Making a Monster

Dvati is a race option for D&D to play 2 characters at once. An extra-long bonus episode 20 years in the making, bringing together the original designer, the 5th edition homebrewer, and maybe the only person to play the Dvati in a long-running campaign.

"They're capricious little scrap robots, and I love them." The Wizmos from Dark Matter by Mage Hand Press are just doing the best they can, and it isn't very good.

What if the Kraken is too big to release? Niels RPG Toons uses cartoon-style fantasy art to tell vibrant, expressive stories, including one about a tentacle monster so big it's an ecosystem unto itself.

The Melusine legend has so many tails in our modern cultural heritage that you've probably seen her even if you didn't know her name - much like the work of a good spymaster. Designer Chris Hopper talks about bringing the Melusine to Dungeons & Dragons in the first episode of Making a Monster Season 2!

What happens when the monsters level up too? Matthew Whitby, host of the Dungeon Master's Guild House, shares a goblin with power enough to be more than a level 1 punching bag.

Steve and Rebecca from House Sivis Echoer Station, an unofficial Eberron podcast that put NPR in D&D, discuss the werepigeon, their show's running joke, and cultural attitudes about lycanthropy.

When the devil's payment is due, who comes to collect? Justice Arman shows us fiendish collection agents in this episode of Making a Monster.

After 3 weeks of moving, I have a lot of thoughts about haunted houses. Featuring previously-unreleased audio from guests Michael Sands, Robert Turk, and James Harrington, here's a quick bonus episode for you on the horror of place!

Two monsters from Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden - Malquaestus Pizkor, literal boss monster, and Saja Snowtooth, the winter hag. Ft. Sebastian Yue, Cassandra MacDonald, Michael Sands of Monster of the Week, Will Savino of Music d20, Adventure Music, and Justice Arman. Sponsored by Chilling Tales of the Whispering Wind, available now on the DM's Guild.

Lucas and Alex revisit Dagon, Lovecraft's first eldritch horror, to discover the Marianas Trench of origin stories.

Ashley Warren, lead writer for the Heckna carnival horror campaign setting, introduces us to Heckna himself, the post-human clown king of the Revelia.

Kyle Pointer, also known as user/ItsADnDMonsterNow, shares the most mechanically interesting monster he's made as Reddit's resident D&D graffiti artist - the music elemental.

A cosmic horror game set in World War I uses supernatural aberrations to reflect the human corruption of that period in history. Featuring Never Going Home's writer Irvin Jackson, artist Charles Ferguson Avery, and system designer Brandon Aten.

Alex Clippinger brings H.P. Lovecraft's first published monster, Dagon, to 5th edition D&D. We track how monsters become "dungeon and dragons-ed", and explore how game mechanics imitate the experience and intent of the cosmic horror genre.

Monster of the Week is the system that powers The Adventure Zone and Critshow. Designer Michael Sands talks about Marilynn, the improbable fairy creature who nearly derailed a playtest campaign, and the system's story-first approach to creating mysteries and monsters.

Forgotten Realms expert and best-selling DM's Guild creator Bryan Holmes brings a proper Illithid Lich to the show, and asks how much responsibility do we have to stop bad things before they happen.

Robert Turk's sci-fi survival horror game Starship Infernum offers a campy scenario featuring space leper nuns, letting players test the strength of their convictions and crack a few jokes along the way.

Somewhere in the Mournlands of Eberron, a weapon of mass destruction walks freely across the blighted wasteland. For players, the Warforged Colossus blurs the line between monster and environment - between dungeon and dragon.

Will you redeem the unredeemable? Anthony Joyce shares how the Heir of Orcus makes heroes and villains hard to distinguish in Dungeons & Dragons.

The Jiangshi, Chinese hopping vampires, in an RPG that addresses the racism and oppression of 1920s Chinatown - featuring Banana Chan of Game and a Curry.