Genestealer cults aren’t the only ‘90s gaming goodness making a comeback in 2016. November brings the return of the professional tourist, guide-book author, and raconteur Volothamp Geddarm, aka Volo of the numerous Volo’s Guide books for D&D.
Volo’s Guide to Monsters is the first new monster book out of WotC since 5e’s Monster Manual. If your game’s feeling a bit stale because your crew keeps facing the same monsters over and over again, this book promises to shake things up with “game statistics and lore for nearly one hundred monsters suitable for any D&D campaign.” These include the fiendish neogi slavers, the disturbing vargouille, and psychedelic fan-favorites like the flail snail.
Keeping with WotC’s new experimental approach to supporting D&D, this isn’t just a Monster Manual II, Dawn of the Rise of the Return of the Gazebo. In addition to the new monsters, we also get rules for using some classic monsters as PC races. These include stalwart favorites like orcs, goblins, and at least one flavor of giant.
The book begins with Volo’s description of the habits, origins, and lairs of various often-used D&D monsters. These are annotated by Elminster, bringing to mind the back-and-forth parenthetical comments in classic Shadowrun books. This should provide some entertaining reading while allowing DMs to decide which, if either, sage is correct.
The release date for Volo’s Guide to Monsters is the 15th of November, but you can pre-order it now. If you purchase your book through Dragon’s Lair Comics & Fantasy®, you can opt for a limited-run alternative cover done by Hydro74. Volo’s Guide to Monsters is a hard-cover book clocking in at 224 pages.
