Tracking the unconverted critters is the least I can do, since I don't contribute much (well, at all really) to the actual conversion process.
Which is mostly because my monster design abilities are really very poor . So much so in fact that my players almost insist that I stick to published critters for the games I run. Fortunately, my adventure design skills are fine, and I have this handy index available to find suitable creatures, so it all works out well in the end .
Tracking the unconverted critters is the least I can do, since I don't contribute much (well, at all really) to the actual conversion process.
Which is mostly because my monster design abilities are really very poor . So much so in fact that my players almost insist that I stick to published critters for the games I run.
I'm not brilliant at monster design either as some of the things (like picking a CR) are more art than science. Once monsters have been created, I think that I'm fairly good at working out the "...As Characters" bits or extrapolating a new subrace, but it all takes extra time.
But I would rather convert (or learn to convert) old monsters than create new ones. I'm a fan of the old TSR campaign settings and am hoping to see all the various fan communities finish their 3rd edition conversions. There is more to these settings than monsters, but I think that the hard work at the Creature Catalogue could give a very welcome boost to all of these fan communities.
For example Creature Catalogue work could really help Beyond the Moons get the meat of the Monsters of Wildspace PDF sorted out. I figure if I hang around here, I can help get some of that sorted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Echohawk
Fortunately, my adventure design skills are fine, and I have this handy index available to find suitable creatures, so it all works out well in the end .
I'm fairly good at designing places and hopefully hanging around here will be a masterclass in monster design. Indexes (like) are great tools. Especially for people, like me, who can't remember where everthing is. I'm making an index of SJ canon at the moment (as a wiki), but if I wasn't, I'd probably suggest making a Creature Catalogue wiki with every monster fully hyperlinked to the appropriate parts of the SRD. I'm pretty good at wikilinking, so could help out with something like that if I had more free time.
While looking up the raghnilder in Dragon #158, I came across another troll variant that didn't come up in the unconverted giants list: the skovtrolde. You do have it in your Monster Index, 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"
While looking up the raghnilder in Dragon #158, I came across another troll variant that didn't come up in the unconverted giants list: the skovtrolde. You do have it in your Monster Index, though.
Yeah, that one is one of the border cases that I have indexed as a "variation", rather than a full creature. In most cases, I haven't included those on the unconverted creature lists, because they really are very minor variations from the original. The skovtrolde has quite a lot of stats changes though, so I'll add that one back in.
I don't really want to hold up any Spelljammer conversions, but as there are only 8 of these, do you think it is worth having a Converting Dark Sun monsters thread? Or is Athas.org still activly converting these 8 monsters as part of their 3rd edition project?
Especially since three of the eight (renegade halfling, wild kank and wild mul) probably don't warrant a separate conversion. I'd be happy to drop those from the unconverted list if there is agreement that they don't really need to be there.
Especially since three of the eight (renegade halfling, wild kank and wild mul) probably don't warrant a separate conversion. I'd be happy to drop those from the unconverted list if there is agreement that they don't really need to be there.
I'm not sure on the first two (I'd have to look them up) but I looked at the Wild Mul the other day and think that it should be done as a Prestige Class or a Racial Paragon Class. From the names, I suspect the first two would also work out as PrCs or Racial Paragon Classes.
"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"
Except, of course, that I am truly awful at telling Humanoids from Monstrous Humanoids from Fey and Animals from Magical Beasts, and so on. So it would probably be wise to treat my classifications as vague guesses at best .
Still, the subgroupings work wonders. Now if want to do a special conversion thread on "all the remaining orcs and kin", it's much easier to track them down.
"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"
Out of curiousity, I just did some projections based on the CC output since the site was fixed back in September. With the current conversion rate of 0.78 creatures per day, my current prediction is that the last critter will finally be updated on 10 August 2012 .
"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"
Out of curiousity, I just did some projections based on the CC output since the site was fixed back in September. With the current conversion rate of 0.78 creatures per day, my current prediction is that the last critter will finally be updated on 10 August 2012 .
I'm kind of glad we won't run out for a few years, though. I guess Pathfinder conversion is always a possibility, too.
"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'm hoping we can take those brackets and expand them a bit more so that we can finish off the last few ones that are remaining. Like to finish off Dark sun by end of the year. That's a big push.
I'm quite sure if we all sat around for a weekend we could knock out 40-50 at a time.
Can we get a 1st edition converstion thread going. Don't see one on here, maybe if i check older ones. I'm very good at those I've found.
. So much so in fact that my players almost insist that I stick to published critters for the games I run. Fortunately, my adventure design skills are fine, and I have this handy index available to find suitable creatures, so it all works out well in the end 
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