Talk:Rust monster

Another reference

In futurama episode 1 of season 2 there is a rust monster owned by a metallic (and rusting) robot at the veterinarian's office.

Incomplete references

I moved the ref below here until the coauthor can be credited.

• Logue, Nicolas and ?. "Ecology of the Rust Monster." Dragon #346 (Paizo Publishing, 2006).

-Robbstrd 19:12, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Done!Robbstrd 20:59, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Aha!

I knew it! I have that plastic figure somewhere. Rich Farmbrough, 18:45, 10 July 2011 (UTC).

Awesome! If you ever find it, it would be great if you could add a pic. :) 108.69.80.43 (talk) 19:06, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

Time to bring this one back?

Hello all! This one was merged at AFD back in 2020, although I did put some work into it a few times, but at the time we decided not to restore the article. There are a bunch of sources in the 2E monster list for this one, most of which have already been added, and a few that have not yet been. I am wondering if there are other sources out there which could be added? I think we easily have enough to restore, and will be adding these from the 2E monster list on top of what we already have:

When it is restored, this is the most recent version which already includes citations from Black Gate, Art & Arcana: A Visual History, Of Dice and Men, The Ashgate Encyclopedia, Gizmodo, and Comics Alliance.

Pinging User:AugusteBlanqui, User:BD2412, User:Cyfal, User:Daranios, User:Hobit, User:Sariel Xilo for discussion. BOZ (talk) 01:24, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

• Nice thought. A few comments:
  • That version of the article has some issues. Sources cited multiple times and some writing issues.
  • I think new sources that count toward WP:N need to be added and moved earlier in the article. The Dragon/WotC/TSR stuff is great, but not independent. We need to overcome the AfD concerns and it would be good if doing so included sources right up front.

I'm unsure what the right way forward is for editing under a redirect. Just edit and restore the redirect right away? Create a draft? Hobit (talk) 13:50, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

In this case I'd think we could bring it back. While not all sources might be equally well regarded, in addition to the ones already mentioned we have the Forbes article (which is basically a more extended version of the Of Dice and Men citation); these two BOLS articles; The Monsters Know What They're Doing has a chapter on the rust monster, which does contain some bits of commentary beyond mere game mechanics explanation; this paper has a paragraph, mostly with what we already have but from an academic source. Daranios (talk) 15:00, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

@Hobit, yep, just restore the article from redirect like I did with Githyanki, and get to adding sources. :)

@Daranios, sounds good, and glad for those additional finds! I will restore this in the near future so that we can add these additional sources, and any others that anyone else finds. BOZ (talk) 22:23, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

I made use of the Forbes article, and the first BOLS article as citations, and yep I used them early in the article. :) Plus the io9 article by Bricken that I listed here was already in use, so there we go. :) I believe it will stand up to any notability challenges. BOZ (talk) 20:35, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

Here's a fantastic quote from a peer-reviewed, academic source:

"Another example of a scary monster is The Rust Monster from the Monster Manual. The Rust Monster hungers for precious metals and therefore threatens the characters’ equipment. Painstakingly collected game material such as weapons and armor hangs in the balance once the Rust Monster appears. This makes The Rust Monster a truly feared creature." (page 615)

The game design theory is "loss aversion"--that the Rust Monster is such a feared monster because it will disintigrate your loot. This 'loss aversion' has a meaningful effect on gameplay.

Juel Larsen, L. and Kampmann Walther, B., 2025. Fear of Monsters: Toward an Understanding of the Threat of the Computational Monster Read Through the Theoretical Lens of Game-Play. Games and Culture, 20(5), pp.613-632. AugusteBlanqui (talk) 11:04, 14 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks @AugusteBlanqui, I added that to the Reception section. :) BOZ (talk) 11:51, 14 April 2026 (UTC)

Of use from The Monsters Know What They're Doing (in my opinion):

"Despite the absurdity of a creature nursing itself on a pre-oxidized, chemically stable substance, we have to look at this unaligned monstrosity as an evolved creature, because any other explanation of its existence is just to meta". P. 163.

"Rust monsters want to eat, not fight". P. 164.

Because Rust Monsters detect metal by smell but attack by sight, they will be confounded by invisibility, able to smell their food but not know where it is. P. 164.

Cheers! BD2412 T 20:57, 9 April 2026 (UTC)