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<blockquote data-quote="Orius" data-source="post: 9040760" data-attributes="member: 8863">I'll be honest, I think the full-page format of the MCs was kind of a mixed bag.&nbsp; Some monsters were served well by it.&nbsp; Others, not so much.&nbsp; With the real world animals, including extinct ones (but IIRC those didn't get covered until the next one), a lot of it is filler.&nbsp; The MM here was an improvement with the condensed tables, except where they put in unusual creatures that really should have had their own entries.&nbsp; Some monsters, like the swordwraith that Voadam posted above don't have any habitat or ecology.&nbsp; Look at how it says the swordwraith produces nothing and consumes nothing, which is pretty close to the MC5 write up.&nbsp; There are a good number of monsters like that, or monsters where the Habitat/Society and Ecology entries are noticably thin.&nbsp; One good thing though is that the single page entry does mean less page flipping.MC2 generally seems to a bit heavier on later monsters that appeared in MMII or in some cases the FF.&nbsp; Also, it has another encounter table.&nbsp; MC1's tables IIRC look like a conversion of the 1e tables, where MC2 looks likes it's more constructed for 2e based on guidelines originally published in MMII.&nbsp; I'd use MC2's tables myself as the 2e default.&nbsp; Overall though, I'd still recommend the MM over MC1/2.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Orius, post: 9040760, member: 8863"] I'll be honest, I think the full-page format of the MCs was kind of a mixed bag. Some monsters were served well by it. Others, not so much. With the real world animals, including extinct ones (but IIRC those didn't get covered until the next one), a lot of it is filler. The MM here was an improvement with the condensed tables, except where they put in unusual creatures that really should have had their own entries. Some monsters, like the swordwraith that Voadam posted above don't have any habitat or ecology. Look at how it says the swordwraith produces nothing and consumes nothing, which is pretty close to the MC5 write up. There are a good number of monsters like that, or monsters where the Habitat/Society and Ecology entries are noticably thin. One good thing though is that the single page entry does mean less page flipping. MC2 generally seems to a bit heavier on later monsters that appeared in MMII or in some cases the FF. Also, it has another encounter table. MC1's tables IIRC look like a conversion of the 1e tables, where MC2 looks likes it's more constructed for 2e based on guidelines originally published in MMII. I'd use MC2's tables myself as the 2e default. Overall though, I'd still recommend the MM over MC1/2. [/QUOTE]

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