Use DND To Teach Biology and Conservationism With This Monster Manual
This DND monster manual teaches real biology, history, and conservationism
Teachers, parents, and others are wondering how to teach biology in a fun way. The game of Dungeons & Dragons has already been used to teach social emotional learning, sign language, history, and more. Why not use D&D to teach biology and conservation? Mage Hand Press, creator of custom D&D content, teamed up with the Center for Biological Diversity, scientific advocate of endangered species, to create a totally unique monster manual. In this book, you won’t find orcs, goblins, or kobolds. Instead, each “monster” is inspired by a real-world extinct animal. The Book of Extinction has two versions for each entry. One is the actual creature from our world: its history, biology, and the circumstances leading to its extinction. That creature inspires the other: a magical creature with lore and abilities suited to the world of D&D. As a team of educators, parents, therapists, and youth workers bringing D&D to young players, we’re always looking out for awesome D&D resources for teachers, and we fell in love with this one immediately. We got to chat with Lucas Zellers, the lead writer for the Book of Extinction, about his journey from D&D player to honorary conservationist and are excited to share it with you!
PS—This is not a sponsored post/ We won’t earn anything if you check out the Book of Extinction. We just think it’s neat!
How It All Started
In our humble opinion, the Making A Monster podcast would be a hit in a DND after school program
Lucas wasn’t thinking about the educational benefits of Dungeons & Dragons when he started playing back in 2015. He just knew it was a place where he belonged. “Everything has a home in the context of D&D,” said Lucas, “A theater kid with no theater, let me introduce you to heavy emotional traumatic improv on a Tuesday night with your friends….I fell in love with it.” From there, he applied his creative background to the game as a Dungeon Master, crafting, and eventually publishing, his own dungeon in 2018. “It was intoxicating in a way. It sort of made me realize that there could be a future in this.”
In 2020, when we all were searching for something (anything!) to do with other people, Lucas harnessed that energy into his own podcast, Making a Monster. In each episode, a tabletop game designer shares their favorite monster (from any tabletop RPG), and they talk about how and why it works. “I discovered how deeply people can and do think about the monsters in their games, the symbolism that entails, and the portals to culture and history and language and storytelling that that offers,” said Lucas. Inspired by these conversations and impassioned by conservationism, he envisioned a book that would inspire players to learn about the natural world, tell new and unique stories, and spark curiosity and exploration. “Now this is, without exaggeration, my career,” said Lucas, “I couldn’t be happier.”
D&D, Biology, and Conservation: A Natural Fit?
Creatures like the Pinta Island Giant Tortoise inspired amazing magical counterparts in the Book of Extinction
After the success of Making a Monster, Lucas knew that he wanted to create a D&D monster manual. And in a growing sea of D&D content covering everything from dinosaurs to Arthurian legends, there hadn’t yet been a serious attempt to add conservation literature to D&D. Not only that, but a list of species, especially extinct ones, naturally lent itself to a monster-manual-style book. It was perfect. “Every edition [of D&D] going back to the 1980s has had a Monster Manual book—no different to an illustrated field guide, but with magical creatures. We’re simply bringing the idea full circle with a bestiary of real, once-living animals,” said publisher Mage Hand Press.
But illustrated books aren’t the only thing they have in common; both the natural world and the world of D&D inspire their residents to explore. “I have been asked ‘Why did you use this system when so much of it is built on swinging swords and killing monsters and taking their stuff?’. And the answer to that is because that was the attitude toward the natural world for a very long time,” said Lucas, “D&D is about exploration, discovery, and putting yourself in dangerous situations in order to find something valuable. And if that’s not the history of the Age of Exploration, then I don’t know what is.” He points out that Appendix N, the list of inspirations for the original Dungeons & Dragons, intersects with our own world's history in a way that makes these connections clear. These authors, from J.R.R. Tolkien to H.P. Lovecraft to Robert E. Howard, all wrote and lived in a world that their cultures were just beginning to more fully discover. The attitudes of the time – curiosity, discovery, and, yes, even extraction and power – influenced these works, which, in turn, influenced the structure and theming of Dungeons & Dragons. “I was shocked that no one seemed to have connected [conservation and D&D] before in this way,” said Lucas.
But his hope is that, in a game where the obvious choice is destruction (“If it has hit points, you can kill it.”), players will consider what it means to take another path. The Book of Extinction not only brings compelling creatures to the world of D&D, but it preemptively puts them in the category of endangered, giving players a choice between destroying these creatures and looting them for parts and protecting them to preserve the wonder of the natural world. Mage Hand Press’ official release put it best. “In roleplaying games, there are always more goblins, there is always another owlbear. This is not the case in the real world. However, the way we tell our stories changes the way we perceive the world, and perhaps, with this book in hand, players and Game Masters alike will develop a new appreciation for our natural world and decide to help to save the species we have left. We can only hope to arm them with inspiration and stories — the most powerful tools we can bring to bear.”
