The ''Draconomicon'' is the title for several optional sourcebooks for the ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

'' role-playing game, providing supplementary game mechanics for

dragons A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

specifically. Different ''Draconomicon'' books have been issued for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' game. The

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

-inspired name of the books loosely translates as "Book of Dragon Names".

2nd Edition

The ''Draconomicon'', the first book for ''Dungeons & Dragons'' by this title, was designed by

Nigel Findley Nigel D. Findley (July 22, 1959 – February 19, 1995) was a Canadian game designer, editor, and an author of science fiction and fantasy novels and role-playing games (RPGs). Biography Nigel Findley was born in Venezuela in 1959 to Canadian par ...

for the 2nd edition AD&D, with four adventures designed by

Christopher Kubasik Christopher Kubasik, also known as Chris Kubasik (born 1963), is an American author of several role-playing games, sourcebooks, adventures and fiction novels set in them, and has created his own TV series. Career Kubasik worked at FASA Corporat ...

Carl Sargent Carl Lynwood Sargent (11 December 1952 – 12 September 2018) was a British parapsychologist and author of several roleplaying game-based products and novels, who used the pen name Keith Martin to write ''Fighting Fantasy'' gamebooks. Early life ...

John Terra Johnny Henri Terwingen (born 21 June 1951 in Maasmechelen), better known as John Terra, is a Belgian singer and crooner mainly in Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes r ...

, and

William Tracy William Tracy (December 1, 1917 – June 18, 1967) was an American character actor. Early life and career Tracy was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is perhaps best known for the role of Pepi Katona, the delivery boy, in ''The Shop ...

. It was released in 1990 as a

Forgotten Realms ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as ...

sourcebook. The book features cover art by

Jeff Easley Jeff Easley (born 1954) is an oil painter who creates fantasy artwork for role-playing games, comics, and magazines, as well as non-fantasy commercial art. Early life Easley was born in Nicholasville, Kentucky in 1954. He spent time drawing as ...

(uncredited), and interior illustrations by Brom,

David Dorman David W. Dorman (born 1954) is an American Telecommunications executive and founding partner of Centerview Capital Technology Partners. Dorman is currently Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of CVS Health Corporation and serves on the boards ...

Keith Parkinson Keith A. Parkinson (October 22, 1958 – October 26, 2005) was an American fantasy artist and illustrator known for book covers and artwork for games such as ''EverQuest'', '' Guardians'', '' Magic: The Gathering'', and '' Vanguard: Saga of Hero ...

Terry Dykstra Terry Dykstra is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Works Terry Dykstra produced interior illustrations for many ''Dungeons & Dragons'' books and issues of '' Dragon'' magazine throughout the 1990s. Dykstra also illustrate ...

Fred Fields Fred Fields is an American artist whose work has appeared largely in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game from TSR. Biography Fred Fields was born in northern Kentucky. He grew up in the small town of Burlington, Kentucky. Fi ...

, Robin Raab,

Valerie Valusek Valerie A. Valusek is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. She is the sister of Jay E. Valusek, author of Museum of Voices: An Autobiographical Miscellany, where she is mentioned briefly. Works Valerie Valusek has produced i ...

, and

Karl Waller Karl Waller is an American artist whose work has appeared in comic books and roleplaying and collectible card games. Early life and education He graduated from the Pennsylvania School of Art in 1987, with a diploma in communication arts. Career ...

. Shannon Appelcline commented that of the changes to the Forgotten Realms publications in the early 1990s, "The biggest change was that the geographical setting books had faded away starting in the early '90s. They were replaced by a number of other lines. The "FOR" books instead looked at organization in the Realms — much like the splatbooks of White Wolf and others. They ran from ''FOR1: Draconomicon'' (1990) to ''Giantcraft'' (1995)." The book includes new dragons, among them steel, mercury, and yellow dragons. 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 Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

for dragons, a "hunter's guide", and four short adventures featuring dragons. The book was released again in 1999 by

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidia ...

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

The 3rd edition version of the ''Draconomicon'', named ''Draconomicon (The Book of Dragons)'' specifically, 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. The ''Draconomicon'' for 3rd edition D&D was designed by Andy Collins,

Skip Williams Ralph Williams, almost always referred to as Skip Williams, is an American game designer. He is married to Penny Williams, who is also involved with the games industry. He was the co-creator of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' 3rd Edition and the longtime au ...

, and

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...

, and published in November 2003. Cover art was by

Todd Lockwood Todd Wills Lockwood, (born July 9, 1957 in Boulder, Colorado, United States) is an American artist specializing in fantasy and science fiction illustration. He is best known for his work on the role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'', and for his ...

