buy it." Comford concluded his review by saying, "Volume three is a mixed bunch. Bar a few good entries it falls into a compilation of variations on a theme which, with a little time and imagination, most referees could come up with." Alex Lucard, for Diehard GameFAN, highlighted

252-515: A foundation rather than a work of reference" and that most of the descriptions feature quotes to add flavor, "which normally involve the quotee being horribly killed". He felt that the blend and balance of the roughly 100 creatures in the book was good, "with a lively mix of the lawful and chaotic, the mighty and meek" but noted that the book "does err slightly in favour of the more fearsome, more powerful creatures". Trenton Webb reviewed Monstrous Compendium Annual Two for Arcane magazine, rating it

288-504: A vast cave system, where they will contend with the sinister plot hatching far below. The adventure recommends that the Dungeon Master reward the characters with experience points for accumulating the powerful magic items that they find. In case characters don't advance in level quickly enough, hooks and suggestions for mini-adventures both above and below ground are provided. The set consists of three 64-page booklets detailing

324-635: Is a series of accessories for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game released from 1989 to 1998. The title was then used for a series of 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons supplements released on D&D Beyond . MC1 Monstrous Compendium, Volume One was published by TSR in 1989. It was written by the TSR staff, with a cover by Jeff Easley , and interior illustrations by Jim Holloway , and came boxed with 144 loose-leaf pages and eight color cardstock dividers (each with

360-466: Is an adventure for four to eight first-level characters that will allow them to reach 14th level by the conclusion. The adventure breaks down into three parts (each with its own beginning, middle, and ending), each contained within its own booklet and fold-out, double-sided color map, with tactical maps for miniatures. The adventure begins with the player characters acting as couriers for a wizard , when they are waylaid by band of brigands trying to capture

396-691: Is that of publishers scraping the bottom of the barrel for new ones." Swan noted that Children of the Night , by William W. Connors , adds living brains, bardic liches, and half-golems to the Ravenloft roster. Reviewing this with two other monster books from two other publishers, he quipped: "They're all interesting, but I bet if I read you the descriptions, you'd be hard-pressed to tell which monsters belonged to which system. Trenton Webb reviewed Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix II for Arcane magazine, rating it an 8 out of 10 overall. He commented that

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432-533: The Monstrous Compendium style: savant aboleth, rockseer elf , ixzan ixitxachitl, giant moray eel, and Shaboath golem . The Dungeon Master's reference cards include maps of the villages of Milborne and Thurmaster, a listing of underground terrain hazards, monster rosters, descriptions of aboleth and ixitxachitl deities, and monster cutouts for miniatures combat. The sixteen loose sheets contain 26 handouts to be given to players at suitable times in

468-550: The X-Men Legends video game, in which his art appeared. He worked for four years as an artist at Raven Software/Activision, and at the time of his death he was a principal artist for Ravensoft/Activision. Angus taught graphic and computer art at St. Clair College , which he previously attended. He taught there for five years as a teacher of illustration and graphic design. Angus and his family moved to Wisconsin, USA, in 2002. Angus died suddenly on July 19, 2007, from

504-595: The Spelljammer Monstrous Compendium MC7 on a list of 2nd Edition products he would want rereleased on DNDClassics . He commented that "I think the best Spelljammer piece to first put on DNDclassics.com would be with its first Monstrous Compendium . By taking a look at the wide range of creatures available to the setting, DMs would know if there was anything there to inspire them. [...] There are so many cool monsters in this book. [...] What veteran AD&D 2e gamer hasn’t at least heard of

540-480: The "unremitting mayhem" of this combat-oriented adventure, and noted that "although alliances can and should be formed with some of the Underdark's inhabitants, the majority are implacably hostile". He also noted: "There are tricks and traps, of course, but not so many that the majority of the party is constantly left twiddling its thumbs while the thief goes to work. The emphasis here is firmly on adventure, not puzzle solving." Ramshaw noted that while many referees ignore

