New "A Monster for Every Season" - Winter (Vol. 4) - On sale now!

[The Giant]

Yes, I know Winter is over, but, uh...climate change?

It's time for the fourth volume of A Monster for Every Season, a comprehensive set of print-and-play miniatures covering a wide variety of monsters and adventurers for your D&D game. It's basically a PDF file with pages upon pages of new OOTS-style monster art that you can print, cut, fold, and tape before dropping them into your game. Each page looks like this:



And then when you're done assembling them, they look like this:



Also, every monster is included in both full color and toner-saving line art, so you can change the colors yourself:



The sets are loosely themed around the four seasons, and this is the fourth set we're putting out, Winter.

This set includes the following categories:

• 31 Air
• 39 Barbarians
• 14 Bugbears
• 38 Cold
• 15 Dinosaurs
• 11 Dragons
• 10 Dungeon Objects
• 27 Earth
• 6 Genies
• 15 Giants
• 15 Oozes
• 43 Rogues
• 28 Townfolk
• 43 Underfolk
• 57 Weird

For a full list of all the monsters, here's a helpful Content List to download. Future sets will include pretty much every major category of monster, once everything's said and done.

For more information, you can check out the product page, or you can read the FAQ that is coming up. Or just head over to Gumroad and check it out for yourself.


Frequently Asked Questions:

Purchasing

I can't figure out how to buy them!
You can get to the purchase page by clicking here, or on the big cover pictures above, or you can get to the Giant in the Playground profile page at Gumroad (which lists all the products we have on one page) by clicking here.

How do I get my PDFs?
You'll get an email with a download link a few minutes after ordering. Keep an eye on your spam folder, just in case.

I paid for the product but I didn't get an email to download it! What do I do?
The first thing to try is to go to your Library on Gumroad, at this link: https://gumroad.com/library You should be able to see everything you've bought from them, and you can just manually download the file. That only works if you have an account there, but if you bought it without one, you can just make a new account using the same email you used to buy it and it should show up in your Library retroactively. If that doesn't work, then you need to contact [email protected]. I don't have much control over Gumroad's technical side, since I don't own them or run their service, so your best bet is to talk to them directly.

What does the watermark look like?
It's on the first page (the cover), and it's a small grey ribbon-shape with the Gumroad "G" logo, next to which it says "Sold to" and then the email address that you gave when you purchased the book. So don't buy using your top secret email.

Why does it say there are two files?
Your purchase includes a full color version of every monster, and also a separate black-and-white line art version. These two sets are in separate files, so you'll get one file that has everything in color and one file that has everything in line art.

Why are you using Gumroad instead of (insert name of other company)?
Because they charge the lowest commission, which means I could lower the price more. Plus, most other companies that offer a watermark service add it to every single page, which seemed like overkill to me. One page is enough.

Contents

Does this set have every monster I would need to play? Does it have the entire contents of the Monster Manual?
No. Rather than sample every type of monster shallowly, each set attempts to be comprehensive for a limited set of categories. For example, this set includes 14 bugbears but no kobolds (which you can find in the Summer issue, which came out earlier this year). The goal is that by the time the project is over, the collected set will include pretty much every monster that has ever been released for the game, or at least an exhaustive selection thereof.

Is this useful for players, rather than just DMs?
Yes! Each set includes a few pages dedicated to two or more character classes, showcasing a variety of player-ready characters in all of the most common player races. This Winter set includes 39 different barbarians and 43 different rogues. Also, this set includes a wide selection of air and earth elementals for summoners, as well as dinosaurs and arctic animals to serve as mounts or animal companions. There are plenty of miniatures that would be useful even if you never ran an adventure yourself.

What are "underfolk"?
A catch-all category for several types of subterranean humanoids, including grey dwarves and deep gnomes.

What are "weird monsters"?
Aberrations, mostly, but also a handful of the odder magical beasts like the girallon or the bulette that didn't really fit into any other category.

Release Schedule

When will the rest of the seasons be coming out?
The first three seasons are already out; you can buy them here: Spring, Summer, and Autumn.

Will there be any more sets?
Yes! I plan to continue on with a second cycle of four seasons, probably in 2019 but maybe sooner, to cover the monsters and character classes I haven't drawn yet.

