A bite-sized podcast where tabletop game designers show us their favorite monster and we discover how it works, why it works, and what it means.
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Ol’ Chap Ettercap by Critical Crafting
D&D's ettercaps are clever humanoid spiders fond of traps - but stories grow in the telling, and Critical Crafting's monster became a god of...
Mörk Borg’s 7 Deadly Sins
Follow wherever you get your podcasts: RSS | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music | Breaker | Castbox | Castro.fm | Deezer |...
Atlas Animalia’s Shoebill Cockatrice Shows a Biodiversity of Monsters
Follow wherever you get your podcasts: RSS | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music | Breaker | Castbox | Castro.fm | Deezer |...
Ol’ Chap Ettercap by Critical Crafting
D&D's ettercaps are clever humanoid spiders fond of traps - but...
Mörk Borg’s 7 Deadly Sins
Follow wherever you get your podcasts: RSS | Spotify | Apple Podcasts...
Atlas Animalia’s Shoebill Cockatrice Shows a Biodiversity of Monsters
Follow wherever you get your podcasts: RSS | Spotify | Apple Podcasts...
Get monster stat blocks and more when you support the show:
Lucas Zellers, Host
Lucas Zellers is the host and producer of Making a Monster. He has been playing Dungeons & Dragons since 2015, and things like it all his life. He is a graduate student and freelance writer for independent games publishers like Mage Hand Press, Courtney Campbell, Saffron Quill, and many other creators on the DM’s Guild.
Lucas' Guest Appearances
- Book of Extinction on NPR: Can Dungeons & Dragons Help Save Endangered Species? | WYSO
- Episode 1, Jiangshi, on Live Thy Nerd: https://lovethynerd.com/jiangshi-lets-players-empathize-with-victims-of-systemic-racism/
- Dicegeeks appearance: https://www.dicegeeks.com/monster-first-tabletop-rpgs/
- House Sivis Echoer Station: Investigative journalist Thresher Cain on the Warforged Colossus
Out of Character episode on monster design - Dungeon Master’s Guild House: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfOHFm6tFv0&t=1587s
- Artfully Told: https://artfullytold.podbean.com/e/lucaszellers/
- Thinking Critically: https://www.thinkingcritically.co.uk/monster/
- Appendix N Book Club: House on the Borderland, 02/07/22
- Thinking Critically some more: https://www.thinkingcritically.co.uk/extinction/
- DiceGeeks on Extinction: https://www.dicegeeks.com/dnd-monster-manual-extinct-animals/
- KISU on Book of Extinction: https://www.kisu.org/2023-04-11/new-dungeons-dragons-inspired-book-brings-awareness-to-extinction-crisis
- Looking Under the Bed: Pan and Pyrenean
- Fossils and Fiction: https://youtu.be/lkOL9VnHsO0
- Confessions of a Game Master: Coming soon!
- Maryland Matters: Coming soon!