Publisher: Wizards of the CoastNot just more monsters - mysterious, sinister creatures of the Orient! Inside you'll find 64 pages of the most fascinating monsters in the Kara-Tur campaign setting. From the jungle bajang to the arctic yuki-on-na, from savage sprits to beauteous new beasts - this volume captures them all. A must for Oriental Adventures fans and players with a taste for the exotic.
Product History
MC6: and quot;Monstrous Compendium Kara-Tur Appendix and quot; (1990), by Rick Swan, is the sixth monster manual for AD and amp;D 2e. It was published in June 1990.
About the Cover. Curiously, this Kara-Tur supplement doesn't use the trade dress for either and quot;Oriental Adventures and quot; or the and quot;Forgotten Realms and quot;. It's the one Kara-Tur supplement that just advertises itself as and quot;Kara-Tur and quot;.
About the Dividers. The four color dividers in MC6: and quot;Monstrous Compendium Kara-Tur Appendix and quot; (1990) depict the covers for Oriental Adventures (1985), OA1: and quot;Swords of the Daimyo and quot; (1986), OA6: and quot;Ronin Challenge and quot; (1990), and OA7: and quot;Test of the Samurai and quot; (1990). Given these dividers sometimes went off-topic, this was a nice, tight set.
Origins (I): Binders of Monsters. The first year of Monstrous Compendiums for AD and amp;D 2e (1989) contained five releases. It was a pretty astounding amount, but TSR had already revealed their methodology for pumping these supplements out. By producing Monstrous Compendiums for the Forgotten Realms (1989), Dragonlance (1990), and Greyhawk (1990), they made it obvious that their new monster books were all about the settings.
TSR could have turned to Spelljammer or Ravenloft, their first AD and amp;D 2e settings, next. But instead they opted to stay with the classics. Their fourth setting-based Monstrous Compendium thus covered a sub-setting: Kara-Tur, the eastern lands of the Forgotten Realms.
Origins (II): The Kara-Tur Expansion. Spring 1990 was truly a dawning for the land of Kara-Tur. MC6: and quot;Monstrous Compendium Kara-Tur Appendix and quot; (1990) quickly followed after FRA1: and quot;Storm Riders and quot; (1990) and OA6: and quot;Ronin Challenge and quot; (1990), the beginnings of two trilogies of adventures that would keep the eastern Realms front and forward throughout the year.
In many ways, the and quot;Kara-Tur Appendix and quot; is the closest thing that Kara-Tur had to a core sourcebook in the AD and amp;D 2e era (1989-2000). Both Oriental Adventures and Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms (1988) predated the new edition and hellip; but the transition between the versions of AD and amp;D was minor enough, that players were still happily using them. Except maybe for Oriental Adventures' monsters and hellip; and that's where this new book came in.
Monsters of Note. The and quot;Kara-Tur Appendix and quot; contains a wide array of monstrous humanoids and spirits, but only a few are likely to be recognizable to westerners: the foo creature, the gargantua kaiju, the hengeyokai fox-people, the oni spirits, and the tengu bird-people. The Oriental dragons are the most notable omission from this book, but they'd already appeared in MC3: and quot;Monstrous Compendium Volume Three: Forgotten Realms Appendix and quot; (1989).
Though there are a few new monsters in the and quot;Kara-Tur Appendix and quot;, most previously appeared in Oriental Adventures, now suitably expanded for the new AD and amp;D 2e creature format. A few others had previously appeared in and quot;OA and quot; adventures, making it a true compilation of monsters for the and quot;Oriental Adventures and quot; setting.
About the Creators. Swan had been was one of the authors of Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms (1988), giving him a foothold in the Realms' eastern lands. He'd later move west with supplements like FA2: and quot;Nightmare Keep and quot; (1991).
About the Product Historian
The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of and nbsp;Designers and amp; Dragons and nbsp;- a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.