As an aside, it's interesting to note that the bulk of the unconverted creatures in most categories seem to be either animals, vermin, or variant humanoid races. The more "realistic", the less interesting, eh?
It is definitely true that the majority of the most interesting creatures have already been tackled, but I'm not so sure about the breakdown in categories. I'll start going through the unconverted lists and assigning my 'best guest' type to each one to check.
It is definitely true that the majority of the most interesting creatures have already been tackled, but I'm not so sure about the breakdown in categories. I'll start going through the unconverted lists and assigning my 'best guest' type to each one to check.
Check the first post for progress indicators
Echohawk, you do us a great service, but has anyone ever told you that you might have too much time on your hands? Seriously, though, this is very interesting work.
It is definitely true that the majority of the most interesting creatures have already been tackled, but I'm not so sure about the breakdown in categories. I'll start going through the unconverted lists and assigning my 'best guest' type to each one to check.
Check the first post for progress indicators
Interesting...
I fear for your health when you get to Dragon Magazine, though!
"I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you." - Batman, Batman Begins "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight "Yeah, I can fly." - Tony Stark, Iron Man
Inside my hands these petals browned;
dried up falling to the ground,
but it was already too late now.
I pushed my fingers through the earth,
returned this flower to the dirt;
so it could live, I walked away now."
Rise Against - "The Good Left Undone"
I moved the Cthulhu, Melnibonéan, Conan and Red Sonja 1st Edition creatures into the bottom section, so the upper total has dropped slightly (to 1480) for the WotC IP creatures.
Quote:
Originally Posted by freyar
Echohawk, you do us a great service, but has anyone ever told you that you might have too much time on your hands? Seriously, though, this is very interesting work.
Heh heh. I work from home (no commuting!), and only work a four-day week, so I guess I do have more free time than many, for which I am appreciative. D&D research gives me pleasure, and scouring out-of-print tomes to find nuggets of information often triggers ideas for games I am running, so it can be a creative process too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shade
I fear for your health when you get to Dragon Magazine, though!
I'm on leave for the rest of the year
Quote:
Originally Posted by BOZ
LOL! i don't think i'll ever be ready for that challenge.
Yes. It is an intimidating number and about eight times the number of 3.X creatures presently in the Creature Catalog. But if the 4E monster stat blocks are much simpler, 4E conversions might be much easier to do.
I expect that with shorter stat blocks and an annual Monster Manual, WotC will have updated a few thousand creatures themselves before very long. Also a good number of the unconverted 4E creatures are found in sources for which WotC does not own the IP. That'll eliminate at least another thousand creatures. So we're only looking at maybe 5 or 6 thousand creatures to be updated to 4E...
Which reminds me to ask something: I don't know much about the early history of the Creature Catalog site, but how does the agreement to use WotC IP work? Would that agreement extend to publishing 4E conversions too, assuming that they are published under a future 4E OGL?
Heh heh. I work from home (no commuting!), and only work a four-day week, so I guess I do have more free time than many, for which I am appreciative. D&D research gives me pleasure, and scouring out-of-print tomes to find nuggets of information often triggers ideas for games I am running, so it can be a creative process too.
Absolutely! And this is a nice community for sharing and indulging our obsessive tendencies and hobbies, too.
Quote:
Yes. It is an intimidating number and about eight times the number of 3.X creatures presently in the Creature Catalog. But if the 4E monster stat blocks are much simpler, 4E conversions might be much easier to do.
I expect that with shorter stat blocks and an annual Monster Manual, WotC will have updated a few thousand creatures themselves before very long. Also a good number of the unconverted 4E creatures are found in sources for which WotC does not own the IP. That'll eliminate at least another thousand creatures. So we're only looking at maybe 5 or 6 thousand creatures to be updated to 4E...
