Monster Origins

[RamsHornStudios]

Gary was, I think, inspired by the white apes of Burrough's Barsoom when he added similar monsters to his own game.

Oh man, that super makes me want to draw a four armed ape for the carnivorous ape entry. I loved John Carter of Mars.

[Solomoriah]

Received a gift from Shannon Appelcline: excerpts from unpublished books about monster history.

That's a thing, right? Monster history?

Not sure if this is of any help, or if this ground has already been tread upon, but here it is.

[AlMan]

As a thought for getting away from the Rust Monster / Coroder and its hold on the old game. Could we move the Iron Snapper from Field Guide 1 in to replace?

[Solomoriah]

We could, if I feel like we need to. But I'm pretty happy with the Ironbane, especially with Dimirag's artwork.

[Boggo]

Received a gift from Shannon Appelcline: excerpts from unpublished books about monster history.

That's a thing, right? Monster history?

Not sure if this is of any help, or if this ground has already been tread upon, but here it is.

Handy, Shannon's an excellent researcher as anyone who's read the amazing Designers and Dragons history series will know!

[Seven]

As long as they don't trademark "Carnivorous Ape" it's probably fine but the google factor worries me. If someone looks something up for D&D and gets hits from BFRPG, somebody could get annoyed.

That happens to me quite a bit with Pathfinder.

[Boggo]

I don't see how they could, it's two ordinary English words and a concept that pre-dates Gary Gygax's birth so...

[LibraryLass]

Received a gift from Shannon Appelcline: excerpts from unpublished books about monster history.

That's a thing, right? Monster history?

Not sure if this is of any help, or if this ground has already been tread upon, but here it is.

Darn, of course he's writing that before I ever will.

[leon]

"Rust monsters" are a problem not because they aren't obviously named (it's a monster that rusts things) but because they aren't obvious monsters. As far as I know, before Gary thought of this way to torture players, nobody else did.

I'm sure Gary came up with them independently, but I did find that there's a creature from Superman comics called a Metal-Eater. It's just pictured in a zoo, not described, so maybe not close enough of a match. OTOH, a big cow-like thing that just takes a bite out of your sword is interesting.

[leon]

Received a gift from Shannon Appelcline: excerpts from unpublished books about monster history.

That's a thing, right? Monster history?

Not sure if this is of any help, or if this ground has already been tread upon, but here it is.

Great! I'll scan it for new info.

My toolset for these searches so far has been: Google Books (using date ranges), archive.org, Fandom.com list of Monsters, and TVTropes.org. Plus copies of original material on my shelf to confirm things like Water Weird being in the 1977 monster manual.