D&D 5E A word for those of you publishing monster books on DMGuild

Storyteller Hero · Mar 2, 2016

Transformer said:
What I don't have are spellcasters I can run without having to painstakingly reference a dozen different spells in the PHB.

If you can spare the cost of a sandwich, this collection of cheat sheets might help you out with that.

http://www.dmsguild.com/product/175969/DD-5e-Magic-Spell-Cheat-Sheets

GX.Sigma · Mar 2, 2016

Transformer said:
Not to derail your thread, but when oh when will someone release a collection of spellcasters with one-stop stat blocks on DMsGuild?

Now that is something I'd pay good money for. A collection of 20+ spellcasters, with stat blocks that include mechanics for all the spells, or at least a summary of the mechanics for all the spells likely to be used in combat. My understanding is that under the DMsGuild rules, you could get away with such a thing (correct me if I'm wrong). But sadly, no one has obliged me yet. I almost made a whole new thread about this, because it's the one product that would help me most as a DM, and it doesn't seem to exist.

Here's one, but it's not on DM's Guild: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?471749-One-Stop-Stat-Blocks-for-D-amp-D-5th-Edition

I'm A Banana said:
Happy that I've dodged THAT newbie bullet for my first monster product.

Close, but it needs the CR of each creature.

Transformer · Mar 2, 2016

GX.Sigma said:
Here's one, but it's not on DM's Guild: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?471749-One-Stop-Stat-Blocks-for-D-amp-D-5th-Edition

Yes! Actually, I do have that; I just didn't mention it for brevity. And it's definitely useful for running the spellcasters in the MM. Still, there are only a couple of full spellcasters with lots of spells in the MM. I am hoping for a professional-looking collection of (20? 40? 100?) all-new full spellcasters, all with one-stop stat blocks.

GX.Sigma · Mar 2, 2016

Transformer said:
Yes! Actually, I do have that; I just didn't mention it for brevity. And it's definitely useful for running the spellcasters in the MM. Still, there are only a couple of full spellcasters with lots of spells in the MM. I am hoping for a professional-looking collection of (20? 40? 100?) all-knew full spellcasters, all with one-stop stat blocks.

I'll add it to the list. I was considering doing one stat block per subclass per tier (e.g. evocation apprentice, illusion master, acolyte of the sun, high priest of death), maybe with a few legendary ones (along the lines of the Lich in the MM).

Quickleaf · Mar 5, 2016

Mouseferatu said:
Guys, you really need to do better with your previews.

Seriously, you need to include a full table of contents and at least one full monster. If I can't get a good sense of how many critters I'm getting, or a vague idea of what they are--i.e. name and, preferably, CR--I'm pretty much guaranteed not to buy. Similarly, unless you're already an established 5E author, I need to see an example monster to know how solid your stat blocks are.

And while I haven't taken a poll or anything, I'm willing to bet I'm far from the only person who feels this way.

I want to buy more monsters, but if you don't give me the info I need to know if I want to buy, the answer's an automatic no.

I made a monster book, and I strove to do exactly what you said. It sort of just seems like basic courtesy to inform someone what they're getting into, but apparently there are quite a few examples of people doing just the opposite. Ah well. Live and learn.

Here's my first DM's Guild release: The Buccaneer's Bestiary.

dave2008 · Mar 6, 2016

Giant2005 said:
The preview option of DM's Guild isn't very good. You don't get to choose specific pages to be shown in the preview, you only get to choose a page range. That means if you preview the opening contents page as well as something midway within the book, you are forced to preview everything in between.
It is a limitation which is probably too cumbersome to workaround for most. You can however make a separate preview book that includes the actual pages you want to preview and if you upload it before the full version of the book, that will be the version that is previewed. Many people probably don't even realize that such a thing is possible, so their previews suck.

Edit: Here is an example of what I mean. I may have got a little carried away by previewing over half of the book, but by making a separate preview PDF, I was able to skip enough pages to show tidbits of everything.

That's good to know. Thanks for sharing. Out of curiosity, how did you figure this out?

Giant2005 · Mar 6, 2016

dave2008 said:
That's good to know. Thanks for sharing. Out of curiosity, how did you figure this out?

Well I knew you could have multiple files up there already, so I figured I'd just use trial and error in order to determine how the site chooses which file to preview. It turned out that all it cared about was whichever you uploaded first.

dave2008 · Mar 6, 2016

Giant2005 said:
Well I knew you could have multiple files up there already, so I figured I'd just use trial and error in order to determine how the site chooses which file to preview. It turned out that all it cared about was whichever you uploaded first.

That was my guess - thanks for sharing your insight.

Pants · Mar 6, 2016

I tried to make sure that some good preview options were available for the one, little monster book I released: The Codex Malevolence I - Unholy Undead. I've personally passed on a couple of things because there were no preview options available. Even if something is cheap, I'm very hesitant to take the risk on a complete unknown. There's just too much product out there at the moment to make that worthwhile.

oreofox · Mar 10, 2016

I have made 3 monster "books", with 3 more in the works. I haven't included any previews for any of them, as I wasn't sure how exactly that worked. However, in the product description, I listed exactly what was in the product, minus the monster names. But if you are familiar with the type of monster, you can rather easily figure it out, except for maybe 4 of them. Curious what they are? Lesser Elementals, Elementals Expanded, and Elemental Myrmidons. Their descriptions list "four paraelementals, eight quasi-elementals, and four pseudoelementals", while the first one also includes lesser versions of the 4 presented in the Monster Manual. The four that people may not be able to figure out at first are the "pseudoelementals", which are metal, wood, positive energy, and negative energy. Metal and Wood because of the "oriental 5 elements", and the other 2 because why not?