Well, if 4e works as advertised, anyway. It may be quite easy to update a 3.x monster to 4e, but we'll see. The way the fluff is going, I think I'm going to need to see quite a speed-up in the monster creation process (which I'm only likely to see through conversion) to buy into 4e. Of course, who knows when there'll be a public SRD?
Quote:
Which reminds me to ask something: I don't know much about the early history of the Creature Catalog site, but how does the agreement to use WotC IP work? Would that agreement extend to publishing 4E conversions too, assuming that they are published under a future 4E OGL?
Good question. I always thought that monster conversions were under the same sort of terms as adventure conversions (guidelines here), which means you can update the stats without reproducing the copyrighted fluff text. But was there a special agreement? I was a little thrown for a loop when I saw the extra sections in the ToH.
I moved the Cthulhu, Melnibonéan, Conan and Red Sonja 1st Edition creatures into the bottom section, so the upper total has dropped slightly (to 1480) for the WotC IP creatures.
Excellent.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Echohawk
Heh heh. I work from home (no commuting!), and only work a four-day week, so I guess I do have more free time than many, for which I am appreciative. D&D research gives me pleasure, and scouring out-of-print tomes to find nuggets of information often triggers ideas for games I am running, so it can be a creative process too.
Ditto here. Even if I don't use a fraction of the creatures we convert, they provide so much inspiration to my games.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Echohawk
Yes. It is an intimidating number and about eight times the number of 3.X creatures presently in the Creature Catalog. But if the 4E monster stat blocks are much simpler, 4E conversions might be much easier to do.
I expect that with shorter stat blocks and an annual Monster Manual, WotC will have updated a few thousand creatures themselves before very long. Also a good number of the unconverted 4E creatures are found in sources for which WotC does not own the IP. That'll eliminate at least another thousand creatures. So we're only looking at maybe 5 or 6 thousand creatures to be updated to 4E...
On the other hand, WotC appears to want to distance themselves from their past as much as possible. Since most of the classic monsters revealed so far appear to be "reimaginings", essentially the total number would be ripe for conversions to maintain their classic feel.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Echohawk
Which reminds me to ask something: I don't know much about the early history of the Creature Catalog site, but how does the agreement to use WotC IP work? Would that agreement extend to publishing 4E conversions too, assuming that they are published under a future 4E OGL?
I honestly don't know. That predates my tenure on the CC. I'm assuming it would not carry over, but I could be wrong.
"I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you." - Batman, Batman Begins "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight "Yeah, I can fly." - Tony Stark, Iron Man
Inside my hands these petals browned;
dried up falling to the ground,
but it was already too late now.
I pushed my fingers through the earth,
returned this flower to the dirt;
so it could live, I walked away now."
Rise Against - "The Good Left Undone"
It is definitely true that the majority of the most interesting creatures have already been tackled, but I'm not so sure about the breakdown in categories. I'll start going through the unconverted lists and assigning my 'best guest' type to each one to check.
Okay, so I'm done with this exercise, and the unconverted critters break down like this, based on my best guesses of their types:
"I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you." - Batman, Batman Begins "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight "Yeah, I can fly." - Tony Stark, Iron Man
Inside my hands these petals browned;
dried up falling to the ground,
but it was already too late now.
I pushed my fingers through the earth,
returned this flower to the dirt;
so it could live, I walked away now."
Rise Against - "The Good Left Undone"
It is quite possible that some of the things I classified as Magical Beasts would fit better as Animals or Vermin. (I'm not that good at telling those apart!)
But having categorised all the unconverted creatures, I can now also do some analysis of the overall breakdown of D&D creatures by type. These figures exclude unique creatures, templates and anything that isn't WotC's IP.
"I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you." - Batman, Batman Begins "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight "Yeah, I can fly." - Tony Stark, Iron Man
Inside my hands these petals browned;
dried up falling to the ground,
but it was already too late now.
I pushed my fingers through the earth,
returned this flower to the dirt;
so it could live, I walked away now."
Rise Against - "The Good Left Undone"
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