Monstrous Manual

Monster Manual

Cover of the original Monster Manual
Author	Gary Gygax
Genre	Role-playing game
Publisher	Wizards of the Coast
Media type	Print (Hardback)

The Monster Manual (MM) is the primary bestiary sourcebook for monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game, first published in 1977 by TSR. It includes monsters derived from mythology, and folklore, as well as creatures created for D&D specifically. It describes each with game-specific statistics (such as the monster's level or number of hit dice), and a brief description of its habits and habitats. Most of the entries also have an image of the creature. Along with the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, it is one of the three "core rulebooks" in most editions of the D&D game. Several editions of the Monster Manual have been released for each edition of D&D. It was the first hardcover book of the D&D series. Due to the level of detail and illustration included, it was cited as a pivotal example of a new style of wargame books. Future editions would draw on various sources and act as a compendium of published monsters.

The first D&D boxed set did not have a separate Monster Manual but provided listings for monsters in Book 2: Monsters and Treasure, one of the included booklets.

After the series was separated into basic and advanced games, the basic game continued to be published in level-based boxes. Monsters of the appropriate level were included in the rulebooks for the various basic game sets (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, and Immortal) and later collected in a single D&D Rules Cyclopedia book.