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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6083630" data-attributes="member: 7006">Exactly.&nbsp; What do people want more of in a Monster Manual?&nbsp; 10 monsters with 2 pages of information, or 20 monsters with 1 page of information?&nbsp; I'm thinking probably two out of every three players would say the latter.But here's the other thing-- D&amp;DN seems to be leaning towards a design paradigm wherein most (if not all) &quot;rules&quot; are being presented to everybody at the top, in the first couple books.&nbsp; It doesn't seem like we're following past editions wherein the next several books past the core system books all are &quot;splatbooks&quot;... giving new or additional rules, abilities and mechanics to that which appeared in the core system books.&nbsp; Which means that the alternative to this is to publish more &quot;fluff&quot; centered product off the top.&nbsp; Modules, campaign settings, background and historical texts and the like.&nbsp; And it'd be in these kinds of things where you could start putting in &quot;alternate&quot; histories of monsters and the like (and getting them into the game published much earlier than they might otherwise have appeared in previous editions that were more concerned with crunch splatbooks).Does the first Monster Manual need to go into detail about a second or third &quot;alternate&quot; background to the minotaur to encompass their usage in Krynn?&nbsp; No, probably not.&nbsp; But you can be darned sure that if there is a new line of Dragonlance features, that this is where those &quot;alternate&quot; minotaur backgrounds can and will be found.&nbsp; And truth be told is probably the best place for them.The &quot;alternate background&quot; of the Drow in Eberron probably shouldn't appear in the Monster Manual.&nbsp; But it will certainly appear in an Eberron-centric book.&nbsp; The &quot;alternate background&quot; of the halflings in Dark Sun probably shouldn't appear in the Monster Manual.&nbsp; But it will certainly appear in a Dark Sun-centric book.The Monster Manual should give us as much detail as it can in whatever background will be the most widely used, while also giving us as many monsters to use as possible.&nbsp; The further away from that you get, the less useful the book becomes to more people overall.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 6083630, member: 7006"] Exactly. What do people want more of in a Monster Manual? 10 monsters with 2 pages of information, or 20 monsters with 1 page of information? I'm thinking probably two out of every three players would say the latter. But here's the other thing-- D&DN seems to be leaning towards a design paradigm wherein most (if not all) "rules" are being presented to everybody at the top, in the first couple books. It doesn't seem like we're following past editions wherein the next several books past the core system books all are "splatbooks"... giving new or additional rules, abilities and mechanics to that which appeared in the core system books. Which means that the alternative to this is to publish more "fluff" centered product off the top. Modules, campaign settings, background and historical texts and the like. And it'd be in these kinds of things where you could start putting in "alternate" histories of monsters and the like (and getting them into the game published much earlier than they might otherwise have appeared in previous editions that were more concerned with crunch splatbooks). Does the first Monster Manual need to go into detail about a second or third "alternate" background to the minotaur to encompass their usage in Krynn? No, probably not. But you can be darned sure that if there is a new line of Dragonlance features, that this is where those "alternate" minotaur backgrounds can and will be found. And truth be told is probably the best place for them. The "alternate background" of the Drow in Eberron probably shouldn't appear in the Monster Manual. But it will certainly appear in an Eberron-centric book. The "alternate background" of the halflings in Dark Sun probably shouldn't appear in the Monster Manual. But it will certainly appear in a Dark Sun-centric book. The Monster Manual should give us as much detail as it can in whatever background will be the most widely used, while also giving us as many monsters to use as possible. The further away from that you get, the less useful the book becomes to more people overall. [/QUOTE]

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