Oozes are relatively common antagonists in fantasy fiction; in addition to the oozes of Dungeons & Dragons, examples include the monster from the film The Blob, slime in Dragon Quest, and flan in Final Fantasy. These fictional oozes may have been inspired by microscopic organisms such as amoebae, which, like oozes, can consume organic matter by engulfing it. The gelatinous cube is an original invention of Gary Gygax, rather than being inspired by outside sources and adapted to the roleplaying setting, as were many mythological monsters such as the minotaur and dryad, all of which appeared in the 1974 Monsters & Treasure book of the original boxed set. Being a cube that is a perfect ten feet on each side, it is specifically and perfectly "adapted" to its native environment, the standard, by dungeon corridors which were ubiquitous in the earliest Dungeons & Dragons modules.
Publication history
The gelatinous cube first appeared in the original Dungeons & Dragons "white box" set, and its first supplement, Greyhawk. The gelatinous cube appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set. The gelatinous cube also appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia. The gelatinous cube appeared in first editionAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons in the original Monster Manual. The creature was further developed in Dragon #124. Published first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventures which included gelatinous cubes as adversaries that the player characters encounter included "The Ruins of Andril", published in Dragon #81. The gelatinous cube appeared in second edition in Monstrous CompendiumVolume One, and the Monstrous Manual under the "ooze/slime/jelly" heading. Under the ooze entry, the gelatinous cube appears in the third editionMonster Manual, the 3.5 revised Monster Manual, the fourth edition Monster Manual, the Monster Vault, and the fifth edition Monster Manual.
Other publishers
The gelatinous cube is fully detailed in Paizo Publishing's book Dungeon Denizens Revisited, on pages 16–21.
Ecology
A gelatinous cube looks like a transparent ooze of mindless, gelatinous matter in the shape of a cube. The cube's transparency coupled with a dimly-lit dungeon gives it the element of surprise to engulf unsuspecting beings, and only an alert adventurer will notice the cube. The cube slides through dungeon corridors, being able to mold its body to flow around objects and fit through narrow passages and then returning to its original shape once enough space is available. A cube will absorb everything in its path, with its acidic digestive juices dissolving everything organic and secreting non-digestible matter in its wake. David M. Ewalt, in his book Of Dice and Men, describes the gelatinous cube as "a dungeon scavenger, a living mound of transparent jelly", The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters called it a "dungeon clean up crew", well adapted to this unique fictitious ecosystem.
Reception
Tyler Linn of Cracked.com identified the gelatinous cube as one of "15 Idiotic Dungeons and Dragons Monsters" in 2009, stating: "Unless an encounter plays out exactly like the steamroller scene in Austin Powers, we fail to see how the Gelatinous Cube ever kills anybody who's not either glued to the floor or fast asleep. In fact, we're pretty sure the Dungeon Master's Guide reads: The first player to ask "Can't I just get out of the way?" automatically defeats the Gelatinous Cube." Rob Bricken from io9 named the gelatinous cube as the 5th most memorable D&D monster. Chris Sims of the on-line magazine Comics Alliance stated of the gelatinous cube that "there can be no question of what is the greatest monster" in D&D, calling the gelatinous cube "amazing". The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters called the gelatinous cube one of the "iconic monsters" of the D&D game. Levi R. Bryant calls the gelatinous cube "irksome and dangerous", "populating many a dungeon".
