Saturday, April 17, 2021

Who wrote the Fiend Folio? A-E


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.

6 comments:

  1. I've never heard of it before, much less seen any issues, but "Trollcrusher" is a ridiculously cool name for a zine.

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  2. Thank you for doing this research.

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  3. Oh 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.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, he'll be in the fourth installment, I think.

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    2. Hopefully someone can answer the mystery of if Ian Livingstone did anything other than invent the Hook Horror.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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