Coming to a MM near you- FLAVOR!

[Scribble]

Apparently due to player feedback, the new MMs starting with MM3 will have more flavor. (Including a section detailing WHY the various allies in the encounter groups work together.)

 

[Dausuul]

Apparently due to player feedback, the new MMs starting with MM3 will have more flavor. (Including a section detailing WHY the various allies in the encounter groups work together.)

Cool beans.

It's always a balancing act, deciding how much flavor to put in... too much and it starts to feel like filler (as well as potentially intruding on the DM's turf), too little and the monsters seem bland and boring. In the effort to avoid the former, they veered a bit too far toward the latter.

I'm hoping we can get back to the point where it was fun to just crack open the Monster Manual and read.

 

[MichaelSomething]

The market has spoken! People demanded it and they got it! Link please?

 

[Dannager]

Technically the market won't have spoken until MM3 is released and they can compare sales of the higher-flavor MM with earlier MMs.

 

[SSquirrel]

I didn't speak for it, I was fine with it as is heh.

 

[Umbran]

A citation would be nice.

 

[coyote6]

A citation would be nice.

Livetweeting of the DDXP seminar, I expect. I copied & pasted a bunch, here. This is probably the quote in question:

3. Monster Manual 3 hits in June! (People oooohing at the image of the orcus "miniature" )

2. We got feedback that the MMs didn't have enough flavor, so we're changing the format. We'll be putting a bit more story/hooks/descriptions..

1. for monsters to give it more of a story.

 

[Scribble]

A citation would be nice.

Info came from the various twitter feeds covering the D&D Experience. It's from the first seminar- the Wizards_D&D twitter feed had it (which I think Trevor_WoTC was using at the time.)

We got feedback that the MMs didn't have enough flavor, so we're changing the format. We'll be putting a bit more story/hooks/descriptions..


for monsters to give it more of a story. #ddxp

Monster blocks will contain a section on allies, and why they work together.

 

[Jack99]

Info came from the various twitter feeds covering the D&D Experience. It's from the first seminar- the Wizards_D&D twitter feed had it (which I think Trevor_WoTC was using at the time.)

It was indeed Trevor

 

[Shemeska]

I approve. It's a step in the right direction.

However they still need to produce monster flavor text that's actually interesting and evocative. You can still produce monster fluff that's some combination of dry, boring, repetative or poorly researched* if it builds on prior sources (knowledge check sidebars and monsters with classes tagged on in MM4 I'm looking at you). I really don't want to see something lackluster that's then used as evidence that flavor just doesn't sell if the book flops, because that sort of thing tends to snowball to peoples' psyche and it can influence other games, etc.

*Voor and Corruptor of Fate "yugoloths" in MM4...