576-422: The TSR magazines, Forgotten Realms , Birthright , Ravenloft , Dark Sun , Al-Quadim and Greyhawk can be found giving referees access to monsters with abilities that otherwise might not have been thought of." However, he questioned, "Are a few interesting ideas and cross-over scenarios worth over a tenner, though? Well, TSR has released such a stupefying amount of products to date that every referee should have

612-508: The adventure emphasizes role-playing, intrigue, and diplomacy rather than just combat. Book III: The Sunless Sea describes the aboleth city of Great Shaboath and leads up to the final confrontation against the aboleth, who are the masterminds behind the scenario. Three of the six mapsheets provide smaller maps detailing various sites for encounters, while the other three mapsheets are large-scale tactical maps designed to be used in miniatures combat . The monster booklet details 5 monsters in

648-568: The adventure's simple start, "Nobody could guess at the gobsmackingly malignant creatures behind this plot, or at the sheer scale of the quest on which the adventurers must embark." He notes that the adventure is billed as "the ultimate dungeon adventure", and that it "will fit snugly into just about any campaign world". He called the set up in the village "hardly original", but felt that the NPCs were "drawn with sufficient personality to provide some measure of roleplaying interaction without interfering with

684-407: The book "has a great cover and it's a top read too" and that the artwork "isn't exactly exactly inspired but it does sport a coherence and consistency rarely seen in roleplaying books. There are no 'well it's a man's head on a chicken's body' Crimewatch photofit embarrassments'" found in many other monster books. Webb noted that the text "goes out of its way to encourage adventurers to use this book as

720-411: The campaign, and include items such as journal entries, sketch maps, runes and symbols, and clues. Night Below was written by Carl Sargent and published by TSR as a boxed set in 1995. Cover art was by Jeff Easley , with interior art by Arnie Swekel and Glen Michael Angus . Cliff Ramshaw reviewed Night Below for Arcane magazine, rating it a 9 out of 10 overall. According to Ramshaw, after

756-472: The compendiums, this re-issue is an essential purchase which offers both core reference material and an inspirational glimpse of the Demiplane's dark heart." David Comford reviewed Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Three for Arcane magazine, rating it a 4 out of 10 overall. He commented that "The strength of the annual is that the contents are drawn from a variety of AD&D settings. Creatures from

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792-477: The epic dungeon-based campaign (all three with cover art by Easley; book 3 having the same cover art as the box itself), 6 large color fold-out poster maps, an 8-page booklet of monster statistics pages, 8 reference cards for the Dungeon Master , and sixteen sheets containing player handouts. Book I: The Evils of Haranshire provides an introduction to Night Below , a campaign designed to take player characters from 1st level to 10th level and beyond. This campaign

828-558: The most infamous race of creatures TSR ever put out? [...] I know, as teens, we all laughed at the concept of a tyrannohamsterus rex – until we had to fight one". Glen Angus Glen Michael Angus (August 18, 1970 – July 19, 2007) was a Canadian artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games and video games. Angus was born August 18, 1970, in Windsor, Ontario . He played the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game as

864-412: The party's spellcasters. Play is initially conducted aboveground in a rural setting, which provides many small-scale encounters from which characters can gain experience, treasure, and clues. There is a village that characters can use as a base, with its own supporting cast of Non-player characters for potential friends, including rangers , a druid , and a wizard. The players then unearth the entrance to

900-439: The plot". He commented that the adventure is not about originality, but that it is "about hacking, and, indeed, slashing, and that's what you get in spades". He described the dungeon as "bursting at the seams with nasty, slimy, ugly things that [...] come in all shapes and sizes, with all manner of powers and special abilities that should provide players with a wide variety of challenges". He acknowledged that not everyone would enjoy

936-557: The referee's eyes." Ramshaw appreciated one creature entry above all the others, naming the "star, without a shadow of a doubt" as the shambling umpleby : "Even without the Umpleby the Monstrous Annual 2 would be a necessary resource for all mainstream refs. With the shaggy-haired one, though, it rapidly approaches the essential." Trenton Webb reviewed Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium Appendices I & II for Arcane magazine, rating it an 8 out of 10 overall. He noted that this product

