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Looking for an Unconverted spreadsheet

sixlegs

First Post
Any chance that someone still has the catalog in First Edition format or a spreadhseet with the stats of all the first edition monsters?
 

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Any chance that someone still has the catalog in First Edition format or a spreadhseet with the stats of all the first edition monsters?

What exactly are you after? If you just want a list of the names and the sources, you could use Echohawk's spread sheet and get it to only display the first edition monsters.

If you want actual game stats (i.e. AC, Dex scores and the like) you would probably need to compile that sort of thing yourself.

Collections of third edition conversions (such as the Creature Catalog) actually use Wizards of the Coast's ESD Conversion Agreement and the OGL to allow them to legally adapt old TSR monsters to the third edition rules.

There is no legal framework for retro-conversions, so any collection of first edition monsters would be in a legal grey area. You could almost certainly retro-convert anything from the SRD to make it compatible with OSRIC, but monsters from any other WotC products would be less easy to use.

If someone did a one-off conversion of a new 4th edition monster and made an OSRIC version, they would probably get away with it, but a complete collection might be far harder to justify.

Likewise a collection of AD&D stats, taken from TSR products and turned into a spreadsheet would also be harder to justify. Just because this stuff is out of print, it doesn't become "open source" (or "open game content")*. WotC still own this stuff (that they choose not to reprint) and might take legal action against anyone who puts it online.

* = Ironically, the ESD Conversion Agreement would appear to make 3e conversions of 1e material into OGC that could then safely be retro-converted to create OSRIC versions of those monsters. But I wouldn't try that without talking to a lawyer.

You are perfectly entitled to compile your own spreadsheet from your own AD&D gamebooks, but be very careful if you want to distribute it to other gamers. Depending on how much information you include, you may only be able to make things like this for yourself.
 

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