Why did you waste your time drawing 392 monsters instead of doing more comics?!?
These sets were originally part of the rewards for the Kickstarter project from 2012, so I had to draw them anyway. It took very little additional work to put them up for sale for anyone who didn't get the chance to pledge back then.

Is there going to be a comic today?
Yes. A little later.

Kickstarter Questions

Is this the same set that I got in two days ago as a Kickstarter backer?
Yes. The only difference is that this file uses the vector art that all the PDFs for sale have used, rather than rasterized art. The drawing style and contents are identical.

What are the new miniatures that weren't in the 2018 Kickstarter version?
None. There are no "bonus" miniatures this time.

I'm a Kickstarter backer and I never got my free copy of this!
You must have missed the update with the download link. You can probably try checking your spam folder to see if the email is still in there, since it was only released two days ago. Or you can download the file for free from your Kickstarter account by going to the pledge drive's page and looking for Update #81 from March 25, 2018. You'll need to be logged into your account in order to view that update.

I'm a Kickstarter backer and I got a discount code for the Spring set. Is there a discount for Kickstarter backers for this one, too?
No, because it is essentially the same file as you already got for free. The discount codes were to account for the fact that some backers would want the bonus miniatures but didn't want to pay again for miniatures they already owned. Since this set has no bonus miniatures, there's no need for a discount code.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or technical difficulties, feel free to post them here. You can also check out the thread for the Spring set or the Summer set, where your question might have been answered.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Woohoo! Bestest Easter present in years!

[Bastian Weaver]

Awesome and well worth the wait. I love the extra stuff like campfire and treasure chest and all the rest.

[some guy]

My favourite megafauna is in here (glyptodon!)! Thunderbird and behir are very cool looking (pun not intended, but not deleted).
I went in thinking "I hope the wendigo doesn't disapoint" and the wendigo might be just be the most unsettling thing Rich Burlew ever drew, so that's great.
A great set and a good reminder of how many weird creatures dnd has.

[Grey Watcher]

I'll admit it; I laughed out loud at the

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Invisible Stalker!

[ti'esar]

I'll admit it; I laughed out loud at the

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Invisible Stalker!

I lost it at this one.

Edit: A couple of other thoughts:

• For some reason I found the Minotaur Warrior having a labyrinth design on its shield to be really cool.
• I also found the Medusa Archer really cool, but there's a part of me going "are the snakes okay with this?"
• Anyone recognize any 'cameos' among the PC options, apart from those two barbarians?

[SSGW Priest]

So much goodness, these are awesome. The Warforged Barbarian was worthy a spit take until I saw the Halfling Barbarian with sharpened teeth, but the Derro Savant is hands down my favorite. Bravo good sir, bravo.

[Garwain]

I'll admit it; I laughed out loud at the

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Invisible Stalker!

Absolutely, the attention to detail is mindblowing!

[RabidEel]

The blue-haired rogue on page 39 is holding her dagger by the blade. Hope she's very careful with it.

[Unregistered]

Great stuff as always. I'm loving the dinosaurs!

[Lord Torath]

Is there a reason the Kickstarter version doesn't get the vector graphics treatment?

Edit: My kids love the yetis. So cute!

[hajo]

The first three seasons are already out;
you can buy them here: Spring, Summer, and Autumn.

The link for the autumn-set doesn't work.

[factotum]

The link for the autumn-set doesn't work.

It's missing an S, by the looks:

https://gumroad.com/l/amfesautumn#

[Lissou]

Set bought. It's amazing work as usual. I was delighted to see a behir, we encountered one recently with my party.

[Rogar Demonblud]

We just had a catoblepus last night, solely because I now had a miniature for it.

[Jay R]

These are slightly oversized compared to regular minis. Has anybody worked out how much to reduce them to make them work better with my other minis?

[Ionathus]

These are FANTASTIC! Thank you, Giant!

Two things I want to particularly highlight as wonderful on these:

1. The Rogues and Barbarians inclusion finally fulfills my need for nonmagical humanoid enemies. I'd been looking for a good mini for bandits, cutpurses, mercenaries, etc., and the Fighters from before helped, but the rogues especially have some good "subtle" images. Typical Class minis are all just a little too unique (which makes sense for use as PCs) to be good as generic humanoid mooks. I would absolutely be thankful for a future Legion sheet with more NPC enemies like the Guards page from before.