, with interior art by

Wayne England Wayne England (d. 9 February 2016) was an English artist whose work regularly appeared in role-playing games, wargaming rulebooks and magazines and was used on cards for collectible card games such as ''Magic: The Gathering''. He died on 9 Feb ...

, Emily Fiegenschuh, Lars Grant-West, Rebecca Guay-Mitchell,

David Hudnut David Hudnut is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Career His ''Dungeons & Dragons'' work includes the cover art for ''Heroes of Battle'' (2005), ''Heroes of Horror'' (2005), and the adventures '' Red Hand of Doom'' (2006), ...

Jeremy Jarvis Jeremy Jarvis is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Early life and education Jeremy Jarvis grew up in a small town in Alabama, and moved to New York City right after high school just before his eighteenth birthday. There, he ...

Ginger Kubic Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

John and Laura Lakey John and Laura Lakey are artists whose work have appeared in role-playing games. Biography John and Laura Lakey are a husband and wife team of illustrators.http://lakeystudios.com/ While each of them has produced solo artwork, they more commonly ...

, Todd Lockwood, David Martin, Dennis Crabapple-McClain, Matt Mitchell, Mark Nelson, Steve Prescott,

Vinod Rams Vinod Rams is an American artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Early life and education Vinod Rams attended the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. He did product design at the Franklin Mint in Philadelphia, Penn ...

Richard Sardinha Richard Sardinha is an American artist based in Providence, Rhode Island, whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Works Richard Sardinha has been illustrating books since the 1980s. He provided the art work for ''At Lovecraft's Grave'' (re ...

Ron Spencer Ron Spencer is an American illustrator whose most famous work has been for the collectible card game '' Magic: The Gathering''.Felt, Kevin (December 17, 2007). "Painter of 'Magic' cards inspiring random acts of kindness", ''San Gabriel Valley Tri ...

Stephen Tappin Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

, Joel Thomas, Ben Thompson, and

Sam Wood Samuel Grosvenor Wood (July 10, 1883 – September 22, 1949) was an American film director and producer who is best known for having directed such Hollywood hits as '' A Night at the Opera'', '' A Day at the Races'', '' Goodbye, Mr. Chips'', '' ...

. Andy Collins talks about the beginnings of the idea for this book: "I remember talking about this project as early as 2001 or so, during our regular "What are we going to write next?" meetings. At one point, it was tentatively slated as a full-blown coffee table book with only minimal game material. We eventually realized that that wasn't our strong point, but the notion that this book should be art-intensive stuck around."

4th Edition

In 4th edition D&D, the ''Draconomicon'' is the name of a two books covering dragons. The first book is ''Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons'', released in November 2008.Product page for ''Draconomicon I: Chromatic Dragons''
on the

website Written by Bruce R. Cordell, Logan Bonner,

Ari Marmell Ari Marmell is an American novelist and freelance role-playing game writer. Novels His first novel, ''Gehenna: The Final Night'', was published in 2004 by White Wolf Publishing. ''Agents of Artifice,'' a media tie-in novel set in the Magic: The ...

, and Robert J. Schwalb, it is a 288-page hardcover that contains various information, including sample treasure hoards 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. Cover art was by

, with interior art by Devon Caddy-Lee, Miguel Coimbra,

Eric Deschamps Eric Deschamps is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Career His ''Dungeons & Dragons'' work includes interior art for '' Sharn: City of Towers'' (2004), '' Explorer's Handbook'' (2005), ''Dragon Magic'' (2006), '' Complete M ...

Vincent Dutrait Vincent Dutrait (born 1976) is a French illustrator. He studied at the École Émile Cohl from 1994 to 1997, where he later taught between 1999 and 2003. Born in 1976 in Provence, he now lives with his wife in the north of Seoul, South Korea. ...

, Emily Fiegenschuh,

Tomás Giorello Tomás may refer to: * Tomás (given name) Tomás is a Spanish, Portuguese, and Irish (also in the archaic forms ''Thomaz'', ''Thomás'' and '' Tomaz'') given name equivalent of ''Thomas''. It may refer to: * Tomás de Anchorena (1783–1847), ...

, Lars Grant-West,

Warren Mahy Warren Mahy is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games and other fantasy works. Early life and education Warren was born in the small sea side town of Whakatane in New Zealand. He grew up surrounded by the wonders of the Pacific ...

Lee Moyer Lee Moyer is an People of the United States, American Painting, painter, illustrator, graphic designer, and web designer. Notable works include posters for musicians Tori Amos and Melissa Auf der Maur, as well as Laurel and Hardy paintings for t ...

, Andrew Murray, Steve Prescott,

, Tara Rueping, Rick Sardinha, Ron Spears,

, Joel Thomas,

Francis Tsai Francis Tsai (April 14, 1967 – April 23, 2015) was an American comic book artist, illustrator, author and conceptual artist. He was of Taiwanese and Japanese ancestry. Early life Tsai was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and raised in Lubbock, Te ...

