Extinct animals resurrected
for the world’s greatest role-playing game
Wildness is vanishing; you can save it.
The Book of Extinction is a bestiary of extinct animals with game statistics as fantasy monsters, alongside the stranger-than-fiction true stories of their real-world extinction.
The biodiversity of our natural world has created the history, folklore, and mythology that power fantasy stories. We are at risk of losing them as the earth’s sixth mass extinction accelerates, with more species likely to disappear in the next 20 years than in the last century alone.
The first three monsters are available as a preview featuring the ghost tiger of Tasmania (thylacine), the feathered tide that made America (passenger pigeon), and the ocean master of an exploding island (great auk).
Pay what you want, and every penny will go to support the Center for Biological Diversity as they work to preserve endangered species and habitats.
The full book is coming to Kickstarter in fall 2022, and includes fascinating and heartwarming stories like the Pyrenean ibex, Carolina parakeet, Yangtze river dolphin, and, of course, the dodo.
Praise for The Book of Extinction
By you caring about it, that’s really the solution. We have the opportunity to make the change, but it takes all of us to do that. Extinction is depressing, but it has a solution and that solution is us.
– Steve Sullivan, Director, Hefner Museum of Natural History at Miami University
The ghost tiger hits all the right notes of this slightly ghostly, slightly hidden creature that does supposedly still exist in some areas of Tasmania. I think that’s really good, honestly.
– Jeremy Vine, Professional DM in Melbourne, Australia
You really don’t know how excited I am about it, because it’s a passionate and driven and resourceful community. I can just see this community running with this, that could be the tipping point – extinction ends here!
– Tierra Curry, Senior Scientist at The Center for Biological Diversity
The ghost tiger hits all the right notes of this slightly ghostly, slightly hidden creature that does supposedly still exist in some areas of Tasmania. I think that’s really good, honestly.
By you caring about it, that’s really the solution. We have the opportunity to make the change, but it takes all of us to do that. Extinction is depressing, but it has a solution and that solution is us.
You really don’t know how excited I am about it, because it’s a passionate and driven and resourceful community. I can just see this community running with this, that could be the tipping point – extinction ends here!
Media
World at Large, Can Dungeons & Dragons Help Save Biodiversity Through Storytelling/Gaming?
Nerdist, Extinct Animals Come Back to Life in DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
Press Release: New Dungeons & Dragons Book to Support Endangered Species Protection – Center for Biological Diversity
Press Release: “Extinct animals returning to life through Dungeons & Dragons“
Project Milestones
We have a few milestones to reach over the next year as we bring The Book of Extinction to life:
- Finalize the details of The Book of Extinction conservation grant
- Finish the official cover and logo design
- Write new monsters based on extinct animals like the Pyrenean ibex and Carolina parakeet
- Share these monsters with you through episodes of the companion podcast “Making a Monster: Extinction”
- Donate all proceeds from the first three monsters to The Center for Biological Diversity to support their work preserving biodiversity and vanishing habitat
- Launch the Kickstarter campaign for the full, physical book in 2022!
We’ll share each milestone with you as we reach it.
How to Get Involved
Here’s how you can get involved:
- Put these monsters in your game! Telling the stories of these animals lets you talk about conservation and the climate crisis in a constructive, interesting way.
- Share the project with your friends on social media. Use #BookofExtinction on Twitter and Instagram and tag the team @SparkOtter and @MageHandPress.
- Support conservation in your neighborhood through The Center for Biological Diversity or citizen science projects like iNaturalist and Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count.
Listen to the companion podcast
Making a Monster: Extinction
The truth is stranger than fiction.
Learn more about history, game design, and conservation as we make fantasy lore out of real-life stories: fossilized cyclops remains, the natural history of the griffin, and the housecat who killed an entire species, just for a start!
Guest Experts
- Steve Sullivan, Director of the Hefner Museum of Natural History
- Stan Rachootin, Professor of Biological Sciences at Mount Holyoke University (appearing courtesy of the Beneski Museum of Natural History)
- Ben Gilsdorf, birdwatcher
- Kieran Suckling, founder and Executive Director at the Center for Biological Diversity
- Tierra Curry, Senior Scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity
Host
Lucas Zellers is the host/producer of Making a Monster, and the author of Book of Extinction. He’s been a professional and semi-professional designer for 5th Edition D&D for four years now. Ask him about octopuses sometime.