2. Townsfolk! Granted you don't usually need to depict townsfolk on a battle map, but it's great to have more "noncombatant" options. I find myself wanting more in this vein: maybe a few more sheets of generic dwarf, gnome, halfling, and other townsfolk?

Love every edition. Own them all. Looking forward to using them this week.

[The Aboleth]

Awesome work, as always! I also just bought the Spring set because I realized I had neglected to buy it sooner. I now own all the sets!

Quick question, Rich: Do you start by completing ALL the line art versions first and then color everything, or do you draw and color one (or multiple) monster(s) at a time, saving the line art and color versions as you move along? I'm just curious about your process in designing everything.

[brionl]

So, which set has the Chaos Giraffes?

[The Giant]

We just had a catoblepus last night, solely because I now had a miniature for it.

This makes it all worthwhile. Honestly, this is why I've been going more "in-depth" than covering the same monsters everyone else does. It's easy to find miniatures for skeletons, it's hard to find them for catoblepi.

1. The Rogues and Barbarians inclusion finally fulfills my need for nonmagical humanoid enemies. I'd been looking for a good mini for bandits, cutpurses, mercenaries, etc., and the Fighters from before helped, but the rogues especially have some good "subtle" images. Typical Class minis are all just a little too unique (which makes sense for use as PCs) to be good as generic humanoid mooks. I would absolutely be thankful for a future Legion sheet with more NPC enemies like the Guards page from before.

2. Townsfolk! Granted you don't usually need to depict townsfolk on a battle map, but it's great to have more "noncombatant" options. I find myself wanting more in this vein: maybe a few more sheets of generic dwarf, gnome, halfling, and other townsfolk?

Both of these requests are in the works, sort of. Spring 2 will have Bandits, a page of generic brigands, and other sets will have sheets of Elves or Dwarves or such, which will include elf and dwarf townfolk. And also, Winter 2 looks like it will have Castlefolk so you can have nobles and royalty and maybe an executioner.

Quick question, Rich: Do you start by completing ALL the line art versions first and then color everything, or do you draw and color one (or multiple) monster(s) at a time, saving the line art and color versions as you move along? I'm just curious about your process in designing everything.

I do all the color first, then I duplicate them and delete all the colors. Deleting the colors can be semi-automated, so I run them through an Illustrator script I made and then I go through and do the few things the script has trouble with.

[PopeLinus1]

Wait winters here already? I am so unprepared, can someone bring me some snacks for my marathon while I wield some swords to a chair?

[mbroooks]

I made an index for all four of the AMFES publications for my own use, and I thought other people might find it useful so here's the Google Doc link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13y3Eb-m5sIXOSETGBoVUf1mTP9UdsRD61wIkcf8Z1hk/edit?usp=sharing. People can suggest edits in case they notice I got something wrong.

I tried to be pretty complete to help future-me out, so things like Goblin Clerics are under Goblin Cleric but also Cleric, Goblin.

Hope this is useful for people!

[PaperPaladin]

Crossposting so this definitely gets seen:

Does FedEx and other printshops have your permission to print these out for us? My dad probably wouldn't want me emptying his color cartridge. :P

[The Giant]

Crossposting so this definitely gets seen:

Does FedEx and other printshops have your permission to print these out for us? My dad probably wouldn't want me emptying his color cartridge. :P

Yes, every page of every file includes the message, "You have permission to print this page for your personal use. All other rights reserved." That should be enough for most printing places.

[PaperPaladin]

Got it, thanks! Dunno why FedEx was such a stickler about it, guess they figured better-safe-than-sorry when it came to copyrighted materials.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Well, they probably decided that if it was for personal use, you'd use your personal printer. Or at least that's the attitude I've run into before.

[BrotherHanson]

I just bought this and the other sets for my DM. Our party is on a mission raise a small army and liberate some farmlands from bugbears and hobgoblins. So the "legion sheets" are a nice bonus!

[kabukiman1973]

I need a group of cultists. What are the most appropriate minis? The rogues?

[The Aboleth]

I need a group of cultists. What are the most appropriate minis? The rogues?

The Rogues would be a good fit. I'm away from my laptop right now but the Autumn AMFES had a lot of demon, devil, and undead-related stuff that may also be helpful to you.

[kostej]

With the recent OotS installments, special AMFES issue containing god avatars would be awesome...