Monster Cards - A Free Open Content Product Idea

[Katerek]

I hope the subject line drew you in, I suck at coming up with evocative thread titles.

I had an idea for a product and by dropping the idea here, I hope someone steals it and makes some money off of it because I dont have time/talent or motivation.

When I was younger there were these index cards that were sold on TV in here in America. On one side they had full color illustrations/photographs of animals from all over the world. On the flip side they had half a metric butt load of information and fun facts about said animal.

They came with this cool little plastic file box and you received 4 or 5 each month.

Wouldn't this be a cool idea as a monster resource? Especially with all the OGL monsters out there. Rather than rifling through a stack of monster books, a stack that I might mention is phenomenonly huge at my table, I could just have a neat little stack of cards. If they had the monsters picture on one side I could hold htem up and say "here ya go" you see this.

Anywho, I would definately use a product like this. A core product with blister packs release semi annually would be three differetn kinds of sweet. So, if any of you enterprising third party guys want to do something like this, I am hereby declaring that this idea is open source and all that. Feel free!

(If you think the idea stinks, then feel free to crush my ego)

 

[DungeonKeeperUK]

I actually own some of these from 1st edition, full pic of creature on one side and all the stats on the back, I think there were about 4 sets, never got them all, but found them very useful as a play aid to show players what they were encountering without haveing to form some paper sculpture to hide the text in teh monster manual...

 

[Mr Fidgit]

i still have one set of those also, and the 2e Monstrous Compendium was set up in a 3-ring binder. it was handy to be able to remove just the monsters you needed for your game

 

[DungeonKeeperUK]

I still use some of them cards but now in the age of modern technology I can also print out the pictures for my players to see if so needed.....

But still I could be tempted by Monster Cards with soem nice new art work on...

 

[der_kluge]

The only legal problem with this, is that the images of monsters aren't OGL compliant. So, while you would be legally ok to put the SRD stats of monsters on a card, you couldn't put the image, since, weird as though it may seem, WoTC owns the images of the all the monsters.

 

[Katerek]

I guess WoTC does own the rights to the image, though I suspect that on several accounts that could be challenged.

That, however, is not my intention.

I just thought the cards would be handy, more than the pictures really, namely, to save alot of book shuffling by the GM.

If they were graphics lite, there would be that much more info that could be put on them such as organizational structure and ecology notes. Maybe even a few examples of lair treasure and whatnot.

 

[Tyrant]

Yea, you have to ignore the description when you create the imagery, though many of the monsters in the MM are so based in mythology or the common domain that it MIGHT not be an issue. The beholder was one of the creatures we took a chance on when we created out counters. The central eye and 10 stalks is easy (you can get that from the OGC stat block) but the rest of it is treading dangerously close to WotC IP. Of course, Beholders are everywhere now, including many places not at all related to gaming. Its still a risk any publisher has to take when making a product. That was the reason we didnt do a number of the pieces in the original SRD / MM, especially the new pieces like the ethereal filcher and marauder. We didnt see the point in making a counter if it didnt / couldnt look like the original.

All that said, the new tome of horrors included the description in the open game content if i read the license correctly. We've begun working on counters for it and are actively looking for artists who would like to help release work in support of that product.

Artists shouldnt look at what was drawn there in the ToH, but they could use the descriptions to make monster cards or counters... In fact, we've been tossing that exact idea around for some time. And the idea of booster packs? Hmmmm. That might just be the last barrier we had facing us.

Eric Price
Dragon Scale Counters, LLC
http://www.dragonscalecounters.com

 

[Katerek]

I truly think cards would sell.

Pictures and art work would be almost essential, but there could be other NEW info as well.

Like I stated earlier there could be a few examples of treasure included on the card and even a small gridded map of a lair.

Other things that would be useful are advancements of said monster similar to the Instant Badass idea found in Liber Beastarius.

And since these cards are more manageable you could give advice on other monsters that the creature could be paired with. It is far easier for me to shuffle cards than books.

I see these being about 5x7 and at a 10 or even a 12 pt font. Lt Weight stock so as to keep down on costs, and could easily be all black and white.

The first Base Set would want to include most of Core Rulebook 3 and a few other notable entries.

Thereafter you could do a set twice a year that would be like a cross-publisher Monster Annual.

Just an idea.

 

[DSC-EricPrice]

Hmmm, I presume you mean 4 color on the front (for the pic) and B&W on the reverse (for the stats, or a map, or whatever).

 

[Katerek]

Yessir.

(wordy aint I?)