Franz Vohwinkel Franz Vohwinkel (born 1964 in Munich, West Germany) is a German artist and illustrator whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Works Vohwinkel drew the cover art for the book ''Dataware'' (1998) for TSR's ''Alternity'' game, and illustra ...

Eva Widermann Eva Widermann (born June 6, 1978) is an illustrator and concept artist whose work appears in role-playing games. Education She went to the Scholastic of Graphic & Design, Munich. Career Widermann started her graphic design career in 1998 and wo ...

, and James Zhang. The second book, ''Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons'', was written by Bruce R. Cordell and

and was released in November 2009. It introduced the new cobalt, mercury, mithral, orium, and steel dragons. The front cover illustration is by

and the back cover illustration is by Chippy, with interior illustrations by

Dave Allsop Dave Allsop is a Scottish game designer and artist for role-playing games and video games. Career Dave Allsop developed the role-playing game ''SLA Industries'' (1993); the Scottish company Nightfall Games was founded solely to publish the game. ...

Kerem Beyit Kerem is a Turkish male given name of Arabic origin, for males and it means vineyard, nobility and generosity. People named Kerem include: * Kerem Bulut, Turkish-Australian footballer * Kerem Demirbay, Turkish-German footballer * Kerem Gönlüm ...

, Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai, Chippy,

, Jason A. Engle,

, Lars Grant-West, Ralph Horsley,

Howard Lyon Howard Lyon is an American fantasy artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games and '' Magic: the Gathering''. Early life and education Howard Lyon was born in Mesa, Arizona and studied illustration at Brigham Young University (BYU) work ...

, William O'Connor,

Chris Seaman Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, Christine, and Christos. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name *Chris Abani (born 1966), Nige ...

, and

Other uses

''Draconomicon'' was also the name of a 1997

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game or collectible card game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, characters, or ...

for the

Spellfire ''Spellfire: Master the Magic'' is an out-of-print collectible card game (CCG) created by TSR, Inc. and based on their popular ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role playing game. The game appeared first in April 1994, shortly after the introduction of ...

collectible card game. It was released shortly before the buyout of

TSR, Inc. TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Gygax had bee ...

Reception

John Setzer reviewed the original ''Draconomicon'' in the February 1992 issue of ''

White Wolf Magazine ''White Wolf'' is a game magazine that was published by White Wolf Publishing from 1986 to 1995. History While still in high school, Stewart Wieck and Steve Wieck decided to self-publish their own magazine, and Steve chose the name "White Wolf" ...

''. He stated that "all in all, this book is a must if you play in the Forgotten Realms", noting that it would be useful for any

AD&D In insurance, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) is a policy that pays benefits to the beneficiary if the cause of death is an accident. This is a limited form of life insurance which is generally less expensive, or in some cases is an add ...

player and worth a look for anyone who likes dragons. Overall, he rated it a 4 out of a possible 5.

Rick Swan Rick Swan is a game designer and author who worked for TSR. His work for TSR, mostly for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, appeared from 1989 to 1995. Swan also wrote ''The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games'' (1990), published by St. Martin's Pr ...

reviewed the original ''Draconomicon'' for '' Dragon'' magazine #180 (April 1992). He calls the book an "entertaining collection of draconic odds and ends". According to Swan, "The fanciful essays discussing behavior and customs ..makes for a delightful read, while the

Spelljammer ''Spelljammer'' is a campaign setting originally published for the ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' (2nd edition) role-playing game, which features a fantastic (as opposed to scientific) outer space environment. Subsequent editions have included ' ...

material clears up a few questions about dragons in space. Less successful are the adventures, four rather routine excursions that feature promising plots but suffer from a lack of development; one or two longer adventures would have been preferable to four short ones." The reviewer from ''

Pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

'' commented on the third edition ''Draconomicon'': "Rather than see the dragon as the huge pile of hit points standing between you and a big pile of treasure, the writers try to flesh out these magnificent beasts. The book treats them as characters first and foremost, participants in the story, and in fact there are guidelines for using them as PCs, NPCs, forces of nature, or just the stuff of legend that dominates an area's history. They can be friend or foe, mentors, or part of the party." Viktor Coble listed ''Draconomicon'' as #4 on '' CBR'''s 2021 "D&D: 10 Best Supplemental Handbooks" list, stating that "It's such a fun read that it feels less like a part of a game and more like a fantasy novel. What's the most fun is how there are tables for the language of dragons, giving an even deeper layer to one of the game's namesakes."

Reviews

* '' Casus Belli'' #84 (Dec 1994)

References

{{D&D topics 1990 books 2003 books Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks Forgotten Realms sourcebooks Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1990