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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannager" data-source="post: 5513804" data-attributes="member: 73683">Except you don't necessarily own it. Not only does reprinting the stat blocks remove the need for DMs who only run published adventures to own any Monster Manual whatsoever, it also means that if I own MM1 and MM2 but not MM3, I don't risk seeing in the adventure "Please refer to page 102 of Monster Manual 3 for this creature's stat block."Of course, I have a DDI sub, so this doesn't apply to me in particular anyway, but a DM who started playing with the MM1 would be pretty significantly inconvenienced if new adventures made reference to the Monster Vault and he didn't own it.And yet 4e manages it. Whether you appreciate the format or not, it contains all the information needed to run the encounter on a 1- or 2-page spread.Really? We just had the following exchange:YOU: Some page-flipping is inevitable; that's a given.ME: Yes, it is. I prefer my page-flipping to occur before or after the encounter, not in the middle when it can stall the action.What part of that led you to believe I think page-flipping is entirely removable? It's not, unless we can transition to a format where all the material is presented digitally, and decked out with helpful search, sorting and display functions to minimize the amount of hunting you need to do.As long as they have their character sheet in front of them, they needn't look further than that.Correct me if I'm wrong, but 4e is the only system currently making use of the Delve format, yes? If you're not playing 4e, why do you care about the Delve format?Sure, it was used in 3.5. That system is no longer in print, and its successor (or whatever Pathfinder is) does not use the Delve format. I don't really see the point of complaining about the Delve format if you don't even play the system that uses it.This is such a minor concern as to be ridiculous. You have to change the page a few times an hour to deal with this, and the trade-off is the benefits of the Delve format I've mentioned earlier.They could be printed in the "body" of the adventure, and that would be fine, as long as they also printed all the terrain features, tactics, traps, etc. The whole point of the Delve layout is to keep all the information for a single encounter on a single 1- or 2-page spread. If you can figure out a way to do that while keeping it aligned with the "body" of the adventure, go for it.Yes, there are some encounters which go over two pages. They are rare, but even when this happens, you have all the encounter's information on consecutive pages. There is no searching, there is no guessing, there is no flipping through multiple books. The Delve format is designed to be used in play, and for that purpose it is brilliant. Is it perfect? There is probably room for improvement, but that direction is not a return to the way things were.And, again, this assumes that the DM has all of these things on hand anyway, which is not a safe assumption to make. Furthermore, it assumes that there is nothing to be gained by removing the need to have yet another book open during play. Put all the stat blocks in the adventure and the Monster Manual (or whatever) can stay safely on the shelf while you play.And I'd rather pay for the convenience of being able to run a game smoothly, without juggling mutliple hardcover books behind a DM's screen while trying to keep encounters moving along at an entertaining pace.</blockquote>

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