My Dad’s Monster Manual is a monster book. It has monsters. It has art you will recognise, coming as it does from the official 5E Monster Manual.

And it gets you to look at those bits of art differently.

The book started with James Introcaso showing the Monster Manual to his father, and his father coming up with his interpretation of what each piece of art represented. And this turned into something more: a book devoted to reimagining many of the monsters in new ways. Lucian Introcaso invented something, James then ran with it and formalised it in Dungeons & Dragons terms, and then got a whole team of playtesters to make sure it was balanced and fun.

And Wizards of the Coast came to the party, allowing James (as part of the Guild Adept program) to use the Monster Manual art in the book.

It is a thing of wonder.

Not as you expect them

One of the requirements that James set for this project was to discard lore that was to close to the official monster entry. Sorry, orcs! And so, you get monsters that, while they physically look like existing monsters, have wildly different interpretations.

And even when they do look similar, their scale may be significantly different. Take the Ajeptic, which is inspired by the Umber Hulk. When you hear the term, “Hulk”, you think of something big. The Ajeptic is three inches tall! Years of running a monster in one way turned on its head!

Owlbears (Barowel) that can speak. Darkmantles (Klamoch) that search the waters of the earth for treasure. Tarrasques (Marktaurs) that are transformed minotaurs who collect art and crave flesh.

In all, there are about 80 stat blocks in the product, with challenge ratings from 0 to 30. The lower levels (five and under) get the bulk of the entries.

I would have done things differently

As with any project of this sort, there are bits and pieces I look at and want to change.

The Barowel is a grumpy fey who does not want to talk to people and only speaks Sylvan. I would give it the ability to speak Common so they can tell the party to go away. Possibly at length.

The Keylog (CR 11) sends creatures to another plane – randomly and permanently – when it hits them, which sounds fantastic until you send a fighter to another plane and the player needs to create a new character. I would have them return after a little bit, or when someone slays the monster.

The Recfur takes the perfection that is the flumph and reimagines it. But how does one improve on perfection?

To be honest, the vast majority work for me just as designed – and I am aware that I am mostly nitpicking at this point.

Editing, layout, and how it looks

Not surprisingly, the art is fantastic. Oh wait, you have seen it before? It is in all in the Monster Manual? That is the point of the book!

However, it is notable how well the text reads and how clear the mechanics are. And the formatting of the book is excellent.

Praise, therefore, goes to Hannah Rose (editing) and Rich Lescouflair (layout, graphic design, and art direction) for their work. Daniel Kwan and Leona Maple were the Sensitivity Editors, and it is good to see their presence – even if their work is characterised by something being absent from the product!

The book is available in both PDF and print-on-demand softcover from the Guild.

Conclusionary thoughts

I love this book.

It is a long time since a book of monsters struck me in this way. That would be 3.5e’s Monster Manual III, released in 2004! In that case, it was for the mechanical innovations it offered.

For My Dad’s Monster Manual, I love it for the creative and story-telling potential of the monster descriptions. Mechanically, everything is solid, and there is often innovation on display – having a monster (the Burlon) that a character can banish by insulting it is genius – but even on the more standard fare, the lore lifts it to be something special.

James Introcaso now leaves the Guild Adept program to work with Matt Colville with MCDM Productions. It is a glorious way to depart the program – with a fantastic product.

In case you did not realise, I highly recommend My Dad’s Monster Manual!