Isn't it about time to bury the Creature Crypt?
I don't see any use for it anymore, now that the game has moved on to 4E. WotC is not selling 3E books anymore (apart from any overstock they want to move, but I digress) so I can't see our conversions being a challenge anymore. Why not dump that stuff back into the main conversions page?
I suppose you could. The ESD Conversion Agreement allow you to convert everything to 3rd edition. Deciding to not convert things is just a matter of "politeness".
Likewise, if you all want to keep the 3.5 thing going, I can't see any problem with re-converting anything that was in a 3E book and had been in a previous edition, especially if we don't like how WotC handled it, or if you think you can do a better job.
I suppose people might want to take things that have been tied in with one campaign setting (like Forgotten Realms) and make more general versions of them from old school sources.
Alternatively people might want to complete a "set" that has one or two monsters missing.
I'd even be bold and say that we could approach anything from the ToH for the same reasons, although I give more of a benefit of the doubt to NG than I do to WotC.
Is ToH going out of print? If things are still in print, then maybe it would be "polite" to refrain from competing. But if they are going to switch to the GSL and stop selling ToH then these monsters will go out of print until the copyright expires. It would be nice for Creature Catalogue to give the next generation of fans an alternative source.
I'll confess that I've lost interest in doing any more 3.5 conversions (being that the system is dead and all), but I'm definitely open to the idea of coming back to do Pathfinder stuff down the line.
I think that is a real shame. I'm planning of sticking with 3.5 (and have been buying up rulebooks). I'm thinking of looking into Pathfinder (and maybe using it as house rules) but I think I'd rather have a
full set of 3.5 monsters if possible.
On the one hand, since WotC has moved on from 3e, I doubt there'd be much challenge if we did our own versions of stuff they updated to 3e. OTOH, if we go Pathfinder, they might get snippy about it.
Hmm. The ESD Conversion Agreement says 3rd edition and doesn't mention Pathfinder. So I'm not sure if you can do it. I'd say the ESD Conversion Agreement counts as a PI licence.
Maybe you can create "3rd edition conversions" that are bumped up enough that they work with Pathfinder, but not use the Pathfinder name. I think most people would know what you mean if you said they were "3.75 conversions" and any bits that were Pathfinder specific were "house rules" that you listed in a sidebar.
I definitely intent to go Pathfinder if at all possible, and am thankful that I have no intention of going 4e now that the draconian GSL has been released. <shudder>
Draconian GSL? Is that why they took the Dragonlance licence back from Margaret Weis Productions? So that they could have a licence for draconians?
Just kidding!
Regardless, in the meantime I'm still having plenty of fun converting stuff to 3.5, and there's a large enough fan base out there that may still find use for it. Ironically, I've seen more "nice work/I can use this" comments since 4e's release than in the year prior.
I don't know about anyone else, but I was slow to move over to 3rd edition. I struggled learning all the 3.0 rules and then was really resistant to learning 3.5. But when 4.0 came along it was the kick up the bum I needed to get me into the system. Now I want to see all the out of print campaign settings get converted to 3rd edition and Creature Catalogue is doing all of the monsters for me.
There are plenty of websites (like Dragonsfoot) that cater for fans of older versions of D&D and I hope that these monsters can give people pleasure for years to come. It would be great to see people downloading these even after 5th edition comes out.
I'm also not too worried about dipping into the Crypt just yet, as Echohawk still shows just under 1200 unconverted creatures remain.
I think the unconverted creatures need doing first. That way someone can get Echohawk's index and buy the books with their missing monsters on eBay. But with generic D&D "stealing" monsters from campaign settings, there are a few that I'd like to see included in a PDF dedicated to one setting.
And things like a Races of the Eye PDF (with a full set of beholders) could be great to see.
I don't think you have to worry Rev. I doubt that the CC will be going anywhere. Shade is really against the monster design philosophy for 4e, and I have to agree with him. The only thing I'd like to try, regarding 4e, is converting some of the more interesting (and new) 4e monsters into 3e versions.
However, Wizards might take offense at that.
I think they might. The ESD Conversion Agreement wouldn't cover such a conversion, so you would be relying on good will.
I would actually like to see WotC do a retro-conversion agreement that lets people take things all the way back to 3rd edition, AD&D and OD&D. That could probably tempt some old school fans into buying new books to convert to their favorite rules, so it might boost sales.
The fact that there is no proper 4eSRD would also boost sales as everyone doing conversions would definatly need to core rules as well as monster books.
