What are the official abbreviations or short forms of the titles of 3rd edition of the D&D books? There appear to be a few different styles or forms online.
Asked
Active
Viewed 2,385 times
8
-
1(Abbreviations for each book are also listed parenthetically after each title in this answer.) – Hey I Can Chan Mar 24 '20 at 14:31
2 Answers
12
The Consolidated Lists published by WotC include an extensive list of officially defined abbreviations all in one place:
Product Key
AE Arms and Equipment Guide
BFK Barrow of the Forgotten King
BB Bastion of Broken Souls
BC Book of Challenges: Dungeon Rooms, Puzzles, and Traps
BE Book of Exalted Deeds
BV Book of Vile Darkness
CR Champions of Ruin
CV Champions of Valor
CiP City of Peril
CSW City of Splendors: Waterdeep
CSQ City of the Spider Queen
Ci Cityscape
CAd Complete Adventurer
CAr Complete Arcane
CC Complete Champion
CD Complete Divine
CM Complete Mage
CP Complete Psionic
CS Complete Scoundrel
CW Complete Warrior
Co Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave
DG D&D Gazetteer
DH Deep Horizon
DF Defenders of the Faith: A Guidebook to Clerics and Paladins
DD Deities and Demigods
Dr Draconomicon
DM Dragon Magic
Dra Dragonmarked
DCS Dragonlance Campaign Setting
DrF Dragons of Faerûn
DrU Drow of the Underdark
DMG Dungeon Master's Guide v.3.5
DMG2 Dungeon Master's Guide II
Du Dungeonscape
ECS Eberron Campaign Setting
EA Enemies and Allies
EL Epic Level Handbook
EE Exemplars of Evil
XPH Expanded Psionics Handbook
Rav Expedition to Castle Ravenloft
EDP Expedition to the Demonweb Pits
ERG Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk
EU Expedition to Undermountain
EH Explorer's Handbook
ELQ Eyes of the Lich Queen
FP Faiths & Pantheons
FE Faiths of Eberron
FLFD Fantastic Locations: Fane of the Drow
FLFR Fantastic Locations: Fields of Ruin
FLHP Fantastic Locations: Hellspike Prison
FF Fiend Folio
FCI Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss
FCI Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells
Fo Forge of Fury, The
FW Forge of War, The
FRCS Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
FY Fortress of the Yuan-Ti
Fr Frostburn
Gh Ghostwalk
GHR Grand History of the Realms
GC Grasp of the Emerald Claw
HN Heart of Nightfang Spire
HBG Hero Builder's Guidebook
HB Heroes of Battle
HH Heroes of Horror
LM Libris Mortis: The Book of the Dead
LG Living Greyhawk Gazetteer
LF Lord of the Iron Fortress
LD Lords of Darkness
LoM Lords of Madness
LE Lost Empires of Faerûn
MIC Magic Item Compendium
MoE Magic of Eberron
Mag Magic of Faerûn
MoI Magic of Incarnum
MP Manual of the Planes
MW Masters of the Wild: A Guidebook to Barbarians, Druids, and Rangers
MH Miniatures Handbook
Mon Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn
MM5 Monster Manual V
MM4 Monster Manual IV
MM3 Monster Manual III
MM2 Monster Manual II
MM Monster Manual v.3.5
Mys Mysteries of the Moonsea
OA Oriental Adventures
PlH Planar Handbook
PE Player's Guide to Eberron
PG Player's Guide to Faerûn
PH Player's Handbook v.3.5
PH2 Player's Handbook II
PF Power of Faerûn
RD Races of Destiny
RE Races of Eberron
Rac Races of Faerûn
RS Races of Stone
RDr Races of the Dragon
RW Races of the Wild
RH Red Hand of Doom
RT Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
Sa Sandstorm
SS Savage Species
SoS Secrets of Sarlona
SX Secrets of Xen'drik
SK Serpent Kingdoms
SSL Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land
SL Shadows of the Last War
Sh Sharn: City of Towers
ShG The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde
ShS Shining South
SM Silver Marches
SiS Sinister Spire, The
SaS Song and Silence: A Guidebook to Bards and Rogues
SG Sons of Gruumsh
SD Speaker in Dreams, The
StS Standing Stone, The
Sto Stormwrack
SB Stronghold Builder's Guidebook
SC Sunless Citadel, The
SpC Spell Compendium
SF Sword and Fist: A Guidebook to Monks and Fighters
TB Tome and Blood: A Guidebook to Wizards and Sorcerers
ToB Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords
TM Tome of Magic
Una Unapproachable East
Und Underdark
UA Unearthed Arcana
VGD Voyage of the Golden Dragon
WB Whispers of the Vampire's Blade
Not all communities or sites use the correct official designations, having developed their own short forms, so please be aware of that fact in your communications.
