My first professional game design ever was a book of monsters. Creatures and Treasures II came out in 1989 from Iron Crown Enterprises for Rolemaster. I still like to look back at that book because, while the writing is rough -- and that's being generous -- there are ideas there that I'm still proud of. I think I took the game stats for Rolemaster monsters in some interesting directions.

My first work on TSR's Planescape line was also monster related, albeit many years later. I wrote the Monstrous Supplement book that went into the Planes of Conflict boxed set. Those monsters are probably more fun to read than to use, to be honest, but again I'm happy with a lot of concepts. The Gautiere, for example, were devout worshippers whose god betrayed them, and so they imprisoned him in a ritual that destroyed them all and sent them to Carceri. That's still one of my favorite monster write-ups.

Later I wrote Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix III, which was an entire book focused on the creatures of the Inner Planes. As with the book in Planes of Conflict, the monsters are mostly fun to read and contain some cool ideas. I like the animentals, and the Immoth (icy giants that use frozen words like magical effects). That's also where the devourer, the rast, the ravid, and the salamander noble from the 3rd Edition Monster Manual first appeared (plenty of other monsters from that book appeared in the Fiend Folio, Monster Manual II, and Manual of the Planes).

The next bestiary I worked on was the 3rd Edition Monster Manual. As you probably know, those monsters are designed with functionality in mind. Each has a specific purpose in the game, but the entries are brief and to the point so we could get a lot of them in there.

Which brings us, finally, to Legacy of the Dragons. I bring all this up because I feel as though I've learned a lot about designing monsters. It's not just about the ideas, or how fun they are to read, or their functionality, but it's a synthesis of all these factors.

Not Just Another Monster
As I page through the galleys of Legacy of the Dragons, which I just finished doing today (inputting last-minute changes, catches the playtesters made, and doing general proofreading), I'm really happy with what we produced. It was fun to reread my coauthor Mike Mearls' monsters, in particular. Like me, Mike's not content to create yet another monster that has Improved Grab with its bite or has acid spittle. We've both been gaming for a long time and recognize that there are plenty of straightforward monsters out there.

It's apparent from his monsters that Mike likes to take a really new idea -- whether it is rules based or flavor based -- and build a monster around it. It's fun to take a concept, like, say, a monster that feeds on combat and strife, and figure out how to best represent that creature using the d20 rules. And, better yet, how to represent it best using the d20 rules so that it's also a really fun encounter. That's what I would say links all the creatures you'll find in Legacy of the Dragons: We took great care to make each one not only original, but also a lot of fun.

That, to me, is what being a game designer is all about.

It's fun to look at the finished pages of a book like this and see each monster beautifully illustrated. It's always cool to see what an artist produces for your book, but new monsters are the best. It's a creature that used to exist only in your mind's eye and now, here it is, the whole package: the write-up, the stats, and the artwork. If you haven't already seen it, take a look at this book's online art gallery.

DESIGN DIARY PAST ENTRIES

* Legacy of the Dragons: Context -- January 22, 2004
"Legacy of the Dragons is the product I'm working on now. Just finishing it up, actually. It's a bestiary to go along with Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed...."

* Chaositech Playtesting -- December 11, 2003
"Chaositech is one of those products that came directly out of my campaign. The concept was not meant originally to have anything to do with a product...."

* Campaign Paradigms -- October 30, 2003
"An important thing for all DMs to keep in mind is that once a campaign is up and running, the basic flavor -- the underpinnings of the whole campaign structure -- usually should not change...."

* Developing a New Subsystem -- October 2, 2003
"Probably one of the biggest challenges that faces a designer when working on a book like Chaositech is the delicate way that you have to institute a whole new subsystem...."

* On the Horizon: Chaositech -- September 11, 2003
"If you'll indulge me, I'm going to divert the Design Diary's contents to what I'm working on now: a book called Chaositech...."

* Magic Items in The Diamond Throne -- August 28, 2003
"Magic items in Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed and in The Diamond Throne sometimes require a little bit of thought on the DM's part. Using them isn't a problem..."

* A Look at the Land -- August 15, 2003
"This week I've prepared an excerpt from The Diamond Throne. As I've said previously, it was my design choice to spend most of the gazetteer portion of the book on the general aspects of the world..."

* Designing a World -- August 7, 2003
"I have mixed feelings about campaign settings. On one hand -- speaking as designer -- it's fun, challenging, and rewarding to create a whole world that's all your own...."

* Weapons and Armor -- July 17, 2003
"I absolutely love the introduction of exotic weapons into D&D. It's one of my favorite things about 3rd Edition. In Arcana Unearthed, I wanted to make sure that the exotic weapons were worth the feat required to use them...."

* Greenbond Notes -- June 26, 2003
"Last week's preview of the greenbond class gives a nice glimpse of a lot of Arcana Unearthed issues. First off, the greenbond is no druid...."

* Spell Templates -- June 12, 2003
"This week I thought I'd discuss an idea that I'm really very happy with. The idea is spell templates..."

* Playtesting -- June 5, 2003
"Playtesting is extremely important to me. When we developed 3rd Edition, we did more playtesting than perhaps any other RPG product, ever...."

* High Magic -- May 29, 2003
"I referred to the Diamond Throne as a high-magic setting. I should clarify..."

* The Diamond Throne -- May 23, 2003
"So it's about time I start talking about the Diamond Throne. The Diamond Throne is a campaign setting for Arcana Unearthed -- the default setting, like Greyhawk for D&D, I suppose...."

* Death's Door -- May 8 , 2003
" I like the D&D death's door rules. I like that at 0 hp, you're still up and can take a limited action, but then you exhaust yourself...."

* Hero Points -- May 1, 2003
"A roleplaying campaign can be like putting up wallpaper...."

* Truenames -- April 18, 2003
"Truenames are common in many fantasy settings. I think I first became aware of the concept in Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy..."

* Go, Go, Go! -- April 10, 2003
"Short entry this time. I hate spells with 1 minute/level durations...."

* Ceremony -- April 3, 2003
"I think I've already mentioned that one of the goals I set for myself with Arcana Unearthed was to make things a little less generic...."

* Things That Rules Take Away -- March 21, 2003
"There are aspects of fantasy roleplaying that rules, inadvertently, can actually take away...."

* Still Talking Classes -- March 13, 2003
"I've saved some of the best classes for last. Let's talk about the runethane, the mage blade, and the witch...."

* More Classes -- February 27, 2003
"This time, I want to tell you about some of the other classes: akashics, magisters, and greenbonds...."

* Build a Better Fighter -- February 23, 2003
"The title this week is facetious. It really should be 'build a different fighter'...."

* The Magic Balancing Act -- February 13, 2003
"In Arcana Unearthed I'm introducing a new method of magic item pricing. First, I streamlined the item creation feats..."

* More Magic -- January 23, 2003
"This week, I thought I'd talk more about the new magic system in Arcana Unearthed."

* Magic -- January 17, 2003
"As a designer, magic in Arcana Unearthed posed a huge challenge. I knew that I wanted to ditch the Vancian system...."

* Design Decisions, Part Two -- December 24, 2002
"Here's a bit more discussion of some of the general issues I faced as I began designing Arcana Unearthed...."

* Design Decisions, Part One -- December 19, 2002
"Before jumping into another big area of Arcana Unearthed's design, like classes or the magic system, I thought I'd discuss some of the general issues I faced as a designer starting the book...."

* Arcana Unearthed Races -- December 5, 2002
"I started with the races. While I knew that the game needed humans as a basis, I wanted all the other races to be new. I didn't want to just create dwarf and elf analogs with different names...."