Selecting Species For This Educator D&D Resource
The real-world legend of the Okuri-okami is the perfect example of using DND to teach history and mythology
To decide on a list of species, Lucas started with the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s “Red List” of 169,000 extinct and endangered species – far too many to adapt into the book. “The criteria we used for which ones to keep were specifically anthropogenic [human-caused] extinctions,” said Lucas, “The point there is not that we’re the worst or humans are the virus. The point is, we made a choice, and we can make a different one.” He did historical research, got player feedback, and talked with game designers and conservationists, eventually landing on a list of about 80 creatures with iconic and impactful legacies. As a gamer, he also looked for creatures that would prompt the players to act. “We call that the ‘powder keg principle’,” said Lucas, “If this monster isn't a powder keg ready to blow, then we didn't put it in the book or we worked it until it became such.” They settled on a diverse list, including icons like the Dodo and Saber-Toothed Tiger, gargantuans like the Mammoth and Dire Wolf, and, and just-plain-fun species like the Quagga and Rabbs’ Fringe-Limbed Tree Frog.
We asked Lucas his favorite, and told us without missing a beat. It’s Mohoidae, a Hawaiian family of songbirds that only became extinct in the last 50 years – the first modern extinction of an entire avian family. These black-and-yellow birds were a symbol of Hawaiian nobility. Indigenous Hawaiians treasured Mohoidae feathers for generations, stitching them together into mantles and scepters to honor their rulers. “These are some of the most tragic and emotional and impactful stories that we could find. They truly tore me up. So, for all of those reasons, they became our dragons.” Unlike the official D&D dragons, who have scales based on colors, metals, and gems, the Mohoidae dragons grow feathers that they release and control in a powerful area of effect. Instead of hoarding gold, they hoard words: jokes, riddles, names, last words, or dying breaths. And instead of the power of the elements, these dragons have the power of song. “The Wrath dragon has a song of rage. The Pride dragon has a crown song, and the Despair Dragon, my personal favorite, has a gloom song. D&D makes emotions mechanical; there's a mechanical impact to being frightened and charmed and asleep or enthralled. So we were able to capture the stages of grief in quite literal terms.”
But facing down particular animals is not the only way to engage with the creatures in this book; even without appearing in-game, each has an impact on the lore of the world they’re played in. For example, one of the player characters in Lucas’ games was raised by wolves (a fantasy-backstory staple). When he heard this, Lucas pointed the player to the entry for the Japanese Wolf in the Book of Extinction. The fantasy version of this creature was easy, adapted from the Japanese folklore of the yōkai known as Okuri-inu or Okuri-okami. Unlike the dominating loners of wolves in American imaginations, the Okuri-okami are ghostly guardians: closer to a shepherding protector than a dangerous maverick. After he showed the player this alternate vision of a wolf, there was a shift. “I saw him get real quiet and kind of sit with that idea for a while and sort of reorient his character’s attitude about the creatures that had raised him,” said Lucas. To him, this was a sign that he had achieved his goal in crafting the fantasy version. “The idea was to bring you a creature that was going to fundamentally reorder your attitude about the animal it represented and I saw it happen,” he said, “That's what we do. That's the whole game.”
Researchers and Educators Guide This D&D Monster Manual
Teaching with DND 5e is easy when you’re trying to get students interested in extinct species and their histories - just add magic and mystery!
Between the folklore, the history, and the science of each of these creatures, there was a lot for Lucas to learn. “I did what any good journalist does, and I called an expert,” he said, “I was calling around to conservation organizations and environmental-advocacy organizations and just good people who were doing good science.” For example, he got to interview Dr. Heather Lerner, director of the Joseph Moore Museum and professor of Biology and Museum Studies. From Dr. Lerner’s expertise, Lucas learned about the ways ancient DNA samples are retrieved and analyzed – and how these discoveries have changed classification, taxonomy, and archeology.
But perhaps the biggest scientific contributor to this project was Tierra Curry. “She's a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity and the director of the Saving Life on Earth campaign, whose goal is to end extinction in our lifetime. She's also one of my personal heroes,” said Lucas. Tierra became the science consultant for the Book of Extinction and an essential partner in creating what the book would become. “I would send her every entry I finished as they were completed so that she could check my facts, and she would come back with best practices for communication, like ending with implications and hope for the future and what that means. That was something I didn't intuit immediately and something that made the book a thousand times better. She would clarify specific language, statistics, and historical events….She was able to send me research papers that I had missed or otherwise wouldn't have access to and build up that list of primary and firsthand sources that the book is built on.” That list became the endnotes chapter, the only one of its kind in the world of D&D supplements. Tierra’s expertise and insight also gave Lucas direction for the thematic weight of the book, the unintuitive-but-real connections between hunting and conservation, and the ways attitudes about abundance have changed throughout history. By the time the book was complete, she estimated it was the most complete and concise body of literature on some of these extinct species. “Always, always take the opportunity to ask people about their work. You'll get more information than you thought you could. They'll welcome you with open arms,” said Lucas, “It has changed the course of my life. I'm here having done what I've done through the generosity of total strangers who just wanted me to be a part of their work.”
