Fifth Edition Foes Monster Book

The PDF's out? How cool!

 

[Sacrosanct]

I don't think that's really true - to the best of my knowledge there's no direct excerpting of 5E text (hence the comments expressing disappointment about monsters not being in quite the same format), and there's definitely no licensing agreement with Necromancer. I'm pretty sure that legally, anyone can print a book of material, monsters or otherwise, that is compatible with a given game, as long as they don't present themselves as affiliates or use copyrighted material.

They can still be sued mind you, but legally I'm pretty sure they're within their rights.

I thought some of the monsters, like the Cave Fisher, were IP and you couldn't use the same name for them.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

I thought some of the monsters, like the Cave Fisher, were IP and you couldn't use the same name for them.

Pretty sure the only restricted monsters under the OGL are the "Product Identity" monsters: beholder, gauth, carrion crawler, displacer beast, githyanki, githzerai, kuo-toa, mind flayer, slaad, umber hulk and yuan-ti. As long as any of those aren't in there I think they're fine.

 

[Jester David]

I thought some of the monsters, like the Cave Fisher, were IP and you couldn't use the same name for them.

Pretty sure the only restricted monsters under the OGL are the "Product Identity" monsters: beholder, gauth, carrion crawler, displacer beast, githyanki, githzerai, kuo-toa, mind flayer, slaad, umber hulk and yuan-ti. As long as any of those aren't in there I think they're fine.

Not quite. And monster not explicitly in the SRD is closed. Although, if based on a real world monster, it's easy to make a new variant.

Necromancer Games/Frog God Games doesn't operate under the same OGL. They got permission to update all the forgotten monsters from the Fiend Folio and other old 1e books. Which gives them the unique ability to release a book like this. That's why there's a credit at the bottom of each entry.

 

[Shadow Demon]

I thought some of the monsters, like the Cave Fisher, were IP and you couldn't use the same name for them.

Yay, an excuse to post instead being a lurker.

The cave fisher is one of many monsters that Necromancer was given permission to use. It has special status of Open Content where the credit must be included with the monster entry. Everyone else except Necromancer/Frog God has to create an entry in Section 15 Copyright Notice with the monster name, Tome of Horrors reference, and author.

Paizo used the Cave Fisher in their first Bestiary with the following Section 15 notice

Cave Fisher from the Tome of Horrors, © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Lawrence Schick.

A 5e compatible version is included in 5eF under the same special arrangement. All game terms used in the entry are OGL. Terms like "advantage" are replaced with 'tactical advantage" which was used in an OGL product prior to 5e. The stat-block was modeled on the Pathfinder stat-block.

 

[Shadow Demon]

Not quite. And monster not explicitly in the SRD is closed. Although, if based on a real world monster, it's easy to make a new variant.

The catoblepas (also included 5eF, can also be found in Paizo's Bestiary 2) is example from real-world mythology that otherwise would be closed content. You will notice significant differences from both of the versions than from the original 1977 AD&D Monster Manual.

 

[Nebulous]

The catoblepas (also included 5eF, can also be found in Paizo's Bestiary 2) is example from real-world mythology that otherwise would be closed content. You will notice significant differences from both of the versions than from the original 1977 AD&D Monster Manual.

Yeah, no Save-or-Die being the main one!

P.S. - Well done, lurker

 

[Uder]

Hey! Nice to see Necromancer Games come around after the crap they gave the OSRIC people for using the OGL in exactly the same way.

 

[Grazzt]

Yay, an excuse to post instead being a lurker.

The cave fisher is one of many monsters that Necromancer was given permission to use. It has special status of Open Content where the credit must be included with the monster entry. Everyone else except Necromancer/Frog God has to create an entry in Section 15 Copyright Notice with the monster name, Tome of Horrors reference, and author.

Paizo used the Cave Fisher in their first Bestiary with the following Section 15 notice

Cave Fisher from the Tome of Horrors, © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Lawrence Schick.

A 5e compatible version is included in 5eF under the same special arrangement. All game terms used in the entry are OGL. Terms like "advantage" are replaced with 'tactical advantage" which was used in an OGL product prior to 5e. The stat-block was modeled on the Pathfinder stat-block.

Yep this. We got permission from WotC way back before we did Tome 1 to do the monsters they didn't and to release them all, including name, description, etc as open content.

 

[Sacrosanct]

well, that answers my question obviously. And I'm jealous

 

[froggie]

Quests of Doom will be here soon, followed by the Book of Lost Spells--they all go to press as soon as they have passed QA/QC checks and layout gets done. We will release the pdfs as soon as they get finished, with books shipping as soon as they arrive. We hate being late, but sometimes quality just overrides schedule

If you did not get your link, please email us at bill@talesofthefroggod.com and we will hook you up!

Bill