The cover of the original 1981
Fiend Folio says "edited by Don Turnbull." The monsters inside were written by seventy different people, half of whom contributed a single monster. I rarely think about who wrote my favorite
Fiend Folio monsters. Who are these folks? Do they have other credits in the hobby? I've decided to try to find out. Here are my first batch of results.
Name | # | Monsters | Author Notes |
Asbury, Brian | 1 | Xill | A.k.a Brian K. Asbury. Frequent contributor to the early UK zines Chimaera, Demonsblood, Trollcrusher. Several articles in the early days of White Dwarf, including an early Barbarian class (the first published?) and the infamous Houri class. Short story in issue 9 of Imagine. Kindle short story collection Purple Parables. |
Atkin, Chris | 1 | Troll (spirit) | No further info available. |
Barnes, Mark | 2 | Snyad, Thork | No further info available. |
Boschelli, Louis | 2 | Devil dog, Giant (mountain) | No further info available. |
Bowman, Ghee | 1 | Rothé | Now in the history department of the University of Exeter. Author of The Indian Contingent: The Forgotten Muslim Soldiers of Dunkirk. |
Brown, Peter | 1 | Gryph | Other rpg credits appear in 90’s UK mags perChance, Valkyrie, and Role Player Independent. Some credits in Wargames Illustrated. Had a blog focusing on miniatures for a couple of years. Possibly the same Peter Brown who wrote the recently-published The Army of George II 1727-1760: The Soldiers who Forged an Empire (From Reason to Revolution). |
Bulger, Brendan | 1 | Osquip | His monster the Greenmen (D&D stats for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ style green martians) appears in White Dwarf #27. |
Chilman, R.K.R. | 1 | Ogrillon | According to an old school yearbook available online, this fellow was maybe 15 years old when the Fiend Folio was published. Not bad! |
Cole, Russell | 1 | Troll (ice) | No further info available. |
Donohoe, Jim | 1 | Lava children | Contributor to 3 issues of early UK zine Trollcrusher. |
Eaton, Simon | 2 | Coffer corpse, Witherweed | Another monster of his, the Stormbiter (a sandstorm man), appears in White Dwarf #19. |
English, M. | 1 | Clubnek | No further info available. |
I've never heard of it before, much less seen any issues, but "Trollcrusher" is a ridiculously cool name for a zine.
ReplyDeleteThank you for doing this research.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I know where one of the bigger contributors is. Charles Stross is responsible for the Death Knight, the Githyanki and their cousins the Githzerai, and all the Slaad in the book. He went on to become a pretty well-known scifi author with about 30 titles under his belt, and his "Laundry Files" series (which is kind of Delta Green only British) has its own RPG from Cubicle 7.
ReplyDeleteYeah, he'll be in the fourth installment, I think.
DeleteHopefully someone can answer the mystery of if Ian Livingstone did anything other than invent the Hook Horror.
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