To celebrate 50 years of D&D, Royal Mail is selling monster stamps you can keep in a mimic's mouth

When you think about it, hasn't every letter you receive been on its own epic quest, all the way from its sender to your door? What do you mean "No"? If you're going to be like that, you can come up with your own seamless introduction to a story about Dungeons & Dragons stamps.

That's right, even Royal Mail is getting in on D&D's 50th anniversary celebrations this year, with a collection of limited edition stamps up for preorder now, featuring new art from iconic fantasy artist Wayne Reynolds. Aimed at collectors rather than people actually trying to sort out their post (though presumably they're legal for that purpose too), they can be bought as a simple set of eight, as enlarged framed portraits, or even printed on metal, among other options. I particularly like the treasure chest stamp book that unfolds out into a mimic.

Apparently there are even secrets to be uncovered—Royal Mail let us know that a "special surprise" will be revealed if you hold the stamps under an ultraviolet light. Maybe it'll be all the text from the upcoming new D&D core books printed really tiny in invisible ink? Nah, you're right, probably not.

None of it's cheap, but then what D&D merchandise is? And Reynolds' art of the various iconic monsters—from a mind flayer to a red dragon—is genuinely lovely. Even those who've moved to Pathfinder may be tempted, as he created many of the defining pieces for that game too, and his signature style is as recognisable as ever.

This may seem like a very random collaboration, but Royal Mail's actually been doing stuff like this for a while now, from celebrating classic indie games to marking the 40th anniversary of Warhammer . There must be enough people falling into the middle of these nerdy venn diagrams to make it make sense, and honestly, god bless the lot of 'em.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go and post a birthday card to a displacer beast.