-
1Your table alignment isn’t quite perfect there. I tried replacing this with LaTeX, but apparently it’s too long, overwhelms the MathJax buffer. It may also be worth noting that these are not the most commonly-used abbreviations in the community. – KRyan Mar 24 '20 at 13:43
-
1
-
-
5"Not all communities or sites use the correct official designations" seems like a bit of an understatement. The Player's Handbook is the most obvious one – I don't think I've ever seen someone use anything other than PHB for that – but scanning over the list there are plenty of others that I almost always see abbreviated in other ways, starting with the very first one. I didn't even know there was an official list of abbreviations before this. – John Montgomery Mar 24 '20 at 17:25
-
I've also used the incorrect abbreviations prior to this question occurring to me. I have long been aware of this list of abbreviations (being one whi heavily uses the consolidated lists) but I had never paid close attention to the differences before now. For the first, perhaps they were avoiding being confused with the company AEG? But that doesn't answer for the PH versus PHB... unless someone is into chemistry jokes at WotC.... – nijineko Mar 27 '20 at 12:25
-
@nijineko These abbreviations seem to have been designed to be as short as possible, only adding more letters when absolutely forced to by existing products already claiming the two-letter abbreviation. The community abbreviations instead focus more on making it clear what product is being referred to, even if it takes an extra letter or two. The community also simply doesn’t abbreviate a lot of these products, because they’re just too obscure to refer to by anything but full title and expect readers to understand. – KRyan Mar 28 '20 at 13:20
-
Also, I just noticed you have “FCI” for both Fiendish Codex I and Fiendish Codex II; is that mistake in the original? – KRyan Mar 28 '20 at 13:28
-
@KRyan excellent point! I also find that when comparing, I prefer the community abbreviations in some cases over the apparently official ones. I will check the original list regarding that possible error. As I simply copy pasted, it likely is in the original, lol. – nijineko Mar 28 '20 at 15:09
-
It appears to be in the original.... sigh. I'm giving you a +1 for good logic and valid common sense in your answer, even though I do not feel it can be ethically selected as the "right" answer due to official versus unofficial, despite your very valid points. I'm even ignoring how I feel about unsolicited extra information in view of your excellent points, this once. – nijineko Apr 15 '20 at 14:56
10
I have made an attempt to pair the official abbreviations with those actually used by the community. For example, Player’s Handbook is universally abbreviated as PHB—but the official abbreviation is PH. If I saw PH, I would sooner think Planar Handbook (usually, and also officially, PlH) than Player’s Handbook. Also, officially, SC refers to The Sunless Citadel—which I don’t think I have ever heard of. Meanwhile, SC is one of the most commonly-used abbreviations in the game—for Spell Compendium. I have seen the official abbreviation, SpC, used for it, but it’s almost-always SC. Someone using SC to refer to The Sunless Citadel is quite simply wrong.
