May I ask about your house rules? I'm always looking for interesting options.
That would have made sense, tho.... I'm just glad they came to their senses, and re-released the MC as the MM in book form. All expansions after that were soft cover books.I'd heard about the problems with those loose leaf binders. Something that would have easily been solved by someone thinking for just a few seconds and realising that each monster really required a single sheet of paper
one of the criticisms of the whole MC series was that, in spite of the loose leaf paper and binder format, you still couldn't put the assorted sets into alphabetical order because so many of the sheets had different monsters on each side, and newer sets coming out wouldn't always fit in order. An odd thing that occurred to me a while back is that with the advent of DTRPG and the availability of practically every MC set on it in PDF, if you really wanted to, you could print them all out, one monster to a page, and put every single one in alphabetical order. It would be a huge expense in paper and ink and you'd need about 8 big binders to hold them all, but it could be done...
The real problem is just that they aren't durable. If you open and close your MC a few 100 times, the pages all fall out. Obviously you can go through and tediously glue on those reinforcers, but that also covers some of the text, and it is a lot of work. They also take up 5x more space than hardbound books. It was just overall a failed experiment. Clever idea, but it was really more of a 'solution in search of a problem' than anything else. I mean, 1e had in its entire run 3 main monster books (MM, FF, MM2). It just isn't that hard to remember what is in each and look stuff up if you cannot quite remember. Given the mentioned issues with ordering the MC pages, it really is not any improvement.I'd heard about the problems with those loose leaf binders. Something that would have easily been solved by someone thinking for just a few seconds and realising that each monster really required a single sheet of paper
Yup, that's very much a possibility. I suggested the very thing on Dragonsfoot a few years ago, get all the MCs on DriveThru and custom print them out to be properly alphabetical. DriveThru doesn't have everything yet though, the softcover MCs are still mostly missing unfortunately.
And that still leaves out stuff from modules, Dragon, Dungeon, etc, though the MC Annuals collected some of that stuff.
Well, it's not technically a volume of the Monstrous Compendium books, but they still don't have Blood Spawn: Creatures of Light and Shadow (which was a Birthright monster book that was only released as a free PDF on WotC's website after the line folded). I'm still holding out hope that it will be put up with a POD option someday.I believe they are missing the Planescape MCs and two of the annuals but have everything else.
I also have a Savage Coast Monstrous Compendium RTF from WotC from that free stuff era as well (2e Mystara Red Steel setting) which I do not see on DriveThru.Well, it's not technically a volume of the Monstrous Compendium books, but they still don't have Blood Spawn: Creatures of Light and Shadow (which was a Birthright monster book that was only released as a free PDF on WotC's website after the line folded). I'm still holding out hope that it will be put up with a POD option someday.
DriveThru has a lot.
I believe they are missing the Planescape MCs and two of the annuals but have everything else.
I also have a Savage Coast Monstrous Compendium RTF from WotC from that free stuff era as well (2e Mystara Red Steel setting) which I do not see on DriveThru.