# Unpublished "Ecology" Articles by Johnathan Richards



## Richards (Sep 1, 2020)

Over the years, I've posted a bunch of my rejected "Ecology" articles each as standalone Story Hour threads, with the thought that these were after all "D&D stories" if not traditional write-ups of D&D game sessions.  Some of them have become rather difficult to find, as many were originally posted quite a few years back.  So I thought I'd start up this thread as a central repository.

For those not in the know, back in the print days of the magazine, _Dragon_'s "Ecology" articles started out as short stories generally involving a group of D&D player characters encountering a specific monster and put game details about how to run the monster in a series of footnotes.  Eventually, after many years of doing it that way a new magazine editor decided to scrap the "fiction and footnote" format and make the articles just straight DM information, doing away with the fiction part entirely.  I had been the most frequent contributor to the series and in fact had six "Ecology" articles submitted that would have gotten published had the editorial reins not been passed to someone else with different views on the subject.

In any case, here are the ones I've posted thus far:

Monster Hunters
The Monster Hunters Association was a group of wizards and sages who gathered together to hunt various monsters for the specific purpose of making magic items out of their body parts.
The Ecology of the Gulguthydra​The Ecology of the Grick​The Ecology of the Death Kiss​The Ecology of the Umpleby​
Shandrilla and Javorik
A female human rogue, her male gnome illusionist companion, and his gnome fighter cousin spent more time exploring underground passageways than the rogue was entirely comfortable with.
The Ecology of the Chuul​The Ecology of the Destrachan​The Ecology of the Phasm​
Standalones (AD&D 2nd Edition)
The Ecology of the Elven Cat​The Ecology of the Giant Beaver​The Ecology of the Giant Sea Horse​The Ecology of the Giant Water Spider​The Ecology of the Kobold​The Ecology of the Marine Scrag​The Ecology of the Winter Wolf​
Standalones (D&D 3.0)
The Ecology of the Gray Render​
I've been thinking of possibly adding to the list above, both by unearthing some of my older rejected works from the AD&D days and actually writing new ones, now that my D&D campaigns are on hiatus due to COVID-19 and I need some way to get my D&D fix.  In fact, I had two specific "oddball" monsters I thought would make particularly appropriate additions to the Monster Hunters list....

Johnathan


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## Zaukrie (Sep 1, 2020)

This and the Demonicon were my two favorite Dragon series......LOVED your ecologies. You really should publish them and sell them.....And I certainly disagreed with the editor on that decision.


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## Richards (Sep 1, 2020)

Actually, it wasn't Erik Mona who did away with the fiction in the "Ecology" articles, it was Jesse Decker when he took over the editorial reins from Dave Gross.

As for publishing them, that's not really an option, given that many of the monsters (to include good old Ozzie the osquip) aren't part of the SRD and thus are out of bounds.  So I figure I'll just post them here where maybe somebody can get some good use out of them.

Johnathan


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## Zaukrie (Sep 1, 2020)

Richards said:


> Actually, it wasn't Erik Mona who did away with the fiction in the "Ecology" articles, it was Jesse Decker when he took over the editorial reins from Dave Gross.
> 
> As for publishing them, that's not really an option, given that many of the monsters (to include good old Ozzie the osquip) aren't part of the SRD and thus are out of bounds.  So I figure I'll just post them here where maybe somebody can get some good use out of them.
> 
> Johnathan




Yup, I edited that comment after reading up on it......I'll use them! I may even convert them to PDF and add them to your posts. We'll see....


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## Nthal (Sep 2, 2020)

Richards said:


> For those not in the know, back in the print days of the magazine, _Dragon_'s "Ecology" articles started out as short stories generally involving a group of D&D player characters encountering a specific monster and put game details about how to run the monster in a series of footnotes.




So, wow.  I have a lot of those physical magazine and I loved this series.  I am eager to dig into these gems.


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## Richards (Oct 10, 2020)

Edit: I just added a link to "The Ecology of the Giant Sea Horse," one of my first "Ecology" submissions back in the AD&D 2E days.

Johnathan


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## TheSword (Oct 10, 2020)

Did you write Ecology of the Osquip? I remember it as one of my favourite Dragon articles! Funny, interesting and full of good ideas.


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## Richards (Oct 10, 2020)

I did - that was the first of my Monster Hunters Association "Ecology" articles.  Dave Gross, at the time the editor of _Dragon_, liked the MHA and allowed me to use them again for numerous "sequel" articles.  While some of those dealt with somewhat serious monsters (like the dark naga, pseudodragon, and the purple worm), I usually pitted the Monster Hunters against some of the more "goofy" types, like the flumph, flail snail, and gorbel.

Johnathan


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## Richards (Oct 23, 2020)

I just added a link to a new Monster Hunters Association "Ecology" article I posted as a Story Hour thread: "The Ecology of the Umpleby."  This is the massive pile of walking hair that originally appeared in the AD&D 1st Edition _Fiend Folio_.

Johnathan


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## Quartz (Oct 29, 2020)

A quick note of continued appreciation.


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## Richards (Mar 30, 2021)

I just added a link to "The Ecology of the Phasm" in the first post in this thread, which picks up the storyline of Shandrilla, Javorik, and Federico, who had been left stranded in the Underdark at the end of their previous entry.  This one picks up where the last one left them.

Johnathan


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