Making Enemies

Monster Design Inspiration for Tabletop Roleplaying Games

Keith Ammann

$55

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

GALLERY BOOKS
16 December 2025

Role-playing, war games & fantasy sports; Indoor games; Stationery items; Dungeons & Dragons (D&D)

Series: The Monsters Know What They’re Doing

From the acclaimed author of the “must-have” (R.A. Salvatore, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Monsters Know What They’re Doing series, an indispensable and easy-to-follow new handbook for creating original enemies in tabletop role-playing games.

In The Monsters Know What They’re Doing, the essential tactics guide for Dungeon Masters, and its sequel, MOAR! Monsters Know What They’re Doing, Keith Ammann reverse-engineered hundreds of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons monsters to help DMs prepare battle plans for combat encounters before their game sessions.

Now, in Making Enemies, he explores everything that goes into creating monsters from the ground up: size, number, and level of challenge; monster habitats; monster motivations; monsters as metaphors; monsters and magic; the monstrous anatomy possessed by real-world organisms; and how to customize monsters for your own tabletop roleplaying game adventuring party to confront. No longer limited to one game system, Making Enemies shows you how to build out your creations not just for D&D 5E but also for Pathfinder 2E, Shadowdark, the Cypher System, and Call of Cthulhu 7E. Including interviews with some of the most brilliant names in RPG and creature design, Making Enemies gives you the tools to surprise and delight your players—and terrify their characters—again and again.

By: Keith Ammann
Imprint: GALLERY BOOKS
Country of Publication: United States
Volume: 5
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 38mm
Weight: 748g
ISBN: 9781668093344
ISBN 10: 1668093340
Series: The Monsters Know What They’re Doing
Pages: 592
Publication Date: 16 December 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Keith Ammann is an ENNIE Award–winning writer based in Chicago and has been a roleplaying gamer and gamemaster for more than thirty years. He likes to play outwardly abrasive helpers, out-of-their-element helpers, reluctant helpers, and genuinely nice, helpful helpers. Mostly, though, he plays non-player characters. And monsters.