Note that a whole lot of books simply aren’t abbreviated by the community, usually because they’re too obscure to expect anyone to recognize in abbreviation. A few major books, though, simply don’t abbreviate neatly—the “Outside” books, Cityscape, Dungeonscape, Frostburn, Sandstorm, and Stormwrack fall in this category, particularly Dungeonscape which I can’t honestly remember ever seeing abbreviated. Anyway, stuff that doesn’t get abbreviated, I’ve marked —. Stuff that rarely gets abbreviated but I have seen, that gets a ¹, and I have included a couple other footnotes at the bottom as well.
| Product | Official | Community |
|---|---|---|
| Arms and Equipment Guide | AE | A&EG |
| Barrow of the Forgotten King | BFK | — |
| Bastion of Broken Souls | BB | BoBS︎︎¹ |
| Book of Challenges | BC | — |
| Book of Exalted Deeds | BE | BoED |
| Book of Vile Darkness | BV | BoVD |
| Champions of Ruin | CR | CoR |
| Champions of Valor | CV | CoV |
| City of Peril | CiP | — |
| City of Splendors: Waterdeep | CSW | CoS︎︎¹ |
| City of the Spider Queen | CSQ | — |
| Cityscape | Ci | City︎︎¹ |
| Complete Adventurer | CAd | CAdv |
| Complete Arcane | CAr | CArc |
| Complete Champion | CC | CCh or CChamp |
| Complete Divine | CD | CDiv |
| Complete Mage | CM | CMag or CMage |
| Complete Psionic | CP | CPsi |
| Complete Scoundrel | CS | CSc or CSco |
| Complete Warrior | CW | CW or CWar |
| Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave | Co | — |
| D&D Gazetteer | DG | — |
| Deep Horizon | DH | — |
| Defenders of the Faith | DF | DotF |
| Deities and Demigods | DD | D&DG |
| Draconomicon | Dr | Dr or Drac |
| Dragon Magic | DM | DM |
| Dragonlance Campaign Setting | DCS | DCS or DrCS or DLCS |
| Dragonmarked | Dra | — |
| Dragons of Faerûn | DrF | DoF |
| Drow of the Underdark | DrU | DotU |
| Dungeon Master's Guide II | DMG2 | DMG2 |
| Dungeon Master's Guide v.3.5 | DMG | DMG |
| Dungeonscape | Du | — |
| Eberron Campaign Setting | ECS | EbCS |
| Enemies and Allies | EA | — |
| Epic Level Handbook | EL | ELH |
| Exemplars of Evil | EE | EoE︎︎¹ |
| Expanded Psionics Handbook | XPH | XPH |
| Expedition to Castle Ravenloft | Rav | — |
| Expedition to the Demonweb Pits | EDP | — |
| Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk | ERG | — |
| Expedition to Undermountain | EU | — |
| Explorer's Handbook | EH | — |
| Eyes of the Lich Queen | ELQ | — |
| Faiths & Pantheons | FP | F&P︎︎¹ |
| Faiths of Eberron | FE | FoE |
| Fantastic Locations: Fane of the Drow | FLFD | — |
| Fantastic Locations: Fields of Ruin | FLFR | — |
| Fantastic Locations: Hellspike Prison | FLHP | — |
| Fiend Folio | FF | FF |
| Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss | FCI | FC1 |
| Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells | FCI︎︎² | FC2 |
| Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting | FRCS | FRCS |
| Fortress of the Yuan-Ti | FY | — |
| Frostburn | Fr | Frost︎︎¹ |
| Ghostwalk | Gh | Gh︎︎¹ |
| Grand History of the Realms | GHR | — |
| Grasp of the Emerald Claw | GC | — |
| Heart of Nightfang Spire | HN | — |
| Hero Builder's Guidebook | HBG | — |
| Heroes of Battle | HB | HoB |
| Heroes of Horror | HH | HoH |
| Libris Mortis: The Book of the Dead | LM | LM |
| Living Greyhawk Gazetteer | LG | — |
| Lord of the Iron Fortress | LF | — |
| Lords of Darkness | LD | — |
| Lords of Madness | LoM | LoM |
| Lost Empires of Faerûn | LE | LEoF |
| Magic Item Compendium | MIC | MIC |
| Magic of Eberron | MoE | MoE |
| Magic of Faerûn | Mag | MoF︎︎³ |
| Magic of Incarnum | MoI | MoI |
