''Monsters! Monsters!'' is a role-playing game first published by

Metagaming Concepts Metagaming Concepts, later known simply as Metagaming, was a company that published board games from 1974 to 1983. It was founded and owned by Howard Thompson, who designed the company's first game, ''Stellar Conquest''. The company also invente ...

in 1976.

Description

''Monsters! Monsters!'' is a fantasy system in which the

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

s are monsters who prey on adventurers and the civilized world. The game's rules systems are essentially compatible with ''

Tunnels & Trolls ''Tunnels & Trolls'' (abbreviated ''T&T'') is a fantasy role-playing game designed by Ken St. Andre and first published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo. The second modern role-playing game published, it was written by Ken St. Andre to be a more access ...

''.

Publication history

''Monsters! Monsters!'' was designed by Ken St. Andre with Jim "Bear" Peters, with art by

Liz Danforth Elizabeth T. Danforth is an illustrator, editor, writer, and scenario designer for role-playing games and video games. She has worked in the game industry continuously since the mid 1970s. Early life and education She received her BA in Anthropol ...

, and was published in 1976 by

as a 40-page square-bound book. ''Monsters! Monsters!'', St. Andre's third game, was developed by Steve Jackson based on a design by St. Andre related to his ''

'' role-playing game. Metagaming Concepts released a second printing in 1976, which was saddle-stitched.

Howard M. Thompson Howard M. Thompson is an American wargame designer and founder of Metagaming Concepts. His first game was ''Stellar Conquest'', a popular and well-designed simulation of interstellar warfare. Thompson is most famous for his idea to publish small ...

provided illustrations for ''Monsters! Monsters!''

Flying Buffalo Flying Buffalo Inc. (FBI) is a game company with a line of role playing games, card games, and other gaming materials. The company's founder, Rick Loomis, began game publishing with ''Nuclear Destruction'', a play-by-mail game which started the p ...

got the rights to reprint the first edition of ''Monsters! Monsters!'' in 1979. In 2020 Ken St. Andre with

Steve Crompton Steven S. Crompton is a Canadian-born artist, author and designer who has worked in the role-playing and comic genres since 1981. In the gaming industry he is best known as the artist for the Grimtooth's Traps books as well as other ''Catalyst' ...

, Created and published an all-new 2nd edition of ''Monsters! Monsters!'' which was financed via a successful Kickstarter and published through Trollhalla Press Unlimited (). That release also included a new 26 page gm adventure specially written for monster characters and the release of a new edition of ''

The Toughest Dungeon in the World ''The Toughest Dungeon in the World'' is a 1980 role-playing game solo adventure for ''Tunnels & Trolls.'' Plot summary ''The Toughest Dungeon in the World'' is an adventure in which the player character is a troll searching the dungeon trying to ...

'', a solitaire adventure also written especially for Monster characters.

Reception

Ronald Pehr reviewed ''Monsters! Monsters!'' in ''

The Space Gamer ''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the la ...

'' No. 34. Pehr commented that "''Monsters! Monsters!'' is a good game for beginners, or anyone who wants to be a troll, but experienced gamers who enjoy complex campaign games offering more than bloodlust won't find anything they want here." John ONeill of '' Black Gate'' commented that "The game is well written, with plenty of delightful Liz Danforth art, and my games library is no longer missing an important piece of gaming history."

References

{{reflist Fantasy role-playing games Flying Buffalo games Metagaming Concepts games Role-playing games introduced in 1976