Fiend Folio vs. Tome of Horrors!

[Desdichado]

Yeah, I'm good at that!

Don't get me wrong -- I like the concept of OGC, and I like Tome of Horrors.

However, I don't like ToH as much as I half expected to like it, because I feel that many of the creatures that it included were probably better off, frankly, being left by the wayside. I have to really comb through it to find something that I'd even consider actually using in a game. There's some good stuff in the various fiend sections, of course, and a few other monsters are interesting.

 

[I'm A Banana]

And there we come to another minor problem of the ToH...

....so many monsters, it's hard to choose.

The ONE list is monsters by CR, and name can only tell you so much about such a large, large collection.

IMHO, the book would see a lot more use if it contained a Monsters By Type and Subtype appendix, and/or a Monsters By Terrain appendix. As it is, I can't say 'this monster will fit here,' I have to do some work to find a cool monster that will fit...which makes it a bit less useful.

But that's really a minor complaint...

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Hi Flexor,

That reminds me of the setting I am working on for publication. It's called Flumphriders of Flern. Valiant knights ride their mighty flumph steeds into battle wielding spatulas against one another. When a flumph is flipped it drops it's rider hundreds of feet to die on hitting the barren planetary surface below. It'll be a bit hit, I guarantee. There will also be a MMORPG tie-in. Open beta starts soon.

That's a damn good setting idea! You could have a magic spatula of flipping!

 

[BOZ]

i made a by-type list (see my homepage - too lazy to get the link at the moment), but only after the book came out. i could've done it before, but i only had a list of names to go by, and what was on the CC, and some of it changed after going to print.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

Finally who cares what is OGC and what is not OGC. To the average gamer who will enver publish the difference between the two is meaningless.

I care.

 

[Gez]

Well, Green Ronin will eventually publish Skulls & Bones, which was planned to use Mongoose's naval combat rules from Seas of Blood (the OMCS). I hadn't heard this would change. And Mongoose did list spells from Relics & Rituals in Necromancy: Beyond the Grave. Sword & Sorcery published Malhavoc Press's variant psion class in Relics & Rituals 2. And we have the Pocket Grimoire. And finally the two Creature Collection monsters in the back of Wizards of the Coast's WotC. For now, it's all the OGC use I've heard off. There may be more.

I know that if I was to publish something d20, I would use OGC from several sources. The Tome of Horrors would be one of those sources if need be. Sure, it's possible to come up with one's own monster, but that is work. And when you want to use an existing creature, rather than an invented one (like dark creepers, or yeti, or two-headed troll, or, yes, flumph), the ToH allows you to do that if you're lucky enough the monster you want to use is inside. Otherwise, like if you want to use an orbus, a fundamental, or a holyphant, then you can't because they're IP. You would have to cook your own conversion, and then obtain a special autorization from WotC -- who don't seems to be too bitchy about giving it, but that's one more thing to do, and one that takes time and is potentially frustrating.

 

[Crothian]

I care.

Why? What reasons are there for the average gamer to care about OGL?

 

[tarchon]

This one I've been trying to figure out forever, and I still have no idea what the deal is with that damn thing.

You've obviously never had flumph.

Plus, some people claim they taste like chicken.

 

[smetzger]

Why? What reasons are there for the average gamer to care about OGL?

3rd party software written for D&D can only include OGC material in its default configuration/install. So.... if you want to use any 3rd party software you will most likely be only using stuff released under the OGL.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

Why? What reasons are there for the average gamer to care about OGL?

I'm not an average gamer, I'm a freelancer. Seeing as how the book isn't in the SRD, I need all OGC declared properly and to be compliant because I'll be using the book directly as my source.

And the average gamer should care a good deal about the OGL - after all, if it isn't complied with properly they'll find that book they've been waiting for pulled off the shelves or facing heavy delays. For example, if you think that Fast Forward Entertainment were the only people to suffer because of the problem they recently had over OGC use, you're mistaken; distributors and retailers, even if they get back the money they spent on the book, can't get back all the man hours they spent involved with FFE's products. The cash for those man hours have to be felt somewhere, so guess who they get passed on to if they can't be absorbed somewhere else?

OGL clarity and compliance is the concern of everyone who is involved with the product, be it at the level of consumer, retailer, distributor, publisher, or author.