What do you want from the Monster Manual?

[the Jester]

To the first sentence, I would ask why? I don't understand how the monster manual will ruin the entire game if presented in a different fashion.

TSR ran screaming away from the monster binder format well before the end of 2e for a very good reason. It sucked. The holes ripped, pages got misplaced or lost, it was terrible, terrible, terrible. Let's not go back to the worst formatted anything D&D has ever had.

 

[Keldryn]

TSR ran screaming away from the monster binder format well before the end of 2e for a very good reason. It sucked. The holes ripped, pages got misplaced or lost, it was terrible, terrible, terrible. Let's not go back to the worst formatted anything D&D has ever had.

Yeah, it sounded like a great idea when the first talked about it, but I ended up keeping a package of those sticky reinforcement rings in my Monstrous Compendium binder to fix all of the pages that kept tearing.

Also, a big part of the whole idea was to be able to organize monsters as you bought new expansions. I think it worked until MC3 came out and you realized that you could no longer organize them strictly alphabetically, due to some pages having a different monster on each side.

It was truly awful.

 

[Arlough]

TSR ran screaming away from the monster binder format well before the end of 2e for a very good reason. It sucked. The holes ripped, pages got misplaced or lost, it was terrible, terrible, terrible. Let's not go back to the worst formatted anything D&D has ever had.

Yeah, it sounded like a great idea when the first talked about it, but I ended up keeping a package of those sticky reinforcement rings in my Monstrous Compendium binder to fix all of the pages that kept tearing.

Also, a big part of the whole idea was to be able to organize monsters as you bought new expansions. I think it worked until MC3 came out and you realized that you could no longer organize them strictly alphabetically, due to some pages having a different monster on each side.

It was truly awful.

So because the execution was sloppy the idea is to be universally dismissed? By that standard any edition of D&D other than [insert your edition] should have/will herald the doom of D&D.
While I agree that the 14 binder set was, to put it mildly, a mess, I would contend that there are many potential benefits to a modular MM.

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[Keldryn]

So because the execution was sloppy the idea is to be universally dismissed? By that standard any edition of D&D other than [insert your edition] should have/will herald the doom of D&D.
While I agree that the 14 binder set was, to put it mildly, a mess, I would contend that there are many potential benefits to a modular MM.

I wasn't universally dismissing the idea; I was just agreeing that the binder-format Monstrous Compendium was awful.

A set of monster cards with a full-size color picture on one side with the monster's stats on the other could work. Full 8 1/2" x 11" cards might be unwieldly, but something with the dimensions of the 4e Essentials books would be a good size. Print them on reasonably heavy cardstock and laminate them and they'd be very durable. The biggest problem is that a box of monster cards is less portable than a book of monsters.

 

[slobster]

To be honest, if they were looking for a way to do a modular MM I am pretty sure they would be thinking digital. Digital lets you decide which monsters you want, it is obviously a very compact format with excellent searchability, and as a bonus it lets you edit the entries with a minimum of fuss. You could them print out your monster sheets for use in the game later, or just use the digital monster manual as-is with your laptop, smartphone, tablet, or machine-to-mind interface.

I would like the Monster Manual to include a good hefty helping of iconic monsters, with multiple entries for a single monster type in most cases. I'd also like them to include a few new monsters, carefully chosen to fill gaps in their creature lineup so that they are not superfluous, so that we have some things we've never seen before to ponder as we chew through all the old, comfortable, nostalgic D&D baddies.

I want a chapter devoted to monster creation, both the rules for how to calculate their stats as well as a discussion of how to make monsters that that are interesting in combat and in context of your game world.

I'd like a chapter on designing encounters, with a discussion of monster roles (a la 4E) and how to insert terrain, hazards, and interactive map features in a fight. Since "boss" encounters of some kind make an appearance in most D&D games, I'd like to see a page or two devoted to discussing just that.

I know that others have mentioned the above features, and that some feel they more properly belong in the DMG. Organizationally it makes sense to me to include all the monster stuff in one place.

And that, I think, would be my ideal MM!