Dr Dhrolin's Dictionary of Dinosaurs is a sourcebook created for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition funded on Kickstarter in 2022 and released in December 2023. Framed as a summary of the life and times of time-travelling dwarven geologist/palaeontologist Dr. Reginald Dhrolin, it contains more than 50 new dinosaur stat blocks, 6 new races, new mechanics, settings, weapons etc. So far, so normal. What puts a different spin on things from most 5E sourcebooks featuring dinosaurs (official and unofficial) is that the book is written by palaeontologists Nathan Barling and Michael O'Sullivan, with art by renowned paleoartist Mark of Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy fame. The aim of the book is to highlight that dinosaurs are really cool without the trappings of the common media errors so they and the various other extinct animals featured in the book are portrayed as realistically as possible based off the most up to date science available at the time of publication. Each stat block contains a wealth of info on the animals biology, evolution and phylogeny; the abilities of each creature are tailored around what it would have been like in real life; and the book opens with an in depth overview of what paleontology is and how you get into the field. Upon release this realism made it a popular book not just amongst D&D players but dinosaur enthusiasts (a group which can be very vocal in how it responds to very fantastical or unrealistic portrayals of dinosaurs in fiction).
All that being said, it's also very clear that the authors are huge nerds and made sure there are A LOT of wild fantasy elements included to spice things up. Each creature has a set of optional magical rules that range from something as mundane as being able to mimic human voices to extremes like perpetually generating documentary-style background music accompanied by a soothing British voice; or a Spinosaurus with magical crystals embedded throughout its body. There are mutation tables that give your creatures (dinosaur or otherwise) bizarre special abilities, rules for taming dinosaurs, magical items like a blunderbuss that can shoot anything and 6 races of dinosaur people. The book is also full of shout outs to dinosaur media, fandom and some of the more well known quirks from paleontological history. For the more fantastical elements Witton's stunning paleoart is accompanied by pieces made by Annie Barling, the wife of one of the authors, whose style could be described as Beatrix Potter but badass.
You can find the book's webpage here
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This game contains examples of:
- Beware the Nice Ones: Pleuvens are a race of dromaeosaur people who are friendly and congenial 98% of the time. Then once or twice a month they engage in hunting rituals so violent and bloodthirsty it freaks out any non-Pleuven who sees it.
- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: The magical abilities of several dinosaurs make them more draconic from heightened intelligence to full-on breath weapons.
- Domesticated Dinosaurs: Dinosaurs are tamable through a feeding mechanic with some like Scelidosaurus highlighted as being particularly suitable.
- The Dreaded: Hatzegopteryx. It's a tyrannosaur sized flier that has a decent CR and a a big health pool. It hits like a truck and can remove players from action if they're swallowed. And if you're not fast enough in taking it down or if they're unlucky with their rolls to escape, said players can easily get carried off and digested. While the book doesn't include explicit adventure scenarios one example given is a level 5 party stuck on an island with this thing, with no way to beat it and who have to try and escape without being spotted.
- Feathered Fiend: Many of the dinosaurs are feathered and perfectly capable of ruining your day
- It Can Think: Largely avoided as most of the creatures are just animals but a handful such as the Ancient Tyrannosaurus have magical rules that give them humanoid levels of intelligence.
- Lizard Folk: All new races are an example of humanoid dinosaurs of various types.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Deinosuchus and Stomatosuchus are both giant crocodiles with big health pools and some nasty abilities. Somewhat subverted as neither is overly aggressive with Deinosuchus even being pacified by the locals who worship it as a god.
- Shout-Out: Unsurprisingly, the book references plenty of things found in both paleomedia and paleohistory.
- The entries for Velociraptor and Dilophosaurus reference the inaccuracies of their portrayal in Jurassic Park. While for Velociraptor it's just a paragraph overviewing the problems with the portrayal, Dilophosaurus has mechanics that make it so hateful of the idea it spat venom it resists projectile damage of any kind.
- Ubirajara has an ability that allows it to magically return to its home, referencing the controversy of the appropriation of Brazilian fossils.
- Big Al the Allosaurus of Walking with Dinosaurs fame is a featured character whose abilities heavily reference not just the real fossil but the show, up to having the shows soundtrack and narrator constantly playing in the background when she's around but only the players can hear.
- Iguanodon, Megalosaurus and Centrosaurus all have abilities based around famous misinterpretations of their fossils.
- Stock Dinosaurs: While a lot of the roster is filled with intentionally less well known animals it's got plenty of A and B tier species like Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus, Quetzalcoatlus or Velociraptor.
- Temper-Ceratops: Centrosaurus is relatively mild mannered when left alone and willing to fight to the death if perturbed.
- Terrifying Tyrannosaur: The Ancient Tyrannosaurus is an elderly rex who has grown to monstrous size. She's has survived battles against other megafauna and even possibly dragons, destroyed multiple settlements and her abilities range from terrifying any animal that sees her to a damaging roar that hits anything within a 200 foot range. Oh and depending on how you play her, she's also intelligent and can understand humanoid languages (although she still can't speak them).