The Last Owlbear: A D&D Adventure For Schools And More
This adventure is already being used in DND after school clubs, podcasts, and more
Lucas wanted to use D&D to inspire adventures and conversations about conservation and the natural world. Mage Hand Press wanted to give potential players something immediately usable and accessible. With these goals in mind, Lucas wrote his own D&D adventure: The Last Owlbear. “The reason it’s ‘The Last Owlbear’ is because, number one, if you’ve heard the word ‘owlbear,’ you know what an owlbear is, so there’s no barrier to entry here. It’s not like a ‘D&D thing’ that only ‘D&D people’ understand. Second, people love owlbears. They’re adorable, and everybody’s like ‘If not friend, why friend shaped?’ So we got to be the guys who killed it.”
True to its name, this adventure is set in a world where owlbears have been hunted into extinction. In it, the party must capture, transport, and defend the last remaining owlbear. The adventure exemplifies the parallels between the structure of D&D quests and the goals of conservation: both involve a situation that “demands that you go and do something about it,” a thing of value to retrieve, and a clever solution to a desperate problem. “Design like this is very much in the spirit of a dungeon,” says Lucas, who ran the adventure himself for a small group of players. It ended up inspiring exactly the kind of curiosity and discussion that he imagined. “We got to talk about hope and despair, and what we want out of the world, and what we owe to the natural world, and what it owes us, and what are the solutions to these problems that actually exist and could work and don't work.” Asking questions like that is education – and D&D – at its best.
How Educators Are Teaching Biology In D&D After School Clubs
This brilliant Shrimp Fairy illustration by Lucas Ferreira CM exemplifies how compelling and fun these creatures can be
The power of this book isn’t only in its storytelling potential, but the ways it spurs the visual imagination. Each and every species, mundane and magical, has its own illustration. For some species, this might be the most meaningful image to represent them; many went extinct before they could be photographed or properly illustrated in their time. “That’s a gift to educators and conservationists, and it’s one of the ones that D&D, and Mage Hand Press in particular, was very suited to give,” said Lucas. Mage Hand Press commissioned several artists, including Augustín Marceillac and Lucas Ferreira CM, for the book’s art. The writer’s favorite comes from an unlikely (and tiny) source: the Florida Fairy Shrimp. “It was a brine shrimp barely over an inch long. If you've had a sea monkey, that's also a brine shrimp. So, in many respects, entirely unremarkable,” said Lucas (Sellers). He needed a striking visual to make it remarkable. One fateful night, it hit him, and he shot up of bed to send the artist this brief: a humanoid shrimp creature who performs modern dance as a storyteller – The Shrimp Fairy. “That’s an incredibly difficult brief to give to any artist. ‘Give me something with 8 limbs and a tail, and then do Cirque du Soleil. And he nailed it.” This illustration – and the many others in the Book of Extinction – bring these creatures back to life.
To Lucas’ delight, teachers started using both the Book of Extinction and The Last Owlbear for after school D&D clubs. “This really tickles the brain of a very particular kind of D&D nerd, and very often those are the people who have teaching jobs,” said Lucas, “It’s thriving in after school clubs.” Teachers say running the adventure, unlike more traditional fare like Tomb of Annihilation or Storm King’s Thunder, for after school clubs prompts conversations about conservation, invites a different kind of problem-solving approach, and is overall a more effective way to adapt D&D to the classroom than a traditional homeroom-style setting. And the book itself can serve as both a reference for curious learners to browse and the starting point for D&D adventures to prompt discussion about the natural world and the impact we have on it. “This is something that I think everybody should learn, especially students,” said Lucas.
Play Like Kids, Let Kids Play
This druid riding a dinosaur is a great addition to any DND educators kit!
When we saw this book, we were so excited for the potential it held for young people, especially the kind of young people we see all the time: geek-minded D&D players who fixate on their favorite subjects and love learning more about them. Lucas was one of those tweens, as he admits while discussing the New-Zealand myth of Hakawai, a bird that falls from the heavens with lightning in its wings. “Yes, I would have been super into that when I was 12 years old. But this myth was created for the largest eagle in recorded history, which I also would have been super into at 12,” said Lucas. He hopes this book brings imagination, discovery, and joy for players of all ages. "Young players especially ask great questions. They're not ashamed of those questions. I strive as a person to maintain a childlike wonder that asks good questions. I hope that this book will remind you of what childlike wonder looks like for both the world that you live in, and the world that you imagine, and I truly believe that it will let you ask and answer childishly good questions." We couldn’t possibly put it better than that.
If you know a tween or teen who loves the nerdy worlds of science and gaming, we can bet they’d have a great time in our games. We run online D&D games with professional Dungeon Masters accustomed to working with youth – and who incorporate players' interests, pop-culture influences and awesome supplements like this one into custom-made games for each group. Learn more about our games by clicking the button below, and, while you’re at it, check out the Book of Extinction to see what this epic scientific monster manual is all about!