| Manual of the Planes | MP | MotP |
| Masters of the Wild | MW | MotW |
| Miniatures Handbook | MH | MH |
| Monster Manual v.3.5 | MM | MM |
| Monster Manual II | MM2 | MM2 |
| Monster Manual III | MM3 | MM3 |
| Monster Manual IV | MM4 | MM4 |
| Monster Manual V | MM5 | MM5 |
| Monsters of Faerûn | Mon | MoF︎¹ ³ |
| Mysteries of the Moonsea | Mys | — |
| Oriental Adventures | OA | OA |
| Planar Handbook | PlH | PlH |
| Player’s Guide to Eberron | PE | PGtE |
| Player’s Guide to Faerûn | PG | PGtF |
| Player’s Handbook v.3.5 | PH | PHB |
| Player’s Handbook II | PH2 | PHB2 |
| Power of Faerûn | PF | PoF |
| Races of Destiny | RD | RoD |
| Races of Eberron | RE | RoE |
| Races of Faerûn | Rac | RoF |
| Races of Stone | RS | RoS |
| Races of the Dragon | RDr | RotD |
| Races of the Wild | RW | RotW |
| Red Hand of Doom | RH | RHoD |
| Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil | RT | — |
| Sandstorm | Sa | Sand︎︎¹ |
| Savage Species | SS | SS |
| Secrets of Sarlona | SoS | SoS |
| Secrets of Xen’drik | SX | SoX |
| Serpent Kingdoms | SK | SK︎︎¹ |
| Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land | SSL | — |
| Shadows of the Last War | SL | — |
| Sharn: City of Towers | Sh | — |
| Shining South | ShS | ShS |
| Silver Marches | SM | — |
| Song and Silence | SaS | S&S |
| Sons of Gruumsh | SG | — |
| Spell Compendium | SpC | SC︎︎⁴ |
| Stormwrack | Sto | Storm︎︎¹ |
| Stronghold Builder's Guidebook | SB | SBG |
| Sword and Fist | SF | S&F |
| The Forge of Fury | Fo | — |
| The Forge of War | FW | — |
| The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde | ShG | — |
| The Sinister Spire | SiS | — |
| The Speaker in Dreams | SD | — |
| The Standing Stone | StS | — |
| The Sunless Citadel | SC⁴ | — |
| Tome and Blood | TB | T&B |
| Tome of Battle | ToB | ToB |
| Tome of Magic | TM | ToM |
| Unapproachable East | Una | Una |
| Underdark | Und | Und |
| Unearthed Arcana | UA | UA |
| Voyage of the Golden Dragon | VGD | — |
| Whispers of the Vampire's Blade | WB | — |
Rare. These books are either rarely discussed, or simply rarely abbreviated.
Some sources have “FCI” for Fiendish Codex II, some have “FCII,” and some even have “FC2,” though these last also have “FC1” for Fiendish Codex I. I cannot find the official statement—though if it does have “FCI” that would be an error, since FCI is Fiendish Codex I. But an error is possible, after all.
Note that the “fan abbreviations” for Magic of Faerûn and Monsters of Faerûn conflict. MoF usually means Magic of Faerûn; Monsters of Faerûn is rarely discussed. But I have seen the abbreviation.
Note that the official abbreviation, SC, for The Sunless Citadel—which is extremely obscure—conflicts with the nigh-universally-used fan abbreviation for Spell Compendium, one of the most frequenly-cited books in the game. A strong case in point for not using the official abbreviations.
KRyan
- 350,913
- 58
- 915
- 1,459
-
While I definitely agree that the community derived abbreviations are much more universally used, I cannot agree that they are "right". Official is official (no matter how stupid) and thus is automatically right, sad as that may be and rife with errors like the rest of the game.
now if only there was an Errata or FAQ documented for the lists... lol. Thank you for the very useful comparison! – nijineko Mar 29 '20 at 14:00 -
2Not abbreviations, but the Sandstorm et al. books are also called "It's hot outside" (Sa), "it's cold outside" (Fr), "it's wet outside" (Sto), "it's crowded outside" (Ci) and ..."it's not outside" (Du) – Zachiel Jan 29 '21 at 22:17