Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium, Volume One

by Nigel Findley, Teeuwynn Woodruff

Few creatures strike more terror into the hearts of AD&D game characters and their players than these vile beings. They grip one's heart in a fist of fear from which no escape is possible.

This compilation contains the complete texts of Van Richten's Guide to Vampires, Van Richten's Guide to Werebeasts, and Van Richten's Guide to the Created, updated and usable in any AD&D campaign.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Dungeons and Dragons, Gaming

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 1999

About the author

Nigel D Findley (July 22, 1959 – February 19, 1995[1]) was a game designer, editor, and an author of science fiction and fantasy novels and role-playing games (RPGs). Findley died suddenly on February 19, 1995, at his home in Vancouver, British Columbia. He suffered a heart attack at the age of 35.

Reviews

[Benjamin Spurlock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though this is a reference book for Dungeons & Dragons, it's written well enough- and is evocative such- that anyone who wants a reference for horror or for storytelling would want to read it. It's a great guide for horror in general, but in particular, this volume covers three creatures that are staples of the genre: vampires, lycanthropes, and golems/Frankenstein's Monster.

For all three of these creatures, the book gives some interesting ideas for how to portray them differently, how to create characters with them, and even how to tell stories revolving around them that give the proper sense of horror.

Those who play tabletop games, those who write horror, and those who are interested in using these kinds of creatures should definitely check out this book. I guarantee that you'll get some interesting thoughts out of it, and you won't see those three creatures in the same way again.