One or two posters have brought up frustration with aspect of MM. Blackdirge, what are you doing that is similar/different from what Wizards did with MM?
By the by, the cover bloody rocks:
IMO, this is one of the best 4E covers yet. It really captures the "feel" of D&D.
Well, I generally like the format of the WotC MM, and I think it does exactly what a monster book should do. For instance, I like the prepackaged dragons and humanoids, and I definitely followed that design philosophy in my book. I also like the encounter groups, although I tried to keep my encounter groups as logical as possible when deciding which monster would realistically work together.
However, there are a few things that I did differently in Dungeon Denizens.
There’s a bit more fluff text. I brought back the italicized descriptions for each monster, and generally, I tried to give unique monsters more background and history.
Also, some of the new monsters include giant version of insects and animals. Here I stuck with the basics; something I think WotC should have done. You’ll find generic giant spiders, giant scorpions, giant frogs, and some others that I think will be easier to incorporate into any campaign world.
I also tried to add monsters types that were under-represented in the MM, such as plants, oozes, and aquatic monsters.
I’ll be posting the table of contents in the next couple of days so you can get a better idea of the monsters that will be in the book. I’ll also try to answer questions where I can.
And, yeah, that cover freakin' rocks.
BD