Monster books: No love?

[Crothian]

Last year it was Tome of Horros and Monsternomicon. These two books were hot and people where talking about them. To a lesser degree Monsters of the Endless Dark, Liber Bestarius: The Book of Beasts , and MM@ and Fiend Folio.

These past year we have seen monster books that surpass even the much loved Monsternomicon; but no ones talking about them. So, what are these famed books?

Denizens of Avandu (Inn Circle Games)
Fantasy Bestiary (Atlas)
Bestiary of Krynn (Sovering Press)
Tome of Horrors 2 (Necromancer)
Monsters of the Boundless Blue (Goodman Games)
Lagecy of the Dragons (Arcana Unearthed)
Creatures of Freeport (Green Ronin)
Dangerous Danezins: Monsters of Tellene (Kenzer)
Warcraft: Manual of Monsters (Sword and Sorcery)

And those are only ones I've seen. I know there is Creature Collection 3 and possibily others out there.

So, why no discussion on these books? Have you got any of them? Looking for some? I think most of these are really solid pieces of work, and a few will be classics.

 

[HellHound]

As more monster books come out, the love is spread.

The issue is of course that until recently, most monster books were... well... rules-challenged.

As for why I'm not jumping up and down about any of these:

Denizens of Avadnu --> Epic monsters. I dropped my Epic campaign in November last year.

Bestiary of Krynn --> Two problems. 1. It is for Krynn. 2. The layout is PAINFUL

Tome of Horrors 2 --> While excellent, it lacks the 'hook' of the first (old-school critters vs all new critters - the new ones are better, but the old ones are well.. old school)

Monsters of the Boundless Blue --> too niche. The rush for water-based products seems to be over.

Legacy of the Dragons --> AU / Diamond Throne never caught me except for the Giants. Thus the monster book becomes a supplement for a setting I don't use. Monte writes GREAT stuff, but because of that, I expect the material will be pretty world-specific, thus I didn't grab this.

Warcraft --> I didn't really get off on the core book, so that stopped me from buying the supplements.

 

[Crothian]

Denizens doesn't have too many epic monsters in it, most of them are in the Lends pdf they have. Other then that I agree that the more monster books the more the love is spread, but I still want to see love for any of them and I'm just not seeing it.

 

[haiiro]

Legacy of the Dragons --> AU / Diamond Throne never caught me except for the Giants. Thus the monster book becomes a supplement for a setting I don't use. Monte writes GREAT stuff, but because of that, I expect the material will be pretty world-specific, thus I didn't grab this.

LotD is actually one of my recent favorite monster books, and I don't play Diamond Throne. On a full read-through, I didn't find anything too world-specific to be useful to me (and most of it would be directly usable) -- and as with Mindscapes, the ideas are so rich that it's well worth the work in the few cases where adaptation would be needed.

Just my .02, of course -- don't pass this one up solely on the basis of setting: it's a great monster book!

 

[Psion]

Crothian and Haiiro said what I was gonna. Denizens of Avadnu isn't Epic, Legends is. And Legacy of Dragons is perfectly usable outside of AU, and in fact, I consider one of the more conceptually unique collection of creaures to come out last year.

 

[Arnwyn]

So, why no discussion on these books? Have you got any of them? Looking for some? I think most of these are really solid pieces of work, and a few will be classics.

Because there are enough monster books (for me). I don't care about any more, thus I'm sure not talking about them.

So no. No love.

 

[Crothian]

Even when the new ones are better then the ones you have?

 

[Mercule]

I've got more monsters than I need in the core Monster Manual. Sure, there's a handful of others that I might want, but not enough to fill a whole $30+ book -- even if someone put the ones I like together.

Nope. I'm still pruning monsters from MM1. No love from me. (Okay, maybe a little love for Fiend Folio.)

 

[Gez]

Well, there's a saturation effect, at least for a few people like me. I've 8 monster books (4 from Wizards of the Coast, and 4 from Sword&Sorcery Studio), and there's a few monsters in nearly every sourcebooks anyway.

So what about the new monster books?
The Warcraft manual of monsters isn't very interesting, from what I've read. A lot of reprints with just a few small twist compared to the actual MM.
Tome of Horrors 2 is already sold out. If your shop doesn't have some in stock, you're out of luck. And it's true it lacks part of the appeal of the first ToH, which allowed to run lots of old adventures.

Legacy of the Dragons is too thin. There's a few interesting critters, but just a few. And half the book is devoted to NPCs, and rule reprints from AU.

 

[Crothian]

Legacy of the Dragons is too thin. There's a few interesting critters, but just a few. And half the book is devoted to NPCs, and rule reprints from AU.

120 pages of monsters and only 40 pages of other stuff.