Friday, December 18, 2009

Fiend Folio Friday


Back in 1981, my mother bought me a set of 5 AD&D books: the Players' Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, Deities and Demigods and the Fiend Folio. Despite being very uneven in content, the Fiend Folio left an indelible mark on me, presenting several odd and creepy monsters whose main attraction was their weird "what the hell was that?" factor.

One of my personal favorites was always the grell. Why? Well, it was a levitating brain with a crapload of paralyzing tentacles, a big beak, and an inexplicable resistance to electrical attacks. I mean, look at that picture. That's the stuff of I-ate-pepperoni-pizza-just-before-bedtime nightmares. There's no point to a giant brain, and no way to figure out what the hell it's doing here. It's a deadly, freaky death-brain, man. And it attacks you 11 times a round, paralyzes you, and then rips the hell out of you the next round. What is there to explain?

4 comments:

  1. Greel are full of creepy fun. One of the old White Dwarf adventures had a grell vivasector in it. Very disturbing and fun to spring on the PCs.

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  2. I remember the Fiend Folio with some Fondness.
    Thanks for the reminder.

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  3. I'm willing to bet the Volt was inspired by a scene in one of the Tripods novels...

    Fiend Folio = freaking awesome

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    Replies
    1. hello I am the person who invented The Volt (rather a long time ago now). I'm afraid I'd never read (or heard) of the Tripod novels. I'd just doodled a hairy little creature in one of my school books & then added little horns. The teeth & tail followed next. I lost interest in D&D shortly after The Fiend Folio was published - TSR had started to sell out in my opinion & everything was becoming pre-designed. Apparently it was listed as a low level monster when - in fact - it was more dangerous. Anyway, happy days. Cheers Jonathan Jones

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