972-424: The rule about awarding experience for magic items found, he felt that referees would be well advised to implement it with this adventure "given the need to for characters to advance in levels sufficiently to be able to handle the following stages". He suggested that making use of the hooks and suggestions for mini-adventures is a good idea, because "there are hundreds of hours of play here, and players are bound to want

1008-641: The three new 2nd Edition books, the monster compendium is the one that I feel improves the most over its predecessor." Berin Kinsman reviewed Terrors of the Desert in the Mar–Apr 1993 issue of White Wolf . This 96-page manual was written by Tom Prusa, Louis J. Prosperi, Walter M. Bass, and Kira Glass and is "the first Monstrous Compendium appendix to deal with the AD&;D Dark Sun setting". Kinsman stated that it

1044-502: The work, though, undoubtedly comes from the quality of Appendix II' s creations" which "offer referees a varied and rich source of legends to drop into their tavern conversations or to add colour to campaigns". Webb concluded his review by saying: "All Appendices I & II offer DMs who own the old loose leaf versions are a few new piccies and the tidy new bound form, which is all well and good but hardly enough to justify [the price]. But for Ravenloft DMs who've been struggling on without

1080-536: Was "an invaluable tool for Dungeon Masters running a game in this setting, and DMs who have included psionics in non-DARK SUN campaigns should look here for interesting challenges". He rated it overall at a 3 out of 5 possible points. Rick Swan reviewed Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium Appendix II: Children of the Night for Dragon magazine #206 (June 1994). He commented on the proliferation of monster books from TSR and other publishers: "Role-players seem to have an insatiable appetite for monsters. The sound you hear

1116-500: Was a re-release of the first two Monstrous Compendium appendices for Ravenloft, in a single bound volume, and that Appendix I details "the variants, updates and unique monsters which lurk in the Demiplane's mists" while Appendix II "takes these new creatures and fleshes them out into full NPCs, expanding the descriptions in Appendix I ". He commented that as a reference book, " Appendix I does its job well enough. The true worth of

Night Below - Misplaced Pages Continue

1152-559: Was a supplement focusing on Spelljammer monsters. Further volumes included the following: In 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced a new Monstrous Compendium series of 5th Edition supplements to be exclusively released on the online platform D&D Beyond ; some of these supplements are available for free to registered users. Stephan Wieck reviewed Monster Compendium Volume One in White Wolf #17 (1989) and stated that "Of

1188-503: Was expressly designed to be usable into any ongoing campaign setting . This booklet details Haranshire, where the adventure begins, and the non-player characters which may be encountered there. Book II: Perils of the Underdark details the catacomb and cavern complexes of the Underdark here. This book introduces many encounters with underground races, such as the derro, svirfneblin , illithids , and rockseer elves . This portion of

1224-424: Was published as 64 loose-leaf pages and four color cardstock dividers. This was a supplement focusing on Forgotten Realms monsters. MC4 Monstrous Compendium Dragonlance Appendix was published in 1989. It had 96 pages, 4 dividers and a 3-ring D-binder. MC5 Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Adventures Appendix was published in 1990. It had 64 pages and 4 dividers. MC6 Monstrous Compendium, Kara-Tur Appendix

1260-419: Was published by TSR in 1989. It was written by the TSR staff, with a cover by Jeff Easley and interior illustrations by Jim Holloway and Daniel Horne , and was published as 144 loose-leaf pages of more monsters, with eight color cardstock dividers. MC3 Monstrous Compendium, Volume Three, Forgotten Realms Appendix was published by TSR in 1989. It was written by the TSR staff, with a cover by Jeff Easley, and

1296-408: Was written by the TSR staff, with a cover by Jeff Easley, and was published by TSR in 1990 as 64 loose-leaf pages with four cardstock dividers. This was a supplement focusing on Kara-Tur monsters. MC7 Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix was written by the TSR staff, with a cover by Jeff Easley, and was published by TSR in 1990 as 64 loose-leaf pages with four color cardstock dividers. This

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