Draconomicon

Draconomicon
Author(s)	Nigel Findley, Christopher Kubasik, Carl Sargent, John Terra, and William Tracy
Genre(s)	Role-playing game
Publisher	TSR
Publication date	1990

The Draconomicon is an optional sourcebook for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, providing supplementary game material focusing on dragons. Different versions of the Draconomicon have been printed for different editions of Dungeons & Dragons. The book's name would loosely be translated to Book of Dragon Names as a reference to the Necronomicon.

2nd Edition

The 2nd edition Draconomicon, the first book for Dungeons & Dragons by this title, was designed by Nigel Findley, Christopher Kubasik, Carl Sargent, John Terra, and William Tracy and released in 1990 as a Forgotten Realms sourcebook.^[1] The book features cover art by Jeff Easley (uncredited), and interior illustrations by Brom, David Dorman, Keith Parkinson, Terry Dykstra, Fred Fields, Robin Raab, Valerie Valusek, and Karl Waller. It contains general reference information about dragons, geography in the Forgotten Realms relating to dragons, dragon psychology, advice on role-playing dragons, along with new dragon species, a "hall of fame" of important dragons, new magic for dragons, a "hunter's guide", and four short adventures featuring dragons.

The book was released again in 1999 by Wizards of the Coast with new cover artwork. Both editions of the book contain the same information but a Wizards of the Coast logo is included in latter.

3rd Edition

Draconomicon
Cover of Draconomicon
Author(s)	Andy Collins, Skip Williams, James Wyatt
Genre(s)	Role-playing game
Publisher	Wizards of the Coast
Publication date	November 2003
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	288
ISBN	0-7869-2884-0
OCLC Number	53447707
LC Classification	GV1469.62.D84 D836 2000

The 3rd edition version of the Draconomicon contains information about dragon physiology and psychology, along with new dragon-only feats, spells, and prestige classes. There are also additional rules regarding aerial combat and breath weapons. Players can find new feats, spells, magic items, and prestige classes for use against dragons in this book. There are various types of new dragons and dragon-related creatures, along with sample statistics blocks for dragons of all the chromatic and metallic varieties of all ages.^[2]

4th Edition

In 4th edition, the Draconomicon is the name of a series of books covering dragons.

The first book is Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons, released in November 2008.^[3] Written by Bruce R. Cordell, Ari Marmell, and Robert J. Schwalb, it is a 288 page hardcover that contains various information, including sample treasure hoards^[4] and monsters, including three types of true dragons new to 4th edition: brown, gray and purple dragons, known as desert, fang and deep dragons in earlier editions.^[5]

The second book, Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons, was written by Bruce R. Cordell and Ari Marmell and was released in November 2009.^[6] It introduced the new brass, bronze, cobalt, mercury, mithral, orium, and steel dragons.^{[7][dated info]}

Other uses

Draconomicon was also the name of a 1997 expansion pack for the Spellfire collectible card game. It was released shortly before the buyout of TSR, Inc. by Wizards of the Coast.

References

1. ^ Findley, Nigel, Christopher Kubasik, Carl Sargent, John Terra, and William Tracy. Draconomicon. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1990
2. ^ Colins, Andy, Skip Williams, and James Wyatt. Draconomicon: The Book of Dragons (Wizards of the Coast, 2003)
3. ^ Product page for Draconomicon I: Chromatic Dragons on the Wizards of the Coast website
4. ^ Excerpt from Draconomicon I: Chromatic Dragons on the Wizards of the Coast website.
5. ^ http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4spot/20081126
6. ^ Product page for Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons on the Wizards of the Coast website
7. ^ http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ex/20091102

Review: White Wolf #30 (1992)